Five Year Plans

What were the Five Year Plans?

The Five Year Plans were detailed economic plans drawn up to direct economic development. Each Five Year Plan was organised by Gosplan and set targets for each industry by region, by factory and by individual workers. They were used to replace the New Economic Plan (NEP).

When were the Five Year Plans introduced?

The first Five Year Plan was started in 1928. Its focus was on developing heavy industry and collectivising agriculture.

Why replace the NEP with the Five Year Plan?

There were 4 main reasons why the NEP was replaced by the Five Year Plans:

• ❖ Stalin wanted to rapidly industrialise as he feared attack from the capitalist West.
• ❖ Economically, the NEP had created a few issues such as high unemployment and it had only brought production back to 1913 levels.
• ❖ Ideologically, the NEP was seen as too capitalist as it allowed small privately owned businesses to exist which created more successful peasants (Kulaks), traders and retailers called NEP men. The Five Year Plans would end this.
• ❖ Politically, it helped Stalin to remove his rival Bukharin during the leadership struggle because it isolated the right of Communist Party as it supported the NEP.

What were the successes of the Five Year Plans?

The greatest success of the Five Year Plans was that the USSR was industrialised and heavy industries such as coal, electricity and steel grew rapidly.

What were the failures of the Five Year Plans?

There were 3 key failures:

• ❖ Consumer goods were always neglected.
• ❖ Working and living conditions were awful.
• ❖ The targets that were set were never realistic and often not met.

What was the impact of the Five Year Plans on agriculture and the economy?

In farming, collectivisation was supposed to improve agricultural output. In reality, it led to starvation for millions in the Soviet Union. It was introduced so that excess grain could be sold abroad, with the profits used for industrialisation which was rapidly achieved.

What were the political aims of the Five Year Plans?

Stalin wanted the USSR to rapidly industrialise as he feared attack from the capitalist West and he wanted to control the rural areas. Ideologically, he was opposed to the idea of capitalism which he believed the NEP supported. Stalin believed in Marxist principles.

What were the Marxist principles Stalin applied to the Five Year Plan?

Stalin applied 5 Marxist principles to the Five Year Plan.

• ❖ Karl Marx believed that in a developed human society, countries would be industrialised.
• ❖ Factories should be made efficient and productive.
• ❖ There would be a steady move towards urbanisation.
• ❖ Fewer people would be needed to farm.
• ❖ Private property would be abolished and wealth would be redistributed to the poor.

What happened to the Five Year Plan after the war?

Stalin announced the Fourth Five Year Plan after the Second World War:

• ❖ Its aim was to concentrate on rebuilding the USSR after the Second World War and focused on heavy industry and technology. An example of this was by 1950 Ukraine's industrial output surpassing that of its pre-war levels.
• ❖ Again, consumer goods were not prioritised and failed to meet the targets set.