From the moment of the October Revolution until the end of the 1920s, two models of economic development were tested in Soviet Russia. The first was called the military com...

The years of the NEP, the reasons for the introduction of the new economic policy, its essence and historical facts

By Masterweb

20.04.2018 22:01

From the moment of the October Revolution until the end of the 1920s, two models of economic development were tested in Soviet Russia. The first was called war communism, the second - NEP (new economic policy). In the first years of the development of the socialist state, two directly opposite phenomena collided. How is this possible, and what was the NEP in the years of the USSR? Let's try to understand this issue.

From War Communism to the New Economic Policy

November 1920 marked the end of the civil war in Russia. The transition to the peaceful construction of statehood has begun. This was not easy to accomplish: during the years of unrest, the population of the country decreased by 20 million people, and the total damage amounted to about 39 billion gold rubles. The productive forces were undermined. Industry in 1920 was only 14% of the pre-war level. Agricultural production was reduced by a third, most of the transport routes were destroyed. Peasant uprisings raged everywhere, and in some places the white interventionists did not calm down.

The reason for the discontent was the system of war communism introduced by the Soviet government in 1918. This policy was to prepare the country for a new, communist society. Industry and agriculture were nationalized. Labor acquired a militarized character: the focus was mainly on military products. The people were dissatisfied with the total equalization, which was manifested in the introduction of food distribution. Bread was simply confiscated from the starving population.

The Soviet government was tired of fighting the growing number of riots. The last straw was the Kronstadt rebellion. Its participants previously helped the Bolsheviks in seizing power. Lenin was one of the first to guess that it is not good to fight against one's own people. In 1920, he spoke at the 10th Party Congress and proposed new economic principles.

The country during the years of the NEP was completely transformed. Extremely liberal principles and norms were introduced, which caused concern among hardened revolutionaries and educated Marxists. A Bolshevik opposition appeared, dissatisfied with the bourgeois bias of the leadership. What were the Marxists afraid of? It needs to be sorted out.

The essence of the NEP

The main goal of the NEP policy during the years of the USSR was the revival of the country's economic sector. A system of measures aimed at eliminating the food crisis was developed. It was possible to realize the goals set by raising agriculture. It was necessary to liberate the manufacturer, provide him with incentives for the development of production.

The years of the NEP were marked, in fact, by the strongest liberalization of the economic sphere. Of course, the market was out of the question, but in comparison with war communism, the new system was a significant step forward.

So, the reasons for the transition to the NEP policy in the years after the revolution were the following phenomena:

• the decline of the revolutionary wave in the West (in Mexico, Germany and a number of other states);
• the desire to retain power at any cost;
• the deepest political and socio-economic crisis of power, caused, among other things, by the policy of war communism;
• mass uprisings in the villages, as well as performances in the army and navy;
• the collapse of the idea of ​​forming socialism and communism by bypassing market relations.

The years of the New Economic Policy were marked by the gradual elimination of the military-mobilization economic model and the restoration of the national economy, which had been destroyed during the war.

The main political goal during the years of the NEP was the removal of social tensions. It was necessary to strengthen the social base in the form of an alliance of workers and peasants. The economic goal was to prevent further aggravation of the devastation, to overcome the crisis and restore the economy. The social task was to provide favorable conditions for the formation of a socialist society without a world revolution.

There were also foreign policy goals during the NEP years. The relatively liberal elite of the Soviet government insisted on overcoming international isolation. One of the reasons for this decision lay in the economic changes. For example, the concession, a procedure used during the years of the New Economic Policy, became widespread. The commissioning of various enterprises or lands to foreign entrepreneurs has gained remarkable popularity. This procedure helped quickly "pull out" many enterprises and lands, although the conservative part of the Bolsheviks was still suspicious of the concession.

Were the set goals achieved? There are separate indicators, for example, the growth of the national income, the improvement in the material situation of workers, etc. The years of the New Economic Policy really led to the optimization of the state situation. But was the new policy a real economic revolution, or did the Soviet government overestimate its own plans? To answer this question, we need to turn to the main methods and mechanisms used during the years of the NEP.

Changes in the economy

The first and main measure of the new economic policy was the elimination of food distribution. From now on, bread was not seized in unlimited quantities. A clear food tax limit was set - 20% of the net peasant product. The surplus demanded almost twice as much. The peasants could use the products remaining after the tax was paid for their own needs. You could use it yourself, transfer it to the state, or even sell it on the free market.

Radical changes also affected the industrial sector. The main committees were abolished - the so-called head offices. Instead, trusts appear - associations of interconnected or homogeneous enterprises. They receive complete financial and economic independence, up to the right to produce long-term bonds.

By the end of 1922, about 90% of the enterprises were merged into 421 trusts. 60% of them were local subordination and only 40% were centralized. The trusts resolved issues of production and state sales of products. The enterprises themselves did not receive state support and were guided only by the purchase of resources on the market.

No less popular were syndicates - voluntary associations of several trusts. They were engaged in supply, marketing, lending and various foreign trade functions. A wide network of fairs, trade enterprises and exchanges arose.

The aggressive policy of war communism assumed the complete abolition of finance and payment. But the years of the New Economic Policy in Russia revived commodity-money relations. Wage rates have been introduced, restrictions have been lifted to increase earnings and to change jobs, and universal labor service has been abolished. The principle of material incentives was taken as a basis. It replaced the non-economic coercion of War Communism.

Tax in kind and trade

A little more detail should be told about each economic sector that has undergone changes during the years of the NEP. The state with its entire population breathed a sigh of relief when it became known about the abolition of food distribution. At the X Congress of the RSDLP, held from March 8 to March 16, 1921, it was decided to introduce a special tax that would replace the forcible seizure of property. By the way, the question of in what year the transition to the NEP was officially confirmed by the authorities should be considered precisely within the framework of the X Congress. At it, Lenin proposed a program of new socio-economic principles, which was supported by 732,000 party members.

The essence of the tax in kind is simple: from now on, the peasants annually hand over to the state a firmly formed norm of bread. The forcible seizure of almost half of the total production is a thing of the past. The tax has been halved. The authorities considered that such a move would create an incentive to increase grain production. By 1922, measures to help the peasants were even strengthened: the tax in kind was reduced by 10%. Farmers were freed from the choice of forms of agricultural use. Even the hiring of labor and the lease of land were allowed.

All measures taken were the most liberal. The commercial and financial side of the NEP concerned the free sale of rural products. At the 10th Congress, the beginning of the exchange of products between the countryside and the city was announced. The advantage was given not to the market, but to cooperatives. Initially, the Bolsheviks planned to be based on barter - free exchange without money. For example, 1 pound of rye could be exchanged for 1 box of nails. Naturally, nothing came of this venture. The pseudo-socialist exchange of products was quickly replaced by the usual buying and selling with money.

Industry during the NEP

The transition to the use of market mechanisms was completed in the autumn of 1921. This prompted the leadership of the RCP(b) to urgently carry out reforms in the industrial field. Most state-owned enterprises had to switch to the principles of cost accounting. Public finances, on the other hand, had to be reformed in equal measure - by replacing taxes in kind with money taxes, forming a new budget, establishing control over money emission, etc.

