Prerequisites for the transition to a new economic policy NEP. NEP goals, essence, methods, basic - Examination

Introduced in the early twenties of the last century, it was supposed to be a transitional step towards building socialism. The country, only recently recovering from revolutions and civil war, wanted peace. The provisional policy of the Bolsheviks, which had become obsolete, was living out its last days. Once great Russia was on the verge of a serious social crisis - then the transition from war communism to the NEP was ripe. It was this decision that was proclaimed at the next (tenth) in Moscow in 1921.

The reasons for the transition to the NEP were clear. First of all, the difficult situation of the country at the turn of such changes affected: Russia was comprehended both politically, and Industry was destroyed, factories stood still. The workers were declassed more and more - there were many of them, they wanted to work and waged a tough fight for each workplace(but they were missing).

And those who worked, did not receive special moral and monetary satisfaction from their work. In connection with the abolition of commodity-money relations, people received wages natural product, not money. Such leveling did not lead to a sense of satisfaction from moral justice, but to ever-increasing bitterness and rampant speculation throughout the country.

Agriculture, namely the recalcitrant peasants, was generally seen by the Bolsheviks as destructive elements. Peasant holdings, due to the reduction in sown areas and the instability of the situation in the country, were increasingly closed in on themselves and were similar to natural economic formations. Entering the consumer market was uninteresting and unprofitable for them. In addition, the peasants fed the Red Army, and the military personnel who were later demobilized increasingly filled the cities and villages, replenishing the ranks of cripples, losers and adopted children.

Now there was a long-term transformation of all spheres of the economy under the new policy - a direct transition to the NEP. Its main ideas (the abolition of the surplus appropriation and the introduction of a tax in kind) were not yet fully understood by the simple peasantry, who hid in anticipation of changes, although in the south of Russia anti-Bolshevik uprisings arose against all kinds of reforms - this is how Ukraine reacted to any changes (like “there will only be further worse").

The second significant change is the expansion and resolution of different forms of ownership. The market, in turn, could be revived by injections of foreign capital, which ensured the transition to the NEP. The depreciation of the currency at that time and terrible inflation required a monetary reform, which was carried out in the first years after the introduction of this policy.

During its existence, the party finally strengthened its positions - the Bolsheviks ceased to be associated with a political force. From now on, they became part of the expansion of ideology and its introduction into all spheres of public and private life led to the complete and undivided control of society by the Bolshevik party. Under such conditions, the transition to the NEP became the most possible, since the economic, political, and ideological spheres were concentrated in the hands of one "puppeteer".

The introduction of the new economic policy was met by the population in different ways. Many peasants quickly reoriented themselves and began to actively enter the market, the workers, in turn, got an excellent opportunity to use their forces in production, because the transition to the NEP provided the opportunity for the country's economy to flourish, which, unfortunately, was so mediocrely lost in subsequent years.

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 domestic policy Bolsheviks consisted in restoring the economy destroyed by the revolution and the civil war, creating 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 based on 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 absolute power 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 the ministers of the church 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 Socialist-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, 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, excises on consumer goods, local taxes), a fee 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, Kiev, 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, the introduction of hard currency stimulated the recovery Agriculture. The high growth rates during the years of the New Economic Policy were largely due to the “restoration effect”: equipment that was already available, but idle, was loaded, and old arable lands abandoned during the civil war were brought into circulation in agriculture. When these reserves dried up at the end of the 1920s, the country was faced with 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 directives 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 New Economic Policy 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 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)

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 businesses 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).

In 1920, the civil war was coming to an end, the Red Army was victorious on the fronts of its opponents. But it was too early for the Bolsheviks to rejoice, as a severe economic and political crisis erupted in the country.

The national economy of the country was completely destroyed. The level of production fell to 14% of the pre-war level (1913). And in some sectors (textile) it fell to the level of 1859. In 1920, the country produced 3% of the pre-war sugar production, 5-6% of cotton fabrics, and 2% of iron. In 1919 almost all blast furnaces went out. The production of metal ceased, and the country lived on old stocks, which inevitably affected all industries. Due to the lack of fuel and raw materials, most factories and factories were closed. Donbass, the Urals, Siberia, and the Baku oil region were especially affected. The sore point of the economy is transport. By 1920, 58% of the locomotive fleet was out of order. The loss of the mines of Donbass and Baku oil, the depreciation of the rolling stock of the railways led to a fuel and transport crisis. He bound cities and towns with cold and famine. Trains ran rarely, slowly, without a schedule. Huge crowds of hungry and half-dressed people accumulated at the stations. All this intensified the food crisis, gave rise to massive epidemics of typhus, cholera, smallpox, dysentery, and so on. The infant mortality rate was especially high. Accurate statistics on human losses during the years of the civil war do not exist. According to many scientists, the death rate during the years of the civil war was 5-6 million people from starvation alone, and about 3 million people from various diseases. Since 1914, about 20 million people have died in Russia, while on the fronts of the civil war, losses on both sides totaled 3 million people.

