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History of the world economy - Polyak GB

33.4. The national economy of the USSR in the period of the pre-war five-year plans

The completion of the restoration and expansion of the state (socialist) sector created the conditions and necessitated the transition from annual planning in the form of target figures to prospective planning. The development of the first five-year plan was carried out for several years, beginning in 1925. At the Fifteenth Congress, a resolution was adopted on "Directives for the compilation of a five-year plan for the national economy," and in May 1929 it was approved by the Fifth Congress of Soviets of the USSR.

The first five-year plan (1928-1932)

The plan provided for an increase in the volume of industrial production by 2.8 times with the predominant development of heavy industry; To overcome the backwardness of agriculture, to establish its socialist reconstruction; To ensure the suppression and liquidation of the capitalist classes and the creation of an economic base for building a socialist society.

Domnas of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works

Over the next few years a number of indicators changed in the direction of increase, which made the plan practically impracticable, even in spite of high rates of development of production. Nevertheless, in January 1933, in a report at the Joint Plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the RCP (B) it was announced that the five-year plan had been implemented. Thus, the five-year plan lasted four years and three months.

At the first stage of industrialization (1926-1928) about 800 large enterprises were built again and reconstructed. Much attention was paid to the development of the energy base - extraction of coal, oil, construction of power plants. During this period, Shterovskaya in the Donbas and Zemo-Avchalskaya in the Transcaucasus, the Volkhov Power Plant, entered service; The construction of Bryansk, Chelyabinsk, Ivanovo-Voznesenskaya power stations was started. In 1927 the construction of a new railway - Turksib (from Central Asia to Siberia) begins. The advantage in the new construction was given to the outlying areas of the country. At the same time, a new management system is being formed. In 1932 VSNKh was reorganized into the People's Commissariat , which was in charge of heavy industry. Further development of the system proceeded along the line of disaggregation of the People's Commissariats, especially intensively in 1938-1939. (By March 1939 there were already 34 of them).

The need to attract huge funds for industrial new buildings forced them to "pumping" from agriculture by lowering prices for its products and selling industrial products at inflated prices. In the conditions of a decisive reduction of the private sector in industry and trade, the peasantry was losing more and more from an unequal exchange. This led to a reduction in crops and the concealment of marketable bread. With the pace of industrialization, the rates of collectivization were inextricably linked in this way, since at that moment only the collective farm could give rise to raw materials and financial revenues.

It is generally accepted that the XV Congress of the CPSU (b) worked out the course for collectivization. However, the materials of the congress testify that the development of all forms of cooperation was recognized as a priority task in the field of agriculture, and the progressive task was the gradual transition to collective land cultivation on the basis of new technology (electrification). The congress did not set deadlines and the only forms and methods of co-operation. With regard to the exploiting classes, the task of pushing them out by economic methods was put forward, seeking to reduce the share of the private sector with its possible absolute growth.

However, in practical implementation of these decisions, there was a deviation from the program guidelines, the basic principles of cooperation were violated: voluntariness, gradualness, material interest. The forced collectivization led not only to a sharp reduction in the number of livestock and grain harvesting, but also to human casualties. As a result, during the first five-year plans, there was a card system for supplying the population (until 1936). Nevertheless, collectivization created a social base for the modernization of the agrarian sector, increased labor productivity, and freed up labor resources for other spheres of the economy.

It should be noted that the first five-year plan was characterized by very high rates of growth in industrial output, although they were lower than planned, but considerably exceeded the growth rates of production in the capitalist countries. The program for the total volume of industrial production was fulfilled by 93.7%, for heavy industry - by 108%. However, the indicators for the most important types of industrial output in physical terms turned out to be lower than the planned ones. The first five-year plan was a time of radical breakdown of the structure of industrial production: the share of the first division in the gross output of all industry rose to 53.4% ​​against 39.5% in 1928.