The question of the creation of state capitalism in the form of concessions and lease relations was formed. The domineering-capitalist form of management included industrial, rural and consumer cooperation.

The main task of the Bolshevik leadership was to strengthen the socialist sector through the creation of a large state industry. It was necessary to ensure its interaction with other structures. Didn't such a step contradict the basic principles of the New Economic Policy? The issue needs to be sorted out.

The public sector included the largest and most efficient enterprises, which were provided with fuel, raw materials and other products. All major economic entities were subordinate to the Supreme Council of the National Economy (VSNKh). The rest of the enterprises were immediately rented out. The industrial management system was reformed. Only 16 of the fifty former branch centers and central departments of the Supreme Council of National Economy remained. Accordingly, the number of employees was reduced from 300 thousand to 91 thousand people.

The surrender of domestic industry to foreign entrepreneurs, which was used during the NEP years, was called a concession. In fact, production attracted foreign capital. This saved many unprofitable enterprises during the years of the NEP.

Despite the development of market mechanisms, the Soviet authorities still despised the bourgeois development of society. “Capitalism must be well-trained in our country,” Lenin once said. What could he mean? Most likely, Vladimir Ilyich was going to improve the country in a matter of months with the help of the market and liberal reforms, and then return to the path of socialist development again. Capitalism in Russia will not develop fully, but only at the "school" level. After that, he will be liquidated, "schooled out."

Trade and private capital

A significant step forward was the revival of private capital in the trade sector. Merchants, like small producers, were forced to buy up patents and pay a progressive tax. Merchants were divided into five categories depending on the nature of trade relations being implemented. These are sellers from hands, in shops, in kiosks and stalls, at retail and wholesale, as well as hired workers.

Closer to 1925, the state implemented a shift towards stationary trading. Used by the authorities and widely used during the years of the New Economic Policy, private traders were placed in shops that formed into a wide network of retail trade. At the same time, the wholesale market was still in the hands of the authorities. Cooperative and large state enterprises prevailed here.

Since 1921, exchanges began to revive - points of circulation of mass products. Such instances were abolished during the years of war communism, but the new economic policy changed everything.

During the years of the NEP, the number of different exchanges reached the pre-war number. By the end of 1925, about 90 joint-stock companies were registered. All of them were a combination of predominantly cooperative, state or mixed capital. The turnover of trading companies exceeded 1.5 billion rubles. Various forms of cooperation have developed rapidly. This was especially true of consumer cooperative institutions, which were closely connected with the countryside.

As already mentioned, a foreign element appeared in trade - concessions. This is the lease used during the years of the NEP to foreign tenants and small entrepreneurs of various firms and organizations. Already in 1926, 117 active concession agreements were counted. They covered enterprises that employed about 20 thousand people. This is 1% of the total number of products manufactured in Russia.

Concessions were not the only form of interaction with foreign enterprises. A stream of emigrant workers from all over the world went to the Soviet Union. A newly formed country with an unusual way of life, a utopian ideology and a complex form of government attracted foreigners. So, in 1922, the Russian-American Industrial Corporation (RAIK) was created, which included six clothing factories in Petrograd and four in Moscow. The credit system was revived. Until 1925, a number of specialized banks, joint-stock companies, syndicates, cooperatives, etc. appeared.

The situation, I must say, was amazing. The socialists who came to power were simply carried away by bourgeois governance, which is why they were criticized by the conservative part of the revolutionaries. However, the policy pursued was simply necessary. The devastation in the country required rapid changes, and they could only be ensured by proven, capitalist methods. But is it possible to say that a real market has been formed in the country? Let's try to figure it out further.

Market mechanisms

A pure market economy in the form in which we know it was absent in the USSR during the years of the NEP. This is an obvious fact, despite all the mechanisms and tricks that the Bolshevik government so often resorted to. The market cannot be built in a matter of days from scratch. And the country's economy was really "empty". The authorities achieved this phenomenon by aggressively imposing war communism. No matter how actively and effectively all those methods that marked the new years of the NEP were applied, a normal market was still not possible in the country.

In the late 1910s, monetary relations were abolished in the USSR. The majority of goods and services began to be dispensed free of charge. The Soviet government considered this decision painful, but correct. Radical measures supposedly will bring the soonest happy future, the flourishing of socialism will come. However, there was no happiness. The confusion with accumulated money and unsecured exchange only caused a wave of discontent. The state made concessions, and in order to improve the economy, a monetary reform was carried out - the first market mechanism.

In the early 1920s, gold coins were introduced in the country. It was equal to 5 US dollars and was backed by Russia's gold reserves. A little later, the State Bank appeared, created on the principles of cost accounting and interested in receiving income from lending to industry, trade and agriculture.

The transition to the NEP meant the rejection of revolutionary, radical methods of economic management. The Soviet authorities realized the inefficiency of the reactionary policy and did not begin to torture their fellow citizens. However, there is no need to talk about the market either. The surrender of revolutionary powers, which was used during the years of the NEP, does not mean an active and desired transition to capitalism. On the contrary, the authorities were reluctant to introduce new liberal elements. The same concession could not do without strict supervision by the Soviet authorities.

Social contradictions of politics

Most historians argue that the introduction of new economic principles significantly changed the social structure and lifestyle of Soviet citizens. Colorful figures of the Soviet bourgeoisie appeared - the so-called Sovburs, Nepmen. These are the faces that define the specifics of that era. They seemed to be outside of society. Deprived of voting rights and membership in trade unions, while far from being poor, the Nepmen became a real reflection of the times of the 1920s.

Entrepreneurs felt the fragility and temporality of their position. Leaving the country was difficult and pointless. It would simply not work to manage an enterprise from a distance. The Soviet Union itself was a state with an unusual ideology: every person here should be equal, all the rich are despised. More recently, landowners and merchants were killed or expelled from the country. The Nepmen knew this, and therefore feared for their lives.

Fashion in the years of the NEP differed little from the American era of Prohibition. The photo below clearly demonstrates this.

How long can you hit the jackpot and earn on adventures? Where to put the spent savings and is it worth it at all? These questions were asked by every Soviet entrepreneur who made at least small forecasts in his head.

However, the emergence of entrepreneurs in the country most unadapted to this was not the only contradiction during the NEP years. The applied support for small lands, as well as the reduction of prosperous farms and the "mediumization" of the countryside, presented another interesting problem.

It all started with the policy of taxes - a kind of deterrent. Wealthy production stopped growing. Support for small farms has been especially developed. The so-called middle farming began - when each owner gets not a little and not a lot, but average. It was the middle peasants who became staunch adherents of power and traditional culture.

The policy was carried out by Lenin. He hoped for total peasant cooperation, while he was not too lazy to once again mention the voluntary nature of land divisions. What is the contradiction here? On the one hand, the state had a socialist orientation. It was supposed to force everyone to equalize. But the policy of the NEP, marked by bourgeois principles, did not allow this to be done. As a result, a very strange picture turned out: supposedly voluntary "average" with incomprehensible goals, which did not lead to anything at all. A little later, the Soviet authorities will abandon private property and announce the creation of collective farms.

