The largest success of the first five-year plan, however, was the Soviet Union beginning its journey to become an economic and industrial superpower.
In the Soviet Union the first Five-Year Plan (1928–32), implemented by Joseph Stalin, concentrated on developing heavy industry and collectivizing agriculture, at the cost of a drastic fall in consumer goods. The second Five-Year Plan (1933–37) continued the objectives of the first.
By 1952, industrial production was nearly double the 1941 level ("five-year plans"). Stalin's five-year plans helped transform the Soviet Union from an untrained society of peasants to an advanced industrial economy.
Economic activity was pushed in the direction of heavy industries, which lead to a 350 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 First Five-Year Plan was declared a success by Stalin in 1932, about 10 months earlier than planned, having exceeded the production goals for heavy industry. In spite of these declarations of success, the plan failed to meet all the quotas and had an enormous human toll.
Successes of the first five-year plan
Although many of the goals set by the plan were not fully met, there were several economic sectors that still saw large increases in their output. Areas like capital goods increased 158%, consumer goods increased by 87%, and total industrial output increased by 118%.
The biggest success of the First Five-Year plan was the rapid growth of heavy industry. During the 5 years, the Steel, Iron, Coal and Oil industries all witnessed significant growth.
Industrial production increased at an average annual rate of 18.7% between 1953 and 1957, and national income grew at a rate of 9% a year. Although urbanization had not been a specific goal of the plan's focus on industrialization, industrialization also prompted extensive urban growth.
During the planning period, the highest growth rate was achieved during the 10th five years plan. Five Years Plan: The Indian economy has been focused on the concept of economic planning since 1947.
Therefore, the two most negative aspects of Joseph Stalin's first Five-Year Plan were the shortage of consumer goods, due to the fact that the only things factories produced were products needed by the state, and the use of enslaved laborers.
Stalin called for an "atheist five year plan" from 1932 to 1937, led by the LMG, in order to eliminate all religious expression in the USSR. It was declared that the concept of God would disappear from the Soviet Union.
The first five year plan was created in order to initiate rapid and large-scale industrialization across the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Having begun on October 1st, 1928, the plan was already in its second year when Harry Byers first set foot in the Soviet Union.
They argue that although excessively brutal, Stalin's policies allowed Russia to develop a strong modern economy that sustained a successful war effort in 1941-1945 and propelled the Soviet Union into a dominant power after WWII.
The Plan resulted in radical measures that forced farmers to give up their land and their livestock. Many people were reduced to extreme poverty and famine became widespread. Terror, violence, and fear replaced the initial optimism about the Plan.
However in the short term Stalin's economic policies were not so successful for the people of Russia, because they inflicted huge misery, loss of life and terrible working and living conditions on them.
According to me, the Five-Year plans were not the best way to move the Soviet economy forward. Although the plans were more or less successful in meeting the goals that they set out and increased both industrial and agricultural output, we cannot ignore how they achieved those goals.
Although economic growth during the 13th FYP was hampered by the severe downturn cause by COVID-19, excluding 2020, China's growth in 2016-2019 still only averaged 6.6%, barely meeting the growth target. Economic reform agenda of the 14th FYP resemble the 2013 Third Plenum's reform program.
Under the Second Five-Year Plan (1933-37), the state devoted attention to consumer goods, and the factories built during the first plan helped increase industrial output in general. By the late 1930s, however, collectivized farms were performing somewhat better (after reaching a nadir during the period 1931-34).
effect on Ukraine
The fourth five-year plan, as in the prewar years, stressed heavy industry to the detriment of consumer needs. By 1950, Ukraine's industrial output exceeded the prewar level. In agriculture, recovery proceeded much more slowly, and prewar levels of production were not reached until the 1960s.
The First Five Year Plan was a success in terms of industrial production. Coal outputs increased by 98% and the overall annual growth rate for the Chinese economy was 16%.
On March 13, 2021, China's National People's Congress (NPC) approved the outline of the country's 14th Five-Year Plan, covering the period 2021-2025.
In all, there were thirteen Soviet five-year plans. The first ran from the autumn of 1928 to 1933; at that time the accounting year began in October with the end of the harvest. The third plan (1938-1942) was interrupted in mid-1941 by World War II. Five-year planning began again with the fourth (1946-1960).
Under collectivization the peasantry were forced to give up their individual farms and join large collective farms (kolkhozy). The process was ultimately undertaken in conjunction with the campaign to industrialize the Soviet Union rapidly.
In 1938, Stalin reversed his stance on the purges and declared that the internal enemies had been removed. Stalin criticized the NKVD for carrying out mass executions and subsequently executed Genrikh Yagoda and Nikolai Yezhov, who headed the NKVD during the purge years.