The main reason for the transition to the NEP is. Prerequisites for the transition to a new economic policy NEP

The goal of the October Revolution was nothing less than the building of an ideal state. A country in which everyone is equal, where there are no rich and poor, where there is no money, and everyone does only what they love, at the call of the soul, and not for a salary. That's just the reality did not want to turn into a happy fairy tale, the economy was rolling down, food riots began in the country. Then it was decided to move to the NEP.

A country that survived two wars and a revolution

By the 20s of the last century, Russia from a huge rich power turned into ruins. The First World War, the coup of the 17th year, the Civil War - these are not just words.

Millions of dead, destroyed factories and cities, deserted villages. The country's economy was practically destroyed. These were the reasons for the transition to the NEP. Briefly, they can be described as an attempt to return the country to a peaceful track.

The First World War not only depleted the economic and social resources of the country. It also created the ground for deepening the crisis. After the end of the war, millions of soldiers returned home. But there were no jobs for them. The revolutionary years were marked by a monstrous increase in crime, and the reason was not only temporary anarchy and confusion in the country. The young republic was suddenly flooded with people with weapons, people who had lost the habit of peaceful life, and they survived as their experience suggested. The transition to the NEP made it possible to increase the number of jobs in a short time.

Economic disaster

The Russian economy at the beginning of the twentieth century practically collapsed. Production has decreased several times. Large factories were left without management, the thesis "Factories for workers" turned out to be good on paper, but not in life. Small and medium businesses were practically destroyed. Craftsmen and merchants, owners of small manufactories were the first victims of the struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. A huge number of specialists and entrepreneurs fled to Europe. And if at first it seemed absolutely normal - an element alien to communist ideals was leaving the country, then it turned out that there were not enough workers for the effective functioning of industry. The transition to the NEP made it possible to revive small and medium-sized businesses, thereby ensuring the growth of gross output and the creation of new jobs.

Crisis of agriculture

The situation with agriculture was just as bad. The cities were starving, a system of wages in kind was introduced. The workers were paid in rations, but they were too small.

To solve the problem of food, a surplus appraisal was introduced. At the same time, up to 70% of the harvested grain was confiscated from the peasants. A paradoxical situation has arisen. Workers fled from the cities to the countryside to feed themselves on the land, but here, too, hunger awaited them, even more severe than before.

The labor of the peasants became meaningless. Work for a whole year, then give everything to the state and starve? Of course, this could not but affect the productivity of agriculture. Under such conditions, the only way to change the situation was to move to the NEP. The date of the adoption of the new economic course was a turning point in the revival of dying agriculture. Only this could stop the wave of riots that swept across the country.

The collapse of the financial system

The prerequisites for the transition to the NEP were not only social. Monstrous inflation devalued the ruble, and products were not so much sold as exchanged.

However, if we recall that the state ideology assumed a complete rejection of money in favor of payment in kind, everything seemed to be normal. But it turned out that it was impossible to provide everyone and everyone with food, clothes, shoes, just like that, according to the list. The state machine is not adapted to perform such small and precise tasks.

The only way that war communism could offer to solve this problem was surplus appropriation. But then it turned out that if the inhabitants of the cities work for food, then the peasants work generally for free. Their grain is taken away without giving anything in return. It turned out that it is almost impossible to establish a commodity exchange without the participation of a monetary equivalent. The only way out in this situation was the transition to the NEP. Briefly describing this situation, we can say that the state was forced to return to the previously rejected market relations, postponing for a while the construction of an ideal state.

Brief essence of the NEP

The reasons for the transition to the NEP were not clear to everyone. Many considered such a policy a huge step back, a return to the petty-bourgeois past, to the cult of enrichment. The ruling party was forced to explain to the population that this was a forced measure of a temporary nature.

Free trade and private enterprise were again revived in the country.

