Five Year Plans

Question 1

dates of the first five year plan

Answer 1

1928 to 1932

Question 2

dates of the second five year plan

Answer 2

1933 to 1937

Question 3

dates of the third five year plan

Answer 3

1938 to 1941

Question 4

dates of the fourth five year plan

Answer 4

1946 to 1950

Question 5

dates of the fifth five year plan

Answer 5

1951 to 1955

Question 6

ideological causes of the five year plans (2)

Answer 6

1. socialism only possible in highly advanced country, russia was economically backward
2. believed the revolution should serve the working class and that NEP benefited peasants

Question 7

political causes of the five year plans (2)

Answer 7

1. Stalin wanted to prove he was no longer Lenin’s pupil

2. Stalin was concerned that Russia would be unable to defend itself against attack

Question 8

evidence that Stalin no longer wanted to be seen as Lenin’s pupil?

Answer 8

1929 speech in which he listed Lenin’s mistakes, Lenin’s Russia was over and Stalin’s Russia was beginning

Question 9

economic causes of the five year plans

Answer 9

NEP’s failure to industrialise Russia

Question 10

success’s of the first five year plan (4)

Answer 10

1. targets ‘met’ in four years
2. electricity output trebled
3. coal producation went from 35.5 million tonnes in 1927 to 75 million tonnes in 1932
4. steel production from 4 million tonnes in 1927 to 10.4 million tonnes in 1932

Question 11

what were the failures of the first five year plan (5)

Answer 11

1. meeting of targets down to over enthusiastic reporting
2. targets for chemical industry not met
3. consmer goods neglected
4. too few skilled workers and too little effective centeral coordination
5. quantity over quality

Question 12

what were the five main aims of the first five year plan?

Answer 12

1. develop heavy industry
2. boost overall production by 300%
3. improve transport
4. electrification, generate 6 times more power by 1928
5. feed industrial workforce

Question 13

what were the four main aims of the second five year plan?

Answer 13

1. heavy industry
2. promote growth of light industry
3. develop communication links
4. foster engineering and tool making

Question 14

what were the success’s of the second five year plan? (5)

Answer 14

1. the three good years
2. electricity and chemical industries grew
3. steel output trebled
4. coal production doubled
5. by 1937, the USSR was self sufficent in metal goods and machine tools

Question 15

failures of the second five year plan (4)

Answer 15

1. oil production didnt meet targets
2. tractor production missed target (166.7 thousand target to 66.5 thousand realisation)
3. consumer goods neglected
4. quantity over quality

Question 16

which movement took off during the second five year plan?

Answer 16

the Stakhanovite movement

Question 17

what two things were constructed during the three good years?

Answer 17

1. moscow metro opened in 1935

2. Volga Canal in 1937

Question 18

how many died during the construction of the Volga Canal?

Answer 18

22,000, mainly prisoners

Question 19

what were the three main aims the third five year plan?

Answer 19

1. rise industrial production by 92%
2. rearmament
3. complete transition to communist

Question 20

what was the biggest obstacle facing the third five year plan?

Answer 20

the dearth of good managers following the purges of the 1930s

Question 21

what effectivly ended the third five year plan?

Answer 21

the german invasion of 1941

Question 22

what were living conditions like in towns and cities as a result of increased population?

Answer 22

workers lived in cramped apartments where they had to cope with inadequate sanitation and erratic water supplies.

Question 23

what could lateness or absenteesim during the five years plans result in?

Answer 23

dismissal, eviction from housing and lose of benefits

Question 24

why was the fourth five year plan successful?

Answer 24

war reperations, good central planning and the effort of the soviet people

Question 25

how many collective farms were offically destroyed during WWII?

Answer 25

98,000

Question 26

What were Gosplans job?

Answer 26

ensure that overall economic objectives of the five year plans were met

Question 27

Why were the targets of the first five year plan overly ambitious?

Answer 27

1. it was an experiment and there were no obvious examples elsewhere.
2. peope were affraid to question the regime for fear of being labelled disloyal