The Great Turn + the Five-Year Plans

What was the Great Turn?

The change from the NEP to the Five-Year Plans, which was a major shift in the Soviet economy towards central planning- the command economy, consisting of:

  • Five-Year Plans

  • Collectivisation

Gosplan organised the Five-Year Plans, setting targets for

  • each region

  • each factory

  • each manager

  • each worker

Five-Year Plans features

  • far-reaching and ambitious

  • process designed to transform the USSR into an industrial power

  • centrally controlled- targets given, where/when/how much all planned out

  • workers’ control eroded as a top-down approach applied

  • plans always declared complete a year ahead of schedule

    • motivated workers

    • reinforced superiority over West

  • Motivated by:

    • Cultural shift’s atmosphere (for First Plan)

    • National Pride

    • War scares

    • Hope for a socialist society- industrialisation was the path

Plan + Aims

Strengths

Weaknesses

First Plan
(Oct 1928-Dec 1932)

  • heavy industries

    • coal

    • iron

    • steel

    • oil

    • electricity

  • electricity- production trebled

  • coal + iron- output doubled

  • steel production up by 1/3

  • huge new industrial complexes built/being built

  • strong growth in some sectors

  • little growth in consumer industries

  • small workshops squeezed out

  • lack of skilled workers

  • unrealistic targets

    • substandard products

    • panic to get materials led to uneven production

Second Plan
(Jan 1933-Dec 1937)

  • further heavy industries

  • focus on communications

    • railways

(feeling that Stalin had overdone it last time. this plan was not as intense and so was treated as one aiming to consolidate. better planning and detail.)

  • heavy industry benefits from plants built last time

  • by 1937, USSR virtually self-sufficient in machine making and metalworking

  • transport and communications grew rapidly

  • metallurgy grew

  • consumer goods still lagging

  • oil didn’t progress as expected

Third Plan
(Jan 1938-June 1941)

  • heavy industry urgent due to WW2

  • mechanise agriculture

cut short due to entrance into WW2!

  • heavy industry grew

    • machinery

    • industry

      but uneven

  • defense + armament grew rapidly as focus shifted to them

  • steel didn’t grow much

  • oil failed to meet targets and led to fuel crisis

  • consumer industries lagging

  • many factories ran short of materials

  • harsh winter, materials to army, Gosplan purged of many qualified personnel (purges)

What were Stakhanovites?

  • started during Second Plan in 1935

  • Aleksei Stakhanov reportedly mined 102 tons of coal in less than 6 hours

    • The government gave him a home, extra pay, acclaim

    • they organised competitions to find the best worker in each industry

  • this attracted people to follow Stakhanov’s example

  • these cases are likely fabricated/exaggerated and only really increased pressure on workers and managers

What effect did the environment have on production?

  • pressure to reach and exceed targets

  • pressure across all levels of society leads to pressure form above and below

  • fear of consequences means:

    • bribery

    • corruption

    • competition for scarce resources + materials

    • fabricated output figures

    • desperation to fulfil targets

  • which led to

    • uneven production levels across the country

    • substandard quality of output