5 Year Plans Summary

• There had been a significant growth in heavy industry with a four-fold increase in the production of steel and a six-fold increase in coal production.
• Massive advances had been made in the generation of electricity and the metal industries had largely been built from scratch.
• Russia had caught up a great deal to western powers in terms of industrial output.
• The Soviet state-run economy fitted with Communist ideology and had outperformed the West that had been hit with the Great Depression in the 1930s.
• Wage differentials emerged that didn't match ideology and was greater than those in the US.
• The military was much better equipped than before, proven by its ability to drive back the Nazi invasion from 1942.
• Consumer industries had largely been neglected.
• Quality over quantity and a system based on corruption became the norm as managers feared the consequences of missing their targets.