Industrial successes of the 5-year plans USSR
Stalin:
• 1st 5-year plan (1928-1932) focus on heavy industry. Iron production tripled.
Coal doubled.
• 2nd 5-year plan (1933-1937) heavy and light industry communications and
infrastructure. Creches and childcare, stakhanovites. Moscow metro 1935.
• 3rd 5-year plan (1938-41) original focus on consumer goods but changed to
rearmament due to growing threat of Nazis. Strict 1938 labour laws, late to
work twice get shot. Construction of industry beyond the Urals.
• 4th 5-year plan (1946-50) 88% investment in heavy industry, by 1950 industrial
output had increased by 80%. 1949 Atomic Bomb. soviet economy fastest
growing in world 1945-50. X10 increase in cement production.
• 5th 5-year plan (1951-55) unfocused and unfinished after Stalin’s death 1953.
Military spending almost ¼ gov budget 1952.
Khrushchev:
• 6th five-year plan (1956–1960) abandoned, unrealistic targets. Wage reform,
minimum wage and consumer goods.
• 7-year plan (1959-65) achieve communism by 1980, overtake USA 1970. 60%
increase in consumer goods production. Fertiliser production up 19 million
tons (slightly short of target). More military spending post 1962 (Cuban missile
crisis)
Brezhnev
• 8th Five Year Plan (1966-70): implemented the Liberman Plan with goal to
‘overtake and surpass the USA’ (e.g. by trebling passenger car production).
Doubled grain exports. Recentralised economic control to Gosplan.
• 9th Five Year plan (1971-75) aimed to treble consumer goods production &
quadruple computer technology. Goals not reached but real wages rose 4.5%
p.a. and demonstrated commitment to standards of living.
• 10th Five Year Plan (1976-80): promised ‘efficiency & quality’. Imported lots of
western technical equipment
• 11th Five Year Plan (1981-85): aimed to improve living standards by 20%
through ‘intensive not extensive growth’ Imported 42 million tons of grain
annually. Failure
Stalin:
• 1st 5-year plan (1928-1932) focus on heavy industry. Iron production tripled.
Coal doubled.
• 2nd 5-year plan (1933-1937) heavy and light industry communications and
infrastructure. Creches and childcare, stakhanovites. Moscow metro 1935.
• 3rd 5-year plan (1938-41) original focus on consumer goods but changed to
rearmament due to growing threat of Nazis. Strict 1938 labour laws, late to
work twice get shot. Construction of industry beyond the Urals.
• 4th 5-year plan (1946-50) 88% investment in heavy industry, by 1950 industrial
output had increased by 80%. 1949 Atomic Bomb. soviet economy fastest
growing in world 1945-50. X10 increase in cement production.
• 5th 5-year plan (1951-55) unfocused and unfinished after Stalin’s death 1953.
Military spending almost ¼ gov budget 1952.
Khrushchev:
• 6th five-year plan (1956–1960) abandoned, unrealistic targets. Wage reform,
minimum wage and consumer goods.
• 7-year plan (1959-65) achieve communism by 1980, overtake USA 1970. 60%
increase in consumer goods production. Fertiliser production up 19 million
tons (slightly short of target). More military spending post 1962 (Cuban missile
crisis)
Brezhnev
• 8th Five Year Plan (1966-70): implemented the Liberman Plan with goal to
‘overtake and surpass the USA’ (e.g. by trebling passenger car production).
Doubled grain exports. Recentralised economic control to Gosplan.
• 9th Five Year plan (1971-75) aimed to treble consumer goods production &
quadruple computer technology. Goals not reached but real wages rose 4.5%
p.a. and demonstrated commitment to standards of living.
• 10th Five Year Plan (1976-80): promised ‘efficiency & quality’. Imported lots of
western technical equipment
• 11th Five Year Plan (1981-85): aimed to improve living standards by 20%
through ‘intensive not extensive growth’ Imported 42 million tons of grain
annually. Failure
