First 5 year plan

• ideological causes:

  • russia was economically backwards and perhaps a 100 years behind the west
  • stalin wanted to catch up with the west and industrialise in 10 years
  • he wanted the working class to thrive instead of the peasants
• replaced the 'bourgeois specialists' who ran the NEP with 'red specialists' who were educated by the communist government
• stalin was worried that russia wouldn't be able to defend itself in a time of war so wanted to develop iron, steel, oil and coal industries
• targets were drawn up for workers to meet made by Gosplan
• successes:

  • increasing production
  • Russias economy grew by 14% a year
  • was more successful then tsarist and the NEP in terms of production
• failures:

  • targets were highly unrealistic so weren't met and people lied about production
  • quality of materials decreased to try and meet targets
  • living standards declined
  • rations started
  • consumer goods disappeared
  • 7 day working week
  • working conditions declined
  • labour discipline was harsh
  • saboteurs were sent to forced labour camps
• stalin wanted to abolish the free market encouraging the black market