ABSTRACT
During the second half of 1940 and early 1941, with Nazi Germany at the height of its power, the Soviet Union was in the middle of the third, and the most obviously defence-oriented, Five-Year Plan, due to be completed in 1942. The Second Five-Year Plan had seen considerable investment in defence; figures for the production of weapons and weapons systems for 1937 and 1938 are provided in Table 2.1 which can be compared to figures in Table 1.1 for 1929/30 and 1930/31 at the beginning of Chapter 1. Continued increases in production of key weapons systems such as tanks were achieved in 1939 and 1940, for which figures are provided in Table 2.2.
