Encyclopedia of Russian History

by James Millar

  JULIET JOHNSON

  GOSIZDAT

  State publishing house of the Russian Republic.

  Gosizdat was the most important publishing house in Soviet Russia between 1919 and 1930, and played an important role in the creation of the Soviet publishing system. After coming to power, the Bolsheviks nationalized most private book publishers and printers, transferring their assets to local party and state organizations, which used them to set up their own publishing operations. When the new publishing system proved too disorganized and chaotic, Gosizdat was founded in May 1919 to provide a centralized alternative. Gosizdat started as a contract-printer, receiving most of its editorial content from other Soviet institutions, though it did produce some titles independently. It also acted as a regulatory body overseeing the work of remaining local publishing houses, controlling their access to raw materials and enforcing political censorship. Gosizdat’s production during this period consisted primarily of short agitational and military titles, though it also published some longer scientific works. These books and pamphlets were state-funded and distributed at no charge. Gosiz-dat’s output was almost entirely in the Russian language.

  With the onset of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921, the Soviet publishing industry and Gosizdat underwent dramatic changes. Publishing was decentralized, as Soviet institutions were permitted to open their own publishing operations, and books became priced commodities. Gosizdat lost its regulatory functions and focused on producing its own books, though it continued to do some contract printing. Unlike most Russian-language publishing houses, whose production was specialized (at least in theory), Gosizdat remained a universal publishing house, issuing works on a wide variety of subjects, including fiction, children’s literature, scientific texts, propaganda, and works on Marxism and Leninism. It had monopolies on the publication of Russian literary classics and textbooks. Gosizdat issued between 25 and 40 percent of Soviet Russian-language book production (measured by pages) each year in the 1920s. Gosizdat also published a number of important periodicals. During the 1920s, Gosizdat absorbed a number of prominent Soviet publishing houses, including Krasnaya nov, Priboy, and Zemlya i fabrika.

  Gosizdat was techically part of the Commissariat of Enlightenment, though in practice it answered directly to the Communist Party’s Central Committee, which appointed its board of directors, reviewed editorial appointments, and monitored its work. Gosizdat acted as the Central Committee’s main book publisher and was afforded special privileges, including large state subsidies and freedom from external ideological censorship.

  In August 1930, Gosizdat provided the foundation for a new, centralized publishing conglomerate, the Association of State Publishing Houses (OGIZ), into which most existing Soviet publishing houses were merged. Even after this time, it was not uncommon for Soviet sources to use the term gosizdat to describe the Russian Republic’s main publishing operation, whatever its official name. Variants of the term were also used to describe the main publishing house serving some republics or languages: The Tatar State Publishing House, for instance, was known as Tatizdat or Tatgiz. SpeGOSPLAN cialized Russian-language publishing houses were also popularly known by similar acronyms; for example, the State Technical Publishing House was Gostekhizdat. See also: CENSORSHIP; CENTRAL COMMITTEE; SAMIZDAT

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Friedberg, Maurice. (1962). Russian Classics in Soviet Jackets. New York: Columbia University Press. Kassof, Brian Evan. (2000). “The Knowledge Front: Politics, Ideology, and Economics in the Soviet Book Publishing Industry, 1925-1935.” Ph. D. diss., University of California, Berkeley. Kenez, Peter. (1985). The Birth of the Propaganda State: Soviet Methods of Mass Mobilization, 1917-1929. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

  BRIAN KASSOF

  GOSKOMSTAT

  The term Goskomstat is the abbreviation used to designate the State Committee for Statistics (Gosu-darstvennyi Komitet Statistiki, or Goskomstat), which, in July 1997, replaced the Central Statistical Agency (TsSU). Founded in 1918, the Soviet office for statistics went through various institutional transformations starting in January 1930, when central planning was established. The office lost its institutional independence that year and was subsumed under Gosplan, the State Planning Administration. Its missions were redefined. From then on its main task would be to supply Gosplan with the numbers it needed to create the indicators necessary to the planned management of the Soviet economy and society. Conflicts erupted as early as the end of the 1920s between TsSU statisticians and the political leadership on a number of issues, particularly on the measurement of crop levels and the analysis of social differences in the countryside. During the 1930s, disagreements on population numbers led to the purges that touched most of the officials in charge of the census of 1937. In 1948, TsSU once again became independent from Gosplan, but its activity remained essentially focused on the production of numbers for the planning and improvement of indicators.