And if earlier there were only two classes: workers and peasants, and the intelligentsia was just a stratum, now the so-called NEPmen have appeared in the country - merchants, manufacturers, small producers. It was they who ensured the effective satisfaction of consumer demand in cities and villages. This is what the transition to the NEP looked like in Russia. The date 03/15/1921 went down in history as the day when the RCP(b) abandoned the tough policy of war communism, again legalizing private property and monetary and market relations.

The dual nature of the NEP

Of course, such reforms did not at all mean a full-fledged return to the free market. Large factories and plants, banks still belonged to the state. Only it had the right to dispose of the country's natural resources and conclude foreign economic transactions. The logic of administrative and economic management of market processes was of a fundamental nature. The elements of free trade rather resembled thin shoots of ivy, braiding the granite rock of a rigid state economy.

At the same time, there were a huge number of changes that the transition to the NEP caused. Briefly, they can be described as providing a certain freedom to small producers and traders - but only for a while, to relieve social tensions. And although in the future the state was supposed to return to the old ideological doctrines, such a neighborhood of the command and market economy was planned for quite a long time, sufficient to create a reliable economic base that would make the transition to socialism painless for the country.

NEP in agriculture

One of the first steps towards the modernization of the former economic policy was the abolition of the surplus appraisal. The transition to the NEP provided for a food tax of 30%, handed over to the state not free of charge, but at fixed prices. Even though the cost of grain was small, it was still an obvious progress.

The remaining 70% of the production, the peasants could dispose of independently, albeit within the boundaries of local farms.

Such measures not only stopped the famine, but also gave impetus to the development of the agricultural sector. The hunger has receded. Already by 1925, the gross agricultural product approached pre-war volumes. It was precisely the transition to the NEP that ensured this effect. The year when the surplus appraisal was canceled was the beginning of the rise of agriculture in the country. An agrarian revolution began, collective farms and agricultural cooperatives were massively created in the country, and a technical base was organized.

NEP in industry

The decision to move to the NEP led to significant changes in the management of the country's industry. Although large enterprises were subordinate only to the state, small ones were relieved of the need to obey the central administrations. They could create trusts, independently determining what and how much to produce. Such enterprises independently purchased the necessary materials and independently sold the products, managing their income minus the amount of taxes. The state did not control this process and was not responsible for the financial obligations of the trusts. The transition to the NEP brought back the already forgotten term "bankruptcy" to the country.

At the same time, the state did not forget that the reforms were temporary, and gradually planted the principle of planning in industry. The trusts gradually merged into concerns, uniting enterprises supplying raw materials and manufacturing products into one logical chain. In the future, it was precisely such production segments that were to become the basis of a planned economy.

Financial reforms

Since the reasons for the transition to the NEP were largely economic in nature, an urgent monetary reform was required. There were no specialists of the proper level in the new republic, so the state attracted financiers who had significant experience in the days of tsarist Russia.

As a result of economic reforms, the banking system was restored, direct and indirect taxation was introduced, and payment for some services that were previously provided free of charge. All expenses that did not correspond to the income of the republic were ruthlessly abolished.

A monetary reform was carried out, the first government securities were issued, the country's currency became convertible.

For some time, the government managed to fight inflation by keeping the value of the national currency at a fairly high level. But then a combination of incongruous - planned and market economies - destroyed this fragile balance. As a result of significant inflation, the chervonets, which were in use at that time, lost the status of a convertible currency. After 1926, it was impossible to travel abroad with this money.

Completion and results of the NEP

In the second half of the 1920s, the country's leadership decided to move to a planned economy. The country reached the pre-revolutionary level of production, and in fact, in achieving this goal, there were reasons for the transition to the NEP. Briefly, the consequences of applying the new economic approach can be described as very successful.

It should be noted that the country did not have much sense to continue the course towards a market economy. After all, in fact, such a high result was achieved only due to the fact that the production facilities that were inherited from the previous regime were launched. Private entrepreneurs were completely deprived of the opportunity to influence economic decisions; representatives of the revived business did not take part in the government of the country.

Attraction of foreign investments in the country was not welcomed. However, there were not so many who wanted to risk their finances by investing in Bolshevik enterprises. At the same time, there were simply no own funds for long-term investment in capital-intensive industries.