The last contradiction of the NEP is the creation of an exorbitant bureaucracy. The bureaucracy has grown to incredible proportions due to the active intervention of the authorities in the industrial and production spheres. Already in 1921, about 2.5 million officials worked in state institutions. For comparison: in tsarist Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, the number of civil servants hardly reached 180 thousand people. There is only one question: why does the state, whose ideology is aimed at the absence of any power, need such an extensive and cumbersome state apparatus? It is difficult to answer this question.

Policy Outcomes

The question of in what year the NEP was officially abolished remains relevant to this day. Some talk about 1927, when there was a disruption in the state grain procurement. At that time, a huge amount of food stocks were confiscated from the kulaks. Other historians put forward a point of view about 1928, when the policy of a five-year development of the national economy was launched. The country's leadership then took a course towards collectivization and forced industrialization.

The NEP was not officially cancelled. It should be remembered that the principles of the New Economic Policy were shaped by Vladimir Lenin, who died in 1924. His rules worked even after death. Only on October 11, 1931, an official decree was adopted on the complete ban on private trade in the territory of the USSR.

What was the main success of the policy? Firstly, this is a partial restoration of the economy, destroyed during the two revolutions and the civil war. War communism was not able to "cure" the country, but it did so in part through the application of capitalist methods. Economic indicators doubled from 1913 to 1926. The country received capital-intensive, long-term investments. The situation remained contradictory only in the countryside, where pressure was exerted on the kulaks - wealthy peasants.

Finding new ways

The undoubted successes of the New Economic Policy, however, did not solve all the problems of the state. The sales crisis remained in force, the price scissors increased (the discrepancy between the cost of goods), and finally, the shortage of goods did not disappear.

The authorities had different views on solving the problem. The left, led by Trotsky, insisted on a dictatorship of industry. The tasks can be solved only by the efforts of the proletariat with minimal interference from the authorities. There were also rightists headed by Bukharin. They advocated the creation of cooperatives, the support of the peasantry and the development of a market economy. Bukharin's famous quote:

Get rich, accumulate, develop your economy! The socialism of the poor is lousy socialism.

Trotsky was defeated quite easily - at the January 1924 party conference, his project was removed from discussion. Bukharin, in turn, became friends with Stalin. In the late 1920s, he fell into disgrace due to contradictions with the current government - his arguments against collectivization and industrialization were simply not accepted.

Kievyan street, 16 0016 Armenia, Yerevan +374 11 233 255

As a result of the First World War and the Civil War, the territories of Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine, the Kars region of Armenia and Bessarabia withdrew from Russia. Its population has dwindled to 135 million. The country lay in ruins. At the end of 1920, the government of V. I. Lenin was rapidly losing its social support in the countryside. The Russian peasantry, after a stubborn struggle against the White Guards and interventionists, refused to put up with the economic policy of the Bolsheviks. "War communism" was perceived by the peasantry as the sum of emergency measures forced by the civil war. However, the Bolsheviks did not agree to its abolition in the new, peaceful conditions. To regularly deliver grain to the city according to the surplus appropriation, so that the authorities would “distribute” it to plants and factories, restore on this basis the industry destroyed during the war years, return the debt to the peasantry, the village did not want to.

In different parts of the country (in the Tambov province, the Middle Volga region, on the Don, Kuban, in Western Siberia) in 1920–1921. peasant uprisings broke out. Among them, the most popular was "Antonov rebellion"", unfolding in 1920–1921 in Tambov province under the direction of an officer P. M. Tokmakova and SR A. S. Antonova. The peasants advocated a change in agrarian policy, the elimination of the dictates of the RCP (b), the convening of the Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal equal suffrage. The uprising was brutally suppressed by army units under the command of M. N. Tukhachevsky.

P. M. Tokmakov A. S. Antonov

Headquarters of the 2nd Rebel Army. The village of Kibyaki, Kirsanovsky district

An important consequence of the Civil War, intervention, war communism and natural disasters $-$ drought $-$ was famine of 1921–1922., covering the Northern Black Sea region, the Middle and Lower Volga, the Urals, Northern Kazakhstan, Western Siberia. After the death of the crop, the peasants who handed over the grain under the surplus appraisal were left without food supplies. Five million people became victims of hunger, and the total number of hungry people reached 15 million people. To combat hunger, the SNK for the first time turned to foreign organizations for help: the charitable Hoover American Relief Administration (ARA) and the International Union for Helping Children, organized by F. Nansen, a polar explorer.

Famine of 1921 in the Volga region

A difficult situation has developed in the cities. During the years of hard times, industrial regions were badly affected: Donbass, the Baku oil region, the Urals and Siberia, many mines and mines were destroyed. Due to the shutdown of many factories, workers were forced to leave the cities and go to the countryside. In February 1921, 93 factories were closed in Petrograd. Those who lost their jobs took to the streets, strikes began. The Bolsheviks dispersed the workers' demonstrations and introduced martial law in the city.

Discontent seized the army. March 1, 1921. sailors and red soldiers Kronstadt, the largest naval base of the Baltic Fleet, took up arms against the Bolsheviks under the slogan "For Soviets without Communists!". They demanded the release from prison of all representatives of the socialist parties, the holding of re-elections of the Soviets, the exclusion of communists from them, the granting of freedom of speech, assembly and unions to all parties, ensuring freedom of trade, and the elimination of surplus appropriations.

From the document (Appeal of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of Kronstadt):

Comrades and citizens! Our country is going through a difficult moment. Hunger, cold, economic ruin have been holding us in an iron grip for three years now. The Communist Party, ruling the country, broke away from the masses and proved unable to lead it out of the state of general ruin. It did not take into account the unrest which had recently taken place in Petrograd and Moscow, and which pointed quite clearly to the fact that the Party had lost the confidence of the working masses. Nor did they take into account the demands made by the workers. She considers them the intrigues of the counter-revolution. She is deeply mistaken. These unrest, these demands $-$ are the voice of the whole people, of all working people. All workers, sailors and Red Army soldiers clearly see at the present moment that only by joint efforts, by the common will of the working people, can bread, firewood, coal be provided to the country, to clothe the barefooted and undressed, and lead the republic out of the impasse...

R. Franz. Kronstadt rebellion

Spontaneous outbursts of popular indignation at the economic policy of the Soviets were organized by representatives of various political forces $-$ from monarchists to socialists. They sought to use the element of popular indignation to eliminate the power of the Bolsheviks.

However, the leadership of the Communist Party did not flinch, after unsuccessful negotiations, they sent detachments of the regular Red Army to suppress the Kronstadt rebellion. March 18 Kronstadt was taken by the forces of the 7th Army under the command of M. N. Tukhachevsky; the survivors went to Finland or surrendered.

V. I. Lenin formulated two principles "Lesson of Kronstadt". The first "lesson" indicated the importance of an agreement with the peasantry in order to save the socialist revolution in Russia before the revolution came in other countries. The second $-$ demanded a fierce struggle against the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists and other opposition forces, to isolate them from the peasantry.

X Congress of the RCP (b): the proclamation of the NEP

A rethinking of the foundations of economic policy began, accompanied by the liberation of the country's economic life from total state regulation. X Congress of the RCP (b) March 14, 1921. proclaimed new economic policy(NEP) as a temporary measure aimed at creating conditions for socialism. Its goals were to ease social tension, strengthen the social base of Soviet power, overcome the crisis and restore the ruined economy, create favorable conditions for building a socialist society in Russia, without waiting for the world revolution. It was supposed to restore foreign policy ties, overcome international isolation. At the same time, under the conditions of the continuation of the Bolshevik dictatorship, attempts to democratize society and expand the civil rights of the population were resolutely suppressed.