  Following the launching of perestroika policies, in 1985, a decree dated July 17, 1987, stated the necessity to “rebuild the foundations for statistical activity in the country.” Nevertheless, planned management of the economy was not abandoned right away. The year 1991 marked a breaking off in this respect with Goskomstat entering a period of reforms clearly oriented toward the abandonment of planning and the transition to a market economy. First, the disappearance of the Soviet state caused the breakup of USSR’s Goskomstat followed by the transfer of its various services to each new state born out of the former USSR: each created its own statistics committee or department. After the founding of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), on December 30, 1991, a statistics committee was created to coordinate the activities of statistics committees of CIS member states.

  Adjustment to the new constraints imposed upon the production of statistical data resulting from the transition to a market economy brought about a number of different programs affecting Goskomstat starting in 1992. The recasting of economic indicators, the elaboration of new monitoring tools-notably for trade and financial activities-and methods for gathering economic data from a growing number of companies outside the state sector, as well as the construction of a new national accounting system, were all accomplished thanks to the support of experience from statistical administrations of Western countries. Concern for the ability to compare Russian statistical data with those released by other countries explains the attention that was given to the elaboration of principles for the calculation of GNP and such indicators as price, population, labor, foreign trade, and financial activity statistics that match the practices adopted by Western nations in this domain. See also: CENTRAL STATISTICAL AGENCY; ECONOMY, CURRENT; GOSPLAN

  MARTINE MESPOULET

  GOSPLAN

  Gosplan SSSR (Gosudarstvenny planovy komitet SSSR-the State Planning Committee of the USSR), the core state committee of the Soviet economic bureaucracy, was created in 1921. During the first Five-Year Plan (1928-1932) Valerian Kuybyshev headed Gosplan. Gosplan was responsible for executing the directives of the Council of Ministries,

  GOSTI

  translating general directives into operational plans for the ministries, and advising the Council of Ministries on a wide range of issues. Gosplan planned for the ministries, not for enterprises, although some large enterprises were planned directly by Gosplan. Gosplan communicated extensively with the ministries in the process of drafting the plan. It was subdivided into industrial departments, such as coal, ferrous metals, and machine building, and also had summary departments, such as finance, to deal with functions that crossed functional bodies. The early recognition of Gosplan’s importance came in 1925 and 1926, when it began to prepare the annual preliminary plan targets, or so-called control figures. During the 1930s the principle of guidance of economic policy on an annual basis was established, although much publicity was devoted to nonoperational five-year plans. Annual plans, including production and financial targets, so-called promfinplany, were drawn up sector by sector. By 1926
and 1927, promfinplany that were originated by ministries became dependent on the control figures. Formally, the plan era began in 1928 with the First Five-Year Plan for intensive economic growth. The Five-Year Plan was a comprehensive plan that set the major economic goals for a five-year period. The five-year goals were not put into operation in the shorter-term operational plans. Once the Soviet regime stipulated the plan figures, all levels of the economy from individual enterprises to the national level were theoretically obliged to meet those goals (“The plan is the law”). During the period from 1928 to 1932, the basic principles of Soviet planning were established. Gos-plan was to be the central coordinating body to which all other planning bodies were to submit their proposals. The control figures would provide the general direction for the economy. The actual detailed operational plans for enterprises (promfin-plany) were to conform to the control figures. Materials were to be allocated through a system of balances, which would elaborate the sources and uses of basic industrial materials. The long-term planning horizon was set at five years, the average period required for the completion of investment projects. Operational plans were prepared in cooperation with the planning departments of ministries, the most important of which were the all-union ministries. In day-to-day operations, inter-ministry cooperation was limited in such matters as equipment delivery and construction planning. Soviet law gave Gosplan substantial responsibilities concerning supply planning. Gosplan was charged with preparing and confirming plans for the distribution of production among ministries. It was Gosplan who prepared general material limits (limityu) for the ministries. Later these material limits would be broken down into product profiles by the State Committee for Material Technical Supply, Gossnab, which was formed in 1947 to assist in supply planning. Gosplan remained the primary planning body of the Soviet Union until its collapse in December 1991. See also: ECONOMIC GROWTH, SOVIET; FIVE-YEAR PLANS