It can be said that by the beginning of the 1930s the NEP had exhausted itself, and this economic doctrine was to be replaced by another one, one that would allow the country to start moving forward.

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 managing 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."

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

Beginning of the NEP

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

1. Decision of the 10th Congress of the Bolshevik Party of 1921.
2. Replacing the apportionment with a tax (in fact, this was the introduction of the NEP). Decree of March 21, 1921.
3. Permission for free exchange of agricultural products. Decree of March 28, 1921.
4. Creation of cooperatives, which were destroyed in 1917. Decree April 7, 1921.
5. The transfer of some industry from the hands of the state to private hands. Decree of May 17, 1921.
6. Creation of conditions for the development of private trade. Decree May 24, 1921.
7. Permission to TEMPORARILY allow private owners to lease state-owned enterprises. Decree 5 July 1921.
8. 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.
9. 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 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.

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 the new policy was 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 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.

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 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 unemployment rate 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

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 materials 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 this course were held 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.
• 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.

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.

With the end of the civil war, the policy of "war communism" reached a dead end. It was not possible to overcome the devastation generated by 4 years of Russia's participation in the First World War and aggravated by 3 years of the Civil War. The threat of the restoration of pre-revolutionary agrarian relations disappeared, so the peasantry no longer wanted to put up with the policy of surplus appropriation.

There was no organized tax and financial system in the country. There was a sharp drop in labor productivity and the real wages of workers (even when taking into account not only the monetary part of it, but also supplies at fixed prices and free distributions).

The peasants were forced to hand over all the surpluses, and most often even part of the most necessary things, to the state without any equivalent, because. there were almost no industrial goods. Products were confiscated by force. Because of this, mass demonstrations of peasants began in the country.

Since August 1920, in the Tambov and Voronezh provinces, the “kulak” rebellion continued, led by the Socialist-Revolutionary A.S. Antonov; a large number of peasant formations operated in Ukraine (Petliurists, Makhnovists, etc.); insurgent centers arose in the Middle Volga region, on the Don and Kuban. The West Siberian "rebels", led by the Social Revolutionaries and former officers, in February-March 1921 created armed formations of several thousand people, captured almost completely the territory of the Tyumen province, the cities of Petropavlovsk, Kokchetav, etc., interrupting the railway communication between Siberia and the center of the country for three weeks.

Surplus appropriation was avoided by concealing grain, transferring grain to moonshine, and in other ways. Small-scale agriculture had no incentive to maintain production at the current level, much less to expand. The lack of traction, labor, depreciation of inventory led to a reduction in production. The absolute number of the rural population remained almost unchanged from 1913 to 1920, but the percentage of the able-bodied in connection with the mobilizations and the results of the war dropped noticeably from 45% to about 36%. The area of ​​arable land decreased in 1913-1916. by 7%, and for 1916-1920. - by 20.3%. Production was limited only by their own needs, the desire to provide themselves with everything necessary. In Central Asia, the cultivation of cotton practically ceased, instead they began to sow bread. Sugar beet crops have been sharply reduced in Ukraine. This led to a decrease in the marketability and productivity of agriculture, because. beets and cotton are high-value crops. Agriculture became organic. It was necessary first of all to interest the peasantry economically in restoring the economy and expanding production. To do this, it was necessary to limit its obligations to the state within certain limits and give the right to freely dispose of the rest of the products. The exchange of agricultural products for essential industrial goods was supposed to strengthen the ties between the city and the countryside, to promote the development of light industry. On the basis of this, then it was possible to create savings, organize a financial economy, in order to then raise heavy industry.

To implement this plan, freedom of circulation and trade was necessary. These goals were pursued by the resolution of the 10th Congress of the RCP (b) and the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of March 21, 1921 “On the replacement of food and raw material appropriation with a tax in kind.” He limited the natural obligations of the peasantry to strictly established norms and allowed the sale of agricultural surpluses in the form of barter in local markets. This made it possible to resume local turnover and product exchange, as well as, within narrow limits, private trade. In the future, the need arose very quickly to restore complete freedom of trade throughout the country, and not in the form of natural product exchange, but in the form of money trade. During 1921, obstacles and restrictions on the development of trade were spontaneously broken down and abolished by law. Trade unfolded more and more widely, being in this period the main lever for the restoration of the national economy.

