Industrial and social developments in towns and cities

what was the role of gosplan in the 5 year plans?

gosplan was the state plannin agency, amnd was handed resposibility for drawing up the plans and establishing output targets for every economic enterprise in accordance with party directives.

what issues did gosplan face with the 5 year plans?

-the communist ggovernment made decisions on what should be produced and when.

-regional party leaders competed to put forward ambitioous projects and argue with gosplan as to why their region should have first call on resources

-gosplan suffered from a lack of reliable information (cost of imports, price of exports)

-thousands of state employees were dismissed, including members of gosplans own offices on grounds that they were not sufficiently class concious, enthusiastic or free from corruption.

First five year plan 1928-32
when was the plan approved? who approed it?
what were the initial issues of the plan ?

-the plan was approved by the 16th party congress in april 1929.
-it was not based on secure data and was extremley over ambitious

First five year plan 1928-32
-what were the focuses of the plan?
-what were its targets?

-the plan focused on teh development of heavy industries such as coal and steel.

-increase production by 300%
-focus on development of coal, iron , steel, oil and machinery
-boost elecrtcity production by 600%
-double hte output from light industry such as chemicals

First five year plan 1928-32
-what werethe initila social reactions to the plan?

-publicity surrounding its launch provoked an enthusistaic response.

-party leaders and members had a vision of a country that would be transformed in two or three years.

-it could be argued that the first plan was more of a propoganda device to drive soviet citizens forward and create urgency.

First five year plan 1928-32
-what is the SHPs judgement on the planning of the first plan?

-detailed planning, complex coordination of different branches of industry, was notably absent from the plan. the party handed out broad directives and prioties and it was left to officials and managers at regional and local levels to work out ways to achieve production targets htat had been set.

First five year plan 1928-32
-what issues did over ambitious targets create?

-materials of all sorts were in short supply, and there was intense competition to get hold of them.
-powerful people in industrial commissariats pulled strings to make sure their projects got resources they needed

-managers amde illegal deals in desperation to get supplies
-many hijacked lorries and robbed trains to get supplies

First five year plan 1928-32
- what was the impact of the issues that overambition created?

-few mangagers/officals admitted anything was wrong, and problems were not addressed due to fears of being accused of sabotaging the plans.

-corruption and issues were buried in collosals amounts oif paperwork that flowed around the natino

-it could be argued that the goal of managers was to “show” that they had ahcieved targets, rather than actually attempt to reach them.

First five year plan 1928-32
-in replacement of the kulaks, what was the new class enemy during the first plan?

-the “bourgeious specialist”
-these were old pre 1917 managers, engineers and thecnical staff who had survived the nep in important jobs due to their skills/abilities.
-they were accused of being sabatours who were delibertly causing hold ups, breakdowns and general problems in the supply industires
-many were uncovered and imprisoned. show trials were held to hammer home the point to other managers.

First five year plan 1928-32
-what was the effect of the attack onf “bourgeious specialists”

-the attack was not just a cynical tool to frighten others and find a scapegoat for errors. many party members believed that this group did harbour anti socialist attitudes. tehy wanted workers in key technical posistions.

-however, the loss of valuable personell quickly caused so many problems that the attack against them was quietly dropped in 1931.

Second five year plan 1933-37
what catergogrised the second five year plan?

-it built on infastructuer created by the first plan. gave more attention to consumer goods than the first plan, but heavy industry was the overall priority

Second five year plan 1933-37
-what were the aims of the second plan?

-continue development of heavy industry
-propmote the growth of light industries such as chemicals, electricals and consumer goods
-develop communications to provide links between cities and other industrial areas-foster engineering and tool making

First five year plan 1928-32
what were the success of the first plan?

-electrictiy trebled
-coal and iron doubled
-steel produciton increased by 1/3rd
-engineering industry developed and increased outpout of machine tools, turbines, etc
-huge new tractor works were built in stalin grad, kharkov and other places

First five year plan 1928-32
-what were hte weaknesses of the first plan?

-little growth, even a decline, in consumer industries such as house building, fertilisers, food processing and woollen textiles

-small workshops were squeezed out, partly because of hte drive against nepmen and partly because of shortages of materials and fuel

-chemical targets were not fufilled
-lack of skilled workers created major problems. workers constantly changed jobs, creating instability.