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Gregory, Paul R., and Stuart, Robert C. (2001). Russian and Soviet Economic Performance and Structure. Boston, MA: Addison Wesley. Hewett, Edward A. (1988). Reforming the Soviet Economy: Equality Versus Efficiency. Washington, DC: Brook-ings Institution.

  PAUL R. GREGORY

  GOSTI

  The gosti (singular: gost) were great merchants who enjoyed high social status. They are encountered in the Kievan and later Mongol period, but are best known as a corporate group that emerged in the sixteenth century and figured prominently in the economic, political, administrative, and court life of seventeenth-century Russia.

  In the last half of the sixteenth century, the leading merchants of Muscovy were organized into three privileged corporations: the gosti, the gostinnaya sotnya, and the sukonnaya sotnya. They were obliged to render services to the government and were compensated with certain privileges. The gosti, whose number averaged around thirty throughout the seventeenth century, stood at the top of the merchant hierarchy. The rank was not hereditary, so the government periodically designated replacements for those who had died or became incapable of rendering service.

  They were obliged, among other burdensome duties, to serve as the tsar’s factors, to collect customs at the port of Archangel and at Moscow, to oversee the state liquor monopoly, and to participate in ceremonial functions at the court. In return for the exercise of these duties, the gosti were freed of the obligation to quarter troops, and permitted to brew and keep stocks of liquor. They were not

  GOSUDARYEV DVOR

  required to pay taxes imposed on other townsmen, and they were the only Russian merchants permitted to travel abroad on business.

  Representatives of the gosti participated in the land assemblies (zemskie sobory) and advised the rulers on questions of war and peace. They were leaders of a long-running campaign to abolish privileges granted to foreign merchants and to secure uncontested control of the domestic market. Peter the Great, dissatisfied with their perceived want of dynamism, phased them out in the first quarter of the eighteenth century. See also: GOSTINAYA SOTNYA; MERCHANTS; SUKKON-NAYA SOTNYA

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Baron, Samuel H. (1980). “The Fate of the Gosti in the Reign of Peter the Great.” In Muscovite Russia: Collected Essays, ed. Samuel H. Baron. London: Variorum. Baron, Samuel H. (1980). “Who Were the Gosti?” In Muscovite Russia: Collected Essays, ed. Samuel H. Baron. London: Variorum.

  SAMUEL H. BARON

  and abroad. In return, Gostinaya sotnya members were exempted from direct taxes, minor customs duties, and the responsibility to quarter soldiers. They were excluded from the jurisdiction of local authorities and granted other privileges, including the right to distill liquor for personal consumption. Elevated fines of ten to twenty rubles were assessed in cases of dishonor committed against Gostinaya sotnya members. Unlike the status of a gost, membership in the Gostinaya sotnya was hereditary and typically shared with other family members engaged in a joint enterprise.

  A 1613 charter issued to members of the Gosti-naya sotnya closely resembled the charter of the gosti; however, it did not authorize travel abroad. Foreign travel was subsequently permitted through government-issued passes. The Gostinaya sotnya typically sent two representatives to Assemblies of the Land (zemskie sobory).

  The Gostinaya sotnya had 345 members in 1601 and 1602; membership fell to 185 in 1630 and 158 in 1649. A total of 2,100 individuals joined the Gostinaya sotnya during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, with a particular marked growth in the 1680s. With the introduction of the poll tax in the 1720s, members of the Gostinaya sotnya, along with townsmen, joined the stratum of merchants.