Later, due to limited funds, the state abandoned the direct management of small and partially medium-sized industrial enterprises. They were transferred to the jurisdiction of local authorities or leased to private individuals. A small part of the enterprises was handed over to foreign capital in the form of concessions. The public sector was made up of large and medium enterprises, which formed the core of socialist industry. Along with this, the state abandoned the centralized supply and marketing of products, giving enterprises the right to use market services to purchase the necessary materials and sell products. The beginnings of cost accounting began to be actively introduced into the activities of enterprises. The national economy from a strictly regulated subsistence economy of the period of "war communism" gradually moved to the path of a commodity-money economy. Along with a significant sector of state-owned enterprises, enterprises of the private capitalist and state capitalist type appeared in it.

The Decree on the Tax in Kind was the beginning of the liquidation of the economic methods of "war communism" and the turning point for the New Economic Policy. The development of the ideas underlying this decree was the basis of the NEP. However, the transition to the NEP was not seen as a restoration of capitalism. It was believed that, having strengthened in the main positions, the Soviet state would be able to expand the socialist sector in the future, ousting the capitalist elements.

An important moment in the transition from direct product exchange to a monetary economy was the decree of August 5, 1921 on the restoration of the mandatory collection of payments for goods sold by state bodies to individuals and organizations, incl. cooperative. For the first time, wholesale prices began to form, which had previously been absent due to the planned supply of enterprises. The Price Committee was in charge of setting wholesale, retail, procurement prices and charges on the prices of monopoly goods.

Thus, until 1921, the economic and political life of the country proceeded in accordance with the policy of "war communism", a policy of complete rejection of private property, market relations, absolute control and management by the state. Management was centralized, local enterprises and institutions did not have any independence. But all these cardinal changes in the country's economy were introduced spontaneously, were not planned and viable. Such a tough policy only exacerbated the devastation in the country. It was a time of fuel, transport and other crises, the fall of industry and agriculture, the lack of bread and the rationing of products. There was chaos in the country, there were constant strikes and demonstrations. In 1918 martial law was introduced in the country. In order to get out of the plight created in the country after the wars and revolutions, it was necessary to make cardinal socio-economic changes.

They were colossal. The country by the beginning of the 1920s, having retained its independence, nevertheless hopelessly lagged behind the leading Western countries, which threatened to turn into a loss of the status of a great power. The policy of "war communism" has exhausted itself. Lenin faced the problem of choosing the path of development: to follow the dogmas of Marxism or proceed from the prevailing realities. Thus began the transition to NEP - new economic policy.

The reasons for the transition to the NEP were the following processes:

The policy of "war communism", which justified itself in the midst of the Civil War (1918-1920), became ineffective when the country transitioned to a peaceful life; The "military" economy did not provide the state with everything necessary; forced labor was inefficient;

There was an economic and spiritual gap between the city and the countryside, the peasants with the Bolsheviks; the peasants who received the land were not interested in the necessary industrialization of the country;

Anti-Bolshevik protests of workers and peasants began across the country (the largest of them: "Antonovshchina" - peasant protests against the Bolsheviks in the Tambov province; Kronstadt mutiny of sailors).

2. Main activities of the NEP

In March 1921 at the Tenth Congress of the CPSU (b) after fierce discussions and with the active influence of V.I. Lenin, a decision is made to move to the New Economic Policy (NEP).

The most important economic measures of the NEP were:

1) replacement of a dimensionless surplus appropriation (food apportionment) with a limited tax in kind. The state began not to confiscate grain from the peasants, but to buy for money;

2) abolition of labor service : labor ceased to be a duty (like a military one) and became free

3) allowed small and medium private property both in the countryside (renting land, hiring laborers) and in industry. Small and medium-sized factories and factories were transferred to private ownership. New owners, people who earned capital during the years of the NEP began to be called "nepmen".

