Who proposed the NEP. See what "NEP" is in other dictionaries

NEP (New Economic Policy) was carried out by the Soviet government in the period from 1921 to 1928. It was an attempt to bring the country out of the crisis and give impetus to the development of the economy and Agriculture. But the results of the NEP turned out to be terrible, and in the end, Stalin had to hastily interrupt this process in order to create industrialization, since the NEP policy almost completely killed heavy industry.

Reasons for the introduction of the NEP

took place in Siberia, on the Don, in the Kuban, and the largest - in Tambov. It went down in history under the name Antonov uprising or "Antonovshchina". In the spring of 21, about 200 thousand people were involved in the uprisings. Considering that the Red Army was extremely weak at this point, it was a very serious threat to the regime. Then the Kronstadt rebellion was born. At the cost of efforts, but all these revolutionary elements were suppressed, but it became obvious that it was necessary to change the approach to governing the country. And the conclusions were correct. Lenin formulated them thus:

the driving force of socialism is the proletariat, which means the peasants. Therefore, the Soviet government must learn to get along with them.
it is necessary to create a single party system in the country and destroy any dissent.

This is the whole essence of the NEP - "Economic liberalization under strict political control."

In general, all the reasons for the introduction of the NEP can be divided into ECONOMIC (the country needed an impetus for the development of the economy), SOCIAL (social division was still extremely acute) and POLITICAL (new economic policy became a means of government).

Beginning of the NEP

Decision of the 10th Congress of the Bolshevik Party of 1921. The main stages of the introduction of the NEP in the USSR:

Replacing the allotment tax (in fact, this was the introduction of the NEP). Decree of March 21, 1921.
Permission for free exchange of agricultural products. Decree of March 28, 1921.
Creation of cooperatives, which were destroyed in 1917. Decree April 7, 1921.
The transfer of some industry from the hands of the state to private hands. Decree of May 17, 1921.
Creation of conditions for the development of private trade. Decree May 24, 1921.
Permission to TEMPORARILY provide an opportunity for private owners to rent state enterprises. Decree 5 July 1921.
Permission for private capital to create any enterprises (including industrial ones) with a staff of up to 20 people. If the enterprise is mechanized - no more than 10. Decree July 7, 1921.
Adoption of a "liberal" Land Code. He allowed not only the lease of land, but also hired labor on it. Decree of October 1922.

The ideological beginning of the NEP was laid at the 10th Congress of the RCP (b), which met in 1921 (if you remember its participants, right from this congress of delegates, went to suppress the Kronstadt rebellion), adopted the NEP and introduced a ban on "dissent" in the RCP (b). The fact is that until 1921 there were different factions in the RCP (b). It was allowed. Logically, and this logic is absolutely correct, if economic concessions are introduced, then inside the party should be a monolith. Therefore, no factions and divisions.

The ideological concept of the NEP was first given by V.I. Lenin. This happened at a speech at the tenth and eleventh congresses of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which took place in 1921 and 1922, respectively. Also, the rationale for the New Economic Policy was voiced at the third and fourth congresses of the Comintern, which were also held in 1921 and 1922. In addition, Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin played an important role in formulating the tasks of the NEP. It is important to remember that for a long time Bukharin and Lenin acted as opposition to each other on the issues of the NEP. Lenin proceeded from the fact that the moment had come to ease the pressure on the peasants and "make peace" with them. But Lenin was not going to get along with the peasants forever, but for 5-10 years. Therefore, most members of the Bolshevik Party were sure that the NEP, as a forced measure, was introduced only for one grain procurement company, as a trick for the peasantry. But Lenin emphasized in particular that the course of the NEP was taken for more long term. And then Lenin said a phrase that showed that the Bolsheviks keep their word - "but we will return to terror, including economic terror." If we recall the events of 1929, then this is exactly what the Bolsheviks did. The name of this terror is Collectivization.

The New Economic Policy was designed for 5, maximum 10 years. And she certainly fulfilled her task, although at some point she threatened the existence of the Soviet Union.

Briefly, according to Lenin, the NEP is a bond between the peasantry and the proletariat. This is what formed the basis of the events of those days - if you are against the bond between the peasantry and the proletariat, then you are against the workers' power, the Soviets and the USSR. The problems of this bond became a problem for the survival of the Bolshevik regime, because the regime simply had neither the army nor the equipment to crush the peasant riots if they started massively and in an organized manner. That is, some historians say - the NEP is the Brest peace of the Bolsheviks with their own people. That is, what kind of Bolsheviks - International Socialists who wanted a world revolution. Let me remind you that this idea was promoted by Trotsky. First, Lenin, who was not a very great theoretician (he was a good practitioner), he defined the NEP as state capitalism. And immediately for this he received a full portion of criticism from Bukharin and Trotsky. And after that, Lenin began to interpret the NEP as a mixture of socialist and capitalist forms. I repeat - Lenin was not a theorist, but a practitioner. He lived according to the principle - it is important for us to take power, but it does not matter what it will be called.

Lenin, in fact, accepted the Bukharin version of the NEP with the wording and other attributes ..

The NEP is a socialist dictatorship based on socialist production relations and regulating the broad petty-bourgeois organization of the economy.
Lenin

According to the logic of this definition, the main task facing the leadership of the USSR was the destruction of the petty-bourgeois economy. Let me remind you that the Bolsheviks called the peasant economy petty-bourgeois. It must be understood that by 1922 the building of socialism had reached a dead end, and Lenin realized that this movement could be continued only through the NEP. It is clear that this is not the main way, and it was contrary to Marxism, but as a workaround, it fit perfectly. And Lenin constantly emphasized that new policy is a temporary phenomenon.

General characteristics of the NEP

The totality of the NEP:

rejection of labor mobilization and equal pay system for all.
transfer (partial, of course) of industry into private hands from the state (denationalization).
creation of new economic associations - trusts and syndicates. The widespread introduction of cost accounting
the formation of enterprises in the country at the expense of capitalism and the bourgeoisie, including the Western one.

