What is "gossnab"

Gossnab of USSR, State Supplies of the USSR was active in 1948-1953, 1965-1991. It was the state committee for material technical supply in the Soviet Union. It was charged with the primary responsibility for the allocation of producer goods to enterprises, a critical state function in the absence of markets.

Gossnab was one of more than twenty state committees under the Council of Ministers, the administrative arm of the Soviet government, along with other economic organs such as Gosplan (the state planning committee) and Gosbank (the state bank). Created amid a series of economic reforms implemented under Premier Alexei Kosygin in the mid-1960s, Gossnab coordinated the allocation of resources not handled by Gosplan. Gossnab had mixed success in creating a wholesale trade system, based on direct contracts between suppliers and users.