Industrialization in the USSR: the First Five-Year Plan

The first five-year plan is a conditional naming of the first five-year plan in the framework of the accelerated industrialization of the USSR in the late 1930s. Thanks to this period of time, the country received a powerful industrial-military complex.

What were the prerequisites for the accelerated industrialization of the Soviet Union? The failed new economic policy, or NEP, namely the grain procurement crisis in 1927-28, led the leadership to a decision on changing the economic course and the beginning of the reform of the entire Union system.

The years of the first five-year plan - 1928 (the date of adoption of the plan) - 1932 (the end date, that is, the fulfillment of all the tasks of the first stage of industrialization).

The transition to a new policy and the adoption of the first five-year plan was made at the 16th Conference of the CPSU (B.). The first five-year plan began in October 1928. It was then that the plan was adopted, but there were no clear tasks.

What goals did the government of the USSR set for itself? First, it was necessary to overcome the technical and general backwardness of the country; Secondly, the Soviet Union had to get rid of economic dependence, primarily from military supplies; Thirdly, the authorities faced an important task: the creation of a powerful military-industrial complex; Fourth, industrialization was to give a strong basis for collectivization.

The first five-year plan has its own characteristics:

• High rates (industrialization was called "forced");
• Short deadlines (famous appeals "You give a 5-year-old in 4 years!);
• Disproportion in development: the predominance of heavy industry over light;
• Implementation of industrialization through domestic savings.

The leadership of the Soviet Union used all means to attract the people to mass "construction." Hundreds of people, seeing agitational appeals, went and built factories, laid railways, participated in the construction of power plants. In this era, a lot of famous Soviet posters appeared, reflecting the whole essence of the people's self-consciousness at that time.

Also during the First Five-Year Plan, collectivization was initiated, which was accompanied by dekulakization. The second year of the first five-year plan will later be called "the year of the great crisis." However, not everyone knows the price at which collective farms and factories were created. How many ruined families were deprived of their homes, how many people died from the cold ...

In 1932 the first five-year plan ended. Its results were as follows:

• A powerful defense complex was created;
• Unemployment was eliminated;
• The economic independence of the USSR was achieved;
• A planned system of the economy of the Soviet Union was formed ;
• The five-year plan stimulated the extensive development of the country.

The first five-year plan was successful from the point of view of accomplishing the tasks: DnieproGES, Uralmash were established, giant metallurgical plants appeared, among them the plant in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk, Norilsk and Novokuznetsk. The first metro was opened in Moscow, tractor factories in Stalingrad and Kharkov began their activities. Thus, the USSR received enormous military power and industrial independence.