Looking ahead, I will say that the NEP led to the fact that many idealistic Bolsheviks put a bullet in their foreheads. They believed that capitalism was being restored, and they shed their blood in vain during the Civil War. But they used the NEP very cool, because during the NEP it was easy to launder what was stolen during the Civil War. Because, as we will see, the NEP is a triangle: it is the head of a separate link in the Central Committee of the party, the head of a syndicate or trust, as well as NEPman as a "huckster", in modern terms, through which this whole process goes. It was generally a corruption scheme from the very beginning, but the NEP was a forced measure - the Bolsheviks would not have retained power without it.

NEP in trade and finance

Development credit system. In 1921, a state bank was created.
Reforming the financial and monetary system USSR. It was achieved through the reform of 1922 (monetary) and the replacement of money in 1922-1924.
The emphasis is on private trade and the development of various markets, including the All-Russian one.

If we try to briefly characterize the NEP, then this design was extremely unreliable. It took ugly forms of merging the personal interests of the country's leadership and everyone who was involved in the "Triangle". Each of them played a role. The black work was done by the Nepman speculator. And this was especially emphasized in Soviet textbooks, they say, it was all the private traders who spoiled the NEP, and we fought them as best we could. But in fact - the NEP led to a colossal corruption of the party. This was one of the reasons for the abolition of the NEP, because if it had been preserved further, the party would simply have completely disintegrated.

Beginning in 1921, the Soviet leadership took a course towards weakening centralization. In addition, much attention was paid to the element of reforming the economic systems in the country. Labor mobilizations were replaced by the labor exchange (unemployment was high). Equalization was abolished, the rationing system was abolished (but for some, the rationing system was a salvation). It is logical that the results of the NEP almost immediately affected positive side in the field in trade. Naturally in the retail trade. Already at the end of 1921, the NEPmen controlled 75% of the trade turnover in retail and 18% in wholesale trade. NEPmanship has become a profitable form of money laundering, especially for those who looted a lot during civil wars s. The loot from them lay idle, and now it could be sold through the NEPmen. And a lot of people have laundered their money this way.

NEP in agriculture

Adoption of the Land Code. (22nd year). The transformation of the tax in kind into a single agricultural tax since 1923 (since 1926, completely in cash).
Agricultural cooperation cooperation.
Equal (fair) exchange between agriculture and industry. But this was not achieved, as a result of which the so-called "price scissors" appeared.

At the bottom of society, the turn of the party leadership towards the NEP did not find much support. Many members of the Bolshevik Party were sure that this was a mistake and a transition from socialism to capitalism. Someone simply sabotaged the decision of the NEP, and especially ideological ones, and completely committed suicide. In October 1922, the New Economic Policy affected agriculture - the Bolsheviks began to implement the Land Code with new amendments. Its difference was that it legalized hired labor in the countryside (it would seem that the Soviet government fought precisely against this, but it did the same thing itself). The next step took place in 1923. This year, something happened that many have been waiting for and demanding for so long - the tax in kind has been replaced by an agricultural tax. In 1926, this tax began to be collected entirely in cash.

In general, the NEP was not an absolute triumph economic methods, as it was sometimes written in Soviet textbooks. It was only outwardly a triumph of economic methods. In fact, there were a lot of other things. And I mean not only the so-called excesses of local authorities. The fact is that a significant part of the peasant product was alienated in the form of taxes, and taxation was excessive. Another thing is that the peasant got the opportunity to breathe freely, and this solved some problems. And here, an absolutely unfair exchange between agriculture and industry, the formation of so-called "price scissors" came to the fore. The regime inflated the prices of industrial products and lowered the prices of agricultural products. As a result, in 1923-1924 the peasants worked practically for nothing! The laws were such that about 70% of everything that the village produced, the peasants were forced to sell for next to nothing. 30% of the product they produced was taken by the state market value, and 70% understated. Then this figure decreased, and it became about 50 to 50. But in any case, this is a lot. 50% of products at a price below the market.

As a result, the worst happened - the market ceased to perform its direct functions as a means of buying and selling goods. Now it has become an effective time for the exploitation of the peasants. Only half of the peasant goods were purchased for money, and the other half was collected in the form of tribute (this is the most accurate definition of what happened in those years). The NEP can be characterized as follows: corruption, the apparatus swelled, mass theft of state property. The result was a situation where the production of the peasant economy was used irrationally, and often the peasants themselves were not interested in high yields. This was a logical consequence of what was happening, because the NEP was originally an ugly construct.

NEP in industry

The main features that characterize the New Economic Policy in terms of industry are the almost complete lack of development of this industry and the huge unemployment among ordinary people.

The NEP was originally supposed to establish interaction between the city and the countryside, between workers and peasants. But this was not possible. The reason is that the industry was almost completely destroyed as a result of the Civil War, and it was not able to offer something significant to the peasantry. The peasantry did not sell their grain, because why sell it if you can't buy anything with money anyway. They just piled grain and didn't buy anything. Therefore, there was no incentive for the development of industry. It turned out such a "vicious circle". And in 1927-1928, everyone already understood that the NEP had outlived itself, that it did not give an incentive for the development of industry, but, on the contrary, destroyed it even more.

At the same time, it became clear that sooner or later a new war was coming in Europe. Here is what Stalin said about this in 1931:

If in the next 10 years we do not run the path that the West has traveled in 100 years, we will be destroyed and crushed.
Stalin

If you say in simple words- in 10 years it was necessary to raise the industry from the ruins and put it on a par with the most developed countries. The NEP did not allow this, because it was focused on light industry, and on the fact that Russia was a raw material appendage of the West. That is, in this regard, the implementation of the NEP was a ballast that slowly but surely dragged Russia to the bottom, and if it held this course for another 5 years, it is not known how World War II would end.

The slow rate of industrial growth in the 1920s caused a sharp rise in unemployment. If in 1923-1924 there were 1 million unemployed in the city, then in 1927-1928 there were already 2 million unemployed. The logical consequence of this phenomenon is a huge increase in crime and discontent in cities. For those who worked, of course, the situation was normal. But in general the position of the working class was very difficult.

The development of the USSR economy during the NEP

Economic booms alternated with crises. Everyone knows the crises of 1923, 1925 and 1928, which led, among other things, to famine in the country.
Absence unified system development of the country's economy. The NEP crippled the economy. It did not allow the development of industry, but agriculture could not develop under such conditions. These 2 spheres slowed down each other, although the opposite was planned.
The crisis of grain procurements in 1927-28 28 and as a result - the course towards the curtailment of the NEP.

