But there were still many targets which weren’t met. The Great Depression caused the price of grain and raw materials to be driven down so the USSR therefore couldn’t compete internationally as they could not earn enough from exports to pay for all the machinery it needed. A great deal of money of went into the investment of agriculture because of the forced collectivisation programme. However, the impressive growth in certain sectors of the economy and there was substantial achievements. Stalin set the targets too high so they were too hard to be achieved.
The second five year plan was more successful but after the failure of the first five year plan it was always going to be hard to reach very high targets. As with the first five year plan heavy industries still featured strongly. But other industries were opened up and greater emphasis was placed upon communications, especially railways to link cities and industrial centres. Four and a half thousand enterprises also opened. The plan benefited from some big projects, such as the Dnieprostroi Dam, coming into use.
There were fewer weaknesses than the first five year plan but this plan still featured some. Consumer good industries were still lagging, although they were showing signs of recovery. There was a growth in footwear and food processing – modern bakeries, ice-cream production and meat packing plants – but not enough. Oil production also did not make the expected advances.
The second year plan did also feature successful sectors. Heavy industries benefited from plants which had been set up during the first plan and came on stream. Electricity production expanded rapidly. Chemical industries, such as fertiliser production were growing and transport and communications grew rapidly. By 1937, the USSR was virtually self-sufficient in machine-making and metal-working. Metallurgy developed – minerals such as copper, zinc and tin were mined for the first time.
As I said earlier Stalin had overreached himself in the first plan and had set the targets too high. But the second plan was one more of consolidation. The years 1934-36 were known as the “three good years” since the pressure was not so intense, food rationing was ended and families had more disposable income.
The third plan ran into difficulties. It only lasted for 3 and half years. This was because of the USSR’s entry into the Second World War. Once again, heavy industry was emphasised as the need for armament became increasingly urgent. So there were much less successful factors and unsuccessful ones then previous plans.
The weaknesses for this plan were as follows. Steel output grew insignificantly and oil production failed to meet its target and this led to a fuel crisis. Consumer industries once again took a back seat. Many factories ran short of materials which caused many problems.
There were successful elements of this cut short plan. Heavy industry continued to grow. An example of this was machinery and engineering, but the picture was uneven and some areas did poorly. Defence and armaments grew rapidly as resources were diverted to them.
The third plan ran into difficulties as the beginning of 1938 due to an n exceptionally hard winter and the diversion of materials to the military. Gosplan was thrown into chaos when the purges created shortages of qualified personnel, such as important managers, engineers and officials, who linked industries and government.
Overall there was successful growth in heavy industry during this period and they were impressive achievements. The command economy had major weaknesses – unrealistic targets; the use of bribery, corruption and crooked deals to achieve targets; major shortages; and products of poor quality. At best the economy was ill-organised and badly co-ordinated, at worst it was chaotic. There were imbalances in the economy, with heavy industry taking priority over chemicals and transport and consumer goods being neglected throughout. The Russian people still spent an enormous amount of their time queuing and went short of essential commodities. Living conditions remained abysmal. So I believe the economic plan to be quite disastrous but it was a massive step forward in industry.