First five year plan 1928-32
-what is hte ship judgement on the first plan?

-overall, targets were not met. the depression drove down the price of grain and materials, so the ussr could not earn enough from exports to pay for machinery. much investment was needed for agriculture due to the collectivisation program.
-however, hte economy was kickstarted, and there was impressive growth in certain sectors and there were substantial achievements.

Second five year plan 1933-37
-when and what were the three good years?

-the plan had some success during hte three good years beteween 1934 and 36.

-the moscow mero was opened in 1935
-the volga canal was opened in 1937
-the dniepostroi dam was completed in1932 was exteneded with 4 more gneerators to make it the largest dam in europe

Second five year plan 1933-37
how and why was this plan planned better than the first?

-it was more revised and targets were scaled back. emphasis was more on consolidation than growth.

-more detailed planning for each industry and regions. the peoples commissariats were more organisedin 1934. they gave specfic targets for the enterprises under their control as well as estimates of costs, labour prices, and so on.

-invetments poured into railway system, along with schemes for workers to tackle skills shortages

Second five year plan 1933-37
-what were the successes of this plan?

-heavy industry benefited from plants set up during first plan.
-electricity production expanded rapidly

-by 1937 the country was self sufficient in machine making and metal working
-transport and communication grew rapidly
-chemical industries, such as fertiliser production, were growing
-metallurgy developed, copper, zinc and tin were mined for the first time.

Second five year plan 1933-37
-what were the weaknesses of this plan?

-consumer goods industries were behind, although showing signs of recovery.
-growth in footwear and food processing, modern bakeries, ice cream production and meat packing plants
-oil production did not make the expected advances.

Second five year plan 1933-37
-what is the shp judgemnet on the second plan?

-there was a feeling that stalin overreached himself in the first five year plan, as targets wre too high.
-this plan was more of consolidation
-the three good years 1934-36 were good since pressure was not so intesne, food rationing ended and families had more disposable income.

third five year plan 1938-42
-what was the nature of this plan?

-this plan had a focus on hte needs of hte defense sector in the light of the nazi threat. the plan was disrupted by war in 1941.

third five year plan 1938-42
-what were the aims of the third five year plan?

-renewed emphasis on heavy industry
rapid rearmament
-complete the transition to communism

third five year plan 1938-42
-what were the biggest issues to this plan?

-death of good managers, specialists and technicians following stalins piurges

-hard winter in 1938/ switch to focus on defence
-german invasion in1941

third five year plan 1938-42
what were the successes?

-heavy industry grew (machineery and enginnering, but the picture was uneven and some areas did poorly
-defence and armaments grew rapidly as resources wre diverted to them

third five year plan 1938-42
-what were the weaknesse?

-steel output grew insigniciantly
-oil production failed to meet targets and led to a fuel crisis
-consumer industries once again took a back seat
-many factories ran short of materials

third five year plan 1938-42
-what is the shp judgement on the plan?

-the third plan ran into diffuciulties in 1938 due to a hard winter and diversion of materials to the military. gosplan was throwin into chaos due to purges, creating shortages of personell such as manageers engineers and officials.

-when was the dnieper dam constructed/opned-what was it?

-construction began in 1927, opened in 1932
-largest hydro-electric power station on the dnieper river, placed in zaporizhia, ukraine

-it generated 560 MW. largest soviet power plant and one of hte largest in the world.

when was the turksib built and what was it?

-between turkestan and siberia
-built between 1926 and 1931, opened in 1929
-built by nearly 50,000 workers

when was the moscow metro opened and what was it?

-opened in 1935
-opened with one 11km line and 13 stations. first underground railway system in the ussr.
-included beutifal arhcitecture, a sign of the ussrs industrial achievement.

when was the volga canal constructed and what was it?

-constructed between 1932 and 1937
-connects the muskva and volga river.
-one of the tallest statues of lenin, 25 meters high was bu8ilt on hte confluence of the volga river and hte canal.

why did htre ussr make use of foreigners?

-due to lack of high expertise, the ussr was effectivly forced into using foreign companies nad individuals to aid their vast projects.

-communism presented an attraction during the depresssion and some genuinely believed they were helping create a new world order.

what are examples of fsuccessful oreigner use?