The most important part of the NEP, by the way, one of the few positive traits this policy, it is "raising from its knees" the system of finance. Do not forget that the Civil War has just died down, which almost completely destroyed financial system Russia. Prices in 1921 compared with 1913 increased 200 thousand times. Just think about this number. For 8 years, 200 thousand times ... Naturally, it was necessary to introduce other money. Reform was needed. The reform was carried out by People's Commissar for Finance Sokolnikov, who was assisted by a group of old specialists. In October 1921 he began his work National Bank. As a result of his work, in the period from 1922 to 1924, depreciated Soviet money was replaced by Chervonets

Chervonets was backed by gold, the content of which corresponded to the pre-revolutionary ten-ruble coin, and cost 6 US dollars. Chervonets was backed by our gold and foreign currency.
History reference

Soviet signs were withdrawn and changed at the rate of 1 new ruble 50,000 old signs. This money was called "Sovznaki". During the NEP, cooperation actively developed and economic liberalization was accompanied by the strengthening of communist power. The repressive apparatus was also strengthened. And how did it happen? For example, on June 6, 22, GlavLit was created. This is censorship and establishing control over censorship. A year later, GlavRepedKom appeared, which was in charge of the theater's repertoire. In 1922, more than 100 people, active cultural figures, were deported from the USSR by decision of this body. Others were less fortunate, they were sent to Siberia. The teaching of bourgeois disciplines was banned in schools: philosophy, logic, history. Everything was restored in 1936. Also, the Bolsheviks and the church did not bypass their "attention". In October 1922, the Bolsheviks confiscated jewelry from the church, allegedly to fight hunger. In June 1923, Patriarch Tikhon recognized the legitimacy of Soviet power, and in 1925 he was arrested and died. A new patriarch was no longer elected. The patriarchate was then restored by Stalin in 1943.

On February 6, 1922, the Cheka was transformed into the state political department of the GPU. From emergency, these bodies have turned into state, regular ones.

The culmination of the NEP was 1925. Bukharin appealed to the peasantry (primarily to the prosperous peasant).

Get rich, accumulate, develop your economy.
Bukharin

Bukharin's plan was adopted at the 14th party conference. Stalin actively supported him, and Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev acted as critics. Economic development during the NEP period it was uneven: now a crisis, now an upsurge. And this was due to the fact that the necessary balance between the development of agriculture and the development of industry was not found. The grain procurement crisis of 1925 was the first bell toll on the NEP. It became clear that the NEP would soon end, but due to inertia, he drove for a few more years.

Cancellation of the NEP - reasons for cancellation

July and November Plenum of the Central Committee of 1928. Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party and the Central Control Commission (to which one could complain about the Central Committee) April 1929.
reasons for the abolition of the NEP (economic, social, political).
was the NEP an alternative to real communism.

In 1926, the 15th party conference of the CPSU (b) met. It condemned the Trotskyist-Zinoviev opposition. Let me remind you that this opposition actually called for a war with the peasantry - to take away from them what the authorities need, and what the peasants hide. Stalin sharply criticized this idea, and also directly voiced the position that the current policy has become obsolete, and the country needs a new approach to development, an approach that will allow the restoration of industry, without which the USSR cannot exist.

Since 1926, a trend towards the abolition of the NEP began to gradually emerge. In 1926-27, grain stocks for the first time exceeded pre-war levels and amounted to 160 million tons. But the peasants still did not sell bread, and the industry was suffocating from overexertion. The left opposition (its ideological leader was Trotsky) proposed to withdraw 150 million poods of grain from the wealthy peasants, who made up 10% of the population, but the leadership of the CPSU (b) did not agree to this, because this would mean a concession to the left opposition.

Throughout 1927, the Stalinist leadership conducted maneuvers for the final elimination of the Left Opposition, because without this it was impossible to solve the peasant question. Any attempt to put pressure on the peasants would mean that the party has taken the path of which the "Left Wing" speaks. At the 15th Congress, Zinoviev, Trotsky and other left oppositionists were expelled from the Central Committee. However, after they repented (this was called in the party language "disarm before the party") they were returned, because the Stalinist center needed them for the future struggle with the Bucharest team.

The struggle to abolish the NEP unfolded as a struggle for industrialization. This was logical, because industrialization was the number 1 task for the self-preservation of the Soviet state. Therefore, the results of the NEP can be briefly summarized as follows - the ugly system of the economy created many problems that could only be solved thanks to industrialization.

NEP (New Economic Policy) was carried out by the Soviet government in the period from 1921 to 1928. It was an attempt to bring the country out of the crisis and give impetus to the development of the economy and agriculture. But the results of the NEP turned out to be terrible, and in the end, Stalin had to hastily interrupt this process in order to create industrialization, since the NEP policy almost completely killed heavy industry.

Reasons for the introduction of the NEP

With the beginning of the winter of 1920, the RSFSR plunged into a terrible crisis. In many ways, it was due to the fact that in 1921-1922 there was a famine in the country. The Volga region was mainly affected (we all remember the infamous phrase " Starving Volga region"). To this was added the economic crisis, as well as popular uprisings against the Soviet regime. No matter how many textbooks told us that people met the power of the Soviets with applause, this was not so. For example, uprisings took place in Siberia, on the Don, in the Kuban, and the largest - in Tambov. It went down in history under the name of the Antonov uprising or "Antonovshchina". In the spring of 21, about 200 thousand people were involved in the uprisings. Considering that the Red Army was extremely weak by that time, it was a very serious threat for the regime. Then the Kronstadt rebellion was born. At the cost of efforts, but all these revolutionary elements were suppressed, but it became obvious that it was necessary to change the approach to governing the country. And the conclusions were correct. Lenin formulated them as follows:

the driving force of socialism is the prolitariat, which means the peasants. Therefore, the Soviet government must learn to get along with them.
it is necessary to create a single party system in the country and destroy any dissent.

This is the whole essence of the NEP - "Economic liberalization under tight political control."