Lenin delivers a speech at a meeting of the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b)

The economic development of the country in the 1920s.

The first measure of the NEP was March 21, 1921. replacement of the surplus food tax, the size of which was established before spring sowing for each type of agricultural product, taking into account local conditions and the prosperity of peasant farms. The tax in kind was significantly lower than the surplus appraisal. The peasants were allowed to sell the products remaining after its delivery.

Significant transformations have taken place in industry. Was held denationalization of small and medium industry. Limited freedom of private capital was allowed, the use of hired labor, it became possible to create private enterprises with no more than 20 employees.

Some enterprises were leased to foreign firms in the form of concessions. In 1926–1927 was concluded 117 concessions$-$ agreements concluded by the state with a foreign firm on the transfer to operation on certain conditions of enterprises, land with the right to build structures, and extract minerals. The share of concession enterprises was most significant in the extraction of lead and silver $-$ 60%; manganese ore $-$ 85%; gold $-$ 30%; in the production of clothing and toilet articles $-$ 22%.

Instead of head offices were formed trusts, uniting homogeneous or interconnected enterprises that have received complete economic and financial independence, up to the right to issue long-term bonded loans. At the end of 1922, about 90% of industrial enterprises merged into 421 trusts. The trusts themselves decided what to produce and where to sell their products. After obligatory fixed contributions to the state budget, they themselves disposed of the income from the sale of products, were themselves responsible for the results of their economic activities, independently using profits and covering losses (self-supporting).

The enterprises that were part of the trust were removed from the state supply and switched to purchasing resources on the market. Metallurgy, the fuel and energy complex, and partially transport remained on the state supply. The Supreme Economic Council lost the right to interfere in the activities of enterprises and turned into a coordinating center.

On the basis of cooperation, trusts united in syndicates engaged in sales, supply, lending, foreign trade operations. There was a wide network of commodity exchanges, fairs (Nizhny Novgorod, Kyiv, Irbit, Baku), trade enterprises.

The equalizing wages established during the Civil War were replaced by a new incentive tariff policy that takes into account the qualifications of workers, the quality and quantity of products produced. General labor conscription and labor mobilizations, the rationing system for the distribution of food and goods were abolished. The salary was given in cash, not "rations".

Rapid development has been cooperation. Marketing, supply and credit cooperation was covered by the end of the 1920s. more than half of all peasant farms. The credit system was actively revived. In 1921–1924 A banking system was created that included the State Bank and a network of specialized banks. Direct and indirect taxes were introduced (commercial, income, agricultural, excises on consumer goods, local taxes). Payment for services (transport, communications, utilities) was restored.

In 1922 the monetary reform began: instead of the devalued soviet marks, a stable currency $-$ was issued soviet chervonets, used for short-term lending in industry and trade. It was backed by gold (1 chervonets = 10 pre-revolutionary gold rubles = 7.74 g of pure gold). In 1924, copper and silver coins and treasury bills of $-$ rubles (10 rubles = 1 chervonets) were issued instead of Soviet signs. During the implementation of the monetary reform, it was possible to eliminate the budget deficit. Stock exchanges appeared, where the purchase and sale of currency was allowed. The implementation of the monetary reform was led by the People's Commissar for Finance G. Ya. Sokolnikov, a supporter of the creation of a stable currency.

The NEP led to a rapid economic recovery. Commodity-money relations penetrated into all spheres of the economic organism. By 1926, it was possible to restore the economy destroyed during the First World War and the Civil War: the index of industrial production increased more than 3 times; agricultural production doubled and exceeded the level of 1913 by 18%. An important result of the NEP was the saturation of the market with food. At the same time, key positions in industry were occupied by state trusts, in the credit and financial sphere by $-$ state and cooperative banks, in agriculture by $-$ small peasant farms covered by the simplest types of cooperation.

The role of the state. Crises of the NEP

Under the NEP, the economic functions of the state have changed. Previously, the center directly established by order the natural, technological parameters of reproduction. Now his role was to regulate prices in order to ensure balanced growth through indirect, economic methods. Non-tax methods of replenishing the treasury were forced loans, understated grain prices and overpriced industrial goods.

The question of prices was the main one in state economic policy, since their increase by trusts and syndicates could result in a sales crisis, and their decrease led to the enrichment of the private owner at the expense of state industry. Since the end of 1923, the People's Commissariat of Internal Trade began to regulate prices. As a result of his activities, wholesale prices for food products decreased from October 1923 to May 1, 1924 by 26%.

As a result, industrial goods turned out to be several times more expensive, if we calculate their value in pounds of wheat, than in the pre-war period. A phenomenon was formed, which L. Trotsky called "price scissors» . Under the new pricing policy, peasants stopped selling surplus grain, so already autumn 1923 d. arose first marketing crisis for manufactured goods. Despite the need for industrial products, the peasants refused to buy them at inflated prices. IN 1924–1925. a "procurement" crisis arose: grain procurements amounted to 2/3 of the expected level. IN 1927–1928 failed to collect even the necessary.

As the NEP was implemented, the attitude towards free trade changed. Initially, V. I. Lenin called the NEP a retreat from the period of "war communism", referring mainly to the scale of private enterprise. In 1921, at the Second All-Russian Congress of Political Enlightenment, he admitted that capitalism had been restored to a certain extent, that its restoration was necessary for the survival of Bolshevism, and the limits of further retreat were unknown. However, Lenin did not attribute the term "retreat" to trusts or cooperatives. After the transition to the NEP, he considered self-supporting trusts, interconnected through the market, as a socialist, and not a transitional form of management to socialism. On May 26, 1921, People's Commissar for Agriculture V.V. Osinsky determined the prospects for the NEP: “seriously and for a long time” $-$ 25 years.

Further progress towards the market was hampered by political factors, the fear of the “rebirth” of power and the revival of capitalism. The official ideology formed in the public mind the image of the "nepman" $-$ exploiter and class enemy. "Nepmen" differed in their political, social and economic status from the rest of the population. According to the legislation in force at that time, they did not have voting rights, were deprived of the opportunity to teach their children in the same schools as children of other social groups, could not legally publish their newspapers, were not called up for military service, could not join trade unions and occupy positions in the state apparatus.

1920s poster

Curtailment and results of the NEP

In the second half of the 1920s. the gradual curtailment of the NEP began: syndicates in industry were liquidated, private capital was squeezed out, and the centralized system of economic management was restored.

In October 1928, the implementation of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy began, the government set a course for accelerated industrialization and collectivization. By this time, the NEP had already been actually curtailed, although it was legally terminated only on October 11, 1931, with the adoption of a resolution on the complete ban on private trade in the USSR.

The main result of the NEP was the restoration of the destroyed economy. Significant economic growth rates were achieved due to the return to operation of pre-war capacities: Russia by 1926-1927. reached the economic indicators of 1913. There was no potential for further economic growth. The development of the private sector was limited. The state did not have sufficient funds for long-term investments. Foreign investors were deterred by the continuing instability and the threat of nationalization of capital.

