Stalin’s first Five Year Plan included building of steel plant in Magnitogorsk. The losses of the Civil War and World War I were made up for with the policy of rapid industrialization. Both Lenin and Stalin were striving to achieve the restoration of the economy close to that of obtained by Germany in World War I era. From one side, there was still the possibility of war with Great Britain, at least, leaders of the Soviet Union thought so.
There can be formed four major groups for the other reasons of rapid industrialization in the USSR. The county leaders hoped that through such actions it would become possible to be compared with the rates of industrial production in Germany and the United States at the same time becoming free from subordination on the ideological opponents for both the machinery and manufactured goods. Rapid industrialization was also implemented as a way to use the present abilities of the USSR; to some extent, it became an investment in the future and decrease of the possibility of capitalist rivals’ attacks. Industrialization centralized all of the power and gave a chance to concentrate a higher level of control in one person’s hands and to impose a very strict control over workers in such way. It could be that the reasons were also ideological in their nature; rapid industrialization for Stalin meant an opportunity to prove that a nation could renovate itself faster under communism than the capitalist rivals. And the last reason was failure of the NEP plan because from the view of country’s government goods were not provided by citizens at fair prices.
Fulfillment of the Five Year Plan started with the agricultural collectivization. The economic policy of industrialization was the next step. Stalin decided to build up heavy metallurgy after classifying hid political opponents which became the first step towards securing own positions in the global arena. The most important task set was either to acquire abroad or to produce at home technology deployed with American heavy industry. Magnitogorsk ,the “Steel City”, was planned to be built by China to receive coal from that country. During the World War II Magnitogorsk was one of the most important strategic points for the USSR. Industrialization then was focused on materials of the first priority for the Soviet Union: electricity, coal, steel, and chemicals.
The USSR managed to outstrip both Great Britain and Germany in production of war weapons due to rapid industrialization; industrial production growth was almost sevenfold during 1913 -1940. The Soviet Union became the largest industrial country in the world. USSR fell behind in production only to two countries: the United States and Germany. USSR became strong enough to defeat Germany during the World War II. It has to be added that price for which growth has been achieved was too high - the ongoing social problems, and terror, lack of basic consumer resources, as regular workers could have been discharged or even killed for not meeting the set production goals.
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