NEP New Economic Policy

intended to meet Russia's need for food
1. Lenin stressed it was TEMPORARY.
  1. "we are prepared to let the peasants have their little bit of capitalism as long as we keep the power."
    1. features of NEP
      1. 1. central economic control to be relaxed
      2. 2. requisitioning of grain replaced by a tax in kind
      3. 3. peasants could keep their food and sell them for profit
      4. 5 .public markets restored
      5. 4. money reintroduced as a means of trading
Bolshevik objections to the NEP
1. Trotsky and Preobrazhensky
  1. Believed that bashing the peasants is what the Bolsheviks needed to do as it advanced the revolution
2. complaint for the objectors was that the reintroduction of money and private trading was creating a new class of profiteers 'Nepmen'
  1. Nepmen-those who stood to gain from the free trading permitted under the NEP. The rich peasants, retailersm traders and the small scale manufacturers.
3. became such a provlem for the bolsheviks that Lenin took firm steps to prevent the party from being torn apart.
  1. factionalism of any sort not to be tolerated
    1. factionalism- the forming withing the party of groups with a particular complaint or grievance. Lenin used this to brand disloyal bolsheviks.
  2. Lenin delcared that other political parties were outlawed in soviet Russia. Began to suppress opposition to bolshevik rule
Bukharin's role
1. enthusiastic supporter of NEP.
  1. he believed that the more money peasants had from selling their food would stimulate industry since their income would be spent on buying manufactured goods
    1. simply:
      1. peasants + money = spend + stimulate industry
2. worked closely alongside Lenin
successes of NEP
1. the production figures suggested that the policy worked.
  1. grain harvest in (million tones) in 1921 was 37.6 and by 1924 it was 51.4
  2. average monthly wage of the urban worker (in roubles) was 10.2 in 1921 and in 1924 went up to 20.8
2. lenin was correct by saying that the Bolsheviks would still maintain controll
3. in broad terms NEP had produced an economic balance.
  1. agriculture and trade were largely in private hands
  2. the state dominated Russian industry
failures of NEP
1. the 'Scissor Crisis'
  1. Industry failed to expand as fast as agriculture
    1. Nepmen did well but high unemployment in urban areas
  2. greater harvests led to fall in price of food
    1. but drop in the drop of industrial goods
  3. factories took longer to recover from the civil war
  4. peasants found that they were having to sell their produce at too low a price to be able to afford manufactured goods

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NEP New Economic Policy

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	Created by Anna Hudson about 10 years ago