The Panorama of the Five-Year Plan

An economic look at early Soviet policies of planned systemic growth.

The Five Year Plans were a series of economic measures implemented by leaders of the Soviet Union in an attempt to spur industrial development, agricultural modernization, and military growth. The first plan was proposed by Stalin and was in operation between 1928 and 1932.

This map, published near the end of the first Five Year Plan, provides a rough assessment based on sixteen various points throughout the U.S.S.R. Advancements in industrial production are noted, as are areas where improvement is needed. Examples include the Donetz Coal Mines, where ongoing labor unrest has “been only part solved by pampering the miners with extra food, clothing” and mismanaged state run farms “unquestionably operating at a loss.”

Published in Fortune Magazine in 1931.