How did Josef Stalin's Five-year plan affect the soviet union?

Answer 1

The industries were run by the government (no private ownership!) and it set very ambitious targets . The targets were to reach in 5 years (starting in 1927). The main problem was that the land of Russia had a lot of resources but they were not available for the industry. Nevertheless the results of the five-year plans were amazing. Thousands of new factories were opened, hundreds of new industrial towns were born, heavy industry became prominent, railways were built , electricity spread, the USSR developed its armament. Another problem was that agriculture could not develop as much as the indusrty, so while industry was developing people were starving in rural areas. New industrial cities had poor housing, people had to work more and more, overwork was compulsory, the targets were ridiculously unrealistic, the big investments over the Ural were built by forced labour (by the inmateds of the labour camps, called Gulags).