• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

5th Five-Year Plan - 1951-1955

Although Stalin died in 1953, the Fifth Five-Year Plan (1951-55) as a whole reflected his preoccupation with heavy industry and transportation, the more so because no single leader firmly controlled policy after Stalin's death. In many respects, economic performance pleased the leadership during the period. According to government statistics (considered by Western observers to be somewhat inflated), the economy met most growth targets, despite the allocation of resources to rearmament during the Korean War (1950-53). National income increased 71 percent during the plan period.

As in previous plans, heavy industry received a major share of investment funds. During the final years of the Fifth Five-Year Plan, however, party leaders began to express concern about the dearth of consumer goods, housing, and services, as they reassessed traditional priorities. The new prime minister, Georgii M. Malenkov, sponsored a revision of the Fifth Five-Year Plan, reducing expenditures for heavy industry and the military somewhat in order to satisfy consumer demand. The newly appointed first secretary of the party, Khrushchev, launched a program to bring under cultivation extensive tracts of virgin land in southwestern Siberia and the Kazakh Republic to bolster fodder and livestock production. Although Malenkov lost his position as prime minister in 1955, largely as a result of opposition to his economic policies, the austere approach of the Stalin era was never revived.

The 19th Congress of the CPSU (1952) defined the main task of the fifth five-year plan (1951–55) - the further advancement of all sectors of the national economy based on the predominant development of heavy industry, high rates of growth in the productivity of social labor, and improvement in the quality and range of products. The plan provided for a broad program to improve the living standards of the people.

The years of the 5th five-year plan are characterized by the powerful development of socialist competition, the emergence of its new forms: the movement for a comprehensive economy of materials, a decrease in the cost of each operation, an increase in the production of products from the production area, etc. As a result of the fulfillment of the plan, the national income increased by 71%, funds in the national economy - by 62%, industrial products - by 85%, agricultural products - by 21%. The foundations have been laid for the creation of a number of new branches of mechanical engineering, as well as nuclear energy. The volume of capital investments increased by 90%. The production of mechanical engineering and metalworking has grown 2.2 times in comparison with 1950; labor productivity per worker in industry increased by 49%.

The targets for increasing the output of consumer goods were overfulfilled. An important feature of the 5th Five-Year Plan was the convergence of the growth rates of the production of means of production and the production of consumer goods. If in the 4th five-year period the growth rates of the products of the group "A" were higher than the growth rates of the products of the "B" group by 36%, then in the 5th five-year period - by 4%. Important measures were taken to accelerate the development of agriculture. Sown area increased from 146.3 million hectares in 1950 to 186 million in 1955. The development of virgin and fallow lands, the strengthening of collective farms with cadres, the strengthening of the role of the principle of material incentives for collective farmers, and other measures ensured an increase in agricultural products.

Over 3200 new large state industrial enterprises were built. The Pridneprovskaya, Cherepetskaya, Yuzhno-Kuzbasskaya, Serovskaya and Yuzhno-Uralskaya district thermal power plants were commissioned. In 1954, the world's first nuclear power plant was put into operation. The Kamskaya, Gorkovskaya, Tsimlyanskaya, Kakhovskaya, Ust-Kamenogorskaya, Mingechaurskaya and Gyumushskaya hydroelectric power stations were commissioned. The Orsk-Khalilovskiy metallurgical plant and the Cherepovetskiy metallurgical plant, the Bereznikovskiy potash and Novokuibyshevskiy oil refineries and others were built. The construction of the Volga-Don shipping channel was completed them V.I. Lenin. The Leningrad Metro was commissioned. The real wages of workers and employees increased by 39%, the income of the peasants per worker, 1.5 times. Economic cooperation with the socialist countries has expanded significantly, especially within the CMEA framework. The fulfillment of the 4th and 5th five-year plans made it possible to significantly exceed the pre-war level of the country's economic development. In 1955 the value of all production fixed assets doubled compared to 1940, and the national income grew 2.8 times.