Five-Year Plans put capacity before fleet ambition

The Second Five-Year Plan prioritized steel production and faster, more reliable rail and road communications. Those investments were intended to create the foundation for a later expansion of the armed forces, so major naval programmes began to take shape within this industrial sequence. Once money flowed, officers and designers had to choose which ships Soviet yards could genuinely build. A practical decision to prioritize cruisers over capital ships could then conflict with Stalin's expectations and be portrayed as political disloyalty. The armed forces were producing sensible designs for the capacity they actually possessed, while central planners claimed a much greater capacity. Fear made honest technical judgment dangerous and distorted procurement decisions.