-henry ford advised on the car industry, training russian engineers in the usa and helping with the gorky car plant design.

-the dnieper dam project used experience gained from construction of hydro electric power statios in canada. in 1932 6 american engineers were awarded the order of the red banner of labour for “outstanding work in the construction of dniprohes”

what are examples of foreigner use failing? why?

-they were often looked up wtih suspicion and it was easy to scapegoat them when things went wrong

-the secret police arrested many british engineers in moscow because they gained in depth knowlede of the cities geographical layout.

-engineers for the metrpolitan vickers electrical copmany (metrovick_ were arrested and deported in 1933.

initally, did the workers support the plans?

-the urban working classes and young people were enthustastic at the beginning, and were carried forward by a spirit of cultural revolution

-thousands of young people volunteered to work in distant projects in harsh conditions.

on a more practical note, why did workers support the plans?

-they believed they would be better off
-real wages had only slowly risen under the nep and unemployment was high in the late 1920s.

-many young workers were tired for captilist features in society, such as managersgiving direct orders and engineers enjoying special prvilegages.

what was the new proletariat intelligensia? how did it develop?

-the party wanted to dcreate a new workers intelligensia with high technical skills.
-these were known as “red specialists”
-this was supposed to lead to the desctruction of “bourgeisie specialists” and a creation of a more loyal working class.

-it was to some extent successful:
-the cohort of industrial workers in the late 1920s possessed highly valued skills and quickly advanced to supervisory posts.
-there were great strides in higher technical education for more able proletarians

training courses available, hard workers celebrated in newspapers and given better houses

how many women joined hte workforce?

• around 10 million

prior to the five year plans, what was the nature of the female workfroce?

-despite communist doctrines of equality, in 1929 female workers represented 29% of the workforce, and were concrntrated in the lowest paid jobs requiring hte least skills.

what was zhenotdel? what happened to it?

zhenotdel was the department of the russian communist party devoted t owomens affairs. it was closed down in january 1930s and there was no drive to increase female labour.

howdid hte womens workfordce suddenly change?

-female workers began enterining the soviet industr in unprecendeted numners, and by 1935, women constituted 42% of all industrial workers.

-as prices rose, urban working class women flooded into industry, also finding jobs in education and healthcare.

-many managers deperatdly employed their wives widowsand daughters of workers in order to meet quotas.

why were female workers valuable?

-oit was realised that women were more reliable than victims of collectivisation from the countryside.
-the employment of urban women reduced the need for further housing development to cope with migration in to cities

-this led to orders nbeing passed for more women to be employed in heavy industry.

-despite orders to hire women, what happened?

-many managers continued to hire women for jobs requiring fewst skills, and were reluctant to offer promotions or train women to take on skilled work.

-female workers were often harrased, physically and sexually by male wokrers, and the abolishment of zhentodel led to no basis to fight inequality.

what was the quicksand society?

-in the coal indusry in the 1920s, the average worker moved jobs 3 times a year. these ex peasants lacked time keeping and punctiality as their normal working ppattern was entirley different from factory work. this led to high rates of absenteeism

-skilled and semi skilled workers soon found that skills were at a premium and that managers, desperate to fulfill their targets wanted ot hire them. they began to compete for skilled workers by offering higher wages or additional perks, such as extra food.

whata re the stastics for workerss arriving and leaving magnitogorsk?

-293,000 workers arrived at magnitogrosk
-in total, 265,000 workers left.

what were wage differentials and incentives?

-to stop workers switching jobs, wage differntials were introduced to reward those who stayed andaquired skills.
-incentives were also used to morally award workers. they often brought perks and priveleges such as access to closed shops, better ohusing and better cklothes.

what tough measures were used on workers?

-between 1930 and 1933 a serious of measures were introduced to deel with absentees.

-dismissel, eviction from factory owned homes of loss of benefits
-causing damage or leaving a job without permission led to a prison sentence
-intimidation and terror applied to the bourgeise specialsits were also applied to workers
-inn 1940, absentism became a prison sentence crime.

what was the stakhanov record?

-aleksei stakhanov, a coal miner in the don basin, cut an extraordinary 102 tonnes of coal with his pneumatic pick in 5 hours and 45 minutes in august 1935. this would have taken 14 times the amount of time usually.