New Economic Policy ( NEP ) Flashcards
When introduced?
March 1921
Zinoviev view
‘I ask you, comrades, to be clear that the new economic policy is only a temporary deviation, a tactical retreat.’
Bukharin View
’ We are making economic concessions to avoid political concessions.’
Key Features of the NEP - Grain requisitioning abolished
- replaced by tax in kind - peasants gave a much smaller, fixed amount to the state - could sell surplus on market - harvest yield rose
Key Features of the NEP - Ban on private trade removed
goods flow easily between countryside and towns - shops reopened and rationing abolished - money economy was back
Key Features of the NEP - Small businesses reopened
allowed to make a profit - 2yrs after NEP introduced = 25,000 new businesses
Key Features of the NEP - State control of heavy inustry
e.g. coal and steel industry’s - industry organised into trusts which had their own budgets etc.
On party unity
= ban on factions - no groups could disagree with Lenin
Lenin suffers criticism
’ 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.’
Results of Nep - Positive - Food
- Nov 1921 = food rationing abolished
- 1920 - 23 = Cereal production rose 23%
Results of Nep - Positive - Industrial production
1920-23 = factory output rose by 200%
Results of Nep - Positive - Nepmen
private traders - handled 75% of retail trade
Results of Nep - Positive - Peasants
Did very well - lots of trade and very little government interference
Results of Nep - Positive - Trade agreements
Foreign powers encouraged NEP as it was more capitalist - trade agreement with Britain in 1924
Results of Nep - Negative - Crime
Prostitution and crime flourished - Moscow municipal Gov getting mot of income from taxes on gambling
Results of Nep - Negative - Scissor crisis
lots of food = prices dropped whilst prices of industrial goods
Results of Nep - Negative - Nepmen
Corrupt with officials easily bribed
Results of Nep - Negative - Unemployment
rose steeply as workforces were cut to make a profit
Results of Nep - Negative - Workers
Didn’t do well out of the NEP - little protection in the workplace etc - New exploitation of the Proletariat
Political repression during the NEP - Attacks on political rivals
Mensheviks and SR’s became popular - Bolsheviks arrested 5000 Mensheviks in 1921
Political repression during the NEP -Show trials
1st = 1922 - SR’s accused colleagues of crimes - also claims that the SR’s had authorised the assassination attempts on Lenin
Political repression during the NEP - Crushing of peasant revolts
Villages that supported the Reds were rewarded with salt (used for food preservation)
Political repression during the NEP - Censorship
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
Political repression during the NEP - Establishment of the GPU
Cheka renamed GPU in 1922 - grew in importance during NEP - created Nepmen as class enemies
Political repression during the NEP - Attacks on the Church
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.
Lenin’s illness
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
Lenin’s relationship with Stalin at the end of his life
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
Lenin’s will and testament
Letter to the party congress - warned that Stalin had become to powerful
Lenin’s Death and Funeral
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
NEP aftermath - Peasants
- 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
aftermath of the NEP - urban workers
- 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
