EXERCISE ONE

Stalin's Five Year Plans

Explain Stalins reasons for introducing the Five Year Plans.

Stalins Five-Year Plans were a series of nationalized plans intended to augment and reform the
economy of the Soviet Union, the first of which was introduced in 1928. Stalin introduced these plans and
policies in the name of communism, mainly in order to abolish the New Economic Policy and bring the
USSR into the industrial age. The New Economic Policy, introduced by Lenin in 1921, essentially
compromised between communist and capitalist ideals, and therefore opposed Marxist communist
theories, whereas Stalins Five-Year Plan promoted a considerably pure communist model. The NEP
allowed private enterprise and recreated social classes, while the first Five-Year Plan eliminated the free
market and established a command economy. Production, distribution and consumption of goods were
controlled by the government, and individual economic initiative was once again eradicated. In order to
ensure the Soviet Union remained relatively comparable with the remainder of Europe, Stalin did not
guide industrialization, but forced it. The Five Year Plan established daily, monthly and yearly quotas for
industrial and agricultural production. Agriculture was collectivized in order to maximize yield, and the
vast majority of profits and products from agriculture would support and fund heavy industry. The USSR
began to focus on increasing its heavy industry and armament production, rather than consumer goods.
Stalins Five-Year Plans saw the modernization of the Soviet Union through industrialization, as well as
separation from capitalism, but could also be deemed unsuccessful due to the appalling human cost.

Describe the human cost of the Five-Year Plans.

While Stalins Five-Year Plans were intended to initiate the progression of the Soviet Union, an
incalculable number of people died due to its policies. Rations of food and other goods were under control
of the state, but were distributed unequally among the Soviet population. Food would be allocated to
members of the Red Army, factory workers who resided in the cities and even sold to foreign countries on
the open market, before it would reach peasant farmers. While rations were free to Russians, other regions
of the USSR, such as Ukraine or Serbia, were forced to buy their food. Furthermore, agricultural quotas
were continually increasing, and eventually increased until there was no longer any food remaining to
feed the people in agriculture-based countries such as Ukraine. As a result of all this, famine engulfed the
Soviet Union, and saw an estimated seven million deaths in Ukraine alone. Stalins policies of
collectivization were not widely accepted, and were especially opposed by a class known as Kulaks.
Kulaks, formerly wealthy farmers, were seen as uncooperative and declared enemies by Stalin.
Consequently, they were stripped of their land and possessions, and millions were killed or sent to prison
camps in Siberia. These prison camps, referred to as Gulags, would prove to be a useful resource to
Stalin. While many large-scale projects were completed under the Five-Year Plans, the majority of these
projects relied on the slave labour provided by Gulags. Prisoners regularly died due to exhaustion,
starvation and disease. The working conditions within industrial factories in cities were extremely poor as
well. Housing provided to workers was contemptible, wages were insufficient, and consumer goods were
essentially non-existent. Lateness and poor workmanship were often interpreted as an attempt to sabotage

the Five Year Plans, and subsequently, copious amounts of workers killed, imprisoned, or exiled to
Gulags. While Stalins Five Year Plans saw economic and industrial improvement within the Soviet
Union, many believe the policies to be unjustifiable due to the outrageous human toll.