In accordance with the law of 1934 "On the State Plan of the USSR", there was a wide discussion of the draft plans of economic and social development of the USSR for the medium term (five years) and long term (ten years), there was a democratic coordination of the actions of all strata and groups of Soviet society.
Almost all workers participated in the discussion of the draft plan, from the primary labor collectives to the level of the Union ministries and departments, i.e. the centralized management in the USSR provided for direct and feedback between the developers of the draft plans of social and economic development and all interested economic entities.
According to the law of the USSR "On labor collectives and increasing their role in the management of enterprises, institutions, organizations", the participation of labor collectives in the planning was not only the right, but also the responsibility of the collective as a whole and each of its members separately. This right and duty were also fixed in the USSR Constitution. Participation of workers in the development and discussion of five-year plans and plans for ten years took place in three stages.
At the first stage, the draft plan of economic and social development of the USSR for the coming year was formed in the State Planning Committee of the USSR, it was discussed at the Politburo and only then it was sent to all ministries and departments and regions. After the completion of the projects of departmental plans, all the enterprises and institutions, where the main work was started, received the drafts of departmental plans from the ministries and departments. Then the directorates of enterprises and institutions with the involvement of specialists, with the participation of party and Komsomol leaders discussed the nomenclature and volume of production, which the enterprises were to produce next year, the task of increasing labor productivity, the problem of necessary resources for the production.
Then the draft plans of social and economic development were discussed at the party and trade union meetings. At the same time, the following were carefully assessed: wage growth, the number of dwellings that the collective could get, construction of kindergartens, the number of vouchers to sanatoriums, rest homes, and pioneer camps. That is, everything that society should provide to the staff of the company.
Thus, there was a constant process of coordination of economic and social interests of all subjects, classes and social groups of Soviet society. On the one hand, the plans were agreed upon vertically: "the enterprise is a ministry". On the other hand - horizontally: with the authorities of the district, city, region, krai, republic.
As a result of the discussion, collective bargaining agreements were concluded, where control figures, mutual obligations and mutual responsibility of the company's management and staff were fixed. The drafts of such collective agreements were discussed in advance in the grassroots teams (brigade, workshop) and then were submitted to the general meeting or conference of the enterprise.
Then the agreements were directed upwards - to the level of the city, region, krai, republic, Union, where the process of clarification of agreed interests and goals of different levels continued.
Systematic preparation of the state plan actually meant permanent functioning of the all-Union negotiation process, in which tens of millions of people participated. In this way, the alienation of the state from society was overcome, and therefore it is possible to say that in the Soviet Union the concepts of "state" and "society" were essentially synonymous.
At the second stage, based on the control figures obtained from the State Planning Committee of the USSR for the main directions of the industry development and proposals of labor collectives, control figures were established for each industrial association and enterprise (according to the nomenclature of indicators of the plans). On the basis of the obtained control figures, the labor collectives developed drafts of five-year plans of economic and social development, and took counter-obligations. Permanent meetings, committees, groups, people's control posts, etc. were formed to ensure the participation of labor collectives in the planning process.
At the third stage, draft plans for economic and social development were widely discussed in the primary party organizations, district, city, district, regional, regional and republican party organizations. More than 130 million members of trade union organizations participated in the discussion, including 19 million communists. Then at the congresses of the CPSU General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR made reports. After all-round discussion, the draft state plan for the economic and social development of the USSR was adopted by the Congress of the CPSU, approved at the session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and acquired the force of law.
Thus, the public interest was coordinated with the collective and personal interests.