Industrialisation

Question 1

Describe the organisation of the Five-Year Plans

Answer 1

Party set targets for heavy industries (through Gosplan)

Commissariats would set specific output targets and organise purchases of inputs, prices, wages, costs

Regional administrators were given instructions about activities and resource administrations

Directors of industrial enterprises (factories) had sole responsibility for meeting output targets

Question 2

Who appointed and dismissed planners and senior managers in the factories?

Answer 2

Senior party officials, acting for political (rather than economic) reasons

Question 3

Who was head of the Commissariat of Heavy Industry between 1930 and 1937? What did his job involve?

Answer 3

Sergo Ordzhonikidze

Had a direct line to different factories; moved around people and resources as he wished

Question 4

Which industries were prioritised under the Five-Year Plans?

Which industries were considered less important?

Answer 4

Prioritised: coal, iron, steel and heavy industries

Less important: consumer industries (clothes, shoes)

Question 5

Why were the Five-Year Plans always completed a year ahead of schedule?

Answer 5

Designed to show the superiority of the Soviet planned economy over Western capitalism (in the context of the Great Depression)

Question 6

Where were massive new industrial centers built and why?

Answer 6

East of the Ural mountains

Less vulnerable to attack from the West (Germany)

Question 7

How much electricity was produced (in kWh) in:

1927 (start 1st FYP)
1932 (end 1st FYP)
1937 (end 2nd FYP)

Answer 7

1927: 18 million kWh
1932: 20 million kWh
1937: 80 million kWh

Question 8

How much coal was produced in:
1927 (start 1st FYP)
1932 (end 1st FYP)
1937 (end 2nd FYP)

Answer 8

1927: 35 million tonnes
1932: 64 million tonnes
1937: 128 million tonnes

Question 9

How much steel was produced in:
1927 (start 1st FYP)
1932 (end 1st FYP)
1937 (end 2nd FYP)

Answer 9

1927: 3 million tonnes
1932: 6 million tonnes
1937: 18 million tonnes

Question 10

How much oil was produced in:
1927 (start first FYP)
1932 (end first FYP)
1937 (end second FYP)

Answer 10

1927: 12 million tonnes
1932: 21 million tonnes
1937: 26 million tonnes

Question 11

What happened to the number of small workshops during the first FYP, and why?

Answer 11

Reduced

Attempt to drive out the Nepmen

Question 12

In which industry were targets not met in the 1st FYP?

Answer 12

The chemicals industry

Question 13

What happened to chemical industries in the second FYP?

Answer 13

Grew (especially fertiliser production)

Question 14

Give three metals that were mined for the first time during the second FYP

Answer 14

Copper, zinc, tin

Question 15

Give two examples of consumer industries which grew during the second FYP

Answer 15

Footwear

Ice cream

Question 16

How many commissariats were there in 1928?

How many were there by 1938?

Answer 16

1928: four (heavy industry, light industry, timber, food)
1938: 20

Question 17

Why did local officials falsify their production figures during the Five-Year Plans?

Answer 17

They wanted to give the impression they had met them (culture of fear/sabotage)

Question 18

How many “first Five-Year Plans” were there, and why?

Answer 18

Three

Stalin was so impressed by the apparent progress of the early stages of the plan (based on false figures), he reassessed targets upwards, and this repeated

Question 19

Which city was built from scratch in the Ural mountains by Komsomol brigades, peasants and foreign engineers?

Answer 19

Magnitogorsk

Question 20

What happened to living standards during the First Five-Year Plan, and why?

Answer 20

They deteriorated

The first FYP was never intended to raise them - workers were supposed to sacrifice standards of living for the greater good of the nation (individual sacrifice)

Question 21

Why were industrial ‘wreckers’ and ‘saboteurs’ put on show trial?

Answer 21

To show that resistance to industrialisation was futile

Question 22

What was gigantomania? Give three examples of it in action

Answer 22

The worship of size for its own sake

Canals, bridges, docks, dams

Question 23

Give two reasons why Stalin pursued gigantomania

Answer 23

Could prove to the outside world that the USSR was advancing to greatness

The untrained peasants flooding the factories could not become skilled workers overnight, so quality was ignored and quantity was stressed

Question 24

Give three examples of ‘sabotage’ in the factories

Answer 24

Turning up late for work

Mislaying tools

Not meeting production quotas

Question 25

How did the targets of the Second FYP compare to the first?

Answer 25

They were slightly more realistic

Question 26

Why was there a lack of co-operation between different parts of the industrial system, particularly during the second FYP?

Answer 26

Regions and sectors competed with one another in an attempt to meet targets, so they hoarded resources

Question 27

What was claimed about Alexei Stakhanov in August 1935? Was this accurate?

Answer 27

He had cut over 100 tonnes of coal in a five-hour shift (more than 14 times his required quota) No - in 1988 the USSR admitted that he had worked as part of a team with high-quality coal-cutting machines

Question 28

How did workers aim to emulate Stakhanov? Why was this a problem?

Answer 28

Worked for intense periods to meet high targets. It was inefficient - led to an overall decrease in production

Question 29

Why could trade unions not intervene during the Five-Year Plans?

Answer 29

They were under the control of the party since 1920

Question 30

Why could workers not go on strike during the Five-Year Plans?

Answer 30

Strikes were banned - demands for better pay and conditions were regarded as selfish

Question 31

Where did most workers live during the Five-Year Plans?

Answer 31

Five-storey apartment blocks, with four or five families sharing a toilet and a kitchen (which would often be just a single gas ring)

Question 32

What proportion of government spending was on defence/weapons by 1940?

Answer 32

33% (one third)

Question 33

How many Russians were in secondary technical schools during the Five-Year Plans?

Answer 33

1 million

Question 34

How many women entered the workforce during the Five-Year Plans? Were they well represented in the top positions?

Answer 34

10 million No - just 20 of 328 factory directors were women (and 17 of these were in textiles factories where more than 3/4 of workers were women)

Question 35

In 1930, in the coal industry, how often would the average worker move jobs in a year?

Answer 35

3 times a year

Question 36

How did factories try to stop the "quicksand society" of workers moving from job to job?

Answer 36

Pay increases for staying in a job; better houses and clothes for outstanding workers

Question 37

What was the penalty for causing damage at work or leaving a job without permission?

Answer 37

Imprisonment