Aftermath of ECW- Unit 3

Question 1

NEP quote:

Answer 1

‘We are prepared to let the peasants have their little bit of capitalism as long as we keep the power’.

Question 2

What were the features of the NEP?

Answer 2

• Central economic control relaxed.
• Grain requisitioning replaced with tax.
• Peasants could keep their surplus and sell it for profit.
• Denationalisation of small-scale enterprise.
• What Lenin thought were capitalist aspects. Shows lack of success in creation of economy on ideological lines.

Question 3

Bolshevik objections to NEP:

Answer 3

• Trotsky thought war communism was fundamental for revolution.
• Trotsky- ‘first sign of degenerate Bolshevism’.
• Peasants got rich from NEP, ‘Nepmen’.
• Lenin worried about this, created ‘One Party Unity’, banned factionalism, so he couldn’t face opposition.
• All other political positions other than Bolsheviks banned.

Question 4

Bukharin’s role:

Answer 4

• Most enthusiastic supporter of NEP.
• Enrich yourself in the NEP.
• Peasants with more money would stimulate industry.

Question 5

Successes of NEP:

Answer 5

• By 1924, Russia had made a marked recovery.
• Grain had a production increase 37%.
• Average wage of worker doubled.
• 1923, Nepmen responsible for 60% of retail trade, but did annoy people.

Question 6

Problem of NEP:

Answer 6

• ‘Scissor crisis’. 1923.
• Industry failed to expand as quick as agriculture.
• 1922-23, good weather and increase in harvests meaning prices were lowered. But industrial good prices did not drop, unemployment in urban areas.
• Peasants had to sell goods for lower cost, couldn’t make enough for industrial goods.

Question 7

Recovery from scissor crisis:

Answer 7

• Oct 1623, retail price of industrial goods began to fall from critically high level of that month.
• Industry recovered by 1924.