Five Year Plans

After the apparent failure of the NEP and its reliance on capitalist principles, Stalin’s economic plan switched to Five Year Plans. This involved targets that aimed to generate very fast industrial growth.

Agricultural and economic targets

In farming, collectivisation was supposed to improve agricultural output. But it actually led to starvation for millions of Russians. It was introduced because in theory:
- Economically, selling excess grain abroad could be used for industrialisation. Russia could then modernise their farming methods.
- Collectivisation would produce more grain to feed the industrial workers.

Political and ideological targets

Politically, Stalin wanted more control of the countryside.
Ideologically, Stalin did not like the idea of capitalism which he believed was supported by the NEP.
- Industrial workers felt that peasants were benefiting from the revolution in a way that they were not.
Stalin believed in Marxist principles.

Marxist principles

Karl Marx said that in a developed human society, countries would be industrialised and factories made efficient and productive.
There would be a move towards urbanisation, and fewer people would be needed to work the land.
Private property would be abolished and wealth would be redistributed to the poor.
- Collectivisation was part of this process.

Problems with the NEP

Under the NEP, more successful farmers could buy land from poorer ones, and employ other people. This was essentially a form of capitalism. This made it unpopular with Politburo members like Stalin.
Ideologically, Stalin needed to get rid of the kulaks (wealthy peasants) who had benefited from the NEP.
Moreover, his rival Bukharin supported the NEP, which gave Stalin even greater motivation to end the policy.

1The End of Tsardom

1.1Russia's Economy & Society

1.1.1Industrialisation

1.1.2Living & Working Conditions

1.2Nicholas II's Autocracy & the Court

1.2.1Growth of Revolutionary Opposition

1.2.2The 1905 Revolution & the October Manifesto

1.2.3Reforming Russia Before 1914 - Stolypin

1.2.4The Duma & Political Stalemate

1.3The First World War

1.3.1The Impact of Military Defeats

1.3.2Social & Economic Effects of WW1

1.3.3Romanov Unpopularity

1.3.4The Tsar's Abdication

1.3.5Top Grade AO2/3 - The End of Tsardom

2Lenin's New Society

2.1The Provisional Government

2.1.1The Failure of the Government

2.1.2Social & Economic Problems

2.1.3Lenin & Trotsky

2.1.4The Growth of the Bolsheviks

2.1.5The October / November Revolution

2.1.6Top Grade AO2/3 - The Provisional Government

2.2The Impact of Lenin's Dictatorship

2.2.1The End of the First World War

2.2.2The Cheka

2.2.3Red Terror & Centralisation

2.2.4The Civil War & The Red Army

2.2.5Propaganda

2.2.6Top Grade AO2/3 - Early Bolshevism & the Civil War

2.3Social & Economic Developments

2.3.1War Communism

2.3.2The Kronstadt Rising

2.3.3The New Economic Policy (NEP)

2.3.4The Achievements of Lenin & Trotsky

2.3.5Top Grade AO2/3 - Social & Economic Developments

3Stalin's USSR

3.1Stalin the Dictator

3.1.1The Power Struggle to Succeed Lenin

3.1.2The Communist Party & Government

3.1.3The Terror & the Purges

3.1.4The Secret Police

3.1.5Cult of Personality

3.1.6Propaganda & Censorship under Stalin

3.1.7Top Grade AO2/3 - Stalin's Dictatorship

3.2Stalin's Modernisation of the USSR

3.2.1Collectivisation

3.2.2Five Year Plans

3.2.3Social & Economic Consequences

3.2.4Social & Economic Consequences 2

3.2.5The Extent of Modernisation

3.3Impact of the Second World War

3.3.1Stalin's Wartime Leadership

3.3.2Political, Economic & Social Consequences of War

3.3.3Top Grade AO2/3 - Modernisation of the USSR

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