Political development of the country during the years of the NEP

With the announcement of the NEP, discipline within the Communist Party was tightened. The "left" inner-party opposition, led by L. Trotsky, saw in the NEP a capitulation to capitalism, a rejection of communist strategy and tactics. To neutralize the actions of the "workers' opposition" of the $-$ opposition grouping in the party, which arose at the end of 1920, demanding the transfer of all power in production to the trade unions, the $-$ X Congress of the RCP (b) in 1921 adopted a resolution "On the unity of the party" . According to this document, the decisions taken by the majority were to be carried out by all members of the party, including those who disagreed.

Under conditions of free trade, the Communist Party did not lose control over the political and spiritual life of society. The Cheka, which was transformed into the GPU in 1922, carried out vigilant supervision over the work of state, party economic and other institutions. In 1922, legally published newspapers and magazines of the left socialist parties were closed, which soon ceased to exist themselves. In the summer of the same year, an open trial of the Right SRs took place, which ended with the condemnation of all more or less major representatives of this party who remained in Russia.

In 1922, more than 200 major representatives of Russian science, medicine, and literature were sent abroad, who did not agree with the Bolshevik government. The operation to deport them was called the "Philosophical steamboat".

O. Tsutskova. Russian idea. Philosophical steamer

In the same year, under the pretext of fighting hunger, the seizure of valuables of the Russian Orthodox Church began. Of the church valuables confiscated by the state in the amount of 2.5 billion gold rubles, only 1 billion was spent on the purchase of food to help the starving. The authorities supported the so-called "renovationism", which undermined internal church unity.

At the end of 1922, the inner-party struggle intensified: the rivals of L. Trotsky, the leader of the inner-party left opposition, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Stalin, who did not have his authority, in a short time created the cult of Lenin. Meanwhile, the leader's health was deteriorating: in May 1922 he fell seriously ill, so he was given a gentle work schedule. In May 1923, he moved to Gorki near Moscow, where he recovered from attacks, learning to pronounce words again. At the beginning of 1924 there was a sharp deterioration, January 24 Lenin died.

Lenin in Gorki, August 1922

Realizing that his days were numbered, in December 1922-January 1923 Lenin wrote letters to the congress, which became known as his "political testament". He saw the main danger in the degeneration of the party, therefore he proposed to expand the Central Committee at the expense of the workers, to elect a new Central Control Commission (Central Control Commission) from the proletarians, to cut the overgrown Workers 'and Peasants' Inspectorate. In a note "Letter to the Congress" contained personal characteristics of the largest party leaders: Trotsky, Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Pyatakov.

From the document (Letter to Congress):

I think that from this point of view, Central Committee members such as Stalin and Trotsky are the main ones on the issue of stability. The relations between them, in my opinion, constitute more than half of the danger of that split, which could be avoided and which, in my opinion, should be avoided, among other things, by increasing the number of members of the Central Committee to 50, to 100 people.

Tov. Stalin, having become General Secretary, has concentrated immense power in his hands, and I am not sure whether he will always be able to use this power with sufficient caution. On the other hand, com. Trotsky, as his struggle against the Central Committee on the question of the NKPS has already proved, is distinguished not only by his outstanding abilities. Personally, he is perhaps the most capable person in the present Central Committee, but he is also overly self-confident and overly enthusiastic about the purely administrative side of things ...

I will not further characterize the other members of the Central Committee by their personal qualities. Let me only remind you that the October episode of Zinoviev and Kamenev, of course, was not an accident, but that it can just as little be blamed on them personally as non-Bolshevism on Trotsky.

Among the young members of the Central Committee, I would like to say a few words about Bukharin and Pyatakov. These, in my opinion, are the most outstanding forces (of the youngest forces), and with regard to them one should bear in mind the following: Bukharin is not only the most valuable and prominent theoretician of the Party, he is also legitimately considered the favorite of the entire Party, but his theoretical views are very much doubt can be attributed to the completely Marxist, because there is something scholastic in him (he never studied and, I think, never fully understood dialectics) ...

Then Pyatakov $-$ a man, undoubtedly, of outstanding will and outstanding abilities, but too keen on administration and the administrative side of things to be relied upon in a serious political question ...

Stalin is too rude, and this shortcoming, which is quite tolerable in the environment and in communications between us Communists, becomes intolerable in the position of General Secretary. Therefore, I suggest that the comrades consider a way to move Stalin from this place ...

Lenin's "testament" did not become the property of the party, it reached the rank and file members only in fragments. After the death of the leader, a struggle began for the right to be his successor. In intra-party discussions, the issues of building socialism in one country, exporting the revolution to other countries were raised.

In October 1923 d. in the conditions of the outbreak of the sales crisis Trotsky turned to the Central Committee with a letter, protesting against attempts to command prices in the spirit of war communism and the bureaucratization of the inner-party regime. A week later, he was supported by 46 old Bolsheviks ( "Statement 46» ): E. A. Preobrazhensky, L. P. Serebryakov, A. S. Bubnov and others. The Central Committee responded with a decisive refutation: Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev accused Trotsky of Menshevism and deviationism. From now on, the substitution of labeling for discussion will become a familiar tool of political struggle.

At the XIII Congress of the RCP (b) in May 1924, Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev won the condemnation of "Trotskyism" and demanded the abandonment of factional activities. In the autumn of 1924, Trotsky, in his book The Lessons of October, recalled that he made the revolution with Lenin, and spoke about internal party differences on the eve of the October Revolution. In response, Pravda published an article by N. I. Bukharin “How not to write the history of October”, followed by similar articles by Zinoviev, Kamenev, Sokolnikov. Trotsky was accused of distorting the history of the revolution. In December 1924, he was removed from the post of People's Commissar of the Military Sea, leaving him in the Politburo of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks until 1926.

In 1924 Stalin organized a mass recruitment into the party, known as "Lenin's call". The result of this process was the degeneration of the party: the dissolution of the old ideological Bolsheviks among the young party members, most of whom did not even know communist theory. An important phenomenon of this time was the merging of the party and the government. The center of power from the legislature (VTsIK) moved to the $-$ SNK government. The appearance of the party member changed: the intellectual, educational, moral level went down. The post of General Secretary, which since April 1922 was held by Stalin, was gaining more and more importance. The expansion of the privileges of the upper stratum of members of the $-$ nomenklatura party has begun.

At the second stage of the inner-party struggle, the peasant question turned out to be in the center of attention. In Georgia in 1924 a major peasant uprising broke out. An active supporter of the continuation of the NEP was N. I. Bukharin, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, one of the leaders of the party and state. In 1925 he addressed the peasants with the slogan: “Get rich, accumulate, develop your economy!» , pointing out that "the socialism of the poor $-$ is lousy socialism." Bukharin proposed to expand the possibilities for the use of hired labor.

Other party leaders, headed by E. A. Preobrazhensky, chairman of the Finance Committee of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the Council of People's Commissars, feared that the “kulaks” were taking economic and political power in the countryside, and therefore demanded a fight against the kulaks. Preobrazhensky insisted on the development of industry and the establishment of high taxes on the peasantry and high prices for manufactured goods. Stalin supported Bukharin and advocated the "maximum expansion" of the NEP.

