Topic 6: The NEP

Question 1

What economic reasons were there for the introduction of the NEP?

Answer 1

Famine in the Volga region alone had affected 20 million

An element of private ownership would provide incentive for small businesses

Question 2

What political reasons were there for the introduction of the NEP?

Answer 2

By 1920, 75% of Petrograd factories were on strike

Tambov and Kronstadt Uprisings

The Bolsheviks could no longer blame the Whites for suffering

Question 3

What social reasons were there for the introduction of the NEP?

Answer 3

Increase food supply by giving the peasants incentive

Restoring food supplies to the cities was vital

Question 4

What did Lenin call the Kronstadt Mutiny?

Answer 4

The flash which lit up reality, better than anything else

Question 5

When did Lenin announce the NEP?

Answer 5

The 10th Party Congress

Question 6

The free _____ was introduced under the NEP

Answer 6

Market

Question 7

What was withdrawn from the countryside?

Answer 7

Requisitioning squads

Question 8

What happened to factories with less than 20 workers?

Answer 8

Given back to old managers

Question 9

What incentives did workers have?

Answer 9

Paid bonuses and piece rates rather than a flat wage

Question 10

Between 1920 and 1925, how many foreign experts were brought in?

Answer 10

20,000 from the USA and Canada

Question 11

Traders were allowed to buy and sell goods again. What were these people called?

Answer 11

The Nepmen

Question 12

How successful was the NEP?

Answer 12

• Production increased
• Russia became more stable
• Living standards improved
• Repression and terror increased
• Lenin faced opposition from his own party

Question 13

Who were inclined to grow more under the NEP?

Answer 13

Peasants

Question 14

How much of the grain did the government buy under the NEP?

Answer 14

75%

Question 15

What did Lenin see the NEP as?

Answer 15

A temporary compromise

Question 16

Workers could now be dismissed. What began to grow?

Answer 16

Unemployment and crime

Question 17

Exporting what goods helped to kick-start the Soviet Union’s economy?

Answer 17

Grain and coal

Question 18

By 1925, how much were the Soviet Union exporting?

Answer 18

9x higher than the 1921-22 levels

Question 19

Why were some foreign countries eager to invest in the new NEP?

Answer 19

They thought that the Soviet Union’s ‘experiment’ with Communism was over

Question 20

What class of peasants re-emerged under the NEP?

Answer 20

Kulaks

Question 21

What was the tax on food called?

Answer 21

Prodnalog

Question 22

True or false: Peasants were taxed at a higher rate than under requisitioning?

Answer 22

False

Question 23

By 1927, how many peasant holdings were there in the USSR?

Answer 23

25 million.
98.3% of all farmed land

Question 24

What was the problem with farming even under the NEP?

Answer 24

Farming was still backwards.

Farmers used strip farming and the three-field system

Question 25

By 1928, how many households still used the sokha?

Answer 25

5.5 million

Question 26

What was the Scissor Crisis?

Answer 26

• Food prices were going down because of high production
• Industrial prices were going up because of low production (more demand)

Question 27

Why is the Scissor Crisis called the Scissor Crisis?

Answer 27

The graph of food and industrial production looks like an open pair of scissors

Question 28

How did the government try to solve the Scissor Crisis?

Answer 28

The government took steps to lower industrial prices

Question 29

Who was the NEP good for?

Answer 29

Peasants and people in cities

Question 30

How did life in the cities recover?

Answer 30

Shops, restaurants, banks, hotels, and theatres reopened

Question 31

Why was the NEP a problem?

Answer 31

It led to increasing inequality

Question 32

Why was the NEP a political success?

Answer 32

Peasants lost interest in rebellion

There were fewer strikes

No repeats of Kronstadt

Question 33

What did Lenin say the NEP was a case of?

Answer 33

Taking one step backwards in order to take a leap forwards

Question 34

How did Lenin describe the NEP in relation to the peasants?

Answer 34

A peasant Brest-Litovsk

Question 35

What did many on the left see the NEP as?

Answer 35

Abhorrent in a communist society

Question 36

In 1925, what did the government do to the Nepmen?

Answer 36

They took steps to curb their profits

Question 37

Bolsheviks like Kamanev believed what about the NEP?

Answer 37

• A betrayal of all they had struggled for

He joked that the NEP was ‘the new exploitation of the Proleteriat’

Question 38

True or false: The Cheka was more feared than the Okhrana?

Answer 38

True

Question 39

What did Lenin create to stop opposition?

Answer 39

A new network of labour camps

Question 40

In 1924, Russia became…

Answer 40

The USSR

Question 41

What was Lenin’s aim in electrifying Russia?

Answer 41

To have a working electric light in every house.

Question 42

In 1921, how many of Russia’s trains were taken off of the tracks?

Answer 42

50% because of a lack of skilled men and repairs

Question 43

By the end of 1923, what had happened to the rail system?

Answer 43

Carried 45% more passengers and 59% more goods

Question 44

What was a key part of the NEP?

Answer 44

The electrification of Russia