AS FP2 : The NEP Flashcards
(12 cards)
Conceptual Awareness
What was the situation in 1921 that led to the introduction of the NEP?
- Divisions in the party, Workers’ opposition.
- Rationing and food shortages
- Reliance on the Cheka and the brutal suppression of opposition
- Famine (1921) and Cannibalism
- Grain requisitioning - Tambov
- Kronstadt uprising
- Unrest in the countryside, 118 revolts in 1921.
According to Micheal Lynch, why was the NEP introduced?
The NEP was intended by Lenin primarily to meet Russia’s urgent need for food. Despite the disagreements that were soon to emerge within the Bolshevik over the NEP, the famine and the grim economic situation led the delegates to give unanimous support to Lenin’s proposals when they were first introduced.
What were the features of the NEP?
- Central economic control to be relaxed, State would keep control of large, heavy industries such as coal, steel and oil. Small-scale industry would return to private hands.
- Requisitioning of grain to be abandoned and replaced by tax in kind ; ban on private trade was lifted, peasant still required to give a quota but in 1923 this was replaced by a tax.
- peasants would be allowed to keep thier surplus and sell the profit
- State promised not to carry through the forcible collectivisation of land.
- public market to be restored
- money to be introduced as a means of trading.
- Rationing was ended.
What did the introduction of the NEP reflect?
Lenin knew that the policy marked a retreat from the principle of state control of the economy. It restored a mixed economy in which certain features of capitalism existed alongside socialism. Lenin insisted that the NEP was a “temporary concession to capitalism.”. The adoption of the NEP showed the Bolshevik government that since 1917 it had been unable to create a successful economy along purely ideological lines (Micheal Lynch).
What were the issues of Gosplan and Veshenka?
Gosplan, the state general planning commission from 1921, it helped to co-ordinate economic development and from 1925 drafted economic plans. It co-existed with the Veshenka, which led to conflicts of interest.
Economic impact of the NEP
What are some key facts about the NEP’s economic impact?
The NEP got the economy moving again.
- Money started to flow more freely and industrial production recovered, although the larger state-controlled industries grew more slowly than the smaller businesses.
- Agricultural production recovered still faster and a kulak class re-emerged.
- Private traders, by 1925 there were 25,000 private traders in Moscow alone, these ‘Nepmen’ were responsible for 75% of trade but hated as representatives of capitalism.
- Grain harvest, grew from 37.6 million tons in 1921 to 51.4 million tons in 1924.
Economic impact of the NEP
What was the Scissor Crisis?
By 1923 there was an evident imbalance in the economy, food prices dropped as a result of the influx of food from the improved agricultural production and by the summer the price of food had dropped below the price of industrial goods.
The gap widened rapidly and the lack of industrial goods and poor pay for agricultural produce threatened to make peasants hold back supplies.
To combat it, the government capped industrial prices and replaced the peasants’ quotas with money taxes, forcing them to sell. By 1926, the production levels of 1913 were met again.
Economic impact of the NEP
What did the Bolsheviks who opposed the NEP refer to it as?
“The New Exploitation of the Proletariat.”
Political Impact of the NEP
How did Lenin deal with opposition to the NEP?
For many Bolsheviks, the NEP was an ideological betrayal. Lenin used the argument “one step backwards, two steps forwards”. He introduced a ban on factions in 1921, making it so that to disagree with party policy once implemented would lead to expulsion from the party.
Political Impact of the NEP
How did Lenin use the NEP as an excuse to deal with political opposition?
There was no relaxation of political control, Mensheviks and SRs were banned in 1921 and several thousand Mensheviks were arrested. There were even show trials of the SRs in 1921.
The Cheka was renamed the GPU in 1922 and became more powerful, given the power to arrest people at will and carry out the death penalty.
Political Impact of the NEP
How was culture affected in 1921?
In 1922 criticism of the government was forbidden, writers and intellectuals were deported or all writings had to be submitted for approval by GLAVIT ( the main administration for addairs od literature and publishing houses).
The Union of the Militant Gofless was established in 1921and from 1922 Churches were stripped of valuable posessions and thousands of priests were arrested or executed.
Political Impact of the NEP
What was Nomenklatura?
In 1923 a system of Nomenklatura was implemented, with 5000 party and government posts and positions created - only central bodies could nominate a new post holder and they had to be selected from a list of approved party members. Therefore loyalty to the party was placed above all esle.
Additionally, belonging to Nomenklatura meant access to material rewards such as services that were denied to the majority of the population.