To overcome the crisis, the authorities tried to carry out emergency measures. Among them was the allocation of "shock groups" of factories supplied with raw materials and fuel in the first place, continuous labor mobilization of the population, the creation of labor armies and the militarization of labor, and an increase in rations for workers. But these measures did not give a great effect, since it was impossible to eliminate the causes of the crisis through organizational measures. They lay in the very policy of war communism, the continuation of which after the end of hostilities caused discontent among the majority of the population, especially the peasantry.

As already noted, in the conditions of the civil war, the peasantry, not wanting the return of the previous order, supported the Reds, agreeing with the surplus appraisal. It is also impossible to speak about the complete coincidence of the views of the Bolsheviks and the peasants on the future prospects for the development of the country. Some researchers even believe that during the years of the Civil War, the peasants helped the Reds to destroy the Whites in order to deal with the Reds later. The preservation of the surplus appraisal in peacetime deprived the peasants of their material interest in expanding production. Peasant farming acquired an increasingly natural character: it produced only the most necessary things for a given peasant and his family. This led to a sharp reduction in sown areas, a decrease in the number of livestock, and the cessation of sowing industrial crops, i.e. to the degradation of agriculture. Compared with 1913, the gross agricultural output has decreased by more than a third, and the sown area has decreased by 40%. Surplus appropriation plan for 1920-1921. was only half completed. The peasants preferred to hide their bread rather than give it to the state for free. This caused the toughening of the activities of the procurement bodies and food detachments, on the one hand, and the armed resistance of the peasantry, on the other.

It is noteworthy that along with the peasants, representatives of the working class also took part in the rebellions, in whose composition significant changes took place during the years of the civil war. First, its numbers were reduced, since countless mobilizations to the front were carried out primarily among the workers. Secondly, many workers, fleeing hunger and cold, went to the villages and settled permanently. Thirdly, a large number of the most active and conscious workers "from the machine" were sent to government agencies, the Red Army, the police, the Cheka, etc. They have lost contact with the working class, they have ceased to live by its needs. But even those proletarians who remained in the few operating enterprises, in essence, also ceased to be workers, living off by odd jobs, handicrafts, "sacking", etc. The professional structure of the working class deteriorated, it was dominated by low-skilled strata, women and youth. Many yesterday's workers turned into lumpens, joining the ranks of beggars, thieves, and even fell into criminal gangs. Disappointment and apathy reigned among the workers, and discontent grew. The Bolsheviks understood that they were idealizing the proletariat, speaking of its messianic exclusivity. Under the conditions of war communism, he not only did not show high consciousness and revolutionary initiative, but, as already noted, he took part in anti-Soviet peasant uprisings. The main slogans of these speeches are "Freedom of trade!" and "Soviets without communists!".

The bureaucratic management system that had developed over the years of war communism also turned out to be ineffective. It was impossible to manage and regulate from the center in such a huge country as Russia. There were no funds and experience to establish accounting and control. The central leadership had a vague idea of ​​what was being done locally. The activities of the Soviets were increasingly replaced by the activities of the executive committees and various emergency bodies (revolutionary committees, revolutionary troikas, fives, etc.) under the control of the party apparatus. Elections to the Soviets were held formally with low participation of the population. Although since February 1919 the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks took part in the work of the local Soviets along with the Bolsheviks, nevertheless, under the conditions of war communism, the political monopoly belonged, as is known, to the Bolsheviks. The growing crisis in the country was associated with the erroneous policy of the Bolsheviks, which led to a fall in the authority of the party among the people and an increase in discontent among all segments of the population. The apogee of this discontent is usually considered the Kronstadt mutiny (February - March 1921), in which even the sailors of the Baltic Fleet, who were previously the most reliable stronghold of Soviet power, came out against the Bolsheviks. The rebellion was put down with great difficulty and considerable bloodshed. He demonstrated the danger of maintaining the policy of war communism.

The erosion of moral criteria in society, which is natural for situations in which the system of moral values ​​collapses, also represented a threat to the Soviet government. Religion was declared a relic of the old world. The death of a huge number of people devalued human life, the state was unable to guarantee the safety of the individual. Increasingly, the ideas of equalization and class priorities were reduced to a simple slogan "steal the loot." A wave of crime has swept over Russia. All this, as well as the disintegration of the family (the new authorities declared the family a relic of bourgeois society, introduced the institution of civil marriage and greatly simplified divorce proceedings), family ties caused an unprecedented increase in child homelessness. By 1922, the number of homeless children reached 7 million people, so even a special commission was created under the Cheka, headed by F. E. Dzerzhinsky, to combat homelessness.

