Not only, then, are the individual branches of production unified, but these branches of production are further integrated into larger unities. It need hardly be said that such combinations of branches are formed, first of all, between branches of a kindred character. For example, the production of nails, that of machinery, that of copper, and that of copper utensils, etc., are combined into a metal group. This group of “chiefs” constitutes the Department for Metals of the Supreme Economic Council. There are several such departments. Besides the Department for Metals, we have the Department for Chemical Industries, the Department for Foods, the Printing Department, etc. In the autumn of 1919, the structure of these various departments was still far from uniform. In the Department for Metals, the predominant influence was exercised by the Central Committee of the All-Russian Union of Metalworkers. The metalworkers belong to the workers’ vanguard; they are mentally alert; they are splendid workers; for these reasons they have excellent administrative capacity. In some of the other departments the conditions are less favourable. For example, it was not until the autumn of 1919 that the workers began to participate in the administration of the Department for Chemical Industries, for not until that date had there been constituted any corporative unity in this class of work.
All the departments are subordinated to the Supreme Economic Council (Vysovnarhoz [or S.E.C.]). This consists of representatives of the Soviet of Trade Unions, of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets, and of the people’s commissaries. Its affairs are managed by a presidium. Thus the S.E.C. coordinates all the economic activities of the country, and the primary duty of the council is to draw up and to carry out a unified scheme for the State administration of economic life.