What were the results of the five year plans

Essay by KeirHigh School, 12th gradeA-, November 2004

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The results of the five year plans were in three areas economics, social and political.

On an economic plane the five year plans resulted in the soviet economy emphasizing heavy industry. By 1941the USSR had experienced a six-fold increase in coal production and a four-fold increase in steel production. This indicates a success of the five year plans, since the purpose of the five year plans was to industrialize and improve their economy.

The five year plans also resulted in the building of new industrial cities, such as Magnitogorsk and Gorky. This is both a social and economic result. Social because it resulted in the accommodating the proletariat close to factories, which resulted in new social environments. The new industrial towns were an economic result because they added a much needed infrastructure to the soviet economy.

A failure of the five year plans on an economic and social plane were corruption and neglect of consumer industries.

Corruption is long term result which damages moral values. While, neglecting of consumer industries is not only an economic setback but also it contributes to a low morale of the workers. As they see no incentive to work harder, since even if they would earn more there is little they could buy.

Further failures of the five year plans form a social point of view include: poor implementation of safety measures, low levels of pay, restriction of labor movement and use of slave labor to supplement shortages of labor. All these results in turn resulted in a class of discontent proletariat. Furthermore the poor working conditions killed many workers, which also further deepened the proletariat's discontent and decreased their motivation to work. However, this is not reflected in the output statistics of the time which illustrate a sustained growth.

The political results of the...