Abstract: Presented research is dedicated to the issues of Soviet economy development in the middle of XX century. Selection of the topic is not accidental. This is the time, when economic growth rates were very high and at the same time, first contradictions which led to a crisis of the system and its breakdown appeared. In this context, we have defined the thesis that causes of Soviet economy crisis can be found during the period of its highest development in the middle of XX century. As a main task, we decided not only to consider the reasons of the Soviet economy growth during the specified period but also to analyze the sources of its future challenges. Specificity of the problem determines using of different methods of historical and natural scientific research: historical and retrospective, system-structured, analysis and synthesis. Conditions of Soviet economy development, its achievements and mistakes are highlighted in details in the study. At the same time, researcher does not try to cover all complex of economic problems of the state but a special place in the research is given to contradictions in the industrial sector. Researcher makes a conclusion that in addition to general problems (recovery of war-ravaged economy, difficult demographic situation, reduction of investment share in the national economy during the Great Patriotic War and other) serious mistakes were made by the leadership of the country in the middle of XX century. These include: imbalances in the sectoral character of the economy, focusing the bulk of enterprises in the individual republics and so on that resulted in serious economic problems in the following period. Now a days, it is very useful to study positive and negative aspects of the Soviet management system in order to apply these concepts in practice of modern management.