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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Soviet Union
Index
Article 128 of the Constitution named the Council of Ministers
as the "highest executive and administrative body of state
authority" in the Soviet Union. Although the members of the council
were subject to ratification and change by the Supreme Soviet and
the Congress of People's Deputies, in 1989 they were actually
appointed by the party. However, the council was too large to act
as an effective decision-making body. The Council of Ministers
Presidium, made up of the most influential economic administrators
in the government, had the power to act in the name of the full
council when it was not in session. The chairman of the full
Council of Ministers, the equivalent of a prime minister, acted as
head of government and chief economic administrator. In 1989 the
chairman of the Council of Ministers, Nikolai I. Ryzhkov, sat on
the Politburo.
Below the central institutions stood the ministries, state
committees, and other governmental organs, which carried out regime
policies in their respective fields subject to strict party
control. The ministries managed the economic, social, and political
systems.
Data as of May 1989
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