The Five-Year Plans

What were the Five-Year Plans?

• Stalin's means of industrialising Russia
• They set targets for production and output across the whole of Soviet industry but did not explain how these were to be achieved
• The plans were always declared complete a year ahead of schedule to show Soviet superiority over Western capitalist economies and to motivate the workforce

They were an attempt to establish a war economy

• Russia needed to industrialise to protect socialism from hostile forces, both inside and outside of Russia
• People who opposed the plans were enemies of socialism and failure to meet targets was a criminal offence

How…