Five year plans

When was the first five year plan

October 1928 - December 1932

• approved by 16th party congress in April 1929

Aims of the First FYP

• increase production by 300 %

• development of heavy industry, 80 % of investment

• increase leccy production by 600%

• double output from light industry, e.g chemicals

• 1500 enterprises were opened

strengths of first FYP

• electricity trebled

• coal and iron doubled

• steel increased by 1/3

• new industrial complexes e.g Magnitogorsk

• tractor works in Stalingrad, Kharkov, mechanised agriculture

• new railways, power plants and hydroelectric power

failures of first FYP

• little growth (decline) in consumer industry, e.g wool

• small workshops got rid of, drive gainst NEP men as well as shortage of materials

• targets for chemical industry not met

• chaotic: bottle necks (shortages and lack of transport)

• underproduction and wastage

• over production of unneeded and substandard parts

• lack of skilled workers, constantly changing jobs

• bribery and corruption

comments on planning of first FYP

• Gosplan and Veshenkha bidding each other up with higher targets

• extremely over ambitious, no targets were met

• lack of detailed planning

How does Sheila Fitzpatrick describe the 1st FYP

the ‘spirit of cultural revolution’ swept people along

How did the wall street crash affect the 1st FYP

drove down price of grain and raw materials, could not earn enough from exports to finance all machinery

who got blamed for failures in the 1st FYP and what impact did this have

‘bourgeois specialists’ were blamed and imprisoned. But they were valuable so this policy was quietly drooped by 1931