The Five-Year Plans create a brutal naval-industrial base

Heavy-industry capacity did not guarantee efficient or humane production. The Second Five-Year Plan missed important coal, oil, railway, and steel targets while still laying foundations that could be redirected toward military construction. Stalin could import selected design expertise while insisting that Soviet yards build the ships themselves. Ships begun in 1930 or 1931 could put a few modern battleships into service before 1939. Completion would be slow and quality uneven, but the regime could impose human and economic costs that a democratic government would reject. Even a few modern battleships on the stocks would force Britain and the United States to plan against their eventual arrival.