Regional Planning and its Structures: Mechanisms of Management and Transformation of the Planning System in 1939–1991 Using the Example of the Brest Region
( Pp. 128-140)
More about authors
Vladimir V. Zapariy
Dr. Sci. (Hist.), Professor, Professor of the Department of Russian History, Honored Worker of the Higher School of the Russian Federation, Full Member of the International Academy of Sciences of Nature and Society, Military History Academy of Russia, Academy of Engineering Sciences, Member of the Union of Journalists of Russia
Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation Ekaterina V. Zaitseva Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory, Methodology and Legal Support of State and Municipal Administration; Ural Federal University the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation
Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation Ekaterina V. Zaitseva Cand. Sci. (Sociol.), Associate Professor, Associate Professor of the Department of Theory, Methodology and Legal Support of State and Municipal Administration; Ural Federal University the first President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin
Yekaterinburg, Russian Federation
Abstract:
This article is devoted to a historical and regional analysis of the activities of state planning bodies in the Brest region during the Soviet period (1939–1992). Based on archival materials from the State Archives of the Brest Region, the author examines the evolution of the structure and functions of the Brest Regional Planning Committee (Oblplan) and its interaction with lower-level urban (Gorplan) and district (Raipplan) planning commissions. The work examines in detail the main stages of development of the region's planning system, from its formation in the pre-war period and restoration after the Great Patriotic War to its large-scale reorganisation during the years of perestroika. Particular attention is paid to the mechanisms of administrative control and management, the analysis of problems of executive discipline (using the example of the Baranovichi city plan), as well as the expansion of the powers of planning bodies in the 1960s and 1980s. The authors trace the transformation of the regional plan into the Main Planning and Economic Administration (GlavPEU) in 1988 and analyse attempts to introduce the principles of economic calculation and self-financing into the late Soviet model of management. The study concludes with a description of the process of liquidating the Soviet planning structure in 1992 in connection with the transition to market relations and the formation of a new system of economic management in the sovereign Republic of Belarus.
How to Cite:
Zapariy, V.V., Zaitseva, E.V. (2026). Regional Planning and its Structures: Mechanisms of Management and Transformation of the Planning System in 1939-1991 Using the Example of the Brest Region. History and Modern Perspectives, 8(1), 128-140. 10.33693/2658-4654-2026-8-1-128-140. EDN: LLEUTV
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Bersenev V.L. Sverdlovsk Regional Plan on the Eve of Global Changes. 100 Years of Transformations. Ministry of Economy and Territorial Development of the Sverdlovsk Region, 1924–2024 / V. V. Akberdina, V. L. Bersenev, M. N. Ignatyeva [et al.]; edited by Yu. G. Lavrikova, A. Yu. Yekaterinburg, 2024. Pp. 74–93.
Volosov E.N. Regional Technocratic Elite — a Special Layer of the Party Nomenklatura of the 1960s-80s (using the Irkutsk Region and Krasnoyarsk Krai as an Example) // Bulletin of Irkutsk State University. Series: Political Science. Religious Studies. 2000. Pp. 181–195.
Voslensky M.S. Nomenklatura. Ruling Class of the Soviet Union. Moscow: Sovetskaya Rossiya, 1991. 624 p.
Ermilov A.P. The Fundamental Reason for the Inability of the Soviet Economy to Innovate Technologically in the Era of the Scientific and Revolution // Institutional Transformation of the Economy: Space and Time. 2017. Pp. 58–62.
Zapariy V.V. Grodno Regional Planning Committee of the BSSR in the 1960s–1990s. History and Modern Perspectives. 2025. Vol. 7. No. 3. Pp. 103–108. (in Rus.). DOI: 10.33693/2658-4654-2025-7-3-103–108. EDN: QGART VAK
Zapariy V.V., Zaitseva E.V. The Role of the Regional Planning Commission in Drawing Up the Plan for the Restoration and Development of the Grodno Region for 1946–1950: Based on the Documents of the Decision-Making Bodies. History and Modern Perspectives. 2024. Vol. 6. No. 3. Pp. 93–99. (in Rus.). DOI: 10.33693/2658-4654-2024-6-3-93-99.
Zapariy V.V., Zaitseva E.V. Departmental Contradictions in the Management of the Druzhba Oil Pipeline in the 1960s. Scientific Dialogue. 2025. Vol. 14, No. 9. Pp. 408–426. (in Rus.). DOI: 10.24224/2227-1295-2025-14-9-408-426.
Kalinina O.N. Soviet nomenclature: some results and problems of research. NSU Bulletin. Series: History, Philology. 2006. Vol. 5, issue 1 (supplement). Pp. 68–72. (in Rus.).
Kulagin O.I. The timber industry complex as a mechanism of interaction between the center and the region in the second half of the 1940s — 1960s (based on materials from Karelia). CARELiCA. 2016. No. 1 (15). Pp. 28–39. (in Rus.). DOI: 10.15393/j14.art.2015.71.
Naishul V.A. The Highest and Last Stage of Socialism // Immersion in the Quagmire. Moscow: Progress, 1991. URL: https://libertarium.ru/l_libnaul_brezhnev (date of access: 07.01.2026).
Nureyev R.M., Latov Yu.V. Between "Real Socialism" and "Eastern Despotism": the Labyrinths of Institutional Economic Development of Soviet Russia. The World of Russia. 2014. No. 3. Pp. 6–45. (in Rus.).
Obolonsky A.V. Essay on the History of the Russian-Soviet Bureaucratic Nomenklatura. Issues of Public and Municipal Administration. 2015. No. 3. Pp. 145–164. (in Rus.).
Pleshchenko V.I. On the Functioning of Prototypes of the Adaptive Agile Model in the USSR Industry. Economics in Industry. 2017. Vol. 10, No. 4. Pp. 296–302. (in Rus.). DOI: 10.17073/2072-1633-2017-4-296-302.
Safronov A.V. The Academy of Sciences and New Approaches to National Economic Planning in the USSR (Late 1950s — Early 1960s). Modern and Contemporary History. 2024. Vol. 68, No. 1. Pp. 103–117. (in Rus.). — DOI: 10.31857/S0130386424010085.
Speransky A.V. Bureaucracy and the Soviet Management Model: Contradictions of Compromise. Bulletin of SUSU. Series "Social and Humanitarian Sciences". 2018. Vol. 18, No. 3. Pp. 64–68. (in Rus.). DOI: 10.14529/ssh180310.
Tulchinsky G.L. Revolution of Managers, Soviet-Style // Public Policy. 2013: Collection of Articles / Ed. by M. B. Gorny, A. Yu. Sungurov. St. Petersburg: Norma, 2014. Pp. 145–149.
Khlevnyuk O.V. Nomenklatura Revolution: Regional Leaders in the USSR in 1936–1939. Bulletin of the Russian State University for the Humanities. Series “History. Philology. Cultural Studies. Oriental Studies”. 2016. No. 11 (20). Pp. 36–51. (in Rus.).
Keywords:
Brest Regional Plan, City Plan, District Plan, Soviet administrative model, economic planning, Byelorussian SSR, history of the Brest Region, public administration, archival documents..