Beginning of the NEP

The main stages of the introduction of the NEP in the USSR:

Decision of the 10th Congress of the Bolshevik Party of 1921.
Replacing the apportionment with a tax (in fact, this was the introduction of the NEP). Decree of March 21, 1921.
Permission for free exchange of agricultural products. Decree of March 28, 1921.
Creation of cooperatives, which were destroyed in 1917. Decree April 7, 1921.
The transfer of some industry from the hands of the state to private hands. Decree of May 17, 1921.
Creation of conditions for the development of private trade. Decree May 24, 1921.
Permission to TEMPORARILY allow private owners to lease state-owned enterprises. Decree 5 July 1921.
Permission for private capital to create any enterprises (including industrial ones) with a staff of up to 20 people. If the enterprise is mechanized - no more than 10. Decree July 7, 1921.
Adoption of a "liberal" Land Code. He allowed not only the lease of land, but also hired labor on it. Decree of October 1922.

The ideological foundation of the NEP was laid at the 10th Congress of the RCP (b), which met in 1921 (if you remember its participants, right from this congress of delegates, went to suppress the Kronstadt rebellion), adopted the NEP and introduced a ban on "dissent" in the RCP (b). The fact is that until 1921 there were different factions in the RCP (b). It was allowed. Logically, and this logic is absolutely correct, if economic concessions are introduced, then inside the party should be a monolith. Therefore, no factions and divisions.

The ideological concept of the NEP was first given by V.I. Lenin. This happened at a speech at the tenth and eleventh congresses of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, which took place in 1921 and 1922, respectively. Also, the rationale for the New Economic Policy was voiced at the third and fourth congresses of the Comintern, which were also held in 1921 and 1922. In addition, Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin played an important role in formulating the tasks of the NEP. It is important to remember that for a long time Bukharin and Lenin acted as opposition to each other on the issues of the NEP. Lenin proceeded from the fact that the moment had come to ease the pressure on the peasants and "make peace" with them. But Lenin was not going to get along with the peasants forever, but for 5-10 years. Therefore, most members of the Bolshevik Party were sure that the NEP, as a forced measure, was introduced only for one grain procurement company, as a trick for the peasantry. But Lenin especially stressed that the course of the NEP was taken for a longer period. And then Lenin said a phrase that showed that the Bolsheviks keep their word - "but we will return to terror, including economic terror." If we recall the events of 1929, then this is exactly what the Bolsheviks did. The name of this terror is Collectivization.

The New Economic Policy was designed for 5, maximum 10 years. And she certainly fulfilled her task, although at some point she threatened the existence of the Soviet Union.

Lenin, in fact, accepted the Bukharin version of the NEP with the wording and other attributes ..

The NEP is a socialist dictatorship based on socialist production relations and regulating the broad petty-bourgeois organization of the economy.
Lenin

General characteristics of the NEP

The totality of the NEP:

rejection of labor mobilization and equal pay system for all.
transfer (partial, of course) of industry into private hands from the state (denationalization).
creation of new economic associations - trusts and syndicates. The widespread introduction of cost accounting
the formation of enterprises in the country at the expense of capitalism and the bourgeoisie, including the Western one.

Looking ahead, I will say that the NEP led to the fact that many idealistic Bolsheviks put a bullet in their foreheads. They believed that capitalism was being restored, and they shed their blood in vain during the Civil War. But the non-idealistic Bolsheviks used the NEP very well, because during the NEP it was easy to launder what was stolen during the Civil War. Because, as we will see, the NEP is a triangle: it is the head of a separate link in the Central Committee of the party, the head of a syndicator or trust, as well as NEPman as a "huckster", in modern terms, through which this whole process goes. It was generally a corruption scheme from the very beginning, but the NEP was a forced measure - the Bolsheviks would not have retained power without it.

NEP in trade and finance

Development of the credit system. In 1921, a state bank was created.
Reforming the financial and monetary system of the USSR. It was achieved through the reform of 1922 (monetary) and the replacement of money in 1922-1924.
The emphasis is on private (retail) trade and the development of various markets, including the All-Russian one.

Beginning in 1921, the Soviet leadership took a course towards weakening centralization. In addition, much attention was paid to the element of reforming the economic systems in the country. Labor mobilizations were replaced by the labor exchange (unemployment was high). Equalization was abolished, the rationing system was abolished (but for some, the rationing system was a salvation). It is logical that the results of the NEP almost immediately had a positive effect on trade. Naturally in the retail trade. Already at the end of 1921, the NEPmen controlled 75% of the retail trade turnover and 18% in the wholesale trade. NEPmanship became a profitable form of money laundering, especially for those who looted heavily during the civil war. The loot from them lay idle, and now it could be sold through the NEPmen. And a lot of people have laundered their money this way.

NEP in agriculture

Adoption of the Land Code. (22nd year). The transformation of the tax in kind into a single agricultural tax since 1923 (since 1926, completely in cash).
Agricultural cooperation cooperation.
Equal (fair) exchange between agriculture and industry. But this was not achieved, as a result of which the so-called "price scissors" appeared.

At the bottom of society, the turn of the party leadership towards the NEP did not find much support. Many members of the Bolshevik Party were sure that this was a mistake and a transition from socialism to capitalism. Someone simply sabotaged the decision of the NEP, and especially ideological ones, and completely committed suicide. In October 1922, the New Economic Policy affected agriculture - the Bolsheviks began to implement the Land Code with new amendments. Its difference was that it legalized hired labor in the countryside (it would seem that the Soviet government fought precisely against this, but it did the same thing itself). The next step took place in 1923. This year, something happened that many have been waiting for and demanding for so long - the tax in kind has been replaced by the agricultural tax. In 1926, this tax began to be collected entirely in cash.

In general, the NEP was not an absolute triumph of economic methods, as was sometimes written in Soviet textbooks. It was only outwardly a triumph of economic methods. In fact, there were a lot of other things. And I mean not only the so-called excesses of local authorities. The fact is that a significant part of the peasant product was alienated in the form of taxes, and taxation was excessive. Another thing is that the peasant got the opportunity to breathe freely, and this solved some problems. And here, an absolutely unfair exchange between agriculture and industry, the formation of so-called "price scissors" came to the fore. The regime inflated the prices of industrial products and lowered the prices of agricultural products. As a result, in 1923-1924 the peasants worked practically for nothing! The laws were such that about 70% of everything that the village produced, the peasants were forced to sell for next to nothing. 30% of the product they produced was taken by the state at market value, and 70% at a lower price. Then this figure decreased, and it became about 50 to 50. But in any case, this is a lot. 50% of products at a price below the market.

