How far do you agree that Stalin’s five year plans (1929-1941) improved the Russian economy?
I strongly agree with the view that Stalin’s five year plans improved the Russian economy because of the significant growth in the Russian economy between this times in which the economy was growing at 14% a year. Stalin’s 5 year plans did improve the economy due to heavy industry increased the production of steel. Iron and coal, also by the end of the 5 year plans Stalin’s successfully increased production of vital things such as grain and wheat, the plans also geared and prepared Russia for war. However along with the many pros of the 5 year plans also came some cons, for example many people died within the duration of the plans up to 20 million people died because of his harsh policies during the course of these plans.
The first five year plan started in 1929 the aim of this plan was to increase heavy industry all throughout Russia because Stalin believed as quoted that “we are 50 to 100 years behind the advanced countries, either we make this distance in 10 years or we be crushed” so following this his plan was to increase output of raw materials such as steel, iron and grain. To make sure this rapid industrialisation was to happen, Gosplan the supervised committee which controlled the various aspects of the USSR planned economy then employed 500,00 bureaucrats to set targets for every workshop, factory mill and mine, these target set were to unrealistic so because of the unrealistic targets to avoid severe punishments of not meeting these targets people would lie about the production rate to avoid punishment this caused false production figures. Furthermore some people also to meet these targets just tried to produce as much as possible and this eliminated the quality of these products produced, as historian Sheila Fitzpatrick argues that it was an experiment in Gigantomania the doing for size and quantity over quality for the sake of production. Another aim of this plan was to increase grain production by getting rid of the Kulaks in Russia who were the wealthy peasants, this happened because Stalin wanted all peasants to have a better living standard and to make them all equal . In the end because of the great production rate this first five year plan was ended early in December of 1932. The successes of this plan were that production, the economy and the social mobility increased along with the success the failures of this where that it caused widespread fraud, worthless products and finally malnutrition and bad diets of the people as they were forced into working in such hard conditions and for long hours.
The second five year plan began in 1933 and was dedicated to the better working conditions for workers but as time went on the aims of the plan evolved from concentrating on improving conditions of workers to preparing for war as Stalin became scared of the growing Germany after rearmament in 1936 and fearing invasion from Germany slowly focused plan towards war preparation. At the start Stalin said for better working conditions but the continuation of the famine lead to no change so as a result of this rationing continued. Further improvements were made in communications, especially railways, which became faster and more reliable the Moscow metro was built as transport improved. The government to boost production and motivate workers in Russia made a media sensation Alexis Stankhanov who as shown mined 102 tonnes of coal in 6 hours and a month later mined 227 tonnes. This was totally fabricated as Stakhanov was given the best equipment and lots of assistants to help him. This media sensation inspired many to produce as much as possible because Stakhanov was rewarded 200 roubles and an apartment for his work, this caused workers to believe that the harder and more you produced got you rewards. The same thing happened with the second five year plan as the first, the second was not as successful as the targets they set were again too high, failing to reach the targeted production levels in such areas. The second plans slight failure of under production lead to incentives as well as punishments and so later the targets were eased and as a result of that the second five year plan similar to the first one ended early in 1937. The successes of the second plan were that targets were made more realistic, there was slight improving on living standards because of the increased incentives to work and finally Magnitorsk and other similar centres were built. The failures were that this caused hoarding of goods because of the fear of punishment, terrible shortages because similar to the first plan quality of good was poor and quantity was seen as more vital so this cause shortages for example more left foot shoes were produced then right foot ones and lastly the Stakhanovite media sensation lead to more incentives for people to work but rewards were given mostly to higher ranked people.
Lastly the third five year plan which started in 1938 ran up to 1941 when Germany invaded the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Stalin ever since Germanys rearmament in 1936 feared invasion so ever since then prepared for a war he knew would be fought, so as war approached, more resources were put into developing armaments, tanks and weapons, as well as constructing additional military factories to prepare better for war. Similarly the production increased in this time period but as before quality was an issue, in the run up to war Stalin heard that Germany had 8 million men 12,000 tanks and 20,000 aircraft so as a result of this Stalin took control of the whole army and ordered for the building of many planes which again failed due to poor quality. Stalin remained fearful of German invasion so increased punishment to increase production. But at the end of everything regardless of the punishment Stalin’s third and final plan did lead to much greater production of goods for example coal production increased from 128 million to 166 million in 1940, the Stakhanovite media attention lead to lower unemployment and a better incentive to work and lastly and most importantly although not full prepared Russia where much better prepared for war. Lastly the failures of this five year plan was that because of the terror of Stalin workers were de motivated and also as from the start quantity of goods supplied increased but quality was still poor.
In conclusion i think that Stalin’s five year plans helped Russia economy greatly firstly because they combined lead to a large increase in raw materials for example steel production went from 3 million to 6 million, coal from 35 million to 64 million and oil from 12 million to 21 million. These figures show just how vastly Russia’s raw material production went up and this then links in to the fact that they became a self sufficient economy which would have been function able without any other support this is good because then do not have to rely on others. Secondly the Stakhanovite media attention lead to lower unemployment and higher incentives to work, this also lead to larger production in war preparations as mainly the last 5 year plan helped them prepare for war.