ABSTRACT
After the war scare of 1927 came the fear of foreign economic inter-vention. Wrecking was taking place in several industries and criseshad occurred in others – or so Stalin claimed in April 1928. The following month he put the nation’s youth on the alert: ‘Comrades, our class enemies do exist. They not only exist but are growing and trying to act against Soviet power.’ Then it was announced that a large-scale conspiracy involving engineers in the Shakhty areas of the Donbass had been uncovered. Stalin skilfully used the perceived threats to Soviet power to create an atmosphere of tension and apprehension. The coiled-up energy of the population could thereby be released and directed towards the achievement of specific targets. The first Five-Year Plan (FYP) set these goals. In December 1929 it was decided that the plan could be achieved in four years and in the end it ran from 1 October 1928 to 31 December 1932. Plan goals were continually increased irrespective of economic rationality, as human will overruled mathematical calculations. As one planner stated: ‘There are no fortresses which we Bolsheviks cannot storm.’ The Great Depression, which began in 1929 in the advanced industrial states, added fuel to the conviction that the Bolsheviks were on the highway to success.