As a result, the worst happened - the market ceased to carry out its direct functions as a means of buying and selling goods. Now it has become an effective means of exploiting the peasants. Only half of the peasant goods were purchased for money, and the other half was collected in the form of tribute (this is the most accurate definition of what happened in those years). The NEP can be characterized as follows: corruption, the apparatus swelled, mass theft of state property. The result was a situation where the products of the production of the peasant economy were used irrationally, and often the peasants themselves were not interested in high yields. This was a logical consequence of what was happening, because the NEP was originally an ugly construct.

NEP in industry

The main features that characterize the New Economic Policy in terms of industry are the almost complete lack of development of this industry and the huge level of unemployment among ordinary people.

At the same time, it became clear that sooner or later a new war was coming in Europe. Here is what Stalin said about this in 1931:

If in the next 10 years we do not run the path that the West has traveled in 100 years, we will be destroyed and crushed.
Stalin

To put it in simple terms - in 10 years it was necessary to raise the industry from the ruins and put it on a par with the most developed countries. The NEP did not allow this, because it was focused on light industry, and on the fact that Russia was a raw material appendage of the West. That is, in this regard, the implementation of the NEP was a ballast that slowly but surely dragged Russia to the bottom, and if it held this course for another 5 years, it is not known how World War II would end.

The development of the USSR economy during the NEP

Economic booms alternated with crises. Everyone knows the crises of 1923, 1925 and 1928, which led, among other things, to famine in the country.
Lack of a unified system for the development of the country's economy. The NEP crippled the economy. It did not allow the development of industry, but agriculture could not develop under such conditions. These 2 spheres slowed down each other, although the opposite was planned.
The crisis of grain procurements in 1927-28 28 and as a result - the course towards the curtailment of the NEP.

The most important part of the NEP, by the way, one of the few positive features of this policy, is the "raising from its knees" of the financial system. Do not forget that the Civil War has just died down, which almost completely destroyed the financial system of Russia. Prices in 1921 compared with 1913 increased 200 thousand times. Just think about this number. For 8 years, 200 thousand times ... Naturally, it was necessary to introduce other money. Reform was needed. The reform was carried out by People's Commissar for Finance Sokolnikov, who was assisted by a group of old specialists. In October 1921, the State Bank began its work. As a result of his work, in the period from 1922 to 1924, depreciated Soviet money was replaced by Chervonets

Chervonets was backed by gold, the content of which corresponded to the pre-revolutionary ten-ruble coin, and cost 6 US dollars. Chervonets was backed by our gold and foreign currency.
History reference

Soviet signs were withdrawn and exchanged at the rate of 1 new ruble for 50,000 old signs. This money was called "Sovznaki". During the NEP, cooperation actively developed and economic liberalization was accompanied by the strengthening of communist power. The repressive apparatus was also strengthened. And how did it happen? For example, on June 6, 22, GlavLit was created. This is censorship and establishing control over censorship. A year later, GlavRepedKom appeared, which was in charge of the theater's repertoire. In 1922, more than 100 people, active cultural figures, were deported from the USSR by decision of this body. Others were less fortunate, they were sent to Siberia. The teaching of bourgeois disciplines was banned in schools: philosophy, logic, history. Everything was restored in 1936. Also, the Bolsheviks and the church did not bypass their "attention". In October 1922, the Bolsheviks confiscated jewelry from the church, allegedly to fight hunger. In June 1923, Patriarch Tikhon recognized the legitimacy of Soviet power, and in 1925 he was arrested and died. A new patriarch was no longer elected. The patriarchate was then restored by Stalin in 1943.

On February 6, 1922, the Cheka was transformed into the state political department of the GPU. From emergency, these bodies have turned into state, regular ones.

The culmination of the NEP was 1925. Bukharin appealed to the peasantry (primarily to the prosperous peasant).

Get rich, accumulate, develop your economy.
Bukharin

Bukharin's plan was adopted at the 14th party conference. Stalin actively supported him, and Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev acted as critics. Economic development during the NEP period was uneven: now a crisis, now an upsurge. And this was due to the fact that the necessary balance between the development of agriculture and the development of industry was not found. The grain procurement crisis of 1925 was the first bell toll on the NEP. It became clear that the NEP would soon end, but due to inertia, he drove for a few more years.

Cancellation of the NEP - reasons for the cancellation

July and November Plenum of the Central Committee of 1928. Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party and the Central Control Commission (to which one could complain about the Central Committee) April 1929.
reasons for the abolition of the NEP (economic, social, political).
was the NEP an alternative to real communism.

The New Economic Policy (abbr. NEP or NEP) is an economic policy pursued in the 1920s in Soviet Russia and the USSR.

It was adopted on March 14, 1921 by the X Congress of the RCP (b), replacing the policy of "war communism" carried out during the Civil War, which led Russia to economic decline. The New Economic Policy was aimed at introducing private enterprise and reviving market relations, with recovery National economy. The NEP was a forced measure and largely an improvisation. However, in the seven years of its existence, it has become one of the most successful economic projects Soviet period.

Auction house "Apollo" on Nevsky Prospekt, 1920.

By 1920, the RSFSR was literally in ruins. From the former Russian Empire the territories of Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine, and Bessarabia left. According to experts, the population in the remaining territories barely reached 135 million. During the hostilities, the Donbass, the Baku oil region, the Urals and Siberia were especially affected, many mines and mines were destroyed. Factories stopped due to lack of fuel and raw materials. The workers were forced to leave the cities and go to the countryside. The volume of industrial production has significantly decreased, and as a result, agricultural production as well.

Society has degraded, its intellectual potential has significantly weakened. Most of the Russian intelligentsia was destroyed or left the country.

Thus, the main task domestic policy The RCP(b) and the Soviet state consisted in restoring the destroyed economy, creating a material, technical and socio-cultural basis for building socialism, which the Bolsheviks promised to the people.

