Five Year Plan's

Question 1

When was the First 5 Year Plan?

Answer 1

1928-1932

Question 2

What effect did the First 5 Year Plan have on iron, coal and steel

Answer 2

Iron and coal output doubled
Steel production increased by 1/3
(Outperformed any previous economic system)

Question 3

How much did the Russian economy grow due to the First 5 Year Plan?

Answer 3

Around 14% a year

Question 4

How did the First 5 Year Plan benefit agriculture?

Answer 4

Huge new tractor works were built in Stalingrad, Kharkov and other places to meet the needs of agriculture

Question 5

How did the First 5 Year Plan benefit the engineering industry?

Answer 5

Industry developed

Increased output of machine-tools, turbines etc.

Question 6

What effect did the First 5 Year Plan have on consumer industries? What consumer industries were effected?

Answer 6

Very little growth, even a decline.

House-building, fertilisers, food processing and woolen textiles.

Question 7

What effect did the First 5 Year Plan have on small workshops and why?

Answer 7

Squeezed out.

Partly because of the drive against Nepmen and partly because of shortages of materials and fuels.

Question 8

What happened to chemical targets?

Answer 8

They weren’t fulfilled

Question 9

What effect did the First 5 Year Plan have on workers?

Answer 9

There was a lack of skilled workers which created major problems.
Workers were constantly changing jobs which created instability.
Poor working and living conditions.

Question 10

Overall how was the First 5 Year Plan a failure?

Answer 10

• Many targets weren’t met (many lied about the amount of raw materials produced)
• USSR couldn’t earn enough from exports to pay for all the machinery it needed due to the Great Depression
• Good deal of investment had to go into agriculture due to forced collectivisation

Question 11

Overall how was the First 5 Year Plan a success?

Answer 11

+ Soviet economy was kick-started: Impressive growth in certain sectors of the economy and there were substantial achievements (all during the Great Depression in America and Europe)

Question 12

What was the increase in Coal from 1928 to 1932?

Answer 12

35.4 million tonnes (1928) to 64.3 million tonnes (1932)

Question 13

Why did heavy industries benefit during the Second 5 Year Plan?

Answer 13

Benefited from the plants set up during the First 5 year Plan

Question 14

How did the First 5 Year Plan help industry?

Answer 14

Huge new industrial complexes were built/in the process of being built

Question 15

What were the successes of the Second 5 Year Plan?

Answer 15

+ Electricity production grew rapidly
+Transport and communication grew rapidly
+Chemical industries (e.g. fertiliser production) were growing

Question 16

What effect did the Second 5 Year Plan have on metallurgy?

Answer 16

Metallurgy developed - minerals like copper, zinc and tin were made for the first time

Question 17

How successful was the Second 5 Year Plan?

Answer 17

By 1937 the USSR was virtually self-sufficient in machine-making and metal working

Question 18

What were the failures of the Second 5 Year Plan?

Answer 18

-Consumer goods industries still lagging (showing signs of recovery)
-Oil production didn’t make the expected advances
+/- Growth in footwear, food processing, modern bakeries, ice-cream production, meat packing plants - BUT NOT ENOUGH

Question 19

When was the Second 5 Year Plan?

Answer 19

1933-1937

Question 20

When was the Third 5 Year Plan?

Answer 20

1938-1941

Question 21

What were the successes of the Third 5 Year Plan?

Answer 21

+Defence and armaments grew rapidly as resources were diverted to them
+/-Heavy industry continued to grow (e.g. machinery and engineering) BUT THE PICTURE WAS UNEVEN AND SOME AREAS DID POORLY

Question 22

What were the failures of the Third 5 Year Plan?

Answer 22

• Steel output grew insignificantly
• Oil production failed to meet targets plus led to a fuel crisis
• Consumer industries once again took a back seat
• Many factories ran short of materials

Question 23

What contributed towards the failures of the Third 5 Year Plan?

Answer 23

• Ran into difficulties in the beginning of 1938 due to an exceptionally hard winter and the diversion of materials to the military
• Gosplan was thrown into chaos when purges created shortages of qualified personnel (important managers, engineers and officials who linked industries and government)

Question 24

What were the successes of the 5 Year Plans in terms of social mobility?

Answer 24

\+Urban population trebled as peasants moved to cities for unskilled jobs in Soviet industry
\+Existing members of the working class were promoted
\+Education was reformed (university was accessible to those with minimal academic qualifications)

Question 25

What was the issue with targets?

Answer 25

• Many targets were never met - lied about amount of raw materials made
• Targets only related to quantity - quality was neglected so a large proportion of materials were useless
• Focus on production not consumption - often raw materials were never used and allowed to decay

Question 26

What were the issues with living and working conditions?

Answer 26

• They were never an objective of the plan.
• Rations = poor diet (worse than NEP)
• Consumer goods disappeared
• 7 day working week
• Working conditions deteriorated (Miners worked unsafe conditions trying to reach targets)
• Many peasants died in the hastily constructed factories