In April 1925, the XIV Party Conference took place in Moscow. According to the results of the report of the chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR A. I. Rykov "On cooperation", a resolution was adopted proclaiming a reduction of the total amount of agricultural tax by 40%, investing additional public funds in the system of economic credit to peasants, allowing the hiring of labor and the lease of land. The right to participate in various forms of cooperation was now granted to all sections of the population involved in agriculture. The conference also adopted the proposal put forward by Stalin in December 1924. "the theory of building socialism in one country».

After the XIV conference in 1925-1926. formed "new opposition» ("Leningrad"), the leaders of which were G. E. Zinoviev, L. B. Kamenev, G. Ya. Sokolnikov, N. K. Krupskaya, G. E. Evdokimov, P. A. Zalutsky, G. I. Safarov. The "Platform of Four" (Zinoviev, Kamenev, Sokolnikov and Krupskaya) criticized both the economic turn in the countryside and the internal party regime. "Leningraders" opposed the theory of building socialism in one single country. In December 1925, the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b) condemned the views of the "new opposition". Zinoviev was removed from the post of chairman of the executive committee of the Leningrad Soviet and the Executive Committee of the Comintern, Kamenev $-$ from the post of chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow Soviet.

In 1926. supporters of Trotsky and the "new opposition" united. TO "united opposition" former members of the "workers' opposition" and the "Georgian opposition" joined. Pointing to the bureaucratization of the party apparatus as the main cause of the crisis that had engulfed the party, Trotsky called for the development of industrialization, higher prices for industrial goods and taxes on the peasantry.

At the July and October plenums of the Central Committee in 1926, the majority supported the ruling group, the leaders of the opposition (Trotsky, Zinoviev and Kamenev) were removed from the Politburo. In December 1927, the XV Congress of the CPSU (b) declared Trotsky's views incompatible with party membership. 75 active members of the "united opposition" folded their membership cards. In 1927, Trotsky was sent into exile, in 1929 he was expelled from the USSR, and in 1932 he was deprived of Soviet citizenship. In exile, he became the founder and main theoretician of the Fourth International (1938). Killed by NKVD agent R. Mercader on August 20, 1940 in Mexico.

Date Key events
1920	VIII All-Russian Congress of Soviets approved the GOELRO plan
March 1921	The uprising of sailors in Kronstadt. Demand: the release of representatives of the socialist parties. Re-elections in the Soviets, the introduction of political freedoms. The uprising was suppressed by the forces of the Red Army and the Cheka. 3 thousand sailors were shot, 8 thousand emigrated to Finland
March 1921	X Congress of the RCP(b). Lenin Proposes New Economic Policy (NEP)
	Replacing the surplus tax with a tax in kind. The tax in kind is less than half and cannot be changed during the year. The measure does not lead to an increase in commodity exchange, it is necessary to return the money turnover. The tax in kind was first paid in kind, but by 1924 it had switched to cash
	denationalization of the economy. Trusts remain under state control. It is allowed to open private enterprises. Are being created concessions$-$ joint ventures of the state with foreign capital. Part of the profit in the form of goods is received by the state, part goes to sale or abroad. These measures do not apply to transport, metallurgy, resource extraction. The system of trusts controlled by the Supreme Council of National Economy is moving to self-financing
	Gosplan is being created
	The Soviet chervonets is put into circulation
	Labor armies are abolished, general labor service is abolished, hiring of workers is allowed
	The Cheka was renamed the GPU (Main Political Directorate. Trial against the Social Revolutionaries, 12 people were sentenced to death.
	The post of General Secretary of the Party was established. I. V. Stalin becomes them
Autumn 1922	A "philosophical ship" leaves from Russia with 160 artists on board.
	A significant part of church lands was confiscated. Patriarch Tikhon placed under house arrest.
	Lenin writes a letter to the congress, where he gives unflattering characteristics to Stalin and Trotsky.
	The beginning of the collapse of the NEP. The “enemies of the people”, kulaks, specialists, and Nepmen are blamed for the failures, and political trials begin.
	Trotsky expelled from the USSR

The first attempts to curtail the NEP began. Syndicates in industry were liquidated, from which private capital was administratively ousted, and a rigid centralized system of economic management (economic people's commissariats) was created. Stalin and his entourage headed for the forced seizure of grain and the forcible collectivization of the countryside. Repressions were carried out against managerial personnel (Shakhty case, the process of the Industrial Party, etc.). By the beginning of the 1930s, the NEP was effectively curtailed.

Prerequisites for the NEP

The volume of agricultural production decreased by 40% due to the depreciation of money and the shortage of manufactured goods.

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

Thus, the main task of the internal policy of the RCP (b) and the Soviet state was to restore the destroyed economy, create a material, technical and socio-cultural basis for building socialism, promised by the Bolsheviks to the people.

The peasants, outraged by the actions of the food detachments, not only refused to hand over their bread, but also rose to armed struggle. The uprisings swept the Tambov region, Ukraine, Don, Kuban, the Volga region and Siberia. The peasants demanded a change in agrarian policy, the elimination of the dictates of the RCP (b), the convening of the Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal equal suffrage. Units of the Red Army were sent to suppress these demonstrations.

Discontent spread to the army. On March 1, sailors and Red Army soldiers of the Kronstadt garrison under the slogan "For Soviets without Communists!" demanded the release from prison of all representatives of the socialist parties, the holding of re-elections of the Soviets and, as follows from the slogan, the exclusion of all communists from them, the granting of freedom of speech, meetings and unions to all parties, ensuring freedom of trade, allowing peasants to freely use their land and dispose of the products of their economy , that is, the elimination of surplus appropriation. Convinced of the impossibility of reaching an agreement with the rebels, the authorities stormed Kronstadt. By alternating artillery shelling and infantry actions, Kronstadt was taken by March 18; some of the rebels died, the rest went to Finland or surrendered.

From the appeal of the Provisional Revolutionary Committee of the city of Kronstadt:

Comrades and citizens! Our country is going through a difficult moment. Hunger, cold, economic ruin have been holding us in an iron grip for three years now. The Communist Party, ruling the country, broke away from the masses and proved unable to lead it out of the state of general ruin. It did not take into account the unrest which had recently taken place in Petrograd and Moscow, and which pointed quite clearly to the fact that the Party had lost the confidence of the working masses. Nor did they take into account the demands made by the workers. She considers them the intrigues of the counter-revolution. She is deeply mistaken. These unrest, these demands are the voice of the entire people, of all working people. All workers, sailors and Red Army soldiers clearly see at the present moment that only by joint efforts, by the common will of the working people, can bread, firewood, coal be provided to the country, to clothe the barefooted and undressed, and lead the republic out of the impasse...

The uprisings that swept across the country convincingly showed that the Bolsheviks were losing support in society. Already in the year there were calls to abandon the surplus appraisal: for example, in February 1920 Trotsky submitted a corresponding proposal to the Central Committee, but received only 4 votes out of 15; at about the same time, independently of Trotsky, the same question was raised by Rykov in the Supreme Council of National Economy.

The policy of war communism has exhausted itself, but Lenin, in spite of everything, persisted. Moreover, at the turn of 1920 and 1921, he resolutely insisted on strengthening this policy - in particular, plans were made for the complete abolition of the monetary system.

