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First Five Year Plan


The first five-year plan (Russian: I пятилетний план, первая пятилетка) of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was a list of economic goals, created by General Secretary Joseph Stalin and based on his policy of Socialism in One Country. It was implemented between 1928 and 1932.

The Soviet Union entered a series of Five -Year Plans which began in 1928 under the rule of Joseph Stalin. Stalin launched what would be referred as a “revolution from above” to improve the Soviet Union’s domestic policy, more importantly centered around rapid industrialization and secondly, the  collectivization of agriculture. His desire was to rid the country of all record that capitalism once existed there under the New Economic Policy.

His plan was to quickly and effectively industrialize the economy of the Soviet Union and to specifically concentrate on heavy industry. His planning was ineffective and unrealistic given the short amount of time given to meet the desired goals.  

In 1929, Stalin edited the plan to include the creation of "kolkhoz" collective farming systems that stretched over thousands of acres of land and had hundreds of thousands of peasants working on them. The creation of collective farms essentially destroyed the kulaks as a class (dekulakization). Another consequence of this is that peasants resisted by killing their farm animals rather than turning them over to the State when their farms were collectivized. This disruption led to a famine in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan as well as areas of the Northern Caucasus. Despite the ruinous loss of life, the introduction of collective farms allowed peasants to use tractors to farm the land, unlike before when most had been too poor to own a tractor. Public machine and tractor stations were set up throughout the USSR, and peasants were allowed to use these public tractors to farm the land, increasing the food output per peasant. Peasants were allowed to sell any surplus food from the land. However, the government planners failed to take notice of local situations. In 1932, grain production was 32% below average; to add to this problem, procurement of food were up by 44%. Agricultural production was so disrupted that famine broke out in several districts.


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