Stalin’s Dictatorship (Five-Year Plans)

Stalin’s Five-Year Plans:

• Having crushed his political opponents and established himself as the supreme leader of the Soviet Union, Stalin was determined to make USSR a developed industrial power that could achieve the same economic & military levels as the Western powers, and strong enough to be safe from imminent attacks from the West.
• He wanted to turn USSR into a socialist country, where farming and industry were in the hands of the state.
• He also wanted the USSR to become more powerful than other states. His attempted to achieve his idea of `Socialism in One Country’ through a series of economic Five-Year Plans, which set targets for industrial and agricultural development. Rapid industrialisation and collectivisation were to work hand in hand.
• Stalin ruthlessly imposed economic, political and social policies to consolidate his power and modernise the Soviet Union towards becoming a self-sufficient and militarily strong socialist state.