V. I. Lenin

Only by the spring of 1921 it became obvious that the general discontent of the lower classes, their armed pressure could lead to the overthrow of the power of the Soviets, led by the Communists. Therefore, Lenin decided to make a concession in order to maintain power.

The course of development of the NEP

Proclamation of the NEP

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 covered more than half of all peasant farms. By the end of the year, various types of non-production cooperatives, primarily peasant cooperatives, covered 28 million people (13 times more than in the city). 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.

Instead of the depreciated and actually already rejected by the turnover of the Soviet signs, a new monetary unit was launched in the city - chervonets, which had a gold content and a gold exchange rate (1 chervonets \u003d 10 pre-revolutionary gold rubles \u003d 7.74 g of pure gold). In the city, the Soviet signs, which were quickly supplanted by the chervonets, ceased to be printed altogether and were withdrawn from circulation; in the same year, the budget was balanced and the use of money emission to cover state expenses was prohibited; new treasury notes were issued - rubles (10 rubles = 1 gold piece). On the foreign exchange market, both within the country and abroad, chervonets were freely exchanged for gold and major foreign currencies at the pre-war rate of the tsarist ruble (1 US dollar = 1.94 rubles).

The credit system has revived. In the city, the State Bank of the USSR was recreated, which began lending to industry and trade on a commercial basis. In 1922-1925. a number of specialized banks were created: joint-stock, in which the State Bank, syndicates, cooperatives, private and even at one time foreign, were shareholders, for lending to certain sectors of the economy and regions of the country; cooperative - for lending to consumer cooperation; organized on the shares of the agricultural credit society, closed on the republican and central agricultural banks; mutual credit societies - for lending to private industry and trade; savings banks - to mobilize the savings of the population. As of October 1, 1923, there were 17 independent banks operating in the country, and the share of the State Bank in the total credit investments of the entire banking system was 2/3. By October 1, 1926, the number of banks increased to 61, and the share of the State Bank in lending to the national economy decreased to 48%.

The economic mechanism during the NEP period was based on market principles. 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.

Discipline within the Communist Party itself was also tightened. At the end of 1920, an opposition group appeared in the party - the "workers' opposition", which demanded the transfer of all power in production to the trade unions. In order to stop such attempts, the X Congress of the RCP (b) in 1921 adopted a resolution on the unity of the party. According to this resolution, the decisions taken by the majority must be carried out by all members of the party, including those who do not agree with them.

The consequence of the one-party system was the merging of the party and the government. The same people occupied the main positions in the party (Politburo) and state bodies (SNK, All-Russian Central Executive Committee, etc.). At the same time, the personal authority of the people's commissars and the need to make urgent, urgent decisions in the conditions of the Civil War led to the fact that the center of power was concentrated not in the legislative body (VTsIK), but in the government - the Council of People's Commissars.

All these processes led to the fact that the actual position of a person, his authority played a greater role in the 1920s than his place in the formal structure of state power. That is why, speaking about the figures of the 1920s, we first of all name not positions, but surnames.

In parallel with the change in the position of the party in the country, the rebirth of the party itself took place. It is obvious that there will always be many more people wishing to join the ruling party than an underground party, membership in which cannot give other privileges than iron bunks or a noose around the neck. At the same time, the party, having become the ruling one, began to need to increase its membership in order to fill government posts at all levels. This led to a rapid growth in the size of the Communist Party after the revolution. From time to time he was spurred on by mass sets, such as the "Lenin Set" after Lenin's death. The inevitable consequence of this process was the dissolution of the old, ideological, Bolsheviks among the young party members. In 1927, out of 1,300,000 people who were members of the party, only 8,000 had pre-revolutionary experience; most of the rest did not know the communist theory at all.

Not only the intellectual and educational, but also the moral level of the party went down. Indicative in this regard are the results of the party purge carried out in the second half of 1921 with the aim of removing "kulak-proprietary and petty-bourgeois elements" from the party. Of the 732,000 members, only 410,000 members remained in the party (slightly more than half!). At the same time, a third of those expelled were expelled for passivity, another quarter - for "discrediting the Soviet government", "selfishness", "careerism", "bourgeois lifestyle", "decomposition in everyday life".

In connection with the growth of the party, the initially inconspicuous post of secretary began to acquire more and more importance. Any secretary is a secondary position by definition. This is a person who, during official events, monitors compliance with the necessary formalities. Since April, the Bolshevik Party has had the post of general secretary. He connected the leadership of the secretariat of the Central Committee and the accounting and distribution department, which distributed lower-level party members to various positions. This position was given to Stalin.

Soon the expansion of the privileges of the upper stratum of party members began. Since 1926, this layer has received a special name - "nomenclature". So they began to call the party and state posts included in the list of posts, the appointment to which was subject to approval in the Accounting and Distribution Department of the Central Committee.

The processes of party bureaucratization and centralization of power took place against the backdrop of a sharp deterioration in Lenin's health. Actually, the year of the introduction of the NEP was for him the last year of a full life. In May of the year, he was struck by the first blow - his brain was damaged, so that the almost helpless Lenin was given a very sparing work schedule. In March of the year, a second attack occurred, after which Lenin fell out of life for half a year, almost learning to pronounce words anew. As soon as he began to recover from the second attack, in January the third and last happened. As the autopsy showed, for the last almost two years of his life, only one hemisphere of the brain was active in Lenin.

But between the first and second attacks, he still tried to participate in political life. Realizing that his days were numbered, he tried to draw the attention of the congress delegates to the most dangerous trend - the degeneration of the party. In his letters to the congress, known as his "political testament" (December 1922 - January 1923), Lenin proposes to expand the Central Committee at the expense of the workers, to elect a new Central Control Commission from among the proletarians, to cut down the excessively swollen and therefore incapacitated RCI (Workers - peasant inspection).

There was another component in the "Lenin's Testament" - the personal characteristics of the largest party leaders (Trotsky, Stalin, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, Pyatakov). Often this part of the Letter is interpreted as a search for a successor (heir), but Lenin, unlike Stalin, was never a sole dictator, he could not take a single fundamental decision without the Central Committee, and not so fundamental - without the Politburo, despite the fact that in The Central Committee, and even more so the Politburo, at that time was occupied by independent people who often disagreed with Lenin in their views. Therefore, there could be no question of any "heir" (and it was not Lenin who called the Letter to the Congress a "testament"). Assuming that after him the party would continue to have a collective leadership, Lenin characterized the alleged members of this leadership, for the most part ambiguous. Only one specific indication was in his Letter: the post of general secretary gives Stalin too much power, dangerous in his rudeness (this was dangerous, according to Lenin, only in the relationship between Stalin and Trotsky, and not in general). Some modern researchers believe, however, that "Lenin's testament" was based more on the psychological state of the patient than on political motives.

But the letters to the congress reached its rank-and-file participants only in fragments, and the letter, in which comrades-in-arms were given personal characteristics, was not shown to the party at all by the inner circle. We agreed among ourselves that Stalin promised to improve, and that was the end of the matter.

