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Unlock This CourseRemember, under the NEP peasants and small businesses could buy and sell freely. From 1928 Stalin swept this away. In its place came central planning, run by Gosplan, the State Planning Committee. Gosplan had been set up in 1921, but it now became one of the most powerful bodies in the USSR. Its job was to write a plan for the whole economy, five years at a time.
The plans worked through targets, passed down like orders in an army:
A target was an order, and the plan had the force of law. A manager who missed his target could be sacked, or accused of wrecking and put on trial. Targets were set very high on purpose, and then raised again. The first plan asked for coal output to more than double in five years. Soon the slogan was 'The Five-Year Plan in four years!' Posters, newspapers and factory noticeboards urged workers on, and teams of keen 'shock workers' competed to beat each other's output.
Key terms:
Each plan had its own main job. Examiners expect you to know the difference.
This plan concentrated on heavy industry: coal, iron, steel, oil and electricity. It was the foundation for everything else. Giant projects were started, such as the Dnieper Dam in Ukraine, which opened in 1932 as the largest hydroelectric dam in Europe, and tractor factories at Stalingrad and Kharkov. The plan began in October 1928 and was declared complete in December 1932, nine months early.
Heavy industry still came first, but the plan was wider. Transport was improved with new railways and canals, and the first line of the Moscow Metro opened in 1935. Newer industries grew, such as chemicals and metals like lead, tin and zinc. The plan also promised more consumer goods, such as clothes and shoes. As Nazi Germany rearmed, more and more money was moved into weapons.
This plan concentrated on preparing for war: tanks, aircraft and guns. By 1940 defence took about a third of government spending. Many new factories were built in and beyond the Ural Mountains, far from the western border and out of reach of an invader. The plan was never finished. It was cut short when Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941.
The plans did not just enlarge old factories. They built whole new industrial cities, many of them in the east. The most famous was Magnitogorsk in the southern Urals.
In 1929 the site was empty grassland beside Magnetic Mountain, a hill rich in iron ore. Gosplan chose it for one of the largest steelworks in the world. It was modelled on the great steel town of Gary in the USA, and American engineers were hired to help design it. The first workers lived in tents and wooden huts. Some were young Communist volunteers. Many were peasants who had left their villages. Others were prisoners and deported peasants, who were forced to work there.
The first blast furnace produced iron in February 1932. By 1939 Magnitogorsk was a city of nearly 150,000 people. Its coal came by rail from the Kuznetsk coalfield in Siberia, about 2,000 kilometres away, where another new steel centre was built.
Why build in such remote places? The raw materials were there, and the Urals and Siberia were far safer from attack than the old industrial areas in the west. What life was like for the people in these new cities is covered in Living and Working Conditions in Town and Countryside.
On the night of 30-31 August 1935, Alexei Stakhanov, a miner in the Donbas coalfield in Ukraine, cut 102 tonnes of coal in a shift of under six hours. The norm was 7 tonnes, so he had done about 14 times his target. The record was arranged in advance. Stakhanov did nothing but cut coal, while helpers propped up the roof and carried the coal away. The newspaper Pravda still made him a national hero.
The government urged every worker to copy him. Record-breakers in other industries, from car plants to textile mills, were named Stakhanovites. They were rewarded with higher pay, better flats, holidays and medals. This gave ambitious workers a real reason to work harder and to learn new skills. Propaganda used them to show what Soviet workers could do.
The movement also had a harsher side. If one worker could beat the norm many times over, planners argued, the norm must be too low. In 1936 norms were raised in many industries, so ordinary workers had to produce more for the same pay. Many resented the Stakhanovites, and some record-breakers were threatened or attacked by their workmates. Managers were under pressure too. A manager who did not help workers to set records could be accused of wrecking.
Don't mix up the plans: the first was about heavy industry, the second added transport, chemicals and a promise of consumer goods, and the third was about arms. Don't write that the third plan ran for five years, because the German invasion ended it in 1941. And don't say Stakhanov's record was simply faked. The coal was real, but the shift was specially organised for him.
(b) Explain two effects of the Stakhanovite movement on workers in the USSR. [8 marks]
One effect of the Stakhanovite movement was that some workers gained rewards and status. After Alexei Stakhanov cut 102 tonnes of coal in one shift in August 1935, about 14 times his norm, the government urged workers in every industry to copy him. Those who broke records were named Stakhanovites and given higher pay, better flats, holidays and medals. Because the rewards were so much better than an ordinary worker's wage, the movement gave ambitious workers a strong reason to work harder and learn new skills, and it created a privileged group among the workers.
A second effect was greater pressure on ordinary workers. Planners argued that if Stakhanovites could beat their norms many times over, the norms must be too low. As a result, in 1936 norms were raised in many industries, so workers had to produce more for the same pay. This led to resentment. Stakhanovites were often disliked by their workmates, and some were threatened or attacked, so the movement divided the workforce as well as driving it harder.
What lifts this to the top level: it gives two separate effects, backs each with precise facts (the date, the 102 tonnes, the higher norms of 1936) and uses linking phrases such as 'because' and 'as a result' to show how the movement led to each effect.
Two effects means two paragraphs. One effect alone, however well explained, cannot score more than 4 of the 8 marks. Don't spend your time telling the story of Stakhanov's shift. Give one fact about it, then explain what changed for workers because of it.