By 1927, economy had returned to pre-war production
15th Party Congress – Stalin calls for USSR to catch & overtake West in industrial production
Gosplan & Vesenkha – schemes to develop the economy
First Five Year Plan began in October 1928, concentrating on heavy industry (coal, iron, steel, oil and machine production)
All production was increased
Many workers exhausted by vision and worked hard to meet targets
Reports (unreliable) arrived in Moscow of hoe targets being exceeded – talk of four-year plan, backed by Stalin in June 1930.
In December 1932, Stalin announced that the first Five-Year plan had been fulfilled.
This was an exaggeration – despite tremendous growth, no major targets had been met.
Crisis Year, 1932-33, Caused problems after success of first 5-year plan
Railway system struggled with the enormous increases in coal, iron and industrial goods
Caused housing shortages, threatening industrialisation
Led to food shortages and famine
Second 5 Year Plan first intended to create a fully socialist economy
Final draft approved by 17th Party Congress in Jan 1934 called for increase in production and improved living standards
Machine-production and iron & steel output grew rapidly – making Soviet Union self-sufficient in these areas
Aug 1935 – Aleksei Stakhanov a miner in the Donbas region dug out a massive amount of coal in one shift (102 tonnes whereas normal figure was 7 tonnes) - reason production targets set
He was the reason production targets were set
Despite good harvest in 1926, state collections were down 50% from what had been expected
Emergency measures were taken in some areas against kulak ‘speculators’ and nepmen, including the seizure of grain and increasing the taxes on kulaks to force them to sell more grain to the state.
Threatened hunger in 1927 in expanding towns and undermined increased industrialisation
Stalin argued these problems could be overcome by strengthening co-operative farms, increasing mechanisation and supporting he voluntary collectivisation of farms
No mention of forced collectivisation at this stage
Insufficient grain purchased continued in 1928
Grain was seized and markets were closed – resistance resulted in arrest
Caused serious unrest in rural areas as well as bread shortages
Stalin was determined that industrial development should not be disrupted by any diversion of money to the kulaks, even after the Central Committee meeting in July 1928.
Stalin ordered that emergency actions should continue
By end of 1928, combination of a fall in sales of grain to the state and a crop failure in the central and south-eastern regions of the USSR led to dramatic increases in free-market prices
Slump in grain deliveries to the state and the introduction of rationing during the winter of 1928-1929.
During 1929, NEP was destroyed
In Nov and Dec of 1929, Stalin launched a programme of forced collectivisation and called for the kulaks to be ‘liquidated as a class’.