During the implementation of the NEP by the Bolsheviks, exclusively command-administrative methods of managing the economy began to be replaced by: state-capitalist methods in big industry and private capitalist in small and medium production, service sector.

In the early 1920s across the country, trusts were created that united many enterprises, sometimes entire industries, and managed them. The trusts tried to operate as capitalist enterprises, but at the same time they were owned by the Soviet state, and not by individual capitalists. Although the government was powerless to stop the surge of corruption in the state capitalist sector.

Private shops, shops, restaurants, workshops, and private households in the countryside are being set up across the country. The most common form of small private farming was cooperation - association of several persons for the purpose of carrying out economic activities. Production, consumer and trade cooperatives are being created across Russia.

4) Was revived financial system:

The State Bank was restored and it was allowed to create private commercial banks

In 1924 along with the depreciated "sovznaks" in circulation, another currency was introduced - gold chervonets- a monetary unit equal to 10 pre-revolutionary tsarist rubles. Unlike other money, the chervonets was backed by gold, quickly gained popularity and became the international convertible currency of Russia. An uncontrolled outflow of capital abroad began.

3. Results and contradictions of the NEP

The NEP itself was a very peculiar phenomenon. The Bolsheviks - ardent supporters of communism - made an attempt to restore capitalist relations. The majority of the party was against the NEP ("why did they carry out a revolution and defeat the whites, if we again restore a society divided into rich and poor?"). But Lenin, realizing that after the devastation of the Civil War it was impossible to start building communism, declared that The NEP is a temporary phenomenon designed to revive the economy and accumulate strength and resources to start building socialism.

Positive results of the NEP:

The level of industrial production in the main branches reached the indicators of 1913;

The market was filled with essentials that were lacking during the Civil War (bread, clothing, salt, etc.);

The tension between the city and the countryside decreased - the peasants began to produce products, earn money, some of the peasants became prosperous rural entrepreneurs.

However, by 1926 it became obvious that the NEP had exhausted itself, did not allow to accelerate the pace of modernization.

Contradictions of the NEP:

The collapse of the "chervonets" - by 1926. the bulk of enterprises and citizens of the country began to strive to make payments in chervonets, while the state could not provide gold for the growing mass of money, as a result of which the chervonets began to depreciate, and soon the authorities stopped providing it with gold

Sales crisis - most of the population, small enterprises did not have enough convertible money to buy goods, as a result, entire industries could not sell their goods;

The peasants did not want to pay excessive taxes as a source of funds for the development of industry. Stalin had to force them by force, creating collective farms.

The NEP did not become a long-term alternative; the contradictions that came to light forced Stalin to curtail the NEP (since 1927) and move on to the accelerated modernization of the country (industrialization and collectivization).

Ulyanovsk state agricultural

academy

Department of National History

Test

By discipline: "National History"

On the topic: "The New Economic Policy of the Soviet State (1921-1928)"

Completed by a student of the 1st year of the SSO

Faculty of Economics

Correspondence department

Specialty "Accounting, analysis

and audit"

Melnikova Natalia

Alekseevna

Code number 29037

Ulyanovsk - 2010

Prerequisites for the transition to a new economic policy (NEP).

The main task of the internal policy of the Bolsheviks was to restore the economy destroyed by the revolution and the civil war, to create a material, technical and socio-cultural basis for building socialism, which the Bolsheviks promised to the people. In the autumn of 1920, a series of crises broke out in the country.

1. Economic crisis:

Population decrease (due to losses during the civil war and emigration);

Destruction of mines and mines (Donbass, the Baku oil region, the Urals and Siberia were especially affected);

Lack of fuel and raw materials; stopping factories (which led to the decline of the role of large industrial centers);

Mass exodus of workers from the city to the countryside;

Cessation of traffic on 30 railways;

Rising inflation;

The reduction in the area under crops and the lack of interest of the peasants in the expansion of the economy;

A decrease in the level of management, which affected the quality of decisions made and was expressed in the violation of economic ties between enterprises and regions of the country, the fall in labor discipline;

Mass starvation in the city and countryside, a decline in living standards, an increase in morbidity and mortality.

