This paper investigates the collision between the unquestionable requirement to preserve and maintain the solitary existence of the all-people socialist ownership and the need to provide a certain, though limited, independence for the enterprises. The seemingly simple practical issue, eventually appeared as a complex contradictory knot of both theoretical and practical problems, which implicated a lot of attempts for their overcoming in the different socialist countries, continuing up to the end of 1980s, i.e. to the last days before the system break-down. The paper here focuses on the experience in Soviet Union and, particularly, in Bulgaria.
JEL: B14; B24; G34; L22; P26; P31