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On 1 October Joseph Stalin&#;s Soviet Russia launched the first Five Year Plan, a series of revolutionary economic reforms which transformed Russia from a peasant society into a power capable of resisting the might of Hitler&#;s Germany.

Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin had died in , and in the ensuing power struggle the Georgian Joseph Stalin came to the fore as the General Secretary and the de facto leader of Soviet Russia.

What was Stalin&#;s Five Year Plan?

Between and , Stalin&#;s Five Year Plan was targeted at collectivizing agriculture and developing heavy industry.

Best stalin biography During this period —, massive industrial centers emerged in areas that were highly isolated before. About New World Encyclopedia. His proposals were rejected by the Central Committee majority which was controlled by the troika and derided by Stalin at the time. Library of Congress.

This was the first of four so-called plans, which took place in , , and

After a period of relative economic liberalism Stalin decided that a wholesale restructuring of the economy was needed, claiming that unless the Soviets caught up with the capitalist western powers they would be destroyed.

Stalin famously stated: ”We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries.

We must make up this gap in ten years. Either we do it or they will crush us.&#;

Mechanisation and collectivisation

Stalin&#;s first Five Year Plan involved the mechanisation and collectivisation of agriculture in a bid to make it more efficient.

Plan quinquenal stalin biography The initial five-year plans aimed to achieve rapid industrialization in the Soviet Union , placing a major focus on heavy industry. On the other hand, this can be ascribed to Russian propaganda efforts. At the same time as the War Scare of , dissatisfaction grew among the peasantry of the Soviet Union. The second five-year plan in was announced in , although the official start-date for the plan was

It also involved the opening of huge new industrial centres in previously uninhabited areas rich in natural resources, such as Magnitogorsk, built near huge iron and steel reserves east of the Ural Mountains.

Economic activity was pushed in the direction of heavy industries, which lead to a percent increase in output, in a bid to prepare Russia for an industrialised war.

The first Five Year Plan also had a revolutionary effect on society, as millions left the farms to pursue new lives in the cities.

The human cost

Despite these successes, Stalin&#;s Five Year Plan was not an unqualified success. In addition to mechanisation and collectivisation, key features of the first Five Year Plan included the disastrous impact it had on human lives.

Plan quinquenal stalin biography wikipedia Stalinist Russia. Inexperienced peasants from urban areas would then replace the missing workforce of the agriculture sector, which was then considered overstaffed, inefficient, and import-dependent. While ideology and economics were a major part, preparation for the upcoming war also affected all of the major parts of the five-year plan. References [ edit ].

Aside from the terrible conditions in the new factories, where unskilled workers had little idea of how to operate machines, the collectivisation of agriculture was ruinous.

Millions died in the subsequent famine and peasant disturbances. An entire social class of wealthier peasants – the Kulaks, who had accumulated more land, livestock, or wealth than their fellow peasants — were accused of sabotaging the progress of the Plan.

Plan quinquenal stalin biography pdf During the term of the plan, renovation of enterprises in the oil refining industry made up two thirds of national capital investment. Later on the state began renting tabulating equipment. Further improvements were made in communications, especially railways, which became faster and more reliable. The Soviet Union mainly contributed resources to the development of weapons and constructed additional military factories as needed.

Consequently they were either massacred or imprisoned in Gulags, which were forced labour camps, so that the state could exploit their land for collectivisation.

As many of the deaths were in non-Russian areas such as Ukraine, the Five Year Plan created lasting divisions between Russians and non-Russians.

The policies also played a role in causing the Holodomor, a mass famine in the Ukraine, and Soviet inactivity in response to the catastrophe has lead to a recent re-categorisation of events as a genocide against the Ukrainian people.

World War Two

In World War Two, the tensions caused by the first Five Year Plan proved consequential.

Ukrainians, for example, who were subject to its disastrous effects were more willing to collaborate with the Nazis against the USSR.

80 Years ago the armies of Hitler and Stalin went head to head in the bloodiest battle of WW2.

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The first Five Year Plan actually lasted 4 years, as it supposedly met all of its objectives earlier than expected.

On the other hand, this can be ascribed to Russian propaganda efforts.

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Plan quinquenal stalin biography summary

Stalin history

Nevertheless, the first plan and those that followed, which continued the general objectives of the first while also emphasising the production of military hardware, were critical in preparing Russia for an industrialised war.

It seems unlikely that Russia could have resisted Nazi invasion without the immense industrialisation program that had been undertaken in the years prior.

However, the vast cost in human life of the Five Year Plans and the invasion of Russia itself remain a dark stain on the history of the 20th century.