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Release Date 25.05.2026

 ECONOMIC HISTORY

 

 

 

Feldman Mikhail

Doctor of History, Professor

Ural Institute of Management – branch of RANEPA (Yekaterinburg)

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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9825-6650

 

THE SECOND FIVE-YEAR PLAN AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION IN 1933-1937: A MULTIFACETED FATE

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The article is devoted to the assessment of the results of the Second Five-Year Plan for the development of the USSR national economy in 1933-1937. The evolution of ideas about the results of the Second Five-Year Plan is considered. The complexity of understanding this issue is still related to the durability and longevity of the mythological characteristics of the Soviet Industrial Project, the ideologization of achievements, and the concealment of failures. Based on a comparison of published and unpublished data, it was concluded that of the 27 most important types of production, only three (steel, manganese ore, and synthetic rubber) met the five-year targets. The data on the scale of the damage caused by the 1937 repressions to the Soviet economy were systematized. The article analyzes the implementation of the Second Five-Year Plan in terms of quality indicators (the use of cost-accounting relations; increasing the profitability of industry and using cost levers; improving the quality of industrial products; reducing dependence on imported machinery and equipment, etc.). The article reveals the extent and significance of the impact of the All-Union Conferences of Businessmen in 1931, 1934, 1935, and 1936 on the change in the economic policy of the state: The article discusses the development of a relatively balanced economic policy in 1933-1936, which contributed to the achievement of significant positive results and the fulfillment of the main production targets of the Second Five-Year Plan. The directorate of industrial enterprises in the USSR is considered as the main subject of the Soviet Industrial Project. The article makes a well-founded conclusion about the creation of a gigantic industrial potential in the USSR, which is comparable to that of developed capitalist countries in many quantitative indicators.

 

Keywords: USSR, Second Five-Year Plan, economic policy, five-year plans, industrialization, state administration, socioeconomic transformations, and repressions

JEL: B24, N44

UDC: 338(091)

DOI: 10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2026_2_194_208

 

© M. Feldman, 2026

© Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences «Issues of Theoretical Economics», 2026

  

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Manuscript submission date: 26.01.2026

Manuscript acceptance date: 09.04.2026

 

For citation:  Feldman M. The Second Five-Year Plan and its Implementation in 1933–1937: A Multifaceted Fate // Voprosy teoreticheskoy ekonomiki. 2026. No. 2. Pp. 194–208. DOI:  10.52342/2587- 7666VTE_2026_2_194_208.