Stalin’s Five-Year Plans, 1928–1941: Rapid Industrialisation (AQA A Level History: Component 1: Breadth study): Revision Note

Summary

• From 1928, the Great Turn replaced the New Economic Policy (NEP) with central planning and rapid, state-driven industrialisation

• Stalin industrialised to strengthen the USSR against invasion, achieve self-sufficiency and build "Socialism in One Country"

• The First Five-Year Plan (1928–1932) doubled coal and steel output and trebled electricity

  • However, most headline targets were not met

• The Second and Third Five-Year Plans (1933–1941) expanded heavy industry and shifted resources into rearmament

• The Stakhanovite movement (1935) used propaganda, competition and pressure to raise output

• Historians debate whether the plans transformed the USSR or created a lop-sided economy

  • Nettl sees the plans as a “second industrial revolution”

  • Hosking argues that growth was narrow, neglecting agriculture, housing and consumer goods

Reasons for the Five-Year Plans: why did Stalin industrialise?

• By 1928, Stalin had defeated his rivals and moved the USSR away from the NEP

  • The economy now shifted towards central planning

  • Industrialisation would be driven by the state

The Great Turn, 1928

• The 15th Party Congress (December 1927) announced the end of the NEP and the launch of the Five-Year Plans

  • This shift from market methods to central planning became known as the Great Turn

  • The 14th Party Congress (1925) had already called for agrarian Russia to become an industrial nation

• Planning was run by Gosplan

  • It produced targets for the economy

  • These targets were enforced by law as part of the new command economy

Why Stalin industrialised

• Security drove the policy

  • Soviet leaders feared invasion

  • A war scare in the late 1920s made rapid rearmament feel urgent

  • Heavy industry, such as coal, iron and steel, was needed for a modern army

• Stalin wanted the USSR to be self-sufficient

  • The policy of autarky aimed to make the USSR economically independent

  • This would reduce reliance on imports

• Ideology was also key

  • Stalin wanted to end NEP capitalism

  • He argued that the USSR should build socialism within its own borders

    • This was "Socialism in One Country", not Trotsky's permanent revolution

• Industrialisation reduced dependence on the peasantry

  • A modern economy would be directed by the state

  • It would not depend on private farmers or the grain harvest

• The drive also strengthened Stalin's personal power

  • It increased the Party's control over society

  • It soon extended into the countryside through collectivisation (opens in a new tab)

The First Five-Year Plan, 1928–1932

Targets and propaganda

• The First Five-Year Plan focused on heavy industry, specifically:

  • coal

  • iron and steel

  • oil and machinery

• The targets were deliberately ambitious

  • Overall production was planned to rise by around 300%

  • Electricity output was targeted to rise by around 600%

  • The aim was to force rapid growth

• Propaganda presented the plan as a patriotic mission

  • Workers were encouraged to see industrialisation as a service to socialism

  • Officials were under intensive pressure to report success

What was achieved?

• Heavy industry grew quickly

  • Coal and steel output doubled

  • Electricity output tripled

  • New plants, hydro-electric schemes and industrial complexes were built

• Magnitogorsk became a symbol of the plan

  • It was a new steel city of around 150,000 people

  • It was built from nothing in the Ural Mountains

  • It was designed as a showcase of socialism and the home of the "new socialist man"

• Stalin declared the plan complete in four years rather than five

  • He later admitted this owed much to over-reporting

  • Officials exaggerated results to show loyalty

  • In reality, none of the major targets were met

Costs and weaknesses

• Consumer goods and food-processing industries were badly neglected

• The plan suffered from shortages

  • There were too few skilled workers

  • There was too little central coordination

  • Smaller workshops lost out to giant prestige factories

• Workers at sites like Magnitogorsk faced harsh conditions

  • Many lived in communal barracks

  • They were kept under constant political supervision

The Stakhanovite movement: propaganda and productivity

• The Stakhanovite movement was launched in 1935

  • It promoted "socialist competition"

  • It aimed to raise output

• It was named after Alexei Stakhanov

  • He was a miner whose record output was widely publicised

  • His achievements were inflated

  • But he was presented as a model for all workers

• The movement mixed reward with pressure

  • Bonuses were paid to those who exceeded targets and norms

  • Norms were then raised

  • This increased pressure on ordinary workers

• Stakhanovism was about propaganda and discipline, not just production

  • It promoted loyal, productive workers as heroes of socialism

  • It encouraged competition between workers

  • It strengthened pressure from above

The Second and Third Five-Year Plans, 1933–1941

The Second Plan, 1933–1937

• The Second Plan continued to focus on heavy industry

  • It also gave more attention to chemicals, electricals, consumer goods, and communications

• 1934 to 1936 were the "three good years" of strong growth

  • The Moscow Metro opened in 1935

  • The Moscow–Volga Canal was completed in 1937

  • Steel output trebled, and coal output doubled by 1937

• From 1936, resources shifted increasingly towards rearmament

  • Defence spending rose from around 4% of GDP in 1933 to around 17% by 1937

  • New metals such as copper, zinc and tin were mined in quantity for the first time

The Third Plan, 1938-1941

• The Third Five-Year Plan focused on heavy industry and rapid rearmament

  • Fear of war shaped its priorities

  • Military needs became increasingly important

• Results were uneven across the country

  • Steel output stagnated

  • Oil failed to meet targets, causing a fuel crisis

  • Stalin's purges caused a shortage of skilled managers and specialists

• The plan was cut short by the German invasion in June 1941

  • Even so, the industrial base built under the plans helped the USSR survive and win the war

How successful were Stalin’s Five-Year Plans?

• The plans clearly transformed the Soviet economy

  • However, historians disagree over how to judge that transformation

The plans were a genuine industrial transformation

• In barely a decade, the USSR became a major industrial and military power

  • Coal, steel and electricity output rose sharply

  • New industries and cities, such as Magnitogorsk, were created

• This industrial base helped the USSR to survive after 1941

  • Supporters argue that such rapid modernisation was a major achievement

  • It helped prepare the USSR for war against Nazi Germany

Key historian

• Nettl presents the plans as a transforming “second revolution”

  • They completed the Bolshevik project

  • They modernised a largely peasant society

  • This supports the view that the plans were a far-reaching success

The growth was lop-sided and came at great cost

• Growth was concentrated in heavy industry

  • Agriculture, housing, consumer goods and services were neglected

  • Much output was of poor quality or only met targets on paper

• The planned "economy" was often chaotic

  • Projects were launched before anyone knew whether they could be completed

  • Central planning did not always mean effective planning

• The human cost was high

  • Workers faced harsh labour conditions

  • Coercion was widespread

  • Critics argue that this made the development unbalanced and unsustainable

Key historian

• Hosking accepts that industrial output rose sharply

  • However, he argues that the gains were narrow

  • Other sectors were sacrificed

  • This supports the view that the plans’ success was limited and unbalanced