New Economic Policy
The New Economic Policy[a] was a temporary retreat during a period of war that was implemented in the Russian SFSR and early Soviet Union which lasted from 1921 until 1928. It had multiple reasons for being introduced, including electrification and the growing dissatisfaction by peasants towards War Communism (the policy of the appropriation of the surplus of the peasants' output by the government), which was no longer necessary after Civil War. This policy, once the civil war ended, caused economic turmoil in factories too, as the inability of the loss of the surplus of the peasantry caused some to go hungry, which, while not a famine, decreased energy of the workers.[1]
The New Economic Policy was implemented as a way to solve these problems, allowing the peasantry to do as they wish with most of the surplus:
The Central Committee realized that the need for the surplus-appropriation system had passed, that it was time to supersede it by a tax in kind so as to enable the peasants to use the greater part of their surpluses at their own discretion. The Central Committee realized that this measure would make it possible to revive agriculture, to extend the cultivation of grain and industrial crops required for the development of industry, to revive the circulation of commodities, to improve supplies to the towns, and to create a new foundation, an economic foundation for the alliance of workers and peasants.[1]
According to the report of V. I. Lenin, the congress adopted a decision to replace the surplus appropriation system with a tax in kind, which meant the transition from "war communism", "forced by war and ruin", to a new economic policy, the only correct economic policy of the victorious proletariat, designed to destroy classes, to building socialism.[2]
The NEP from the start, however, marked an intense class struggle:
Lenin said that NEP meant a life and death struggle between capitalism and Socialism. "Who will win?"—that was the question.[1]
The socialist state-owned industry began to be built already under the NEP, and slowly phased out the NEP. From 1926-1927 the private sector output dorpped from 19 to 14 percent.[1]
Even more rapid was the rate of growth of large-scale Socialist industry, which in 1927, the first year after the restoration period, increased its output over the previous year by 18 per cent. This was a record increase, one beyond the reach of the large-scale industry of even the most advanced capitalist countries.[1]
However, farming, which was where the NEP originated, had still not been socialized. Thus began the collective farming movement, which truly marked the grave of the NEP, where the NEP had become a danger and a fetter to socialist construction. In 1928, the NEP was officially phased out. From its grave rose the first five-year plan, which ended the dangers of capitalist restoration and brought the USSR ever-closer towards socialism.
See also
References
Notes
- ↑ Russian: Новая экономическая политика