Even before the physical death of Lenin, at the end of the year, a struggle began between his "heirs", more precisely, the pushing of Trotsky from the helm. In the fall of the year, the struggle took on an open character. In October, Trotsky addressed a letter to the Central Committee, in which he pointed out the formation of a bureaucratic intra-party regime. A week later, an open letter in support of Trotsky was written by a group of 46 old Bolsheviks ("Statement 46"). The Central Committee, of course, responded with a decisive refutation. The leading role in this was played by Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev. It was not for the first time that sharp disputes arose in the Bolshevik Party. But unlike previous discussions, this time the ruling faction actively used labeling. Trotsky was not refuted by reasonable arguments - he was simply accused of Menshevism, deviationism and other mortal sins. The substitution of labeling for a real dispute is a new phenomenon: it did not exist before, but it will become more common as the political process develops in the 1920s.

Trotsky was defeated quite easily. The next party conference, held in January of the year, promulgated a resolution on the unity of the party (previously kept secret), and Trotsky was forced to silence. Until autumn. In the autumn of 1924, however, he published the book Lessons of October, in which he unequivocally stated that he made the revolution with Lenin. Then Zinoviev and Kamenev "suddenly" remembered that before the VI Congress of the RSDLP (b) in July 1917, Trotsky had been a Menshevik. The party was in shock. In December 1924, Trotsky was removed from the post of People's Commissar of the Navy, but left in the Politburo.

Curtailment of the NEP

In October 1928, the implementation of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy began. At the same time, it was not the project developed by the USSR State Planning Committee that was adopted as a plan for the first five-year plan, but an overestimated version, drawn up by the Supreme Council of National Economy, not so much taking into account objective possibilities, but under the pressure of party slogans. In June 1929, mass collectivization began (contradicting even the plan of the Supreme Council of National Economy) - it was carried out with the widespread use of coercive measures. In autumn, it was supplemented by forced grain procurements.

As a result of these measures, the unification into collective farms really acquired a mass character, which gave Stalin reason in November of the same 1929 to make a statement that the middle peasant went to the collective farms. Stalin's article was called that - "The Great Break". Immediately after this article, the next plenum of the Central Committee approved new, increased and accelerated plans for collectivization and industrialization.

Findings and Conclusions

The undoubted success of the NEP was the restoration of the destroyed economy, and, given that after the revolution, Russia lost 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.

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 the restoration of the national economy. The NEP was a forced measure and largely an improvisation. However, over the seven years of its existence, it has become one of the most successful economic projects of the Soviet period.

Auction house "Apollo" on Nevsky Prospekt, 1920.

By 1920, the RSFSR was literally in ruins. From the former Russian Empire came the territories of Poland, Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine, and Bessarabia. 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 of the internal policy of the RCP (b) and the Soviet state was to restore the destroyed economy, create a material, technical and socio-cultural basis for building socialism, promised by the Bolsheviks 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." The economic goal is to prevent further aggravation of the devastation, to get out of the crisis and restore the economy. The social goal is 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 to 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, a simplified registration procedure was established, and the allowable amount 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 basic private property rights recognized by the RSFSR, protected by its laws and protected 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 of the RSFSR was put into effect, 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 two denominations were carried out, as a result of which 1 million rubles in the old banknotes was equated to 1 ruble in the new state marks, a parallel circulation of depreciating state marks was introduced to serve small trade and hard chervonets backed by precious metals, stable foreign currency and easily sold 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 reserves of gold and foreign currency, as well as an active foreign trade balance, made it possible during 1924 to carry out the second stage of the monetary reform for 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 to economic organizations and, with the help of accounting and collateral operations, regulated the size of a commercial loan, its direction, terms 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 were financed irrevocably or in the form of long-term loans. In order to invest in industry, in 1922, the Electrocredit joint-stock company and the Industrial Bank were created, which were then transformed into the 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 Communal Bank (Tsekombank). Agriculture was provided with long-term loans by state credit institutions, credit cooperatives, the Central Agricultural Bank established in 1924, cooperative banks - Vsekobank and Ukrainbank. At the same time, Vneshtorgbank was established, which carried out credit and settlement services for foreign trade, and the 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 significant 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 on especially wealthy peasants also did not help, therefore, from the mid-1920s, other, non-tax methods of replenishing the treasury began to be actively used, such as forced loans and underpriced grain and overpriced industrial 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 financial year 1927-1928, there was a new crisis: it was not possible to collect even the most necessary things.

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.

A private sector emerged in industry and commerce: 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 covered more than half of all peasant farms. By the end of 1928. 28 million people were involved in non-production cooperation of various types, primarily peasant, (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 of the national income was 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 in industry were liquidated, from which private capital was administratively ousted, and a rigid centralized system of economic management (economic people's commissariats) was created.

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 exceeded the economic indicators of 1913 by about two times. 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 was not welcomed, and 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.

(NEP) - carried out in the period from 1921 to 1924. in Soviet Russia, the economic policy that replaced the policy of "war communism".

The crisis of the Bolshevik policy of "war communism" manifested itself most acutely in the economy. Most of the food, metal and fuel supplies went to the needs of the civil war. Industry also worked for military needs, as a result, agriculture was supplied with 2-3 times fewer machines and tools than required. The lack of workers, agricultural equipment and seed fund led to a reduction in the area under crops, the gross harvest of agricultural products decreased by 45%. All this caused a famine in 1921, as a result of which almost 5 million people died.

The deterioration of the economic situation, the preservation of emergency communist measures (surplus appropriation) led to the emergence in 1921 of an acute political and economic crisis in the country. The result was anti-Bolshevik protests by peasants, workers, and the military demanding the political equality of all citizens, freedom of speech, the establishment of workers' control over production, the encouragement of private enterprise, etc.

In order to normalize the economy, destroyed by the Civil War, intervention and measures of "war communism", and to stabilize the socio-political sphere, the Soviet government decided to make a temporary retreat from its principles. The policy of a temporary transition to a capitalist economy with the aim of raising the economy and settling social and political problems was called the NEP (New Economic Policy).

The departure from the NEP was facilitated by such factors as the weakness of domestic private enterprise, which was the result of its long-term prohibition and excessive state intervention. The unfavorable world economic background (the economic crisis in the West in 1929) was interpreted as the "decay" of capitalism. The economic rise of Soviet industry by the mid-1920s. was hampered by the lack of new reforms needed to maintain growth rates (for example, the creation of new industrial sectors, the weakening of state control, the revision of taxes).

In the late 1920s reserves dried up, the country was faced with the need for huge investments in agriculture and industry for the reconstruction and modernization of enterprises. Due to the lack of funds for the development of industry, the city could not meet the rural demand for urban goods. They tried to save the situation by raising prices for manufactured goods ("commodity famine" of 1924), which led to the loss of the peasantry's interest in selling food to the state or its unprofitable exchange for manufactured goods. Decreased production volumes, in 1927-1929. aggravated the crisis of grain procurements. The printing of new money, the rise in the cost of agricultural and industrial products led to the depreciation of the chervonets. In the summer of 1926, the Soviet currency ceased to be convertible (transactions with it abroad were terminated after the gold standard was abandoned).

Faced with a lack of public funds for the development of industry, from the mid-1920s. all NEP activities were curtailed with the aim of greater centralization of the financial and material resources available in the country, and by the end of the 1920s. the country followed the path of planned and directive development of industrialization and collectivization.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources