6th Five-Year Plan - 1956-1957
An ambitious Sixth Five-Year Plan was launched in 1956. After initial revision, prompted at least in part by political considerations, the regime abandoned the plan in 1957 to make way for a seven-year plan (subsequently reduced to a five-year plan) that focused particularly on coal and oil production and the chemical industry. Khrushchev, who became principal leader after 1956, took particular interest in these areas of production. The seven-year plan provided substantial investment funds — over 40 percent of the total — for the eastern areas of the country. Khrushchev also sponsored reforms to encourage production on the private plots of collective farmers.
The "draft directives" had to be "adopted" by the 20th Party Congress meeting 14 February 1956, but actually represented the master plan by which the Soviet economy was already operating. The Plan continued Soviet emphasis on expansion of heavy industry. Planners expected that industrial part of plan would be fulfilled by 1960 - and will raise Soviet industrial production to about two-fifths that of the US The USSR's industrial output in 1951 was about one-fifth of US. Contrast with US output was evidently on Soviet planners' minds; the new program stated the "main economic task of USSR (is) to overtake and surpass the most developed capitalist countries as regards per capita production."
Notably, the that new "Five Year Plan" called for substantial development of nuclear power-plants, as well as other "peaceful" applications of atomic energy. A very ambitious Soviet program for construction of nuclear power stations, with total capacity between 2 and 21 million KW, would require very high-priority effort to achieve. As comparison, UK power program (the Free World's most ambitious) had a goal of maximum two million kw. The USSR also planned to build atomic engines and, specifically, an atomic powered ice-breaker.
The main economic task of the sixth five-year plan (1956-60) was to ensure the further growth of the national economy, especially the progressive branches of industry, the rise of agriculture on the basis of the priority development of heavy industry, continuous technical progress and an increase in labor productivity, and on this basis significantly increase material well-being of the people. During the 6th five-year plan, the national income increased by 54%, the gross industrial output by 64%, and agriculture by 32%. The total volume of capital investments increased from 91.1 billion rubles. in the 5th five-year plan to 170.5 billion in the 6th, or 87%. Many new industries and industries were created - instrument making, radio engineering and electronic, production of cultural and household goods and household goods (refrigerators, washing machines, etc.).
Labor productivity per worker in industry increased by 37%, in construction - by 54%, and on railways. transport - by 48%. The volume of retail turnover increased by 57%. The implementation of a major program for the development of virgin and fallow lands was continued. The sown area in 1960 was 203 million ha A characteristic feature of the five-year plan is the coordination of its assignments with the plans of the CMEA member countries.
Between 1956 and 1958, 2,690 large state industrial enterprises were commissioned, and the construction of the Volzhskaya hydroelectric power station was completed. V.I. Lenin and put into operation the high-voltage power line Volzhskaya HPP - Moscow. The Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Kairakkum, Tkibul and Arzninsk hydroelectric power plants, as well as the Tom-Usinskaya, Verkhnetagilskaya regional thermal power plants, have been commissioned. The Serov Ferroalloy Plant, the Novogorkovsky and Volgograd Oil Refineries, the Saratov Chemical Combine and other enterprises were commissioned. In 1956, the Stavropol-Moscow gas pipeline went into operation.
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