The third five year plan put an emphasis on weapons production or rearmament; this required an input from heavy industries, as war did seem to be approaching.
Stalin brought in experts from foreign and more developed countries to help them, and he introduced single managers to run factories, even though Lenin believed the factories should be run by Soviet councils to make joint decisions. These managers were directly responsible for fulfilling the targets set for their factory. Good managers were rewarded and unsuccessful managers paid a severe price.
For all the apparent success of the five year plans, there were serious downsides. Industrial machinery parts were hard to get and some factories were kept idle for weeks on end simply because they did not have parts to repair worn out machines. Ex-peasants were used as skilled workers. This did not work at all, despite their valiant efforts, a lot of factory machines were damaged because they didn’t know how to use them, also the machines could not be repaired because of the spare parts not being available to fix the machines.
Factories decided to inflating their production figures and the products produced were frequently so poor that they could not be used, even if the factory producing those goods appeared to be meeting its target. The punishment for failure was severe. A manager could be executed as an "enemy of the people". Workers could be sent to a prison camp in Siberia. Nobody was allowed to criticise the five year plans as they were Stalin’s idea.
Life was very hard for industrial workers. Their pay was poor and there was barely anything they could spend their money on even if they had any. Consumer goods were not produced. Working conditions were very poor and dangerous and the hours were long. The homes that were provided were poor.
• They often worked hard because the young workers were still idealistic and dreaming. The concept of communism was still making them believe. They called Stalin “Uncle Joe” and they were willing to suffer a few years of hardship if they were going to get to the promised land of a better society.
• People were encouraged to work hard by propaganda which surrounded the workers in all directions. This played on the belief that if most did it, the rest would follow on as they did not want to be seen as different.
• Rewards were given to the best workers. Groups of workers were encouraged to compete against each other. The most famous worker was Alexei Stakhanov. He was said to have mined 102 tons of coal in one shift. This was fourteen times the amount expected from one person. Logically if he could do it, so could others. To be rewarded for hard work meant that you were a Stakhanovite. In fact, Stakhanov was not a popular man with the workers - for very good reasons, as this put the burden on them of working harder. Stakhanov, in fact, was frequently not mining after this record. He was allowed to tour Russia to be greeted as a hero and to give lectures on how to work hard and there is no clear evidence that he did what was claimed.
Another way of persuading the workers to work hard was to pay by results. Successful managers were also paid more though whether this extra money was shared by the workers in a factory or mine is unknown.
Punishment was also used by those who didn’t work hard. The fear of the labour camps was usually enough to get people working hard. If you were absent a fine could be imposed or your ration book stripped from you. In 1940, you could go to prison for it. All workers had to carry labour books which stated whether you had worked hard or not. If it had said you hadn’t by comments made by the manager then you could also face prison.
A lot of physical labour was done by prisoners. It didn’t matter if they died - only that the tasks were completed. Because these people were In prison the government used this as an excuse to make them do whatever they want.
For all the problems and hardship caused by the Five Year Plans, by 1941, Stalin had transformed Russia into a world class industrial power. This was to be vital for Russia as the war was about to test her to the extreme.
