The five-year plans for the development of the national economy of the Soviet Union (USSR) (, literally: "five-year-ers", abbreviation of ) were a series of nationwide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union. The plans were developed by a state planning committee based on the theory of productive forces that was part of the general guidelines of the Communist Party for economic development. Fulfilling the plan became the watchword of Soviet bureaucracy (see Overview of the Soviet economic planning process).