The campaign to combat "sabotage" overwhelmed the military industry of the USSR. On February 25, 1930, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B.) Adopted a resolution “On the liquidation of sabotage at the enterprises of the military industry”. As a result, over the course of several years, the number of engineers and technicians in the defense industry fell to 6.2 thousand people, with the needs of more than 10 thousand engineers and 16.5 thousand technicians.

At the beginning of the first five-year plan, the weakness of the domestic military industry was compensated by the search abroad for new types of weapons, military equipment and technologies. In 1929, the representative Soviet delegation visited Germany and Austria with the aim of concluding agreements on technical assistance in the organization of military-industrial production. Agreements were signed with Krupp, Zeiss and Junkers firms.

Particular attention in the years 1929-1930. It was drawn to the organization of the production of military equipment - tanks and aircraft. Inadequate funding in previous years led to a significant drop in the industrialized countries of Europe and the USA, which now had to buy samples of military equipment and master them in mass production. By the end of the 1920s. the Red Army had only the T-18 type tank (speed 12 km / h, armament - 37 mm cannon and 2 machine guns, 18 mm armor), which did not meet any modern requirements. It was not by chance that at the XVI Congress of the CPSU (b) in 1930, Commissar K. Koroshilov noted that "our military industry ... both in terms of quantity and quality, unfortunately, is limping quite thoroughly" and "leaves want much better. "

In the early 30s. The war industry of the USSR provided the Red Army mainly with weapons systems that were designed and mastered in production on the eve of the First World War. Only in 1933-1934 The Red Army received new artillery pieces. During these years, the production of T-26, T-28 and some others began. In 1936, sketches of the first prototypes of the T-34 tank designed by M. I. Koshkin, A. A. Morozov, and N. A. Kucherenko appeared. The development of the heavy tank "KB" - "Klim Voroshilov" (chief designer J. Kotin) begins.

By 1938, samples of armored vehicles, mass-produced in the USSR in 1929-1935, worked their resources and their condition, according to experts, "was terrible." In 1940, according to the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), the development of serial production of T-34 and "KB" tanks began.

The main advocate and instigator of the technical re-equipment of the Armed Forces was M. N. Tukhachevsky, who was the Deputy Commissar of Defense. Under his leadership in the USSR was carried out the first operational experience of the use of paratroopers.

On July 11, 1933, the Council of Labor and Defense adopted a resolution "On the program of naval shipbuilding for 1933-1938." It was supposed to make a breakthrough in this direction in 5 years. However, the program was not completed even in 1941 and, according to NG Kuznetsov, Admiral of the Fleet of the USSR, failed to "substantially increase our naval forces."

During the second five-year period, active attempts were made to increase the capacity of the aviation industry. In 1937, there were 57 aircraft factories in the country, which employed 249 thousand workers and employees. In the pre-war years, the main growth rates in the production of military-industrial commissariats were 141.5% instead of 127.3%, foreseen in the third to five-year plan. With the development of military technology, scientific research also received a strong impetus.

The design teams developed the IL-2 armored attack aircraft (under the direction of S. V. Ilyushin), the Pe-2 high-speed dive bomber (V. M. Petlyakov), the LaGG-3 fighter (S. A. Lavochkin), the fighter. MiG-3 (A.I. Mikoyan), Yak-1 fighter (A.S. Yakovlev). At the beginning of 1941, the aircraft industry fully switched to the production of aircraft only new designs. On June 22, 1941, there were already 17% of the total number of aircraft in service.

In early 1941, all the country's tractor and steel mills were connected to the serial production of the T-34. Made in 1940 and the first half of 1941, the 1,225 T-34 tanks, together with the 636 heavy KB tanks, produced by the Leningrad Kirov factory accounted for about 10% of the total number of armored vehicles in service with the Red Army.

In the mid 30s. there was a significant quantitative growth of the Soviet Armed Forces: from 600 thousand people in the 20s. up to 1433 thousand people in 1937. The number of military academies increased to form higher commanding personnel and military schools for training officers: up to 13 and 75, respectively, by the end of the second five-year plan. Moreover, out of 75 military schools, 18 were trained for aviators and 9 - for tankers.

In the 30s. The USSR, despite the lack of foreign loans and capital, has reduced the technical gap in the military field. Nevertheless, the military-economic potential of any of the industrialized countries has not yet been surpassed. For this reason, the Soviet leadership sought, at any price, to delay a military clash with potential adversaries, to cause a split among them, and to achieve a profitable alliance with one of them.