Dear mayli-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting
question.
When Stalin came to power in 1924, the Soviet Union was not really a
socialist state. The country was operating under a plan at that time
called the "New Economic Policy" that allowed for limited capitalism
and was meant to help the economy quickly recover from the devastation
of civil war. In 1928, Josef Stalin's advisers began suggesting that
with the modernization of farming (one of the major industries of the
world at that time) in the Soviet Union could guarantee its survival
against an aggression from the more technologically advanced powers of
the west. This concept would demand as many as 250,000 additional
tractors to help provide farmers with the machinery they needed to
develop more successful and sustainable agriculture. In order to be
successful, the nation had to prepare itself for the larger demand for
oil needed to fuel these machines and more power stations would need
to be built in order to provide the additional demand required by the
increasing number of farms.
Because the Soviet Union’s industrial progress and growth had fallen
desperately behind that of the west since the October Revolution,
Stalin perceived this as a weakness to his national defense. He
decided that he would exercise his control over the country to
increase its overall production thus bolstering its defenses. Stalin
drafted what became known as “The Five Year Plans” which were designed
to increase production, enhance the economy and promote his country to
the self-sustainable level equal to that of other world powers
including the United States. He introduced the first Five Year Plan in
1928, which effectively ended the market driven economy in the USSR,
concentrating on the increased production of iron and steel, machine
tools, electric power and transport. Unusually high goals were given
to the workers such as a 1115% increase in coal production, 200%
increase in iron production and 335% increase in electric power.
Stalin promoted the fear that if its citizens did not rapidly meet
these demands that the Soviet Union would fall victim to western
aggression and their way of life would be destroyed. Gosplan, the
State Planning Agency, assigned goals that were posted in factories so
workers could gauge their output. Workers who failed to produce were
often publicly humiliated or punished. In time, the pressure proved
too much for many workers and absenteeism increased dramatically
leading to even stricter measures and requirements. Records reflecting
a worker’s tardiness and poor production began resulting in executions
or banishment to forced labor camps to the Baltic Sea Canal or the
Siberian Railway, charging a malingering worker of sabotaging the
government’s Five Year Plans.
The First Five Year Plan (1928-1932) demanded that industries such as
Coal, Oil, Iron, Steel and Electricity start this controlled level of
growth and modernization. This plan proved very successful, with many
of the high targets being achieved. Workers were rewarded for their
efforts with cash awards, raises in wages and better housing. The
economy experienced a sudden upturn, as the initial portion of
Stalin’s plans became realities. Not since before World War I had the
Soviet Union experienced such prosperity, employment and growth.
The Second Five Year Plan (1933-1937) was an expansion on the first in
that it enhanced the work of the original industries even more.
Additionally communication improvements increased, as did industries
such as chemicals and metallurgy. People were becoming disillusioned
with the plans though as even farmers and common workers were subject
to the huge taxes imposed by the plans. Such large percentages of
wheat, for example, ware collected by the government as taxes that
millions of people were soon starving even though ample supplies
existed to feed them. Though the economy benefited somewhat from the
second portion of the plan early in its inception, forced production
and heavy-handed tactics of the government had largely broken the will
of the people. Citizens soon became suspicious of one another’s
motives and of their own government.
World War II, of course, interrupted the Third Five Year Plan
(1938-1941), which is not important to your original question about
plans #1 and #2, but does indeed give significant rise to the question
of what “might” have been included in the earlier plans had the Soviet
Union been able to foresee world war on the horizon.
With the introduction of the Five Year Plans, Stalin, to his credit,
came to be at odds with his socialist opponents. He argued that it was
necessary to pay higher wages to certain workers in order to encourage
increased output while left-wing opponents claimed that this
inequality was a betrayal of socialism and would create a new class
system in the Soviet Union. In the 1930s, in spite of his detractors’
claims, Stalin implemented his pay plan and increased the margin of
pay between laborers and skilled workers even more. This further
alienated the common laborer and widened the every increasing gap
between Stalin and his opponents.
Though most of the targets set in the Five Year Plans were never fully
achieved, the total output of the USSR did increase significantly. By
1940 the USSR would be the second largest Industrial power in the
world at the expense of millions of people who died from starvation
diseases or abuse in prison and forced labor camps. The economy
flourished in the early years of the plans but in the end, the people
came to detest the plans and a painful and costly period in their
country’s history.
I hope you find that that my research exceeds your expectations. If
you have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. I welcome your rating and your
final comments and I look forward to working with you again in the
near future.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga
INFORMATION SOURCES
“Stalin”
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/Stalin.htm
“History 20”
http://www.sasked.gov.sk.ca/curr_content/history20/unit2/sec1_05.html
“HistoryNet – The Five Year Plans”
http://www.cchs.northumbria.sch.uk/historyweb/Content/gcse_hi/unstfiveyear.html
“Stalin”
http://www.geocities.com/ibrevise/stalin.html
“Josef Stalin”
http://www.cssd.ab.ca/tech/social/tut9/lesson_20.htm
“Stalin’s First Five Year Plan”
http://econc10.bu.edu/economic_systems/economics/command%20econ/planning/stalins_first_5yp.htm
“Soviet Economic Development”
http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/stalin/lectures/EconDev.html
“Introduction to Five Year Plan”
http://www.hatii.arts.gla.ac.uk/MultimediaStudentProjects/00-01/0002591o/mmcourse/project/Intro%20to%20Socialist%20Realism.htm
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
Stalin Five Year Plan
Josef Stalin plans
Stalin economy plan
USSR five year plan
"The New Economic Policy" USSR |
,
0 Comments
)