2. Socio-political crisis:

Dissatisfaction of workers with unemployment and lack of food, infringement of the rights of trade unions, the introduction of forced labor and its equal pay;

The expansion of strike movements in the city, in which the workers advocated the democratization of the country's political system, the convening of the Constituent Assembly;

The indignation of the peasants by the continuation of the surplus appropriation;

The beginning of the armed struggle of the peasants, who 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;

Activation of the activities of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries;

Fluctuations in the army, often involved in the fight against peasant uprisings.

3. Internal party crisis:

The stratification of party members into an elite group and the party mass;

The emergence of opposition groups that defended the ideals of "true socialism" (the "democratic centralism" group, the "workers' opposition");

An increase in the number of people who claimed leadership in the party (L.D. Trotsky, I.V. Stalin) and the emergence of a danger of its split;

Signs of moral degradation of party members.

Crisis of theory.

Russia had to live in a capitalist environment, because. hopes for a world revolution did not come true. And this required a different strategy and tactics. V.I. Lenin was forced to reconsider his internal political course and admit that only the satisfaction of the demands of the peasantry could save the power of the Bolsheviks.

So, with the help of the policy of "war communism" it was not possible to overcome the devastation generated by 4 years of Russia's participation in the First World War, revolutions (February and October 1917) and deepened by the civil war. A decisive change in the economic course was required. In December 1920, the VIII All-Russian Congress of Soviets took place. Among its most important decisions, the following can be noted: a bribe for the development of "war communism" and the material and technical modernization of the national economy on the basis of electrification (the GOELRO plan), and on the other hand, the rejection of the mass creation of communes, state farms, the stake on the "diligent peasant", who provided financial incentives.

NEP: goals, essence, methods, main activities.

After the congress, the State Planning Committee was created by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of February 22, 1921. In March 1921, at the 10th Congress of the RCP(b), two important decisions were made: on the replacement of the surplus appropriation with a tax in kind and on the unity of the party. These two resolutions reflected the internal inconsistency of the New Economic Policy, the transition to which meant the decisions of the congress.

NEP - an anti-crisis program, the essence of which was to recreate a mixed economy while maintaining the "commanding heights" in the hands of the Bolshevik government. The levers of influence were to be the sovereignty of the RCP (b), the state sector in industry, a decentralized financial system and a monopoly of foreign trade.

Goals of the NEP:

Political: remove social tension, strengthen the social base of Soviet power in the form of an alliance of workers and peasants;

Economic: to prevent devastation, get out of the crisis and restore the economy;

Social: without waiting for the world revolution, to provide favorable conditions for building a socialist society;

Foreign policy: overcome international isolation and restore political and economic relations with other states.

Achieving these goals led to the gradual phasing out of the NEP in the second half of the 1920s.

The transition to the NEP was legally formalized by decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, decisions of the IX All-Russian Congress of Soviets in December 1921. The NEP included a complex economic and socio-political events:

Replacement of the surplus appropriation with a food tax (until 1925 in kind); products left on the farm after payment of the tax in kind were allowed to be sold on the market;

Permission for private trade;

Attracting foreign capital to the development of industry;

Leasing by the state of many small enterprises and retaining large and medium-sized industrial enterprises;

Lease of land under state control;

Attracting foreign capital to the development of industry (some enterprises were leased to foreign capitalists on concession);

Transfer of industry to full cost accounting and self-sufficiency;

Hiring labor force;

Cancellation of the rationing system and egalitarian distribution;

Payment for all services;

Replacement of wages in kind with cash wages, established depending on the quantity and quality of labor;

The abolition of universal labor service, the introduction of labor exchanges.

