Implementation of the Soviet Union’s Five-Year Plan

The First Five-Year Plan of the Soviet Union

In order to speed up the pace of industrialization, the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) in December 1927 The 15th Congress was held and adopted instructions on formulating the first Five-Year Plan (1928-1933) for the development of the national economy. The Party Central Committee tasked Kuibyshev to lead the work of formulating the first five-year plan. The Sixteenth Congress of the United Nations (Bolsheviks) held in April 1929 and the Fifth Congress of the Soviet Union held in May of the same year approved the "First Five-Year Plan". Inspired by the First Five-Year Plan, the Soviet people set off an upsurge in building socialism.

Under the call of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (Bolsheviks), socialist labor competition was fully launched. In 1931, Stalin put forward the slogan "Technology determines everything" and called on cadres and the masses to study hard and become proficient in technology. After the hard work of the Soviet people, in January 1933, the Soviet government announced that the first five-year plan would be completed nine months ahead of schedule. In four years and three months, more than 1,500 large enterprises were built, and the industrial output value was equivalent to 234.5% of the industrial output value in 1913. Among them, the output value of the machine manufacturing industry increased three times compared with 1913, and the output value of agricultural machinery increased 4.5 times. The completion of the first Five-Year Plan enabled the Soviet Union to transform from an agricultural country into an industrial country. The Soviet Union established an independent national economic system and laid the foundation for the technological transformation of the national economy.

The Second Five-Year Plan of the Soviet Union

The Seventeenth Congress of the United Nations (Bolsheviks) held in January 1934 adopted the second five-year plan for the development of the national economy. Five-Year Plan (1933-1937). In 1935, Stalin put forward the slogan "cadres decide everything!" The Soviet Union used various channels to vigorously cultivate and train economic cadres, give full play to the role of existing technical forces, and improve the level of engineering and technical personnel. Boldly promote skilled workers with creative and practical experience, expand the technical team, and generally improve the cultural and educational level of the masses. By 1937, there were more than 9.6 million intellectual cadres in the country, including more than 4 million technical talents. The relative number of specialists in important industrial sectors exceeds that in Germany. The number of students enrolled in colleges and universities reaches 540,000, which is more than the combined number of college students in Britain, France, Germany, Japan and Italy. Driven by the slogans "Technology determines everything" and "Cadres determine everything", in August 1935, a socialist competitive movement named after Stakhanov - the Stakhanov Movement - was launched in various departments. Due to the Stakhanov Movement, the Second Five-Year Plan was also completed in four years and three months. During the Second Five-Year Plan period, 4,500 large enterprises were put into production, and industrial output increased by 120% compared to 1932 and nearly five times compared with 1913. During the same period, industrial output in the capitalist world increased by only 44.3% compared with 1913. By 1937, the Soviet Union's steel production reached 17.7 million tons, 13 million tons of steel products, 14.5 million tons of pig iron, 128 million tons of coal, and 36.2 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. In the entire national economy, the socialist element has achieved complete victory, and state ownership and collective ownership have formed the economic foundation of Soviet society.

The Soviet Union’s industrial output and the position of important industrial products in Europe and the world from 1913 to 1937

1913, 1928, 1932① 1937

World World World Europe World Europe

Gross industrial production 5 5 3 2 2 1

Machine manufacturing industry 4 4 2 1 2 1

Tractor None 4 2 1 2 1

Combine harvester None 2 1 1 1

Electricity 15 10 7 4 3 2

Coal 6 6 4 3 4 3

Petroleum 2 3 2 1 2 1

Pig iron 5 6 5 4 3 2

Steel 5 5 5 4 3 2

Cement 6 8 7 5 4 3

① Compare with the production scale of capitalist countries in 1929.