2b: Industry and agriculture in the Stalin era

Question 1

What were the aims of Stalin’s five year plans?

Answer 1

• first introduced in 1928, designed to replace the market with a more efficient and truly socialist economic system
• industrialisation - combining centralised planning with large-scale investment
• extremely ambitious goals
• soviet economists wanted to eliminate inefficacies of NEP, remove Nepmen, believed government-controlled production and distribution would be much more efficient
• Stalin argued to be necessary because of failings of the NEP
• reflected Soviet military concerns
• Stalin wanted to assert his authority, more ambitious than Lenin

Question 2

What was the nature of the five year plans from 1928-41?

Answer 2

• three separate plans, first cut short due to problems, third cut short due to the German invasion of the Soviet Union
• government initiative to increase production, Gosplan formulated production targets, massive propaganda campaign supporting
• better understood as a command economy than a planned economy - no planning or organisation just targets