. The text reads: "Plan is law, fulfillment is duty, over-fulfillment is honor!" Each five-year plan dealt with all aspects of development: capital goods (those used to produce other goods, like factories and machinery), consumer goods (e.g. chairs, carpets, and irons), agriculture, transportation, communications, health, education, and welfare. However, the emphasis varied from plan to plan, although generally, the emphasis was on power (electricity), capital goods, and agriculture. There were base and optimum targets. Efforts were made, especially in the third plan, to move industry eastward to make it safer from attack during
World War II. Soviet planners declared a need for "constant struggle, struggle, and struggle" to achieve a Communist society. These five-year plans outlined programs for huge increases in the output of industrial goods. Stalin warned that without an end to economic backwardness "the advanced countries...will crush us."
First plan, 1928–1932 . It reads like it's made by a state-run paper «Economics and Life» (). From 1928 to 1940, the number of Soviet workers in industry, construction, and transport grew from 4.6 million to 12.6 million and factory output soared. Stalin's first five-year plan helped make the USSR a leading industrial nation. During this period, the first
purges were initiated targeting many people working for
Gosplan. These included
Vladimir Bazarov, the
1931 Menshevik Trial (centered on
Vladimir Groman). Stalin announced the start of the first five-year plan for industrialization on October 1, 1928, and it lasted until December 31, 1932. Stalin described it as a new revolution from above. When this plan began, the USSR was fifth in industrialization, and with the first five-year plan moved up to second, with only the United States in first. This plan met industrial targets in less time than originally predicted. The production goals were increased by a reported 50% during the initial deliberation of industrial targets. Much of the emphasis was placed on heavy industry. Approximately 86% of all industrial investments during this time went directly to heavy industry. Officially, the first five-year plan for the industry was fulfilled to the extent of 93.7% in just four years and three months. Many of the peasants who were suffering from the famine began to sabotage the fulfillment of their obligations to the state and would, as often as they could, stash away stores of food. Although Stalin was aware of this, he placed the blame for the hostility onto the peasants, saying that they had declared war against the Soviet government. Consistent with the Soviet doctrine of
state atheism (
gosateizm), this five-year plan from 1932 to 1937 also included the liquidation of
houses of worship, with the goals of closing churches between 1932–1933 and the elimination of clergy by 1935–1936. The second 5-year plan (1933–1937) introduced an incentive scheme to persuade all the peasants to join collective farms. They were each allowed a small plot of land for their own use, this led to a recovery in agricultural production as the peasants produced fruit, vegetables, meat and milk on their own plots.
Third plan, 1938–1941 The third five-year plan ran for only 3½ years, up to June 1941, when Germany
invaded the Soviet Union during the
Second World War. As war approached, more resources were put into developing armaments, tanks, and weapons, as well as constructing additional military factories east of the
Ural mountains. The first two years of the third five-year plan proved to be even more of a disappointment in terms of proclaimed production goals. The plan had intended to focus on consumer goods. The Soviet Union mainly contributed resources to the development of weapons and constructed additional military factories as needed.
Fourth and fifth plans, 1945–1955 Stalin, in 1945 promised that the USSR would be the leading industrial power by 1960. The USSR at this stage had been devastated by the war, mainly the aforementioned invasion. Officially, 98,000 collective farms had been ransacked and ruined, with the loss of 137,000 tractors, 49,000 combine harvesters, 7 million horses, 17 million cattle, 20 million pigs, 27 million sheep; 25% of all capital equipment had been destroyed in 35,000 plants and factories; 6 million buildings, including 40,000 hospitals, in 70,666 villages and 4,710 towns (40% urban housing) were destroyed, leaving 25 million homeless; about 40% of railway tracks had been destroyed; officially 7.5 million servicemen died, plus 6 million civilians, but perhaps 20 million in all died. In 1945, mining and metallurgy were at 40% of the 1940 levels, electric power was down to 52%, pig-iron 26% and steel 45%; food production was 60% of the 1940 level. After Poland, the USSR had been the hardest hit by the war. Reconstruction was impeded by a chronic labor shortage due to the enormous number of Soviet casualties in the war (between 20 and 30 million). Moreover, 1946 was the driest year since 1891, and the harvest was poor. The USA and USSR were unable to agree on the terms of a
US loan to aid reconstruction, and this was a contributing factor in the rapid escalation of the
Cold War. However, the USSR did gain reparations from Germany and made Eastern European countries make payments in return for the Soviets having liberated them from the
Nazis. In 1949, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (
Comecon) was set up, linking the
Eastern bloc countries economically. One-third of the fourth plan's capital expenditure was spent on Ukraine, which was important agriculturally and industrially, and which had been one of the areas most devastated by war.
Sixth plan, 1956–1958 The sixth five-year plan was launched in 1956 during a period of dual leadership under
Nikita Khrushchev and
Nikolai Bulganin, but it was abandoned after two years due to over-optimistic targets.
Seventh plan, 1959–1965 Unlike other planning periods, 1959 saw the announcement of a seven-year plan (,
semiletka), approved by the
21st Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1959. This was merged into a seventh five-year plan in 1961, which was launched with the slogan "catch up and overtake the USA by 1970." The plan saw a slight shift away from heavy industry into chemicals, consumer goods, and natural resources. The plan also intended to establish 18 new institutes by working with the
Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.
Eighth plan, 1966–1970 The eighth plan led to the amount of grain exported being doubled. Grain was planned and already was, a crucial part of the Soviet economy. However, the Soviets decided to take a
mercantilist stance on grain, and establishing the idea that manufacturing and agriculture were both prominent forces in the Soviet economy.
Ninth plan, 1971–1975 About 14.5 million
tonnes of grain were imported by the USSR.
Détente and improving relations between the Soviet Union and the United States allowed for more trade. The plan's focus was primarily on increasing the number of consumer goods in the economy so as to improve Soviet standards of living. While largely failing at that objective it managed to significantly improve Soviet computer technology.
Tenth plan, 1976–1980 Leonid Brezhnev declared the slogan "Plan of quality and efficiency" for this period.
Eleventh plan, 1981–1985 During the eleventh five-year plan, the country imported some 42 million tons of
grain annually, almost twice as much as during the tenth five-year plan and three times as much as during the ninth five-year plan (1971–1975). The bulk of this grain was sold by the West; in 1985, for example, 94% of Soviet grain imports were from the non-socialist world, with the
United States selling 14.1 million tons. However, total Soviet export to the West was always almost as high as the import: for example, in 1984 total export to the West was 21.3 billion
rubles, while total import was 19.6 billion rubles.
Twelfth plan, 1986–1990 The last, 12th plan started with the slogan of
uskoreniye (acceleration), the acceleration of economic development (quickly forgotten in favor of a vaguer motto
perestroika) ended in a profound economic crisis in virtually all areas of the Soviet economy and a drop in production. The 1988
Law on State Enterprise and the follow-up decrees about
khozraschyot and
self-financing in various areas of the Soviet economy were aimed at the
decentralization to overcome the problems of the
command economy. == Five-year plans in other countries ==