The output of machine building and metalworking increased fourfold. The proportions between the main branches of the national economy also changed. The share of industrial output in the aggregate output of industry and agriculture rose from 51.5% in 1928 to 70.7% in 1932. 1500 plants and factories were built. Among them - the largest: the Stalingrad Tractor Plant, the Gorky and Moscow Automobile Plants, Uralmash. There were new branches: the production of plastics (Vladimir) and artificial rubber (Yaroslavl). New centers of industry were created in the East of the country (Kazakhstan, Siberia, Central Asia).

The first Soviet truck AMO brand

Centripetal tendencies are growing in the system of managing the national economy. This was reflected in the transition to an exclusively sectoral management principle. There was an expansion of the regulation of economic life, administration covered the entire socio-economic structure of society. Simultaneously, attempts were made to introduce self-supporting relationships. To this end, the Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) "On the reorganization of industrial management" (December 5, 1929) was adopted, where it was stated that the transfer of factories and factories to self-financing should be carried out decisively in the shortest possible time. But the very understanding of cost accounting by that time radically changed: financial and economic independence was reduced simply to a comparison of the incomes and expenses of the enterprise.

Credit efficiency was to contribute to improving the efficiency of social production. The Decree of the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of January 30, 1930 "On the Credit Reform" abolished the existing system for the release of goods and the provision of services on credit. All short-term lending was concentrated in the State Bank. A lending procedure was introduced in which enterprises received funds from banks on plans drawn up by trusts to which they were part. It was assumed that opening to the enterprises of their own accounts in the bank would increase their operational independence. However, the practical implementation of these measures led to the opposite result. Crediting began to be carried out "under the plan", which undermined the very foundations of self-financing. State Bank at the expense of the buyer paid the accounts of suppliers regardless of the quality and range of products, as well as reimbursed all costs incurred by suppliers. The development of enterprise initiatives and tax reform did not help. Instead of a multiplicity of taxes and tax types of exemptions, a turnover tax and deductions from profits were established in the budget.

The Second Five-Year Plan (1933-1934)

The second five-year plan for the development of the national economy was approved in February 1934. As the basic political task of the five-year plan, the final liquidation of the capitalist elements was achieved, the complete elimination of the causes that gave rise to the division of society into classes and the exploitation of man by man.

The material basis for the solution of these tasks was to be the completion of the technical reconstruction of the national economy: it was necessary to create the newest technical base for all branches of the national economy, to master new machinery and new industries. The main attention was paid to mechanical engineering and the creation of a powerful energy base. The country's leadership at this time comes to the realization of overcoming the "jump" course, bringing planned targets closer to the real opportunities of the economy. Therefore, at the XVII Party Congress it was decided to establish an average annual increase in industrial output in 1933-1937. In the amount of 16.5% (according to the optimal variant of the first five-year plan - over 20%). One of the distinctive features of the plan of the Second Five-Year Plan was the setting for the group's advanced rates of development "B" in comparison with the "A" group.

In agriculture, the main thing is the completion of collectivization and the organizational and economic strengthening of the collective farms. It was intended to increase the production of agricultural products in half.

The objective was also to raise consumption by two to three times on the basis of a significant increase in revenues and a decrease in retail prices by 35%.

Soviet locomotive of the 30-ies

Proceeding from these tasks, the volume of capital expenditures throughout the national economy was determined at 133.4 billion rubles. Instead of 64.6 billion rubles. In the first five-year period. About half of all capital expenditures aimed at new construction in heavy industry were to be invested in the eastern regions. This posed new, more complex tasks for transport, the lagging behind which was revealed during the First Five-Year Plan period. The freight turnover of the transport should have been doubled.

As decisive conditions for the implementation of the plan were put forward:

1) the development of socialist competition, especially the Stakhanov movement;

2) growth in labor productivity (by 63% over the five-year period);

3) the provision of qualified personnel (it was planned to train 5 million workers in mass professions, 850,000 medium specialists and 340,000 highly qualified specialists).

