- Three-Year Plan
The Three-Year Plan of Reconstructing the Economy ( _pl. Trzyletni Plan Odbudowy Gospodarki) was a centralized plan created by the
Polish communist government to rebuild Poland after the devastation of the Second World War. Carried out in the years 1947-1949, it is widely considered a success and the only efficient economic plan in the history of thePeople's Republic of Poland . It succeeded in its primary aim: largely rebuilding Poland from the devastation of the war, as well as in increasing output of Polish industry and agriculture.Development and goals
Poland suffered heavy losses during World War II. In addition to significant population losses,US Department of State, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs. [http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2875.htm Background Note: Poland] (March 2007). Retrieved on
2007-04-07 ] it suffered catastrophic damage to itsinfrastructure during the war; the losses in national resources andinfrastructure amounted to over 30% percent of pre-war potential.cite book | author =Piotrowski, Tadeusz | title = Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide... | year =1997 |pages =p. 21 | publisher =McFarland & Company | id =ISBN 0-7864-0371-3| url =http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0786403713&id=A4FlatJCro4C&pg=PA295&lpg=PA295&dq=1939+Soviet+citizenship+Poland&sig=qETeuFX3hbmM0VPSO13o0LmjgEc#PPA21,M1 ] Rebuilding of the economy was also made more difficult by the majorterritorial changes of Poland after World War II .cite web| url= http://www.ipn.gov.pl/biuletyn/13/biuletyn02_2.html |archiveurl= http://web.archive.org/web/20050321165047/http://www.ipn.gov.pl/biuletyn/13/biuletyn02_2.html| title= MIĘDZY MODERNIZACJĄ A MARNOTRAWSTWEM |archivedate= 2005-03-21 |publisher=Institute of National Remembrance |language=Polish See also [http://www.niniwa2.cba.pl/komunizm_gospodarka_prl_ipn.htm other copy online] ]The Three-Year Plan was developed and monitored by the
Central Planning Office ("Centralny Urząd Planowania"), a body of the government tasked with creation ofeconomic policy , and in the early years dominated by a more liberalPolish Socialist Party (PPS) faction. Among the economists involved in its development was the then CUP director,Czesław Bobrowski . CUP centralized planning for the entire Polish economy was previously broken into separate bodies working on planning for separate branches.The plan, significantly influenced by the PPS, was designed to create a balance between the
private sector , thepublic sector and thecooperatives . Instead ofideology , commonly stressed by later communist plans, it concentrated on the realistic problems and ways to address them.On
21 September 1946 theState National Council (KRN), aPolish communist -dominated unelected Polishparliament accepted the plan for thePolish economy up to 1949. On2 July 1947 the newly electedSejm declared that: "The primary goal of the national economy in the years 1947-1949 is to raise theliving conditions of working classes to above the pre-war levels."The plan as described by the above bodies was designed to develop industry and service sectors, foreign trade and ensure the supply of basic consumer items. The plan specified the size of industrial and agricultural production to be achieved in the following years. In 1949 both the industrial and agricultural productions were to be above the pre-war levels. The industrial output was also to be higher than agricultural output. The plan did not involve creation of new industrial centers, only the rebuilding of the old ones (unless they were over 50% destroyed).
Results and assessment
Due to the dedication of substantial resources to industrial rebuilding, and the successful adoption of the
Stakhanovite movement (thecommunist propaganda of that time created a new "hero of the working class",Wincenty Pstrowski ), where workers were encouraged to work above their quota, the expected increase in industrial output was reached ahead of schedule. However, the agricultural output did not increase as much as predicted, partially due to bad weather in 1947, partially due to inefficiencies involved incollectivization of farming and finally, partially due to side-effects of thebattle for trade , which damaged traditionalsupply chain s. In 1948 industrial production was 30% higher compared to 1939, but agricultural production was 30% lower (compared to the 1934-38 period).The battle for trade, pushed for by
Stalinist hardliners likeHilary Minc , suggested that both the cooperative and private sectors should be eliminated and the public sector should be dominant, assumptions contrary to the foundations of the three-year plan which stated that all three sectors are equal. The battle for trade also resulted in a decrease of thecraftmanship sector.pl icon [http://encyklopedia.pwn.pl/haslo.php?id=4575032 Polska. Gospodarka. Przemysł.] .Encyklopedia PWN ]Already in 1949 the stress was moved from
consumer goods toproducer goods , andlight industry development was slowed. The next plan in the Polish communist economy was theSix-Year Plan (1950-1956), much more critically assessed by modern historians and economists, as by 1950 the CUP and Polish government were dominated by Stalinist hardliners, and PPS economists responsible for creation of the Three-Year Plan were no longer influencing government policy. The Six-Year Plan, designed to bring theeconomy of Poland in line with theSoviet economy , concentrated on heavy industrialization, with projects such asNowa Huta .Rebuilding of the Polish economy was also slowed in 1947, as Soviet influence caused the Polish government to reject the American-sponsored
Marshall Plan , designed to aid European economies in post-war rebuilding.Schain, Martin A. "The Marshall Plan: fifty years after", Palgrave, 2001, ISBN 0312229623, [http://books.google.com/books?id=ybAQmmyrLN8C&vid=ISBN0312229623&dq=Poland+Marshall+1947&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&sig=gUq-CmKAWOBGABGPxCh9QKFqySY&q=Poland#PPA133,M1 Google Print, p.132] ]With the simultaneous rebuilding of the cities, substantial migration from rural areas to urban centers occurred, increasing
urbanization .Warsaw and other ruined cities were cleared of rubble and rebuilt with great speed during those years. [http://www.poloniatoday.com/history13.htm A brief history of Poland: Chapter 13: The Post-War Years, 1945-1990] . Polonia Today Online. Retrieved on28 March 2007 .] In 1939, 60% of Poles worked in agriculture and 13% in industry; in 1949, the figures were 47% and 21%, respectively.The three-year plan is widely considered a success and the only efficient economic plan in the history of
People's Republic of Poland . It succeeded in its primary aim: mostly rebuilding Poland from the devastation of the war, as well as in increasing output of Polish industry and agriculture.Notes
ee also
*The Fourth and Fifth Plans of USSR which were aimed at rebuilding USSR after WWII
Further reading
*Stanley J. Zyzniewski, "The Soviet Economic Impact on Poland", American Slavic and East European Review, Vol. 18, No. 2 (Apr., 1959), pp. 205-225, [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1049-7544(195904)18%3A2%3C205%3ATSEIOP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-R JSTOR]
*Werner Stark, "The Political Element in the Development of Economic Theory:", Routledge, 1998, ISBN 0415175356, [http://books.google.com/books?id=Wj8tFpWhxIMC&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=%22three+year+plan%22+poland+1947&source=web&ots=Ha3ZLbl68K&sig=vy1z4uIRf05Muf8u44XYJaMPy8g#PPA71,M1 Google Print, p.60-]
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