Five-Year Plans:1928 onwards

Question 1

What period was the First five-year plan?

Answer 1

October 1928-1932

Question 2

Main aspects first five-year plan

Answer 2

1. Broad targets set by the Politburo at the Communist Party
2. Targets excessively high
3. No careful planning in relation to provision and allocation of resources.
4. As early as 1929, Stalin revised targets even though they had not been met.

Question 3

What was the propaganda tool used during the First five-year plan?

Answer 3

Target Mania: Workers and Party members swept along the vision of a brighter, socialist future - provided via propaganda.

Question 4

What new class enemy emerged during the beginning of the five year plans?

Answer 4

“Doubters” and “Slackers” sometimes “Counter Revolutionaries”

Question 5

Who was involved in the Shakty Trial of 1928:

Answer 5

Managers and engineers at a coal mine.

Arrested and accused of sabotage and slowing down the pace of industrialization.

Branded counter revolutionary enemies.

Question 6

What were the punishments of the Shakty Trial of 1928:

Answer 6

Accused put on a show trial, 5 were shot and the rest imprisoned.

However, charges were largely fabricated by the OGPU - purpose of the trial was to intimidate managers into accepting the terms of the five-year plan.

Question 7

What other show trials except the Shakty trial in the first five-year plan is there?

Answer 7

Metro Vickers trial of 1933 and the Industrial Party trial of 1930.

Question 8

What was the main priority of the first five-year plan and how can this be evidenced?

Answer 8

Heavy industry: 80% of investment went into heavy industry

Also:
Extraction of natural resources such as oil,coal,steel

Question 9

What was the first five year plan aided by?

Answer 9

Foreign expertise:
Thousand of skilled workers came from the west (the great depression of 1929 showed weaknesses of the capitalist system).

Some signed contracts to help industry in the Soviet Union e.g., Henry Ford from the USA.

Question 10

In what ways was the first five-year plan successful?

Answer 10

1. Overall output increased by 118%
2. Oil up by 90% and elec up by 168%
3. Society began proletarianized - fit in ideologically
4. Urban population went from 12 million to 36 million during this period.

Question 11

In what way was the first five-year plan unsuccessful?

Answer 11

1. Little growth in consumer industries
2. Food rationed until 1636
3. Shortage of labour
4. Lack of skilled workers (less than 7% in 1931, just 17% in 1933)
5. Did not surpass the target (133%)

Question 12

What were the inefficiencies in the central planning system during the first five-year plan?

Answer 12

1. Often, enterprises were short of resources - some over requested leading wastage and depriving other areas.
2. Managers had to survive with inadequate resources and the final products they made were often poor in quality = quantity over quality.
3. Also, due to a fear of being accused of being a slaker, most kept anything that was wrong to themselves.

Question 13

How were the living conditions and what statistics can you support this with?

Answer 13

Magnitogorsk, 15% lived in apartments, the rest in crowded barracks or tents.

Infrastructure in some areas were non existent - no roads, shops, sewage systems, running water.

Question 14

When did the Second five-year plan occur?

Answer 14

Jan 1932- Dec 1938

Question 15

How did the second five year plan benefit from the first?

Answer 15

1. Could move from construction towards production
2. Becoming self-sufficient in several arras,
3. Success in the production of steel.

Question 16

Who was Sergei Kirov?

Answer 16

A moderate Politburo member

Question 17

How was Sergei Kirov’s approach to the second five-year plan different from the previous?

Answer 17

1. Targets more realistic/planning more detailed
2. Investment into railway system to facilitate a smoother allocation of resources
3. Investment into basic commodities (food processing, clothing, shoes)

Question 18

How were there improvements in living standards?

Answer 18

1. Food rationing came to an end in 1935
2. Wider range of goods in shops
3. Better infrastructure began to emerge e.g., houses, runnign water etc

Question 19

Where the weaknesses of the first plan addressed? What statistics can support this?

Answer 19

1. Workers provided with training schemes
2. Wage differentials and piece rates were introduced to incentivize workers
3. Stakhanovite movement of 1935

Question 20

What was the Stakhanovite movement?

Answer 20

Mass cultural movement of workers inspired by the work of Alexei Stakhanov in 1935

Question 21

Who was Alexei Stakhanov and what did he do?

Answer 21

Cut 102 tons of coal, almost 16 times the normal amount during one shift.

He received:
1. 200 roubles instead of the normal 50
2. Bonus equal to a months wage
3. New apartment reserved for technical personnel with a telephone and comfortable furniture.

Question 22

How was the Second five-year plan unsuccessful?

Answer 22

1. Still inefficiencies - wastage, underproduction and overproduction.
2. Due to threat of war, resources were increasingly targeted
   towards military production.
3. Consumer industries still lagged behind - living standards still poor.
4. Quality of goods poor
5. Wages had not exceeded 1928 levels.

Question 23

What problem arose regarding inequality amongst workers during the second five-year plan:

Answer 23

Caused by the introduction of wage differentials and Stakhanovism - led to inequality

Also: senior party members had access to privileges whilst majority suffered.

Question 24

What statistics evidence the wage differential and can support inequality of workers during the second five-year plan?

Answer 24

Unskilled: 100
Skilled worker wage: 300
Manager: up to 3,000

Question 25

When was the Third Five-year plan?

Answer 25

January 1938- June 1941

Question 26

What was prioritized and what (again) was ignored during the third five-year plan?

Answer 26

Armaments and defense grew whilst consumer industries still lagged behind.

Question 27

What measures were implemented during the third five-year plan that control workers more:

Answer 27

1938: Internal passports introduced.

1940: Absenteeism became a crime

Question 28

Failures of the third five year plan?

Answer 28

1. Shortage of experienced managers and planners due to Stalin’s purges of 1936-8 - growth rate slowed
2. Heavy industry over consumer again
3. Despite progress in the military production, some goods already outdated.

Question 29

What statistics of the third five-year plan can evidence its industry success?

Answer 29

Electricity rose by 10

Lorries rose by 150

Steel by 4

Question 30

How did the five-year plans help the Soviet Union in Second World War?

Answer 30

1. Industrial advancement in the early 1930s helped them win against the Nazis
2. From the early 1930s, most factories had a secret department making military supplies:
   1938: emphasis on tanks, aircraft and guns
   1941: the USSR was producing 700 military aircrafts per month and over 100,000 rifles.