Stalin and the 5 year plan

• •After Lenin’s death, the NEP was the cause of lots of debate during the leadership contest.•Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev on the Left had argued for rapid industrialisation. Stalin disagreed and said that Lenin had aimed to “preserve the alliance between the workers and the peasants”.•But once Trotsky and the Leftists were defeated, Stalin then changed his mind and moved to rapid, state-led industrialisation.


  economic changes
• 1.1915: 14th Party Congress called for “the transformation of our country from an agrarian into an industrial one, capable by its own efforts of producing the necessary means.”th Party Congress ended the NEP and introduced the First Five Year Plan as part of Stalin’s “Great Turn”.

  2.1926: The NEP was maintained but concerns that more investment was needed to push industry forward.

  3.December 1927: 15


  Reason for changes
• By 1927, it was clear that the NEP was not producing the desired growth in the economy. A war scare in the late 1920s made the Communist leadership nervous. They wanted to increase military strength and become more self-sufficient so they didn’t rely on foreign imports


  Problems with NEP
• Stalin had defeated Trotsky and the Leftists. By changing economic policies he turned against Bukharin and possible enemies on the right to marginalise them and secure his power.


  political power achieved
• A centralised “command” economy suited Stalin’s approach to leadership and desire for personal rule.

  Ideology-to create a true Socialist economy, the USSR needed to industrialise so it was based around the proletariat and not a peasant, grain-based economy.


  reasons for change of economy
• •The “socialist city of steel”.

  •A city built around what would become the world’s largest steel plant.

  •Its population reached 250,000 by the Autumn of 1932 and consisted of workers, Komsomol enthusiasts, peasant recruits, ex-Kulak deportees and a substantial amount of engineers (from home and abroad) as well as State and Party officials.


  Magnitogorsk what is it
• •Newly arrived workers lived in tents, mud huts, or quickly built dormitories where bedspace was assigned in shifts.•This later gave way to giant communal apartment blocks.•The foreign engineers and then the Soviet elite lived in a secluded, leafy settlement known as Berezka (the Birch Tree).•By the late 1930s, the city had massive facilities such as the Palace of Metallurgists, the Pushkin Drama Theater, the Magnit Cinema (which had several thousand seats), a circus and the steel plant itself.


  Magnitogorsk outcomes
• •The Dnieper River is the fourth largest in Europe, flowing from Russia, through the Ukraine and into the Black Sea.•A set of rapids just upstream of the town of Zaporizhzhya made the river unusable.•Trotsky said: “it is wasting the prodigious weight of its pressure, playing over age-old rapids and waiting until we harness its stream, curb it with dams and compel it to give lights to cities, to drive factories and to enrich ploughland.”


  Dnieper Dam
• •Construction of the Dam began in 1927 and was finished in 1932 with the held of expertise and turbines from the American General Electric Company.•In WW2, as the German army advanced into the Ukraine, Stalin ordered the dam to be blown up on 18th August 1941 to prevent the Germans from retaking it. It was again rebuilt after WW2 with American support.


  Dnieper Dam
• ·         Increase production by 300% by setting targets for growth.

  ·         Develop heavy industry (coal, iron, steel, oil and machinery).

  ·         Boost electricity production by 600%.

  ·         Double the output from light industry such as chemicals production.


  Aims of first five year plan (1928-1932)
• Lots of publicity for the launch brought an enthusiastic reaction and Stalin claimed the targets had been met in 4 years. This was due to over-reporting by local officials so in reality, none oif the targets were met but major investment did lead to growth.

  Electricity output trebled, coal and iron output doubled and steel production increased by 1/3. New railways, engineering plants, hydroelectric power schemes and industrial complexes like Magnitogorsk sprang up.


  Good things from 1st 5 yr plan
• However, targets for the chemical industry were not met and house-building, food-processing and other consumer industries were neglected. There were too few skilled workers and too little effective central coordination for efficient development. Smaller industrial works and workshops lost out in the competition from the bigger factories.

  Bad things from 1st 5 yr plan
• ·         Continue the development of heavy industry.

  ·         Put new emphasis on the light industries, such as chemicals, electrical and consumer goods.

  ·         Develop communications to provide links between cities and areas of industry.

  ·         Boost engineering and tool-making.


  Aims of 2 5 yr plan (1933-1937)
• • Some successes, particularly in the “three good years” 1934-36. Moscow Metro opened in 1935, the Volga Canal in 1937 and the Dnieprostroi Dam was extended with 4 more generators, making it the largest dam in Europe.
  • Electricity production and the chemical industries grew rapidly and new metals like copper, zinc and tin were mined for the first time. Steel output trebled, coal production doubled and by 1937, the Soviet Union was virtually self-sufficient in metal goods and machine tools.


  Good things from 2nd 5 yr plan
• In 1936, the focus of the plan shifted slightly to rearmament, which rose from 4% of GDP in 1933 to 17% by 1937.

  However, oil production failed to meet its targets and despite an expansion in footwear and food-processing, there was no major increase in consumer goods. An emphasis on quantity over quality, which marred the first plan, continued.


  Bad things of 2nd 5 yr plan (except for 1st line)
• ·         Focus on the development of heavy industry (given a renewed impetus because of fear of war).

  ·         Promote rapid rearmament.

  ·         Complete the transition to communism.


  Aims of 3rd 5 yr plan (1938-42)
• Heavy industry benefitted the most, with strong growth in machinery and engineering, but the picture varied across the country and resources were diverted to rearmament (rearmament spendinf doubled between 1938 and 1940).


  Good things from 3rd 5 yr plan
• • This had a negative impact on other areas. Steel production stagnated, oil failed to meet targets which caused a fuel crisis, and many industries were short of raw materials. Consumer goods were again relegated to the lowest priority.
  • “The biggest problems with the Third Five Year Plan were the dearth of good managers, specialists and technicians following Stalin’s purges, an exceptionally hard winter in 1938, and the diversion of funds into rearmament and defence. Furthermore, the plan was disrupted and finished early because of the German invasion of 1941.”


  Bad things of 3rd 5 yr plan