In the nationalized industries the unit of organization is the Trust which is responsible for a single factory or a group of fac tories conveniently situated, geographically or commercially, for economical management. Each Trust is an independent financial and commercial enterprise with a responsible Board of Direc tors, with its own capital and credit resources and its own re sponsibility and incentive for successful commercial operations. The State holds the ordinary capital, but the Trusts make their own arrangements for loans and credits with the banks and those with whom they trade. The Directors of each Trust are ap pointed in consultation with the Council of Trade Unions by the Supreme Council of National Economy—the Government Department responsible for the conduct and control of industry. The number of Trusts in industries varies. In textiles, for ex ample, there are 22 important Trusts; in oil, the most important are the Azerbaijan, Grozny and Emba Trusts, each of which controls the productive and refining process of a whole oilfield.
Whilst each Trust has the right of individual trade, in general the Trusts in each industry are linked together in Syndicates for their main buying and selling operations, particularly where they are operating on foreign markets. These syndicates are independ ent financial and commercial units, their share capital being sub scribed by the constituent Trusts. Among the best known are the Naphtha Syndicate, which disposes of most of the oil products, and the Textile Syndicate, which sells finished goods and buys raw materials on behalf of the textile industry. In some cases syn dicates have been formed specially for work on foreign markets, e.g., Exportles, which acts as the exporting agency for all the Timber Trusts, and Exportkhleb, which has the monopoly of the sale abroad of grain on behalf of the various Co-operatives and Government organizations concerned.
The wholesale and retail distributive trades and the marketing of the peasants' produce together with the bakeries, dairies, ele vators, cold stores, etc., necessary thereto are mostly in the hands of the co-operatives. (See RUSSIAN CO-OPERATIVE ORGANIZA TIONS.) These buy their supplies of industrial commodities from the Trusts or Syndicates concerned.
Internal and Foreign trade is under the administrative control of the People's Commissariat of Trade (Narcomtorg) which deals with the adjustment of relations between producers and con sumers, and itself decides on prices and other matters of dif ficulty when negotiations fail. It also administers the monopoly of foreign trade, issuing licences for import and export ; and ap points Trade Delegations abroad which control the Government and co-operative foreign buying and selling agencies. The Gos plan, or State Planning Department, works in close contact with the Supreme Council of National Economy and Narcomtorg. It is a statistical and intelligence bureau, whose task is to collect and correlate statistical data and to work out comprehensive operation plans by which industrial and agricultural production, finance and banking, internal and external trade may be devel oped and correlated.
In the cities there are Goods Exchanges and in the country towns there are markets and fairs at which.State trading organiza tions, Co-operatives, private traders and individual peasants meet for buying and selling. In August of each year there is also held the historic Nijni-Novgorod Fair to which buyers and sellers come from all parts of Russia as well as from Persia, Mongolia and other Asiatic countries. (E. F. WI.)