Question

What were the Five Year Plans? Did they work? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Hope this helps :/

The First five-year plan was designed to increase production in heavy industry, mainly coal, iron and electricity.

The targets that were set by Stalin and the Gosplan were unrealistic and were unlikely to be reached. McCauley criticizes the targets and remarks that “It became fashionable to increase goals repeatedly as if mathematics had ceased to function” . In 1927-8, coal production stood at 35 million tons, oil production at 11.7 million tons, iron ore production at 6.7 million tons and pig iron at 3.2 million tons. When the Plan was progressing well, ‘optimal’ targets were set. This aimed to increase coal production to 75 million tons by 1932-3; oil production to 21.7 million tons; iron ore production to 20.2 million tons and pig iron to 10 million tons. With the apparent success of the ‘optimal’ plan, even higher figures were set. Coal production would be increased to 95-105 million tons; oil production to 40-55 million tons; iron ore to 24-32 million tons and pig iron to 15-16 million tons.

However workers were rewarded for reaching targets and were encouraged to do so through the Stakhanovite movement.

The Second five-year plan carried much more realistic goals that could be achieved. This plan saw continued improvements in iron, oil and electricity. It also paid some attention to consumer goods, though consumer goods weren’t improved dramatically. More money was poured into the defense sector with total budget expenditure increasing from 3.4% in 1933 to 16.5% in 1937.

The Third five-year plan was cut short by the war, but during its brief existence it continued the dominance of heavy industry but still paid some attention to consumer goods.

Was industrialization successful?

There was much more state success with industrialization.

Oxley states that the urban population had more than doubled between 1929 and 1939, from 20.8 million in 1929 to 56.1 million in 1939.

Industrial output had increased significantly since 1928. Figures show that in 1927 the USSR was producing 35 million tons of coal, 3 million tons of steel, 12 million tons of oil and 18 million kWth of electricity. The figures show in 1940 that 150 million tons of coal was being produced, more than four times than in 1927, 18 million tons of steel had been produced in 1940, five times the amount in 1927, 26 million tons of oil had been produced in 1940, over two times the amount in 1927 and 90 million kWth of electricity had been produced in 1940, more than four times the amount in 1927. This was what Stalin was certainly hoping to achieve.

As the population increased, it also spread, creating new cities in its path.

Stalin had set out to make the USSR ready for any major war. When it came in 1941 certain failures of Stalin’s leadership began to show. Only the weather managed to halt the advancing German forces as they approached Moscow. However once the Red Army began their offensive the success of Stalin’s modernization programme began to show. By modernizing the economy and focusing a lot of his efforts into war, Stalin managed to push back the German war machine back to its own front door, in Berlin.

By 1941, only the USA could compete with the USSR in terms of industrial output and after 1945, in terms of world status too.

With its emphasis on heavy industry, other parts of the economy suffered as a result of poor investment.

Living standards suffered as a result of the emphasis placed on modernizing heavy industry. Lynch claims that, “In 1941…the conditions of the Soviet industrial workers were marginally lower than in 1928.” However industrialization was never meant to serve the workers, but the state in which they worked in. Soviet propaganda portrayed victory over Nazism as “the ultimate proof of the wisdom of Stalin’s enforced industrialization programme.”