Council for the Study of Productive Forces

a scientific organization in the USSR for problems associated with the geographical distribution of productive forces and problems of regional economics.

The Council for the Study of Productive Forces was established in 1930, under the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, as an outgrowth of two earlier commissions: the Commission for the Study of Natural Productive Forces, founded in 1915 by the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Commission on Field Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, established in 1928. It did comprehensive field studies concerning the economic assessment of natural resources and worked on the development and geographic distribution of productive forces in the Union republics and various regions of the country. In 1960 it was transferred to the jurisdiction of Gosplan (State Planning Committee of the USSR); the Academy of Sciences of the USSR continues to provide scientific and methodological guidance.

The Council for the Study of Productive Forces has concentrated its research in several areas: (1) development of the basic theoretical and methodological principles of regional economics and territorial organization of the national economy, (2) the compilation of general plans for the long-term development and distribution of the productive forces of the USSR, and (3) the conduct of research on international regional development. It coordinates the work of the scientific and planning agencies of government ministries and departments and the work of the economic institutes under the state planning committees and academies of sciences of the Union republics.