H/W 26th September 2016
How successful was Stalin’s Economic Policy during the Years 1928-38?
The frstt, secondt, and third Five Year Plan was during this period of tmee the frst concentrated on
the increasing growth of the heavy industries (e.g. Coalt, steelt, and iron) based on the advice of the
‘Superindustrialisers’e The second focused on the needs of defencet, again making heavy industries
and transporthe prioritye and the third was geared directly towards arms producton this all meant
that consumer goods became neglected and forced to wait untl the factories and producton of
steelt, coal and iron was fully sustained.
I believe Stalin’s economic policy to be successfult, because during the frst fve year plan that heavy
industry was the main focust, oil producton had exceeded its targetst, and electricityt, coal and iron
also increased signifcantly. Newly built factories also helped give workers jobst, and helped to
contnue producing machine tools and other heavy machinery. That in turnt, helped collectvisaton
which increased productvity within Russian agriculture. The creaton of large factories helped to
build cites (Magnitogorsk and Gorki).
During the second fve year plan learning from frst plan that caused severe chaos the growth of
industry meant that for three years there was economic prosperityt, and that the completed schemes
from the frst fve year plan created a mass amount of electricityt, which aided the use of
transportaton and communicatons this enabled the Russians to contnue grow and modernise
itself. This is shown by how Moscow opened its frst nderground Railroad system in 1935t, and how
chemical industries were quickly developed. Alsot, to enable the workers to work harder and produce
more the government launched a very successful propaganda campaign by creatng a media legend
(Alexi Stakhanov) Stakhanovite Movement. This appealed to the heroic instncts of the workerst,
whilst offering incentves to anyone who surpassed their productvity quotase this was done because
productvity and discipline in factories was low and holding back economic growth something
Stalin did not want.
For the third fve year plant, once again heavy industry contnued to expand because of the
expansion of the heavy industryt, this aided Russia to become more ft and ready for wart, which
helped Russia’s economic statet, and showed Stalin’s economic policy to be a success which helped
to grow the military producton along with factories built to aid these causes. Not only thist, but as a
wholet, consumert, agriculture and industrial producton rose generally. This helped to show that
Russia was becoming a more modern countryt, and not a ‘backwards’ one.
Howevert, due to Stalin focusing on the heavy industrial side of the fve year planst, I feel that
Stalin’s Economic Policy was not a success because of reasons such as during the frst of the fve year
plans the government neglectng the living conditons of the workers and consumer industries this
meant that shops became empty and everyday items were hard to buy or get. Alsot, because of
collectvisatont, the workforce had a majority of peasantst, meaning they were unskilled and illiterate
anything that was made was of poor qualityt, and the consequences of failure were incredibly
unfair and hard. The second of the fve year plans saw that although consumer goods were getng
produced at a higher ratet, they were stll not meetng their demands this was also met with a rise
in food costs and consumer materialst, which didn’t help the peasants and Russian citiens. If people
were workingt, much like before they would be living in horrid and overcrowded conditons this
shows that Russia contnued to fail at not addressing the living arrangements of their workforce.
During the third set of planst, consumer goods were stll considered inferior to the heavy industryt,
however during to a shortage in materials and resources that should have been provided for
factoriest, the heavy industries suffered a delay in productont, whilst the producton of steel became
statonery. Alsot, the industries that were needed for war became vulnerable although showing
success in Stalin’s Economic Policyt, the locaton of these industries (the west) had put them at risk of
possible invasion from the German army. Any weapons that were created were poor in qualityt, and
