Why did Stalin introduce the five-Year Plans?

Describe Stalins economic policies and their impact; the modernization of Soviet industry, the Five Year Plans, collectivization in agriculture. Stalin, the new Soviet Leader of the USSR after Lenin believed that it was time for Russia to industrialize as we reached the end of the 1920s. He wanted to change Russia to become a more modernized and advanced country for several reasons. First of all, he feared that Russia would receive Capitalist attacks from the West and might not be able to resist their invasion in the event they do so. Stalin himself has also admitted that Russia was 50 to 100 years backwards, and he wanted Russia to use more developed ways to work and to use newer technology. He wanted to increase food production because of the growing population of Russia, especially there were more workers. In addition, Stalin wanted to Russia to be strong so she will be able to spread Communism. He believed if the Communist methods of industrialization were extremely successful and Russia can catch up only in a matter of several years, then it may encourage and impress workers from other countries to follow the lead and adopt the use of Communism. Furthermore, Russias foreign market was isolated and it did not trade with any other countries. Stalin wanted to increase more output, therefore they will have more to trade with foreign countries, thus making more profit. How were workers made to work hard? Workers were made to work hard as Stalin sent in many foreign experts, such as British engineers, to help aid and advise the Russian workers on how to advance and build up their industry through the several 5 year plans. Stalin also enforced managers by introducing line managers who would commend managers and others for hard work and would award them in many ways, such as better housing, food, privileges, etc. Workers were also made hard by various forms of awards, such as the Stakhanovites awards. This originated when Alexi Stakhanov, a coal mining worker, had supposedly mined 102 tons of coals in just one shift, during the night of 30-31 of August, 1935, nearly 15 times the normal amount for a single shift. Therefore, workers who worked hard were given awards like the Stakhanovites. Workers were also made to work hard as the consequences of not doing so would be extremely harsh. Workers who were late, absent, lazy, or did not reach the targeted output that they were set up to reach would have consequences such as a loss of ration cards, and bad comments on their labor book. In serious cases, they would be even put on trial and be sent to Siberia for labor camps. For example, in 1928, the Donbass region of coal-mining site failed miserably to reach its targeted output. As a result, 53 engineers were accused of ridiculous crimes, such as to destroy machinery, and conspiracy to wreck the coal mining site; this resulted in the famous Shakty trials. Managers often accuse their workers to similar crimes if they did not meet the targeted output, as they fear that they would be prosecuted by Stalins government. Therefore, if anything thing went wrong, they would blame the workers.

The First Five Year Plans: The first 5 year plan proceeded into action from 1928 to 1932. This plan aimed to electrify the whole of Russia, as electricity was very important for the industrialization and modernization of Russia. One of the other goals during this 5 year period was to heavily increase the amount of output of the Russian heavy industries, such as coal, steel and iron. The workers were encouraged the finish the plan in a 5 year period. Managers in the various respective fields were held under pressure, as they were threatened with persecution if they did not meet the targeted output for their sector. During this period, there have been tremendous results in nearly all fields. Although some of the goals were not reached, the Russian workers had shown that they were very capable of accomplishing such a big task. Electricity formation output trebled. The amount of Coal increased by more than 100%, from 35 to 76 million tons, steel went up significantly around , from 4 to 7 million tons, while the production of trucks was seen a superb achievement; 0.7 to 4 million of output. Big achievements were also created at this time. A big city was planned to be built in 1929, and after the plans were established, it immediately went into work. The workers built a large city, known as the Magnitogorsk at the southern region of the Ural Mountains. By 1932, 250,000 people were living in this city. At the heart of the city, there was a huge steel plant which dominated the Eastern region of the Ural Mountains. This was seen as one of the major successes of the first 5 year plans. There were also weaknesses during the first 5 year plans. Although 1500 new private enterprises were established, there were very little growth, and in some areas, even a decline in consumer goods. For example, the market of food processing continued to shrink considerably through the 5 years. In addition, small businesses were forced to shut down because the Nepmen were more efficient than them, invested more money into machinery than them, and thus literally forced them off the market. Furthermore, the chemical output did not reach its targeted output. There was also some instability caused as a result of the many workers employed. Because most of the workers were actually extremely unskilled workers who used to be peasants all their lives, they often changed jobs during the first period of the 5 year plans, thus creating instability and uncertainty in the industrial sector, and machines were accidentally sabotaged because they did not know how to properly operate them. The price of grain and some other materials went down which was a problem. This was caused by the economic crisis which started in the Wall Street Crash in America in 1929. The Second Five Year Plans: The second 5 year plans commenced from 1933 to 1937. Its major aim was to improve the chemical industry and to expand the communications and transport infrastructure routes to improve communications and to make the Russian industry more efficient. By doing so, they can lower than the unit cost, thus gain more money and hopefully to have more goods for foreign trade. Furthermore, they set up big goals to expand Russias chemical industry. This was seen as a big achievement, as railways were extended. In addition the 3 years 1934 to 1936 were known as the good 3 years, in which families had a lot of disposable income and the economy was good, and the goals were more realistic. The chemical industry developed extremely well; fertilizer production was growing. Many other forms of metals, such as tin, zinc and copper were being mined for the first time. One of the biggest achievements of the second 5 year

plan was the construction of the Dnieprostroi Dam, near the Dnieper River, Ukraine. It was the biggest dam in the whole world, expected to have a capacity of up to 230 megawatts, and to produce 1.2 to 1.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year.