  GOSTINAYA SOTNYA

  Literally “Guest Hundred,” a privileged corporation of Russian merchants between the late sixteenth and early eighteenth centuries.

  The name Gostinaya sotnya derives from the word gost (guest), which was used to refer to prosperous merchants in medieval Russia. The Gosti-naya sotnya was the second most important corporation of elite merchants after the gosti (pl. of gost). Members of the Gostinaya sotnya tended to be relatives of gosti, former members of the Sukonnaya sotnya (a lower corporation of merchants), prominent local merchants, and prosperous peasant-traders. Three categories of Gostinaya sotnya members were defined in terms of wealth.

  Members of the Gostinaya sotnya performed official duties for the government, usually once every six years for half a year at a time. They typically served as heads or officials of local customs and taverns. They assisted gosti in large cities and conducted similar functions independently in smaller towns. They sold treasury goods at fairs See also: GOSTI; FOREIGN TRADE; MERCHANTS; SUKON-NAIA SOTNYA;TAXES

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Hellie, Richard. “The Stratification of Muscovite Society: The Townsmen.” Russian History 5(2):119-175. Hittle, J. Michael. (1979). The Service City: State and Townsmen in Russia, 1600-1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

  JARMO T. KOTILAINE

  GOSUDARYEV DVOR

  Literally, “sovereign’s court,” a hierarchical institution made up of the ruler’s elite servitors during the late twelfth through seventeenth centuries.

  Courts of east Slavic princes usually included close members of the retinue, service cavalrymen, and household officials. Members of boyar families with established ties to the prince of Moscow

  591

  GOVERNING SENATE

  formed the basis of the Muscovite court during the fourteenth century. The growing political power of the Muscovite ruler attracted numerous distinguished newcomers, including members of the Lithuanian and Tatar ruling families, to his court in the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries. Muscovite rulers also incorporated the princes of territories annexed by Moscow into their court, although some of them, known as service princes, retained some organizational autonomy within the court until the end of the sixteenth century.

  As a result of the reforms of the 1550s, the sovereign’s court functioned on the basis of a mixture of hierarchical and territorial principles. During the second half of the six
teenth century, the court acquired a clear hierarchy of ranks: boyars, okolnichie, counselor cavalrymen, counselor secretaries, the household ranks and chancellery secretaries, the ruler’s personal guard (stolniki, stryapchie, zhiltsy), service princes, and the lowest ranks (dvorovye deti boyarskie, later vybornye dvoryane). Service relations between courtiers were subject to rules of precedence (mestnichestvo), a complex system that defined the status of a courtier on the basis of the prominence and service appointments of his ancestors and relatives. Territoriality was crucial to the court’s lowest strata, which included members of collateral branches of boyar families, people who had advanced through faithful service, and newcomers of lower status. The people who held the lowest court ranks were leading members of local cavalrymen communities and were listed by the town where they had service lands. They served in Moscow on a rotating basis. Secretaries entered the court thanks to their literacy and the patronage of the ruler or influential courtiers. A servitor’s career at court thus dependent on his pedigree, his position in the local cavalrymen community, his personal skills and merits, and the favor of his patrons.

  The princes of Moscow used a variety of means to secure the integrity of their court. Members of the court swore an oath of allegiance and received land grants on condition that they served the prince. Muscovite rulers secured the loyalty of distinguished newcomers by granting them superior status over the boyars, manipulating their land possessions, encouraging marriages with members of the royal family and the local elite, and subjecting the disloyal to disgrace and executions. Ivan IV’s reign saw the climax of repressions against members of the court, which was divided in two parts during the Oprichnina. The social and genealogical composition of the court, however, remained stable until the middle of the seventeenth century, when people of lower origin began entering the court’s upper strata. At the same time, the leaders of local cavalrymen communities were excluded from the court. Peter I stopped making appointments to the upper court ranks during the early 1690s.