Grocery store line, 1920

By a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of March 21, 1921, adopted on the basis of decisions of the X Congress of the RCP (b), the surplus appropriation was canceled and replaced by a tax in kind, which was about half as much. Such a significant indulgence gave a certain incentive to the development of production to the war-weary peasantry. The introduction of the tax in kind did not become a single measure. The 10th Congress proclaimed the New Economic Policy. Its essence is the assumption of market relations. NEP was seen as a temporary policy aimed at creating the conditions for socialism.

The main political goal of the NEP is to relieve social tension, to strengthen the social base of Soviet power in the form of an alliance of workers and peasants - "the bonds of the city and the countryside." Economic goal- to prevent further aggravation of the devastation, to overcome the crisis and restore the economy. social purpose- to provide favorable conditions for building a socialist society without waiting for the world revolution. In addition, the NEP was aimed at restoring normal foreign policy ties, at overcoming international isolation.

Nepman Nikolai Vlasov with his wife in a car near his store on Sadovaya 28.

Contrary to popular belief, the 10th Congress of the RCP(b) did not decide on the introduction of free trade and the legalization of private enterprise. Moreover, at this congress, Lenin unequivocally declared that freedom of trade was for the Bolsheviks "a danger no less than Kolchak and Denikin put together." The congress decided to replace the surplus tax, which was extremely annoying for the peasants, with a lighter tax in kind, giving the countryside the freedom to dispose of the surplus left after the delivery of the food tax and personal consumption. It was assumed that the state would centrally exchange these surpluses for industrial goods in demand in the countryside - chintz, kerosene, nails, etc.

However, life soon overturned these calculations, divorced from reality. In the conditions of post-war devastation, the state simply did not have enough industrial goods for exchange. The very logic of events forced the Bolsheviks, abandoning the surplus appraisal, to gradually go towards the legalization of free trade.

Sale of fruits and vegetables in the Apraksin courtyard, 1924.

In July 1921, a permissive procedure for opening trading establishments was established. Gradually, state monopolies on various types of products and goods were abolished. For small industrial enterprises Was installed simplified order registration, the allowable size of the use of hired labor was revised (from ten workers in 1920 to twenty workers per enterprise according to the July decree of 1921). Denationalization of small and handicraft enterprises was carried out.

In connection with the introduction of the New Economic Policy, certain legal guarantees were introduced for private property. So, on May 22, 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee issued a decree “On the main private property rights recognized by the RSFSR, protected by its laws and defended by the courts of the RSFSR. Then, by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of November 11, 1922, from January 1, 1923, the Civil Code RSFSR, which, in particular, provided that every citizen has the right to organize industrial and commercial enterprises.

Members of a consumer cooperative on cooperative day, 1924.

The task of the first stage of the monetary reform, implemented within the framework of one of the directions of the economic policy of the state, was the stabilization of the monetary and credit relations of the USSR with other countries. After carrying out two denominations, as a result of which 1 million rubles were the same banknotes was equated to 1 ruble with new state marks, a parallel circulation of depreciating state marks was introduced to service small trade and hard chervonets backed by precious metals, stable foreign exchange and marketable goods. Chervonets was equal to the old 10-ruble gold coin containing 7.74 grams of pure gold.

The queue for vodka to the Glavspirt store, 1925.

A skillful combination of planned and market instruments for regulating the economy, which ensured the growth of the national economy, a sharp reduction in the budget deficit, an increase in gold reserves and foreign exchange, as well as an active foreign trade balance, made it possible during 1924 to carry out the second stage of the monetary reform on the transition to one stable currency. Canceled Soviet signs were subject to redemption with treasury notes at a fixed ratio within a month and a half. A fixed ratio was established between the treasury ruble and bank chervonets, equating 1 chervonets to 10 rubles. Bank and treasury notes were in circulation, and gold chervonets were used, as a rule, in international settlements. Their rate in 1924 became higher than the official gold parity against the pound sterling and the dollar.

In the 1920s, commercial credit was widely used, serving approximately 85% of the volume of transactions for the sale of goods. Banks controlled mutual lending economic organizations and, with the help of accounting and pledge operations, regulated the amount commercial loan, its direction, timing and interest rate. However, its use created an opportunity for an unscheduled redistribution of funds in the national economy and hampered banking control.

Financing of capital investments and long-term lending developed. After the civil war capital investments financed irrevocably or in the form of long-term loans. To invest industry in 1922 were created joint-stock company"Electrocredit" and Industrial Bank, then transformed into Electrobank and the Commercial and Industrial Bank of the USSR. Long-term lending to the local economy was carried out by local communal banks, transformed since 1926 into the Central utility bank(Tsekombank). Agriculture was given long-term loans state credit institutions, credit cooperation, formed in 1924 by the Central Agricultural Bank, cooperative banks- Vsekobank and Ukrainbank. At the same time, Vneshtorgbank was established, which provided credit and settlement services. foreign trade, purchase and sale of foreign currency.

Shop "Goznak" 1925.

The country needed money - to maintain the army, to restore industry. In addition, the Bolsheviks spent considerable public funds to support the world revolutionary movement. In a country where 80% of the population was peasantry, the main burden of the tax burden fell on him. But the peasantry was not rich enough to provide all the needs of the state, the necessary tax revenues. Increased taxation it also didn’t help on especially wealthy peasants, therefore, from the mid-1920s, other, not tax methods replenishment of the treasury, such as forced loans and underpricing of grain and overpricing of manufactured goods. As a result, industrial goods, if we calculate their value in poods of wheat, turned out to be several times more expensive than before the war, despite their lower quality.

A phenomenon was formed, which, with the light hand of Trotsky, began to be called "price scissors." The peasants reacted simply - they stopped selling grain in excess of what they needed to pay taxes. The first crisis in the sale of manufactured goods arose in the autumn of 1923. Peasants needed plows and other industrial products, but refused to buy them at inflated prices. The next crisis arose in the financial year 1924-1925 (that is, in the autumn of 1924 - in the spring of 1925). The crisis was called "procurement" because the procurement amounted to only two-thirds of the expected level. Finally, in the 1927-1928 business year - new crisis: failed to collect even the most necessary.