The introduction of the NEP was not a one-time measure, but was a process stretched out over several years. So, initially, trade was allowed to peasants only close to their place of residence. At the same time, Lenin counted on the exchange of goods (the exchange of products of production at fixed prices and only

through state or cooperative stores), but by the autumn of 1921 he recognized the need for commodity-money relations.

The NEP was not only an economic policy. This is a set of economic, political and ideological measures. During this period, the idea of ​​civil peace was put forward, the Code of Labor Laws, the Criminal Code were developed, the powers of the Cheka (renamed to the OGPU) were somewhat limited, an amnesty for white emigration was announced, etc. technical intelligentsia, creating conditions for creative work, etc.) were simultaneously combined with the suppression of those who could pose a danger to the dominance of the communist party (repressions against church ministers in 1921-1922, the trial of the leadership of the Right SR party in 1922, the expulsion abroad of about 200 prominent figures of the Russian intelligentsia: N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, A.A. Kizevetter, P.A. Sorokin, etc.).

In general, the NEP was assessed by contemporaries as a transitional stage. The fundamental difference in positions was associated with the answer to the question: “What does this transition lead to?”, according to which there were different points of view:

1. Some believed that, despite the utopian nature of their socialist goals, the Bolsheviks, having switched to the NEP, opened the way for the evolution of the Russian economy to capitalism. They believed that the next stage in the development of the country would be political liberalization. Therefore, the intelligentsia must support the Soviet government. This point of view was most clearly expressed by the "Smenovekhites" - representatives of the ideological trend in the intelligentsia, who received the name from the collection of articles by the authors of the cadet orientation "Change of milestones" (Prague, 1921).

2. The Mensheviks believed that the prerequisites for socialism would be created on the rails of the NEP, without which, in the absence of a world revolution, there could be no socialism in Russia. The development of the NEP would inevitably lead to the Bolsheviks giving up their monopoly on power. Pluralism in the economic sphere will create pluralism in the political system and undermine the foundations of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

3. The Socialist-Revolutionaries in the NEP saw the possibility of implementing the "third way" - non-capitalist development. Taking into account the peculiarities of Russia - a multi-structural economy, the predominance of the peasantry - the Social Revolutionaries assumed that for socialism in Russia it was necessary to combine democracy with a cooperative socio-economic system.

4. The liberals developed their own concept of the NEP. The essence of the new economic policy was seen by him in the revival of capitalist relations in Russia. According to the liberals, the NEP was an objective process that made it possible to solve the main task: to complete the modernization of the country, begun by Peter I, to bring it into the mainstream of world civilization.

5. Bolshevik theorists (Lenin, Trotsky, and others) viewed the transition to the NEP as a tactical move, a temporary retreat caused by an unfavorable balance of power. They tended to understand the NEP as one of the possible

paths to socialism, but not direct, but relatively long. Lenin believed that although the technical and economic backwardness of Russia did not allow the direct introduction of socialism, it could be gradually built, relying on the state of the "dictatorship of the proletariat." This plan presupposed not a "softening", but an all-out strengthening of the regime of the "proletarian", but in fact the Bolshevik dictatorship. The "immaturity" of the socio-economic and cultural preconditions for socialism was intended to compensate (as in the period of "war communism") terror. Lenin did not agree with the proposed (even by individual Bolsheviks) measures for some political liberalization - allowing the activity of socialist parties, a free press, the creation of a peasant union, etc. He proposed to expand the application of execution (with the replacement of expulsion abroad) to all types of activities of the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, etc. Remains of a multi-party system in the USSR

were eliminated, persecution of the church was launched, and the intra-party regime was tightened. However, part of the Bolsheviks did not accept the NEP, considering it a capitulation.

The development of the political system of Soviet society during the years of the NEP.

Already in 1921-1924. reforms are being carried out in the management of industry, trade, cooperation, the credit and financial sector, and a two-tier banking system is being created: the State Bank, the Commercial and Industrial Bank, the Bank for Foreign Trade, a network of cooperative and local communal banks. Money issue (issue of money and securities, which is a state monopoly) as the main source of state budget revenues is replaced by a system of direct and indirect taxes (commercial, income, agricultural, excise taxes on consumer goods, local taxes), fees for services (transport , communications, utilities, etc.).

