4. Stalinism - Success of FYPs

What were the FYPs

Series of state directed economic plans

Executed by the Communist Party, under Stalin

Set targets for industrial ouput

What was Gosplan?

A state planning agency

Allocated resources

Composed annual economic trajectories

Highly ambitious
Launch of 1st FYP, aimed to boost heavy industry by 300%

Use of propaganda

Aim to encourage enthusiasm

Full of grandiose predictions of future success

Context - Great depression - propaganda spread through the West
Foreign observers - appeared as if the USSR was industrialising its way towards the future

Aims of 1st FYP (1928-33)

Strengthen heavy industry
2x oil + steel (4-10.4 mil tonnes) annual production
1933 - 75 mil tonnes coal annual

Pursue “electrification” - GOELRO Plan (1920, electrify entire country)
300% electricity

2x output - light industry (e.g. chemicals)

Success of 1st FYP

Industry thriving compared to Wall Street Crash

Electricity output - 3x more
Dneiper dam - 350MW + one of largest hydroelectric sites in the world

‘Gigantomania’
Magnitogorsk - ‘city of steel’ + one of largest industrial plants in the world

Coal + Iron 2x

Steel 1/3

Failure of 1st FYP

Light industry targets not fulfilled
House-building
Consumer industries
Food processing

Built on forced labour + terror

Shakhty Show Trial date

1928

___ managers + engineers accused of ___, ___, ___ + ___

53

Bourgeois
Undermining soviet industry from within
Wrecking
Sabotage

Where was the Shakhty Show Trial?

Donbass coal mining region

Reasons for show trial

1. Scapegoat - industrial problems can be blamed on ‘class enemies’

2. Justify tighter control + authority

3. Mobilise workers - work harder for socialist cause

__ of the 53 were sent to death

11

Aftermath of show trial

Politically positive:
Justified more harshness
Strengthened authority

Economically negative:
Discouraged innovation + ingenuity
Reduced efficiency - scared to break machinery

Aims of 2nd FYP (1933-37)

Expand skilled workforce + technical expertise

Greater emphasis on consumer goods

Develop transport communications

Extend priority on heavy industry

Success of 2nd FYP

Steel 2x (18mt - 36mt)
Coal 2x (64mt - 128mt)

Major infrastructure:
Moscow Metro - 11km, symbol of socialist modernity
Dneiper Dam expanded - largest station in Europe

USSR 2nd industrial producer - behind USA

Consumer Goods in 2nd FYP

Output rose but limited: light industry grew 50
Heavy doubled
Supply remained insufficient

Clothing + textiles improved unevenly
3 billion metres (1937) - quality poor + many shortages

Living standards constrained:
Rationing ends (1935)
Availability per person remained low - rapid pop. growth + urbanisation

Larger focus on rearmament past 1937

4% of GDP (1933)
17% (1937)

Expansion of:
Aircraft industry (e.g. Yak, Ilyushin design bureaus emerging)
Tank production

Failure of 2nd FYP

Targets still often unrealistic

Quality vs quantity problem persisted
Poor-quality steel + machinery breakdowns

Labour issues:
Harsh discipline
Absenteeism criminalised
Gulag labour increased massively

Aim of 3rd FYP (1938-41)

Dominated by defence + war prep
Reaction to - Nazi-soviet tensions + expansion of Germany
‘Mein Kampf’ (1923) - destroy communism

Improve transport for troop movement

Massive rearmament

Further development of heavy industry

Success of 3rd FYP

• Military surged:

  • Aircraft production (10k annually by 1940)

  • Tank production expanded - T-34 (most effective tank during WW2)

  • Designed by Mikhail Koshkin

  • USSR - one of the best-prepared industrial war economies in Europe

• Heavy industry:

• Steel -18mt 1940

• Coal - 166mt 1940

• Oil - 31mt 1940
  

• Strategic relocation planning - moving industry east

Failure of 3rd FYP

Interrupted by Operation Barbarossa

Consumer goods neglected

Inefficiency + waste
Over-reporting + falsified stats

Overall Judgement

1st - established industrial base

2nd - consolidated balance + efficiency

3rd - militarily vital but incomplete

Final argument

Economically - inefficient + often chaotic

Politically - centralised power, created a system of compliance through fear

Strategically - an undeniable success
Without FYPs - most likely could not have resisted Nazi Germany

Conclusion

Economically inefficient but strageically essential:
Failed to create a humane economy
Successfully transformed USSR into an industrial + military superpower

Success for Stalin’s priorities, not for the Soviet people