Context of the Three-Year Plans

Several times in 1984 a specific Three-Year Plan is mentioned.  I wondered about it because it is mentioned that it is number nine in a series of these Three-Year Plans.  This led be to believe that the previous eight had failed, or had left the country in a worse situation than before.

            The three year plan in the novel is based on Poland’s own Three-Year Plan of Reconstructing the Economy, which was put into effect shortly after the second World War.  Poland’s resources, economy, and population were seriously depleted, and  the Central Planning Office decided to take action.  The plan was to raise the quality of living above what it was before the war by the end of three years. It succeeded in this aim, but only marginally, and in 1950, the new Six-Year Plan was passed and employed.  The Six-Year Plan stoked extreme urbanization of Poland’s countrysides; however, the Three-Year Plan is considered to be Poland’s only economic plan that succeeded.






Hopefully this might clear up some confusion as to the purpose of the economic plans in the novel!!~