Stalin: The Five-Year Plans and Industrial Change Flashcards
What did Stalin launch in 1928?
What did this do?
His “revolution from above”
Transformed the soviet economy
His revolution ended the NEP; introduced a command economy
What was the nature of Stalin’s plans?
Industrialisation achieved under him through a series of Five-Year Plans:
- formulated by Gosplan
- set targets for every factory, mine, workshop in the union
- accompanied by massive propaganda campaigns designed to inspire workers to support the new system
Economic planning?
Stalin argued he had created a “planned economy”
BUT
His “plans” were essentially lists of targets
—> no attempt made to match resources to the country’s needs
—> SO Stalin’s economy is better understood as a COMMAND ECONOMY: the government controls production.
What were Stalin’s reasons for the plans?
- IDEOLOGY: abolish the capitalist market, lay the economic foundation for socialism
- ECONOMICS: NEP failed to lead to further industrialisation
- MILITARY: Russia had to industrialise to prepare for war with capitalist nations
- POLITICAL: abolishing capitalism led to the support of the Party’s left-wing
What did Stalin’s first three Five-Year plans sucked in doing?
Industrialising the Soviet Union
Why was heavy industry an achievement of the Five-Year Plans to 1941?
The biggest success of the first three 5YPs!
- ELECTRICITY output increased almost ten-fold
- COAL and STEEL production went up almost five times
- there was a three-fold increase in OIL production
Why was transport a success of the Five-Year Plans up to 1941?
The transport infrastructure greeeeeew because of his policies:
- the Moscow Metro’s first train lines opened 1935
- the Moscow-Volga Canal opened in 1937
Talk to me about labour productivity during the first three Five-Year Plans (please)
FIRST: Extremely low. Sooooo gov initiated the STAKHANOVITE MOVEMENT:
- propaganda campaign praised the work of coal miner Alexei Stakhanov (mined 14x his quota in a single shift
- Stalin authorised a system of higher payments to reward the most productive workers
SO productivity rose between 25 and 50% in Russia’s major industries
BUT contributed to lag behind that of other industrialised nations: eg. USA, Germany, France
Was rearmament an achievement of the Five-Year Plans up to 1941?
Yisssss
By 1940: 1/3 of government spending was devoted to the military
The PLAns led to the successful construction of 9 military aircraft factories between 1939 and 1941
Please please please talk to me all about quality in the five year plans up to 1941 please please I’m begging you pleeeeease ok
Production quality often LOW:
• factory managers rewarded for producing large qualities of material
REGARDLESS of quality
Talk to me about efficiency in the five year plans up to 1941
Stalin’s economy was fucking inefficient.
Gosplan didn’t make a plan for how to use the materials produced!!
+ Poor transport + Poor co-ordination = around 40% of what was produced was wasted!!
Plus plans were undermined by Gosplan’s unrealistic targets:
• G’s officials had NO IDEA how BIG the factories they controlled were or how much they could produce
• Industrial managers LIED about production levels to avoid punishment
• Falsified data: economic management was made even harder (effective planning relies on accurate data)
