Page "Five-Year Plans for the National Economy of the Soviet Union" Paragraph 13

The first two years of the Third Five-Year Plan proved to be even more of a disappointment in terms of proclaimed production goals.

Even so, the value of these goals and of the coordination of an entire economy's development of central planning was seemingly impressive: a reported 12 % to 13 % rate of annual industrial growth attained in the Soviet Union during the 1930s has few parallels in the economic history of other countries.

Since Russia's economy had always lagged behind the rest of Europe, these increases came from a very low baseline.

Additionally, this high rate of reported growth was continued after World War II, as much devastation needed to be repaired, and continued into the early fifties, after which it gradually declined.