New Economic Policy ( NEP )

Question 1

When introduced?

Answer 1

March 1921

Question 2

Zinoviev view

Answer 2

‘I ask you, comrades, to be clear that the new economic policy is only a temporary deviation, a tactical retreat.’

Question 3

Bukharin View

Answer 3

’ We are making economic concessions to avoid political concessions.’

Question 4

Key Features of the NEP - Grain requisitioning abolished

Answer 4

• replaced by tax in kind - peasants gave a much smaller, fixed amount to the state - could sell surplus on market - harvest yield rose

Question 5

Key Features of the NEP - Ban on private trade removed

Answer 5

goods flow easily between countryside and towns - shops reopened and rationing abolished - money economy was back

Question 6

Key Features of the NEP - Small businesses reopened

Answer 6

allowed to make a profit - 2yrs after NEP introduced = 25,000 new businesses

Question 7

Key Features of the NEP - State control of heavy inustry

Answer 7

e.g. coal and steel industry’s - industry organised into trusts which had their own budgets etc.

Question 8

On party unity

Answer 8

= ban on factions - no groups could disagree with Lenin

Question 9

Lenin suffers criticism

Answer 9

’ do not try to teaching me what to include and what to leave out of Marxism. Eggs don’t tell the hens how to lay.’

Question 10

Results of Nep - Positive - Food

Answer 10

• Nov 1921 = food rationing abolished
• 1920 - 23 = Cereal production rose 23%

Question 11

Results of Nep - Positive - Industrial production

Answer 11

1920-23 = factory output rose by 200%

Question 12

Results of Nep - Positive - Nepmen

Answer 12

private traders - handled 75% of retail trade

Question 13

Results of Nep - Positive - Peasants

Answer 13

Did very well - lots of trade and very little government interference

Question 14

Results of Nep - Positive - Trade agreements

Answer 14

Foreign powers encouraged NEP as it was more capitalist - trade agreement with Britain in 1924

Question 15

Results of Nep - Negative - Crime

Answer 15

Prostitution and crime flourished - Moscow municipal Gov getting mot of income from taxes on gambling

Question 16

Results of Nep - Negative - Scissor crisis

Answer 16

lots of food = prices dropped whilst prices of industrial goods

Question 17

Results of Nep - Negative - Nepmen

Answer 17

Corrupt with officials easily bribed

Question 18

Results of Nep - Negative - Unemployment

Answer 18

rose steeply as workforces were cut to make a profit

Question 19

Results of Nep - Negative - Workers

Answer 19

Didn’t do well out of the NEP - little protection in the workplace etc - New exploitation of the Proletariat

Question 20

Political repression during the NEP - Attacks on political rivals

Answer 20

Mensheviks and SR’s became popular - Bolsheviks arrested 5000 Mensheviks in 1921

Question 21

Political repression during the NEP -Show trials

Answer 21

1st = 1922 - SR’s accused colleagues of crimes - also claims that the SR’s had authorised the assassination attempts on Lenin

Question 22

Political repression during the NEP - Crushing of peasant revolts

Answer 22

Villages that supported the Reds were rewarded with salt (used for food preservation)

Question 23

Political repression during the NEP - Censorship

Answer 23

became more systematic - dozens of scholars deported in 1922
pre-publication censorship introduced = books etc had to be checked by the Bolsheviks before being published

Question 24

Political repression during the NEP - Establishment of the GPU

Answer 24

Cheka renamed GPU in 1922 - grew in importance during NEP - created Nepmen as class enemies

Question 25

Political repression during the NEP - Attacks on the Church

Answer 25

Bolsheviks felt it rivalled their power - war against the church was mainly propaganda
- 1921 = union of militant godless established to challenge church directly
- 1922 = order to strip churches of valuable items to help victims of the famine.

Question 26

Lenin’s illness

Answer 26

1921 - 1924 = suffered form strokes - couldn’t speak after March 1923 - carried on working but not directly involved in the day-to-day running of the country

Question 27

Lenin’s relationship with Stalin at the end of his life

Answer 27

worried Stalin was gaining and abusing his power by intimidating the communists that governed Georgia after he had stepped out of work.
- Lenin felt Stalin was a danger to the party

Question 28

Lenin’s will and testament

Answer 28

Letter to the party congress - warned that Stalin had become to powerful

Question 29

Lenin’s Death and Funeral

Answer 29

Shops etc closed for a week - 3.5million people came to see his body in 3 days
- Stalin convinced Trotsky not to come to the funeral - damaged Trotsky’s reputation
- Stalin appeared as if he wanted to carry on Lenin’s work so he could gain power

Question 30

NEP aftermath - Peasants

Answer 30

• grain supply increased enormously however peasants were still not producing enough grain to allow for industrialisation
• agriculture relied on slow, traditional methods
• relationship between the peasants and the government deteriorated after 1920
• banning of private traders who bought grain of peasants = peasants had to sell the grain for much lower prices

Question 31

aftermath of the NEP - urban workers

Answer 31

• wages had only just passed pre-war levels by 1918
• trade unions supported the government more than their own members
• thousands unemployed
• overcrowding and poor quality housing
  crime rose significantly