key features of the 5yps

• Plans


  • Rapid extension of state control over the economy
  • Introduction of a centrally planned economy - state decides what to produce and sets prices
  • Industry placed under the direction of Gosplan, the State Planning authority which set targets for priority industry; resources were allocated accordingly
  • People's Commissariats (ministries) set up to co-ordinate the different branches of industry and Party officials ensured that orders from the centre were carried out
  • The mixed economy of the NEP was ended; drive against the Nepmen and small businesses, often forced to join state cooperatives
  • Campaign against bourgeois experts - existing managerial and technical middle class staff; government aimed to remove them and open up their jobs to newly promoted members of the working class - red specialists
  • First show trials of the bourgeois experts in 1928 where they were accused of wrecking and sabotage, often in collaboration with foreign powers
  • Prioritised heavy industry and aimed to use the most up to date technology
  • Relied on mass mobilisation of the USSR's people and resources in a military-style effort; workers encouraged to become 'shock workers' and take part in 'storming campaigns' to work incredibly hard to smash targets
  • Emphasis on large scale projects - gigantomania