Five Year Plans

Question 1

Which institution co-ordinated the Five Year Plans?

Answer 1

Gosplan

Question 2

What did factory managers have to meet in the FYPs?

Answer 2

ambitious production targets

Question 3

What were the years of the First Five Year Plan?

Answer 3

1928-1932

Question 4

By how much did the FFYP seek to increase the capacity of Soviet heavy industry?

Answer 4

It set out to double it

Question 5

How did the FFYP seek to increase coal production?

Answer 5

From 35.4 million tonnes to 75 million tonnes

Question 6

How did the FFYP seek to increase oil production?

Answer 6

From 11.7 million tonnes to 22 million tonnes

Question 7

How did the FFYP seek to increase steel production?

Answer 7

From 4 million tonnes to 10.4 million tonnes

Question 8

Why do historians think that the targets for the FFYP weren’t really met when the government said they had been?

Answer 8

Statistics were over-generously reported

Question 9

What were the disappointments of the FFYP?

Answer 9

Targets for chemical manufacturing were not met and a lack of housing and light manufacturing capacity remained

Question 10

What was there an increased emphasis on under the Second FYP?

Answer 10

consumer goods, light industry and chemical industries

Question 11

What were three of the specific successful projects of the SFYP?

Answer 11

The Moscow Metro opened in 1935; the Volga Canal in 1937; and the Dnieprostroi Dam which had been finished in 1932 but was expanded so that it could produce more electricity

Question 12

What happened to steel output in the SFYP?

Answer 12

Steel output trebled from 5.9 to 17.7 million tonnes a year

Question 13

What happened to coal production in the SFYP?

Answer 13

Coal production doubled from 64.4 to 128 million tonnes a year

Question 14

What was the significance of metals such as zinc, copper and tin being mined in the USSR for the first time under the SFYP?

Answer 14

By 1937 the USSR was self-sufficient in metals and metal tools

Question 15

What happened to electricity generation and the chemicals industry in the SFYP?

Answer 15

They both rapidly grew

Question 16

What changed in the SFYP in 1936?

Answer 16

There was a new emphasis on rearmament

Question 17

How did rearmament spending change in the SFYP?

Answer 17

It increased from 4% of GDP to 17% by 1937

Question 18

What were the disappointments of the SFYP?

Answer 18

Oil production did not meet its targets, and there was no real increase in the provision of consumer goods

Question 19

In what years did the SFYP take place?

Answer 19

1933 to 1937

Question 20

In what years did the TFYP take place?

Answer 20

1938 to 1941

Question 21

What cut the TFYP short?

Answer 21

The invasion of the USSR by Nazi Germany

Question 22

What was the main focus of the TFYP?

Answer 22

Preparing the Soviet economy to enable the USSR to defend itself against a future invasion by Nazi Germany

Question 23

How did spending on rearmament change between 1938 and 1940?

Answer 23

It doubled

Question 24

What happened to other parts of the Soviet economy as a result of the focus on rearmament?

Answer 24

Steel and oil production stagnated, and consumer goods were not prioritised

Question 25

What hampered the success of the TFYP?

Answer 25

A lack of managers due to Stalin’s purges

Question 26

Who helped to design a new car factory at Gorky in the USSR?

Answer 26

Henry Ford

Question 27

Who helped to design the Moscow Metro?

Answer 27

Engineers from the London Underground

Question 28

How much coal did Alexei Stakhanov cut in one shift in August 1935, and in how long?

Answer 28

102 tonnes of coal in 5 hours and 45 minutes

Question 29

How many times faster than the average worker did Stakhanov work during his feat?

Answer 29

14 times faster

Question 30

Why did the government encourage the Stakhanovite movement with propaganda?

Answer 30

It helped them to increase productivity

Question 31

Up to how much of a bonus could managers be offered for exceeding targets?

Answer 31

40% of their salary

Question 32

What happened to managers who failed to meet their targets?

Answer 32

Managers who failed to meet their targets could be put on trial, imprisoned or even executed

Question 33

Although wages increased under the SFYP, in 1937 average wages remained lower than in what year?

Answer 33

1928

Question 34

When was rationing phased out?

Answer 34

1935

Question 35

What happened to living standards for most people in the USSR in the 1930s?

Answer 35

They fell

Question 36

What section of the Communist Party was shut in January 1930

Answer 36

Zhenotdel, the Women’s Department

Question 37

What percentage of the industrial workforce did women make up in 1929?

Answer 37

29%

Question 38

What percentage of the industrial workforce did women make up in 1935?

Answer 38

42%

Question 39

How did the Communist Party try to help women get into higher paying work from 1936?

Answer 39

The Communist Party made efforts to enrol women in technical training programmes and made it easier for women to get management jobs

Question 40

How did the industrial workforce of the USSR grow between 1928 and 1932?

Answer 40

It doubled

Question 41

How did the urban population of the USSR grow between 1926 and 1939?

Answer 41

From 26 to 56 million