The results of the implementation of the second five-year plan showed that the five-year plan's purpose and its main tasks were fulfilled. 4500 new industrial enterprises were built and put into operation. The gross industrial output of the industry was increased 2.2 times, agricultural output 1.5 times. The plan for the production of large-scale industry was fulfilled in four years and three months. The average annual growth rate of industrial output exceeded the planned target and amounted to 17.1%. However, the planned advance of growth rates of the second division could not be achieved.

The technical reconstruction of the farm was carried out actively. In 1937, more than 80% of all industrial production was received from new and completely reconstructed enterprises. A significant excess of planned targets for increasing labor productivity in various sectors made it possible to reduce the prime cost by 10.3% (in the first five-year period, the cost of production increased by 2.3%). Successes in the development of new technology and increasing efficiency in the five-year plan were the result of increased labor activity of the people, mass socialist competition, the implementation of the training program. One of the biggest achievements of the second five-year plan was the construction of the Moscow metro.

There was an increase in the incomes of citizens: they doubled due to an increase in wages, the cancellation of the card system, and the reduction of prices for consumer goods.

As a result of the second five-year plan, the USSR became an advanced industrial country. In 1936, the country took the first place in Europe and the second in the world in terms of industrial output, although per capita production still lagged far behind the developed capitalist countries. The most important result of the two five-year plans is the achievement of the economic independence of the Soviet Union, which began to produce all types of technical weapons for the national economy on a new basis.

In the second five-year plan, the collectivization of agriculture was completed: 93% of all peasant farms were united on collective farms. The collective farms covered more than 99% of all acreage. At the same time, the forms and methods of collectivization have affected the results of agricultural production. So, the acreage under grain crops for the period from 1932 to 1937. Increased only by 4.8%, there was a reduction in areas under technical and fodder crops, although the number of livestock increased in comparison with the first five-year period, livestock production accounted for 90% of the level of 1913.

Construction of the first metro line

The increase in the pace of agricultural production was largely due to the increase in the intensity of labor. So, if in 1925 in an individual peasant farm there were 92 man-days of work per year for one able-bodied person, then 185 man-days in collective farms per one able-bodied in 1937. Of course, analyzing the results of agricultural development, one can not but take into account the factors that contributed to the increase in labor productivity, and above all the operation of machine and tractor stations, the number of which reached 5518 in 1937. They served 91.5% of the collective farms, being the basis for subsequent industrialization Agriculture.

Third Five-Year Plan

The Third Five-Year Plan was to become an important stage in the solution of the USSR's main economic task - to catch up and overtake the main capitalist countries in per capita production. The fulfillment of the planned program meant maintaining the high rates of development of all branches of the Soviet economy. At the same time, it was necessary to take into account the drastic change in the international situation, the growing military threat. Proceeding from this, the five-year plan for 1938 - 1942. Envisaged higher rates of dynamics of machine building, chemical industry, energy, metallurgy.

With a view to increasing the defense capacity, it was planned to conduct new construction mainly in the eastern regions of the country in the form of double-take enterprises.

In general, the fulfillment of the tasks of the five-year plan was successful. By mid-1941, the industry had brought production to 86% of the plan, rail freight turnover was 90%, turnover reached 92%. The second half of the 1930s was marked by the growing problems in the economic sphere. Therefore, at the XVIII Conference of the CPSU (b) (February 1941), decisions were taken to improve the situation, for which it was again planned to introduce cost-sharing relations everywhere.

Questions for repetition

1. What measures to transform the socio-economic system were carried out during the October Revolution of 1917?

2. Tell us about the state of the economy of Soviet Russia during the Civil War and foreign intervention and the policy of "military communism."

3. Tell us about how the restoration of the national economy was carried out during the years of the new economic policy, what was its essence and difference from "military communism".

4. Describe the main transformations carried out in the years of the pre-war five-year plans, and the place of the USSR in the world economy by 1941.

5. Uncover the factors that have caused the formation of a command and administrative management system in our country, show its positive aspects and shortcomings.

6. In what do you see the reasons for narrowing the scope of commodity-money relations and democratic principles?