The New Economic Plan (NEP) 1921 - 1928 Flashcards
Main features of NEP?
Ended War Communism by creating mixed economy.
Ended grain requisitioning.
Money re-introduced.
Rationing scrapped.
What happened to grain requisitioning under NEP?
Ended - peasants handed over a fixed proportion as a form of tax and could sell the remainder for profit on an open market.
What happened to farming under NEP?
Left to the free market - peasants could buy, sell and produce freely.
What happened to large factories under NEP?
Large factories and major industries such as banks, coal and steel remained in the control of the government.
What were small business men permitted to do under NEP?
Own and run medium sized firms and factories for profit.
Who were Nepmen and what were they permitted to do?
Private traders.
Permitted to buy and sell goods for profit on open market.
What happened to money and rationing under NEP?
Money reintroduced - old discredited currency replaced with new revalued rouble.
Rationing scrapped.
What did many Bolsheviks regard the introduction of NEP as?
A retreat back into capitalism
What argument did Lenin use for NEP?
‘One step backwards, two steps forwards’
Who tried to appease the discontent with NEP?
Zinoviev and Bukharin
What did Trotsky call the NEP?
The first ‘degeneration of Bolshevism’
What did Lenin introduce at the Tenth Party Congress in 1921?
The ‘ban on factions’
Why did Lenin introduce The Ban on Factions?
To avoid a repetition like the Workers’ Opposition at Kronstadt
What did the Ban on Factions mean?
Once the Central Committee had agreed on a policy every Party member had to obey the decision - to form a ‘faction’ would mean expulsion from the party.
How did Lenin intensify the persecution of political opposition and why?
Was conscious of the unease created by the NEP.
By 1921, Mensheviks and SRs (Social Revolutionaries) were arrested.
Trial of SRs in 1921 accused of counter-revolutionary activity - 11 executed.
How did NEP continue to divide the party even after Lenin’s death?
The ‘Left’ led by Trotsky wanted to end the NEP
The ‘Right’ led by Rykov, Tomsky and Bukharin wanted to continue the NEP.
Stalin fluctuated from a left-leaning position to the right as time went on before finally switching back to the left in 1928 in order to defeat Bukharin.
Successes of NEP
Increased grain production
End of famine of 1921
Increased industrial production
Economy more secure by the time of Lenin’s death than it had been under War Communism
How did NEP end the famine of 1921?
Peasants now had motivation for producing more grain - could sell surplus grain for profit.
Increase in grain harvest from 37.6 million tonnes in 1921 to 56.6 million in 1923.
How had industrial production increased?
By 1926 Russia was producing 11,083 million roubles worth of industrial products compared to 1,410 in 1920.
Coal, steel, finished cloth, electricity saw rise in output.
Factory output rose 200%.
Who helped to get the economy moving again?
Private traders (Nepmen)
How many private traders were there in Moscow by 1925?
25,000
What were the failures of NEP? (Grain)
Grain production in 1924 had still not surpassed grain production from 1913 where it was 80.11 million tonnes.
Increase in agricultural production caused Scissors Crisis 1923.
NEP not working by 1928, USSR was 20 million tonnes of grain short to feed towns.
What were the failures of NEP? (Industry)
Failed to industrialise Russia.
Industrial production was still very slow and agriculture was recovering more quickly which led to an imbalance in the economy (The Scissors Crisis 1923).
Amount of iron, steel and copper produced never exceeded the amount produced in last 5 years of Tsardom.
What was the Scissors Crisis?
1923 - Peasants were producing more crops so agricultural prices fell but the price of industrial products rose (The 2 axis on the graph looked like a pair of widening scissors).
