How successful were the Five-Year Plans?

1. How successful were the Five-Year Plans? L/O – To evaluate the successes and failures of the Five-Year Plans

2. The First Five-Year Plan, 1928-32 • Began on 1st October 1928. Concentrated on heavy industry (80% of investment) – coal, steel, iron, oil, cement, metals, timber and machine production. • Overall production was planned to increase by 300%! Electricity production was planned to increase by 600%! • Many workers were excited by the vision of creating a socialist economy and worked hard to fulfil each year’s targets.

3. The First Five-Year Plan - Successes • Successes included: trebling electricity production, doubling coal and iron production and steel by over one third. • Engineering industry was developed and huge new industrial complex’s were built like the city of Magnitokorsk. • Over 1500 enterprises were developed across the USSR however there were many failures.

4. The First Five-Year Plan - Failures • Many resources were diverted to heavy industry, meaning that consumer industries like clothing suffered from a lack of development. • Many targets were not met – mainly due to targets being too optimistic but there was a lack of skilled workers, competition for sparse resources, waste and transport issues. • A lot of resources also had to be diverted to collectivisation – ‘bourgeois specialists’ were blamed and arrested.

5. The Second Five-Year Plan – 1933-37 • The First Five-Year Plan had caused many problems. The lack of planning meant that the railway system couldn’t cope with the increase in traffic. • Forced collectivisation had also led to food shortages, rationing and even famine. Many workers changed jobs regularly and skilled workers were in short supply. • The Second Five-Year Plan therefore tried to consolidate these problems. There was still a focus on heavy industry but targets were scaled back.

6. The Second Five-Year Plan – Successes • The Second Plan was helped by the fact that huge projects started in the First Plan had come online – Magnitokorsk and the Dneiper Dam are two examples. • By 1937 the USSR was self-sufficient in machine tool production. Heavy industry, chemicals and metallurgy also developed rapidly. • New training schemes were also introduced and there was a bigger focus on transport and communications.

7. The Second Five-Year Plan – Failures • There was still a problem with the lack of consumer goods – too many resources were being assigned to heavy industry. Oil production was also slow to increase. • Similar problems of shortages, waste, bribery, corruption and over production were apparent. • The Great Terror and Purges also meant that the economy was being deprived of valuable personnel – many were too scared to admit failure so mistakes were covered up.

8. The Third Five-Year Plan, 1938-41 • Proposals to develop consumer goods and light industry suffered due to the growing threat of war. The Third Plan therefore focused on heavy industry and armaments. • The Plan also only lasted 3 ½ years due to the invasion of the USSR by Germany in 1941. • Consumer growth remained slow and iron/steel stopped growing. There was even a fuel crisis in oil.

9. The Fourth Five-Year Plan, 1946-50 • During World War Two, the USSR lost nearly 100,000 collective farms, 5 million homes and over 17 million cattle. Railways, roads and bridges were also destroyed. Retreating German armies stripped industrial equipment and farming produce from the USSR. • After the war, Britain and the USA refused to take massive reparations from Germany, therefore the USSR had to use its own resources to rebuild – another Five-Year Plan was needed.

10. The Fourth Five-Year Plan, 1946-50 • Emphasis was placed on re-building heavy industry and on reviving agriculture. Collectivisation was still a priority. • However there was a focus on civilian needs – new shops and homes were rebuilt. By 1946, 2.5 million people had been re-housed. • By 1950, Stalin claimed that production levels were back to or higher than 1940 however agriculture was not completely collectivised.

11. The Fifth Five-Year Plan, 1951-55 • This plan set lower targets than previous plans. The growing Cold War had resulted in increasing amounts of money being diverted into the defence industry, especially into Nuclear Weapons. • Rationing had ended in 1947, and real wages rose steadily from 1948; by 1952, they had surpassed the 1940 levels. • By the time of Stalin’s death in March 1953, the USSR had developed into one of the world’s leading industrial powers.

14. Questions • Use the notes from this presentation to complete the table below. • What were the main successes of the Five-Year Plans? • What were the main failures of the Five-Year Plans? • What evidence is there to suggest that the Five-Year Plans were NOT planned well?