Fourth Five-Year Plan

Fourth Five-Year Plan
Name	Fourth Five-Year Plan
Period	1956–1960
Country	Soviet Union
Predecessor	Third Five-Year Plan
Successor	Fifth Five-Year Plan

Fourth Five-Year Plan

The Fourth Five-Year Plan was a centrally planned development program launched by the Soviet Union leadership for the period 1956–1960, articulated during sessions of the Supreme Soviet and debated within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union under leaders including Nikita Khrushchev and influenced by figures such as Vyacheslav Molotov and Lazar Kaganovich. It followed directives from the Lenin Peace Prize era policymaking apparatus and coincided with international events like the Suez Crisis and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, drawing commentary from contemporaries in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and diplomatic observers in the United Nations General Assembly.

Background and Origins

After the reconstruction initiatives following the Great Patriotic War, the Fourth Five-Year Plan emerged amid debates within the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and planning organs including Gosplan and the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union. Policy formation was influenced by comparative studies referencing the New Economic Policy period, industrial strategies discussed in the Moscow State University academic circles, and technological exchanges with delegations from the People's Republic of China and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. The plan's origins reflected tensions between proponents of rapid industrial expansion linked to the Arms Race and advocates of agricultural reform shaped by experiences from the Collectivization in the Soviet Union and the earlier Virgin Lands campaign.

Objectives and Targets

Planners set measurable targets prioritizing heavy industry outputs in sectors including steel, coal, and machine-building, aligning goals with metrics used by the Gosplan and benchmarks from the Stakhanovite movement and Five Year Plans (Soviet Union). Targets included increases in output at enterprises like the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works and expansions in machine-tool capacity to match imports formerly supplied by the Marshall Plan recipient states. Agricultural aims invoked comparisons to yields achieved in the Belarusian SSR and the Ukrainian SSR, with targets for grain and livestock adjusted after reports from ministries overseeing the Virgin Lands campaign and the All-Union Agricultural Academy.

Implementation and Major Projects

Implementation relied on megaprojects such as expansion of the Baikal–Amur Mainline feeder studies, modernization at the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, and plant construction in regions like the Ural Mountains and the Kuznetsk Basin. The program mobilized resources via ministries including the Ministry of Heavy Machine Building (USSR) and the Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy (USSR), while construction corps echoed earlier methods used in projects such as the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station and the Moscow Metro extensions. Scientific coordination drew on institutes like the Kurchatov Institute and collaborations involving academicians from the Soviet Academy of Sciences and technicians trained at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University.

Economic and Social Outcomes

The plan produced mixed results: industrial output growth at plants like Kuznetsk Iron & Steel Works and increases in machine-tool production paralleled achievements in the Soviet chemical industry, but shortfalls in grain harvests mirrored setbacks experienced during the Virgin Lands campaign and necessitated imports from the Eastern Bloc and negotiation with trade partners in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. Urbanization accelerated in cities such as Moscow, Leningrad, and Kazan, straining housing construction overseen by the Ministry of Construction of Heavy Industry (USSR) and prompting mass housing programs akin to later prefabricated projects promoted by architects from the Soviet Union Academy of Architecture. Social outcomes included shifts in labor allocation tracked by the State Committee for Labour and Wages and welfare adjustments debated at sessions of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union.

Criticisms and Controversies

Critics within and outside the Communist Party of the Soviet Union argued that emphasis on heavy industry echoed earlier failures associated with the First Five-Year Plan and produced inefficiencies highlighted by economists at the Institute of Economics of the Academy of Sciences. Agricultural failures provoked comparisons to the calamities of Collectivization in the Soviet Union and sparked dissent exemplified in reports from oblast soviets and unions such as the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions. International observers from the Organization for European Economic Cooperation and delegations from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia noted the plan’s rigidities, while Soviet dissidents and writers connected to the Sinyavsky–Daniel trial era later referenced consequences for intellectual life documented by scholars at the Institute of World Literature (IMLI). Allegations of misallocation and cost overruns invoked reviews by commissions chaired by officials from the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union.

Legacy and Long-term Impact

Long-term, the Fourth Five-Year Plan influenced subsequent policy decisions of leaders such as Leonid Brezhnev and shaped institutional reforms in Gosplan and the Ministry of Machine-Tool and Tool Building (USSR), while informing debates at the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and later planning frameworks culminating in the Fifth Five-Year Plan. Its infrastructural investments underpinned industries in regions like the Donbas and the Volga Federal District, and its agricultural lessons informed later reforms observed during the Perestroika period. Historians at institutions such as the Russian State University for the Humanities and the Higher School of Economics analyze the plan’s mixed legacy in monographs comparing the era to episodes like the Khrushchev Thaw and the modernization drives that preceded the Soviet collapse.

Category:Five-Year Plans of the Soviet Union