1928-1932 - First Five Year Plan

• The Party Conference in 1929 approved the First 5 Year Plan.
• The aims of the First Five Year Plan included "the maximum development of the means of production as the foundation of the industrialisation of the country."
• Russia was to become an industrial power to rival the West.
• Targets were laid down which had to be reached within 5 years.
• The Class A industries of coal, iron, oil and machine building were to triple their output and accounted for 80% of total investment.
• The Class B industries of consumer goods were to double their output.
• Electricity production trebled.
• Coal and iron output doubled.
• Steel production increased by a third.
• The engineering industry developed and output of machine tools and turbines increased.
• Huge new industrial complexes were built or being built including huge new industrial towns such as Magnitogorsk in the Urals.
• Huge new tractor works were built to meet the needs of agriculture.
• The First Five Year Plan even finished a year early which claimed great success.
• There was very little growth and even a decline in consumer industries such as house-building, food processing and textiles.
• Small workshops were squeezed out, partly because of the drive against Nepmen and partly because fuel and materials were diverted to state-run enterprises.
• Chemical targets were not fulfilled.
• There was a lack of skilled workers.
• Transport was not significantly developed.
• There was chaos as managers desperate to achieve their targets resorted to bribery, false accounting and stealing resources that were supposed to go to other factories.