So, by 1925, it became clear that the national economy had come to a contradiction: political and ideological factors, the fear of the “degeneration” of power, prevented further progress towards the market; the return to the military-communist type of economy was hampered by memories of the peasant war of 1920 and mass famine, the fear of anti-Soviet speeches.

Pavilion of the cooperative "Working business" on Lassalya (Mikhailovskaya) streets, 1925.

In industry and commerce arose private sector: some state-owned enterprises were denationalized, others were leased out; private individuals with no more than 20 employees were allowed to create their own industrial enterprises (later this “ceiling” was raised). Among the factories rented by "private traders" there were those that numbered 200-300 people, and in general, the share of the private sector during the NEP period accounted for about a fifth of industrial production, 40-80% of retail trade and a small part of wholesale trade.

The organizing committee of the Alexander market in the red corner, 1926.

Cooperation of all forms and types developed rapidly. The role of production cooperatives in agriculture was insignificant (in 1927 they provided only 2% of all agricultural products and 7% of marketable products), but the simplest primary forms- marketing, supply and credit cooperation - by the end of the 1920s, more than half of all farms. By the end of 1928. non-industrial cooperation various kinds, primarily peasant, 28 million people were covered (13 times more than in 1913). In the socialized retail trade, 60-80% accounted for the cooperative and only 20-40% - for the state proper, in industry in 1928, 13% of all products were produced by cooperatives. There was cooperative legislation, lending, insurance.

Predtechensky market, 1929.

Commodity-money relations, which were previously tried to be banished from production and exchange, in the 1920s penetrated into all the pores of the economic organism, became the main link between its individual parts.

In just 5 years, from 1921 to 1926, the index of industrial production increased more than 3 times; agricultural production doubled and exceeded the level of 1913 by 18%. But even after the end of the recovery period, economic growth continued at a rapid pace: in 1927 and 1928, the growth in industrial production amounted to 13 and 19%, respectively. In general, for the period 1921-1928, the average annual growth rate national income amounted to 18%.

Nepman at the tax inspector. 1930

The state put pressure on producers, forced them to find internal reserves to increase profits, to mobilize efforts to increase the efficiency of production, which alone could now ensure profit growth.

A broad campaign to reduce prices was launched by the government as early as the end of 1923, but a truly comprehensive regulation of price proportions began in 1924, when circulation completely switched to a stable red currency, and the functions of the Internal Trade Commission were transferred to the People's Commissariat of Internal Trade with broad rights in the field of rationing prices. The measures taken then were successful: wholesale prices for manufactured goods fell by 26% from October 1923 to May 1, 1924 and continued to decline further.

Market day at the Predtechensky market. 1932

In the second half of the 1920s, the first attempts to curtail the NEP began. Syndicates were liquidated in industry, from which private capital was administratively ousted, a rigid centralized system economic management (economic people's commissariats).

The immediate reason for the complete collapse of the NEP was the disruption of state grain procurements at the end of 1927. At the end of December, for the first time since the end of "war communism", the measures of forced confiscation of grain stocks were applied to the kulaks. In the summer of 1928 they were temporarily suspended, but then resumed in the fall of that year.

In October 1928, the implementation of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy began, the country's leadership set a course for accelerated industrialization and collectivization. Although no one officially canceled the NEP, by that time it had already been actually curtailed.

Legally, the NEP was terminated only on October 11, 1931, when a resolution was adopted on the complete ban on private trade in the USSR.

Collective farm market, 1932.

The undoubted success of the NEP was the restoration of the destroyed economy, and, given that after the revolution the USSR lost many highly qualified personnel (economists, managers, production workers), the success of the new government becomes a "victory over devastation." At the same time, the lack of those same highly qualified personnel has become the cause of miscalculations and errors.

Significant economic growth rates, however, were achieved only due to the return to operation of pre-war capacities, the Soviet Union by 1926 surpassed economic indicators 1913 about twice. The potential for further economic growth turned out to be extremely low. The private sector was not allowed to "command heights in the economy", foreign investment were not welcomed, and the investors themselves were not particularly in a hurry to the Soviet Union because of the ongoing instability and the threat of nationalization of capital. The state, on the other hand, was unable to make long-term capital-intensive investments only from its own funds.

Entrance to the Predtechensky Market, 1932.

Sale of milk on the Kuznetsk market. 1934

At the Kuznetsk market, 1934.

Entrance to the Klin market, October 1936.

The economic policy of Soviet Russia in the twenties of the last century, which included a return to commodity-money relations, freedom of trade and the replacement of surplus appropriation with an agricultural tax.

The New Economic Policy was carried out by the Soviet authorities from 1921 to 1928 with the aim of leading the country out of the crisis, developing the economy and agriculture.

Reasons for the introduction

After the First World War and the Civil War, the RSFSR faced famine, political and economic crisis. A wave of uprisings against Soviet power swept across the country - on the Don, in Siberia, in the Kuban, in Tambov and Kronstadt. In the spring of 1921, 200 thousand people were involved in the uprisings. Despite the fact that the uprisings and rebellions were suppressed, the Soviet government needed a change in the model of governing the country. It was decided to introduce a system that would combine economic liberalization and tight political control.

The reasons for the introduction of the new economic policy can be divided into:

economic - the country needed an impetus for the development of the economy;
social - the stratification of society contributed to the growth of social tension;
political - the NEP became a means of control.

The New Economic Policy was a market-administrative structure, which was characterized by:

the rejection of an equal pay system;
complete completion of labor mobilization;
partial transfer of state industrial enterprises into private hands;
widespread introduction of cost accounting;
the creation of new economic associations - syndicates and trusts;
the formation of enterprises at the expense of the bourgeoisie.

Financial reform of the NEP

The transition to a new economic policy required a reform of the financial and monetary system, which consisted in:

cessation of money emission;
creating a deficit-free budget;
the introduction of a single monetary system;
restoration of the banking system;
creating a stable currency;
development of an optimal tax system.

By a government decree of October 4, 1921, payment for coss-telegraph and transport services, the State Bank was formed and savings and loan offices were opened.

In November 1922, in accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the issuance of a parallel currency began - a gold piece, which was equated to one spool - 7.75 grams of gold. Chervonets were intended to serve wholesale trade, credit operations State Bank and industry. In 1923 and 1924, two devaluations of the calculated monetary unit which made it possible to give the reform a confiscatory character. In 1924, the monetary system with two parallel currencies was abolished.