The development of commodity-money relations led to the restoration of the all-Russian domestic market. Large fairs are being recreated: Nizhny Novgorod, Baku, Irbit, Kyiv, etc. Trade exchanges are opening. A certain freedom is allowed for the development of private capital in industry and trade. It is allowed to create small private enterprises (with no more than 20 workers), concessions, leases, mixed companies. According to the conditions of economic activity, consumer, agricultural, handicraft cooperation was placed in a more advantageous position than private capital.

The rise of industry and the introduction of hard currency stimulated the restoration of agriculture. The high growth rates during the years of the New Economic Policy were largely due to the “restorative effect”: equipment that was already available but idle was loaded, and old arable lands abandoned during the civil war were put into circulation in agriculture. When these reserves dried up at the end of the 1920s, the country faced the need for huge investments in industry - in order to reconstruct old factories with worn-out equipment and create new industrial

Meanwhile, due to legislative restrictions (private capital was not allowed in large, and to a large extent, in medium-sized industry), high taxation of the private trader in both town and countryside, non-state investments were extremely limited.

Nor is the Soviet government successful in its attempts to attract foreign capital on any significant scale.

So, the new economic policy ensured the stabilization and restoration of the economy, but soon after the introduction of the first successes were replaced by new difficulties. The party leadership explained its inability to overcome the crisis phenomena by economic methods and the use of command and directive methods by the activities of the class “enemies of the people” (nepmen, kulaks, agronomists, engineers and other specialists). This was the basis for the deployment of repressions and the organization of new political processes.

The results and reasons for the curtailment of the NEP.

By 1925, the restoration of the national economy was basically completed. The total industrial output over the 5 years of the NEP increased more than 5 times and in 1925 reached 75% of the 1913 level, in 1926 this level was exceeded in terms of gross industrial output. There has been an upsurge in new industries. In agriculture, the gross grain harvest amounted to 94% of the harvest in 1913, and in many indicators of animal husbandry, the pre-war figures were left behind.

The aforementioned recovery of the financial system and the stabilization of the domestic currency can be called a real economic miracle. In the fiscal year 1924/1925, the state budget deficit was completely eliminated, and the Soviet ruble became one of the hardest currencies in the world. The rapid pace of restoration of the national economy in the conditions of a socially oriented economy, set by the existing Bolshevik regime, was accompanied by a significant increase in the living standards of the people, the rapid development of public education, science, culture and art.

The NEP gave rise to new difficulties, along with successes. The difficulties were explained mainly by three reasons: the imbalance of industry and agriculture; purposeful class orientation of the internal policy of the government; strengthening of contradictions between the variety of social interests of different strata of society and authoritarianism. The need to ensure the independence and defense of the country required the further development of the economy and, first of all, the heavy defense industry. The priority of the industry over the agrosphere resulted in the overt transfer of funds from the countryside to the city through pricing and tax policies. Sales prices for industrial goods were artificially raised, while purchase prices for raw materials and products were underestimated, that is, the notorious "scissors" of prices were introduced. The quality of supplied industrial products was low. On the one hand, there was an overstocking of warehouses with expensive and poor manufactured goods. On the other hand, the peasants, who had good harvests in the mid-1920s, refused to sell grain to the state at fixed prices, preferring to sell it on the market.

Bibliography.

T.M. Timoshina "Economic history of Russia", "Filin", 1998.

N. Vert "History of the Soviet state", "The whole world", 1998

"Our fatherland: the experience of political history" Kuleshov S.V., Volobuev O.V., Pivovar E.I. et al., "Terra", 1991

“The latest history of the fatherland. XX century, edited by A.F. Kiselev, E.M. Shchagina, Vlados, 1998.

L.D. Trotsky “The Betrayed Revolution. What is the USSR and where is it going? (http://www.alina.ru/koi/magister/library/revolt/trotl001.htm)