Аннотация: The paper deals with the problem of the planning. The planning economy was indeed one of the most important achievements of the XX century. It allows avoiding such negative phenomena as unemployment and poverty. Nowadays the planning economy in Russia is rejected because after Gorbachev’s perestroika the leaders have decided to rely only on the market relations. They thought the reason for the economic collapse of the Soviet Union was the planning. The aim of the paper is to prove that the main error of the Soviet planning economy was not the planning itself, but the absence of interaction between the public management system and population. The text gives valuable information on the origins and development of the Soviet planning. The Soviet planning appeared in the difficult political and social context of the Civil War. From the beginning, the planning was developed by eminent scientists of their time. The political leaders used the planning in theire own aims; putting unrealizable tasks and using the economic failures to find and accuse the “enemies”. Conclusions are drawn about the necessity of the development of the planning system as a system of system of reconciling the needs of the people and the interests of public administration.