HOW WERE THE SECOND AND THIRD FIVE-YEAR PLANS DIFFERENT FROM THE

FIRST?
One of the shortcomings of the First Five-Year Plan was the inability to
transport the vast quantities of raw materials produced. Due to this, one of
the priorities of the Second Five-Year Plan was improving the transport
infrastructure. The first lines of the Moscow metro were opened in 1935 and
the Moscow-Volga canal was completed between 1932 and 1937, allowing the
tranpsortation of large amounts of material throughout western Russia. This
point highlights one way in which the Second Plan differed from the First one.
Additionally, the targets for the Second Five-Year Plan were more realistic
than the First, and its achievements were more modest. Overall, the
government claimed that it had been 'over-fulfilled' by 3%, and the
production of raw materials continued to expand. Despite this, the practice of
lying about figures which had emerged during the First Plan still continued
into the Second. The Second Plan also aimed to improve the low productivity
and discipline in Russia's labour force which had been revealed by the First
Plan. The government launched a propaganda campaign featuring Alexei
Stakhanov, which appealed to the heroic instincts of Soviet workers whilst at
the same time offering real incentives for workers who exceeded their
production quotas. Workers were encouraged to be like Stakhanov at
compulsory meetings, industrial bosses kept records of production totals and
were required to reorganise production techniques to increase output, and
workers who exceeded their targets got better living standards and financial
bonuses. All of this shows how the Second Five-Year Plan was different to the
first in that it decreased production targets while increasing productivity in
workers.
The Second Five-Year Plan improved living standards which had been
negatively impacted upon by the First. In early 1934 bread rationing was
ended, soon followed by the end of rationing of other commodities like meat
and butter. The wages of industrial workers also increased in real terms.
Moderates in the Politburo argued that peasants should be allowed small
plots of land to farm privately and the policy was adopted in 1934, allowing
Russia to fairly quickly recover from the famines of the previous years. While
there were still shortages of many essential items, the small improvements in
living standards show one difference to the First Five-Year Plan.
In response to fears of an imminent war with Germany, defence spending
rose from 4% of total government expenditure in 1933 to 17% in 1937,
diverting funds from the production of consumer goods to investment in in
Russia's military resources. The Third Five-Year Plan continued this
rearmament, and by 1940 a third of government investment went to the
armed forces. The Third Plan initiated a number of important innovations in

Soviet military technology - for example in 1939 Gosplan ordered the

construction of nine new aircraft factories, which Stalin personally oversaw
and reviewed. In May 1941 Stalin received secret intelligence on the German
Army and, believing that war was imminent, took direct control of the defense
industry. Additionally, the Central Committee decreed that all of the country's
resources were to be mobilised in preparation for war. For these reasons, the
Third-Five Year Plan came to a premature end in June 1941. These details
underline the way that the priortisation of the war in the Second and Third
Five-Year Plans was different than in the First.
Lastly, the Third Five-Year Plan introduced harsh new measures to ensure
labour discipline. Russians regularly switched jobs in search of better pay and
conditions, creating a rapid flux which was problematic for the Soviet
industry. Factories couldn't guarantee that they'd be able to recruit or retain
labour, so the government introduced 'internal passports' in 1940 which
restricted the ability of workers to move from job to job. The government also
attempted to reassert its control in the countryside, and planned to limit the
amount of time that peasants were allowed to devote to their private land,
and reduce the size of private plots. This shows how the Third Plan focused
more on worker discipline than the First Five-Year Plan did.
In conclusion, the Second and Third Five-Year Plans were different to the First
in that they aimed to improve transportation and living standards, focused on
labour productivity and discipline more, and eventually prioritised the war
effort. However, the trendsof poor quality raw materials and false production
figures that started in the First Plan continued into the next two.