In the late 1920s Stalin introduced an extreme system where the economy became a central function of the Soviet government. Under this system, numerous governmental committees decided what salaries should be paid in all jobs across the USSR, what prices all products and commodities should have, how to distribute good across the USSR, etc. To put it simply: the Soviet government determined and controlled prices for all items you could purchase in the store (bread, shoes, television sets, you name it!); the Soviet government also determined what sort of salary one would get as an engineer, teacher, doctor, etc.