The formation of a new monetary system was accompanied by the development of foreign, wholesale and retail trade, the elimination of the budget deficit, the revision of prices, the creation of stock exchanges and joint-stock banks. Solid National currency and a deficit-free budget were the most important achievements of financial reform.

NEP in agriculture

The new economic policy in agriculture has led to:

adoption of the land code;
introduction of a unified agricultural tax;
agricultural cooperation;

The replacement of the surplus with an agricultural tax was enshrined at the legislative level in March 1921 by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. Compared with the surplus appraisal, the amount of the tax is halved, but the decree limited the freedom of trade in products left after the payment of the tax. The agricultural market did not fulfill its functions, since the peasants were forced to sell half of the products below market price. The state exploited the peasants, and corruption and theft of state property by officials was widespread. Despite the fact that during the period of the NEP, the potential of agriculture was used irrationally, and the peasants were not interested in the development of the industry, in 1925 the amount of sown area reached pre-war level.

NEP in industry

The basis of the NEP in industry was the abolition of central administrations and the creation of trusts that gained complete financial and economic independence. Enterprises that are part of the trusts lost state supplies and purchased resources for open market. The introduction of cost accounting allowed enterprises of all forms of ownership to independently manage their income.

The state, in order to build a socialist planned economy, tried to combine two types of trust management - planned and market. This was the main complexity and inconsistency of the situation. The state strengthened the principle of planning and encouraged the creation of concerns by combining trusts with enterprises producing raw materials and finished products.

Simultaneously with the trusts, syndicates were created - associations of trusts for mutual lending, regulation trading operations in the market and wholesale distribution of products. In 1922, 80% of the trusts were syndicates.

The private sector during the NEP

During the period of the new economic policy, the private sector played an important role in the restoration of the food and light industry - it produced 20% of industrial output, and its share in retail trade was 83%.

Industry in the private sector was represented by rental, handicraft, cooperative and joint-stock enterprises. Private entrepreneurship has become widespread in the clothing, leather, food and shag industries. Despite the fact that the state, using tax pressure, regularly restricted the activities of private traders, there were 325 thousand private enterprises in the RSFSR, which employed 12% of the country's workforce.

Consequences

The NEP allowed the state to restore the destroyed economy in the absence of highly qualified personnel that were lost during the First World War and the Civil War. Recovery and high rates economic growth was achieved through the commissioning of pre-war capacities.

The potential for further development of the economy turned out to be too low. After all, representatives of the private sector were not allowed to leadership positions, foreign investment was not welcomed, and the country could not afford long-term capital-intensive investment. The implementation of the new economic policy without the participation of experienced production workers, managers and economists has become the main cause of serious mistakes and miscalculations.

In Soviet times, this set of measures was tried not to be covered in too much detail - it was considered exclusively as “temporary” and “forced”. Today they tend to consider it the greatest success of the Soviet government, which is also illogical. The NEP was simply a set of measures that significantly contributed to the country's exit from a deep economic crisis.

Two wars and a revolution

In this way, we can briefly formulate the reasons for the introduction of the NEP. The country was exhausted by two wars (world and civil), bad governance recent years tsarism and the coming to power of people, even if they were hard-working and honest (and not all of them could be said that way), but who had no practice of real managerial activity.

In some regions (for example, in the Donbass), the loss of industry amounted to 80% of the pre-war volume, and these were enterprises that could only be rebuilt (you cannot restart a blast furnace clogged with petrified, cooled slag). Unrest was brewing in the village because of the surplus appraisal. It also reduced production volumes (the peasants were not interested in increasing them) and deprived the country of the only reliable source of income - the ability to sell agricultural products.

Essence of the program

The NEP operated in the country during the period 1921-1928. His task was to solve the problem of the receipt of funds for the development and restoration of industry (the conditions of a real military threat made this vital) and to improve the situation in the countryside. V.I. Lenin acted as the main initiator of the introduction of the NEP. The beginning of the period is counted from the X Congress of the RCP (b) (March 1921).

Within the framework of the NEP, a number of transformations were carried out.

Commodity-money relations were returned, monetary reform, the currency became convertible, several banks were opened in the country (under state control, but with a certain degree of independence).
In the countryside, the surplus appropriation was replaced by a tax in kind, the size of which the peasant knew in advance. He could use the remaining product at his own discretion - sell, exchange, keep for himself. The state introduced measures to increase the purchase prices for agricultural products.
Industrial enterprises received the right to dispose of profits after paying taxes and contributing to the enterprise development fund.
In many non-strategic areas (trade, light industry, services), private entrepreneurship was allowed. Peasants also received the right to hire labor.
attracted to the country foreign capital in the form of concessions.
The state has ceased to be the only regulating force in the economy, having entrusted some of the powers to associations of state enterprises - syndicates and trusts.

Simultaneously with the introduction of the NEP, other measures were taken to strengthen the economy. One of them, thanks to Y. Semenov, is known as “diamonds for the dictatorship of the proletariat” - items made from precious metals and stones were collected in the country for sale for foreign currency. The collectivization of agriculture was also encouraged in every possible way (with the help of machinery, seeds, tax incentives), but there were no violent associations.

Nice results

On the whole, the NEP fulfilled its tasks. The total volume of industrial production in Russia reached the pre-war level in 1926 (of course, the indicators varied greatly by industry). Construction of new enterprises and electrification began (implementation of the GOELRO plan). Agricultural production increased noticeably, the appearance of machine and tractor stations (MTS) marked the beginning of mechanization in the countryside. Collective farms created during the NEP period proved to be successful in the 1930s (unlike those created by force).

In the abolition of the NEP and the transition to 5-year planning, of course, politics played a role. But more important was the fact that the NEP had exhausted itself - in the 30s, the country already needed industrialization, rapid industrial development, and not restoration and salvation from hunger and devastation. And the new owners, who began to feel like owners, were also not needed by the Soviet government ...

Something similar to the economic structure of the NEP period can be observed today in China. There, such an economy allows the rapid development of industrial production. But it must be taken into account that the Chinese leaders had the opportunity to carefully study the experience of the NEP, while the Soviet ones had to be the first.