Industrial and Social Developments in Towns and Cities Flashcards
What was Gosplan?
-State Planning Agency
-Responsible for drawing up the 5 Year Plans and establishing output targets.
How and why were targets so ambitious?
-Force managers and workers to devote their maximum effort to the programme.
-Failure to achieve target was a criminal offense.
-Derived from unreliable information.
When was the first 5 Year Plan?
1928-1932
What were the aims of the first 5 Year Plan?
-Increase overall production by 300%
-Development of coal, iron, steel, oil and machinery
-Increase electricity production by 600%
-Double output from light industry e.g chemicals
Outcome of first 5 Year Plan
-Enthusiastic response + publicity
-Actual targets not met but impressive growth
-Electricity output trebled
-Coal and iron doubled
-Steel increased by 1/3
-Chemical industry failed to meet target
-House-building, food-processing and other consumer industries were neglected.
-Too few skilled workers and too little effective central coordination.
When was the second 5 Year Plan?
1933-37
What were the aims of the second 5 Year Plan?
-Development of heavy industry
-Growth of light industries e.g chemicals/electricals/consumer goods
-Develop communications to provide links between cities and other industrial areas
-Foster engineering and tool-making
Outcome of second 5 Year Plan
-‘Three good years’
-Moscow Metro 1935
-Volga Canal 1937
-Dneiprostroi Dam 1932
-Growth of electricity and chemical
-Steel trebled
-Coal doubled
-By 1937, Soviet Union virtually self-sufficient in metal goods.
-Oil production failed
-No appreciable increase in consumer goods
-Emphasis on quantity over quality
When was the third 5 Year Plan?
1938-32
Cut short due to outbreak of war
Aims of the third 5 Year Plan
-Development of heavy industry
-Rapid rearmament
-Complete transition to communism
Outcome of third 5 Year Plan
-Growth in machinery and engineering
-Resources increasingly diverted to rearmament as spending doubled 1938-40.
-Steel stagnated, oil failed to meet targets and many industries fell short of raw materials.
-Lack of good managers, specialists and technicians after Stalin’s purges.
-Harsh winter 1938.
-Plan disrupted by German invasion 1941.
Examples of showpiece projects
-Moscow Metro 1935
-Volga Canal 1937
-Dneiprostroi Dam 1932
Use of foreigners in industrialisation
-Used for managerial and technical skills.
-Americans: car industry + Dneiprostroi Dam
-British: Moscow Metro
-Sometimes ordinary labourers travelled to the USSR from the West to work
-Often looked upon with suspicion and used as scapegoats when things went wrong
-Secret police arrested numerous British engineers because they had access to detailed maps of Moscow’s geographical layout.
What were stakhanovites?
-Aleksei Stakhanov mined 102 tonnes of coal in 5 hours 45 minutes.
-Declared a Soviet Hero and given a large bonus and honorary awards.
-Used as propaganda.
-Way of forcing management to support workers and increase production.
Managers
-Had to ensure output targets were met.
-Could receive bonus of up to 40%.
-Normalised to falsify statistics.
-Limited control over resources, prices, wages etc.
-Bribery and corruption embedded within the system.
-Stakhanovites posed a problem as targets increased.
-Application of state regulations made them unpopular with workers.
