1. New Economic Policy … “An unfortunate but necessary step” - Lenin
NEPs
New Economic Policy …
“An unfortunate but necessary step” Lenin

2. The Bolsheviks won the Civil War and restored peace but they paid a huge price.
Industrial output fell to 15% of pre war levels, agriculture fell to 60%.
No trade – both international and national.
Rouble worth nothing.
Economic issues

3. Many of the best workers had died.
From 1917 – ,000 people died in combat, 9,500,000 to famine and disease.
The proletariat who were left were “ill-educated and ill-disciplined.” (Westwood)
People were exhausted.
Social Issues
But many of the peasants waged a final war on the Bolsheviks – known as the peasant wars.

4. Ideological disillusionment
Waning support
Open opposition - Kronstandt
“The Bolsheviks, who had regarded themselves as the vanguard of the proletariat, found themselves in the van with nothing to guard.” (Westwood)
Political issues

5. Humanitarian Disaster
Internationally, the Russian famine was acknowledged as a humanitarian disaster.
The British established a Save the Children in Russia fund.
The American Relief Administration saved 14 million peasants.
Humanitarian Disaster
Bolsheviks were not happy about this but – what could they do, they needed assistance with their starving masses.

6. Rich peasants
Blamed from 1918 for the high prices and food shortages because they were believed to be hording grain.
Debate – was food shortages caused by hording or because war communism had removed any incentive to produce surplus.
Kulaks (tight fisted)

7. Marx had theorised that in order to have a successful communist revolution, the country would have to have a reasonably well founded capitalist economy. RUSSIA DID NOT!
The Bolsheviks realised that they would have to implement some capitalist ideals to get their economy back up and running.
Realisation
Departure from communist ideals – allowing capitalism

8. NEP – announced at the 10th Party Congress in Moscow 8-16th March 1921.
NEP – State Capitalism??!!

9. Capitalism that was restrained and controlled.
Lenin justified the NEP by defining it as State Capitalism and saying that it was only temporary.
Capitalism that was restrained and controlled.
Justification
A return to the state capitalism ideas of An economic breathing spell said Lenin, But… go to the next slide

10. “We have met a great defeat in our plans and that we are now making a strategic retreat.”
“By only coming to an agreement with the peasants can we save the socialist revolution.”
Lenin
In a rare moment of honesty, Lenin admitted defeat if only temporary. It was to be seen as a transitional phase from capitalism to socialism.

11. Central elements of the NEP
Grain requisitioning was abandoned. A ‘tax in kind’ was applied instead.
Markets and private trading was legalised.
Rationing was phased out.
Cash wages were reinstated and a new currency was brought in.
Labour armies were abandoned.
Central elements of the NEP
A tax in kind was a portion of the peasants harvest that went to the state. It left the peasants with a surplus to eat, sell or trade as they liked. In major famine areas, this tax was waived for the first 12 months.
International economic ties were re-established, a trade agreement with Britain was signed in 1922.
THE NEP WAS NOT A TOTAL RETURN TO PRIVATE OWNERSHIP AND CAPITALIST INDUSTRY.

12. In other words they felt that they (the Bolsheviks) were selling out.
Some felt this new policy (NEP) undermined the ideological foundations of the party.
In other words they felt that they (the Bolsheviks) were selling out.
This is an idea that the western/liberal historians like to emphasise.
However…
It was considered an unwelcome capitalist blemish on what was supposed to be an emerging socialist economy.

13. “Having defeated the Whites, who were backed by no fewer than eight Western powers, the Bolsheviks surrendered to the peasantry.”
Figes

14. Biggest influx of money came from the church
Biggest influx of money came from the church , the communists took anything of value from the church to fund famine relief.
Funding
7000 monks, priests and nuns were killed trying to protect valuable religious items.

15. “ The NEP was, in the space of a few months, already giving marvellous results. From one week to the next the famine and the speculation were diminishing…the public were beginning to recover its breath”
Victor Serge
Impact
Grain harvest doubled between 1921 and 1925
Railways transported twice as much
Average monthly wage of a factory worker increased by 150%
Increased support from the peasants.
Strikes decreased
But by production output was only operating at pre war Tsarist levels.

16. “Lenin’s Russia in the years of the NEP still outmatched Nicholas II’s in political unfreedom.”
Robert Service
Impact
Many of the party faithfuls were unhappy – it created great disunity between members.

17. “The more significant a crisis, the greater the need for a radical response.”
Malone

18. Questions Activity 1. Why was the NEP introduced?
2. What did it involve?
3. How did the Bolsheviks justify this policy?
4. What criticisms were there of it at the time?
5. How effective was it in the long term and in the short term?
Activity

19. Give three arguments (pieces of evidence) for or against this opinion.
“Lenin was simply a Tsar by another name. He reacted the same way to opposition of his government as the Tsar did”
Give three arguments (pieces of evidence) for or against this opinion.
Activity

20. Write a detailed plan for the following essay topic: Essay
In 1921 Lenin called for party unity and an end to factionalism. Discuss the impact that events like Kronstadt and the NEP had on unity within the Bolshevik movement.
Essay