The monograph summarizes more than twenty years of work of Nikolai Konstantinovich Baybakov as Chairman of the USSR State Planning Commission and his many years of previous work as the country's chief oilman. The economy of modern Russia rests on the foundation erected under his leadership. The book reflects little-known facts of the history of the creation and formation of the State Planning Commission. Considerable attention is paid to the issues of improving planning and the entire economic mechanism, plans for scientific and technical development, the work of the institutes of the USSR State Planning Commission.