Industrial and social developments in towns and cities Flashcards
What is Gosplan?
The state planning agency that was responsible for drawing up the plans and establishing output targets for every economic enterprise in accordance with Party directives
Who made the overall decision as to what should be produced?
The government
Why was Gosplan job made harder?
o Party leaders arguing that their region should have first call on resources
o Lack of reliable information
o had to plan for many variable and changing commodities
What were targets set like and what were they intended to do?
o They were ambitious
o Intended to force managers and workers to devote their maximum effort to the programme
How was corruption and faulty reporting built into the system from the outset?
o Failing to achieve a target was a criminal offence so people went to great lengths to ensure that reported statistics showed huge improvements
Who was blamed when things went wrong with the Plans and evidence of this?
o Gosplan
o Members from offices dismissed
When was the first Five Year Plan?
1928-1932
Criticisms of the first Five Year Plan?
o Not based on secure information
o Extremely over-ambitious
o People afraid to question anything about it, therefore no improvements could be made to it
What should be emphasised about the first Five Year Plan?
o That it was a great experiment
o No obvious example of where else to learn especially at a time of economic collapse in the West due to the Wall Street Crash
What did the first Five Year Plan focus on and what were its aims?
o Focused on heavy industry
Aimed to:
o Increase production by 300%
o Focus on the development of coal, iron, steel, machinery etc
o Boost electricity production by 600%
o Double the output from light industry e.g. chemicals
What was the result of the publicity surrounding the launch of the first Five Year Plan?
o Provoked an enthusiastic response
How long did it take for the first Five Year Plan to be completed and why did this happen?
o Four years
o Most likely due to over-enthusiastic reporting by local officials
What was the reality of the first Five Year Plan?
o None of the major targets were met
What were the successes of the first Five Year Plan?
o Electricity output trebled
o Coal and iron output doubled
o Steel production increased by a third
o New railways, engineering plants and industrial complexes
What were the failures of the first Five Year Plan?
o Targets for light industry weren’t met
o Consumer goods woefully neglected
o Too few skilled workers
o Smaller industrial works lost out to bigger factories
What were the aims of the second Five Year Plan and what did it give more attention to?
o Consumer goods were given more attention
Aims were to:
o Continue development of heavy industry
o Promote the growth of light industries
o Develop communications for links between industrial centres
o Foster engineering and tool making
What was the date of the second Five Year Plan?
1933-1937
What were the successes of the second Five Year Plan?
o ‘Three good years’ (1934-36)
o Moscow Metro opened 1935
o Dam for hydro-electric power
o Electricity and chemical production grew rapidly
o Steel output trebled, coal and iron doubled
How did the second Five Year Plan change in 1936?
Greater emphasis placed on rearmament
What were the failures of the second Five Year Plan?
o Oil production failed to meet its targets
o Still no appreciable increase in consumer foods
o Emphasis on quantity over quality
What were the aims of the third Five Year Plan?
o Place a renewed emphasis on the development of heavy industry
o Promote rapid rearmament
o Complete transition to communism
What was the date of the third Five Year Plan?
1938-42
When and why was the plan disrupted?
Disrupted by approach of war in 1941
What did the growing threat of Nazi Germany lead to?
Particular focus on the needs of the defence sector
What were the successes of the third Five Year Plan?
o Heavy industry, strong growth in machinery and engineering
What were the failures of the third Five Year Plan and causes of them?
o Steel production stagnated
o Consumer goods were lowest priority
Causes of problems:
o Death of good managers, specialists and technicians following the purges
o Hard winter in 1938
o Due to resources being diverted to rearmament there were adverse effects on other areas
What were the ‘showpiece’ projects involved in the plans and what were they supposed to show?
o Show the modernity and capabilities of the Soviet state
o Construction of completely new industrial cities e.g. Magnitogorsk and Komsomolsk
o Dams, railways e.g. Moscow Metro 1935
What was Magnitogorsk like?
o Giant steel plant and a town
o Workers lived in communal barracks
o Subject to constant lectures and political discussions
How was Komsomolsk built?
o Using volunteer labour from the communist youth organisation Komsomol
o Also used penal labour from the prison camps in the area
Who was the USSR forced to turn to and why?
o Foreign companies and individuals
o For managerial and technical skills
Why was the USSR appealing to foreigners and what did it lead to?
o Led to ordinary labourers travelling to the USSR from the West to work on the new plants
o Communism presented an attraction and some foreigners genuinely believed they were contributing to a new world order
How were foreigners looked upon and what did this lead to?
o Sometimes looked upon with suspicion
o Led to them being scapegoated when things went wrong
Why did the Stakhanovite movement emerge?
o After Aleksei Stakhanov, a coal miner cut a huge amount of coal in a short amount of time
o Amount of coal was expected from a minor in 14 times that length of time
o Hailed an example of how human determination and endeavour might increase productivity
o Competitions arranged for others to emulate Stakhanov’s achievement
Was the Stakhanovite movement popular?
o Not all the time
o Jealousy attached to the Stakhanovites’ receipt of superior accommodation and other material benefits
o Stakhanovites victimised and even attacked
Why was the Stakhanovite movement used?
o To force management to support their workers so as to increase production
Negatives of being a manager?
o Had to ensure that the output targets set by regional administrators were met
o Limited control over their own resources, wages and other tasks
o Little choice by to focus on attain output target
o Protesting workers
Positives of being a manger?
o Bonuses
o Status
Why was there pressure for managers to falsify statistics?
o Could be put on trial, imprisoned and even executed if they fail to meet targets
Why was it difficult for managers to earn the good will of workers?
o Managers expected to apply state regulations in the work place
o National ‘work norms’ which governed how much work a Labourer should be expected to and rules
o Led to protesting workers
How did the Stakhanovites pose a problem to managers?
o Their efforts could lead to factory targets being revised upwards, creating new problems for output in the following year
What were the measures brought in for the drive for industrialisation?
o Seven-day working week
o Longer working hours
o Arriving late of missing work could result in dismissal or eviction from housing
o Damaging machinery was a criminal offence
o Strikes were illegal
Why was there a certain degree of enthusiasm amoung workers?
o Opportunities for advancement by learning new skills meant some workers did well
o Wage differentials introduced, reward wages
o Opportunities for social advancement
How did the proletariat suffer
o Poor working conditions o Numbers that poured into industrial cities left workers living in extremely cramped communal apartments where they had to cope with inadequate sanitation and poor water supplies o Transport overcrowded o Shops empty o Queues and shortages
Why were there plenty of vacancies at the ‘top’?
o Purges hit intellectuals and white collar workers the most
How were female workers treated before the first Five Year Plan?
o Largely concentrated at lowest paid jobs
o Routinely discriminated against
What happened during the second Five Year Plan in regard to women?
o Party took note of the value of female workers and set orders for more to be employed in heavy industry
o Many factory managers didn’t do this
What was Zhenotdel and what happened with it?
o Department of Russian Communist Party devoted to women’s affairs
o Closed down in 1930
o No longer an institution to fight inequality in the workplace
What advances were made with women?
o Party made more of an effort to enrol women in technical training programmes
o Increasing number of women found their way into well-paying positions
Did the Party achieve what it set out to do?
o Partly
o Plans advanced the proletarianisation of the Russian people and transformed basis of the Soviet economy
o Pride and sense of belief that communist system was superior to western Capitalism
