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
