Using this as an advantage, Stalin began his purges in the late 1930s, after the First Five-Year Plan, which had led thousands to oppose to the plan. He allowed no criticism of the plan and aimed to rid all anti-Soviet citizens of his ideas (Gatrell). These purges, together called the Great Terror, took place between 1937 and 1938 and resulted in the arrest of more than 57,000 people throughout the Soviet Union and the execution of 48 of them (Service 355) . Despite these purges, Russian workers said they were lucky to have a job. Increased employment and continued industrial development in the USSR benefited the economy enormously (Sulimov). The increase in employment has led to a decrease in the number of unemployed citizens in the country. This resulted in an increase in total productivity, and therefore growth in the economy. The number of students in school also increased from just over one million to four million. The original society, with a low literacy rate, had transformed into a relatively industrial society, being one of the world's industrial powers (Andreev-Khomiakov