By the end of the civil war, the Bolsheviks had to endure the collapse of another illusion: the hopes for a world revolution had finally collapsed. This was evidenced by the defeat of the socialist uprising in Hungary, the fall of the Bavarian Republic, and the unsuccessful attempt in Poland, with the help of the Red Army, to "drive mankind to happiness." It was not possible to take the "fortress of world capitalism" by storm. It was necessary to proceed to its long siege. This required the abandonment of the policy of war communism and the transition to the search for compromises with the world bourgeoisie both within the country and in the international arena.

In 1920, a serious crisis hit the RCP(b) as well. Having become the ruling party, it grows very rapidly in numbers, which could not but affect its qualitative composition. If in February 1917 there were about 24 thousand people in its ranks, then in March 1920 - 640 thousand people, and a year later, in March 1921 - 730 thousand people. Not only conscious fighters for social justice rushed into it, but also careerists, rogues, whose interests were far from the needs of the working people. Gradually, the living conditions of the party apparatus begin to differ significantly from those of ordinary communists.

At the IX Conference of the RCP(b), in September 1920, there was talk of a crisis within the party itself. It manifested itself, firstly, in the separation between the "tops" and "bottoms", which caused great discontent of the latter. A special commission was even created to study the privileges of the highest party apparatus. Secondly, in the emergence of an intra-party discussion about the ways and methods of building socialism, which came to be called the discussion about trade unions. It dealt with the role of the masses in the building of socialism, with the forms government controlled and methods of interaction between communists and non-party people, as well as the principles of the activity of the party itself. The participants split into five platforms and fiercely argued among themselves.

The results of the discussion were summed up by the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b) in March 1921. Most of the participants agreed that in a crisis in the country it is an unaffordable luxury and leads to a weakening of the party's authority. At the suggestion of V. I. Lenin, the congress adopted a resolution "On the Unity of the Party", which, under pain of expulsion, contained a ban on participation in factions and groupings.

Thus, the crisis of the end of 1920 had a systemic character and became the main reason that prompted the Bolsheviks to abandon the policy of war communism.

NEP - " new economic policy» Soviet Russia was an economic liberalization under strict political control of the authorities. NEP has replaced war communism» (« old economic policy”- SEP) and had the main task: to overcome the political and economic crises of the spring of 1921. The main idea of ​​the NEP was the restoration of the national economy for the subsequent transition to socialist construction.

By 1921, the Civil War on the territory of the former Russian Empire was generally over. There were still battles with the unfinished White Guards and the Japanese occupiers on Far East(in the Far East), and in the RSFSR they already estimated the losses brought by military revolutionary upheavals:

Loss of territory- Poland, Finland, the Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia), Western Belarus and Ukraine, Bessarabia and the Kars region of Armenia turned out to be outside Soviet Russia and its allied socialist state entities.

Population loss as a result of wars, emigration, epidemics and a drop in the birth rate, it amounted to approximately 25 million people. Experts calculated that no more than 135 million people lived in the Soviet territories at that time.

Were thoroughly destroyed and fell into disrepair industrial areas: Donbass, Ural and Baku oil complex. There was a catastrophic shortage of raw materials and fuel for somehow working plants and factories.

The volume of industrial production decreased by about 5 times (metal smelting fell to the level early XVIII century).

The volume of agricultural production has decreased by about 40%.

Inflation crossed all reasonable limits.

There was a growing shortage of consumer goods.

The intellectual potential of society has degraded. Many scientists, technicians and cultural figures emigrated, some were subjected to repression, up to physical destruction.

The peasants, outraged by the surplus appropriation and the atrocities of the food detachments, not only sabotaged the delivery of bread, but also everywhere raised armed rebellions. The farmers of the Tambov region, Don, Kuban, Ukraine, the Volga region and Siberia revolted. The rebels, often led by ideological SRs, put forward economic (the abolition of the surplus) and political demands:

1. Changes in the agrarian policy of the Soviet authorities.
2. Cancel the one-party dictate of the RCP(b).
3. Elect and convene a Constituent Assembly.

Units and even formations of the Red Army were thrown to suppress the uprisings, but the wave of protests did not subside. In the Red Army, anti-Bolshevik sentiments also matured, which resulted on March 1, 1921 in the large-scale Kronstadt uprising. In the RCP(b) itself and the Supreme Council of National Economy, already since 1920, the voices of individual leaders (Trotsky, Rykov) were heard, calling for the abandonment of the surplus appraisal. The issue of changing the socio-economic course of the Soviet government is ripe.

Factors that influenced the adoption of the new economic policy

The introduction of the NEP in the Soviet state was not someone's whim, on the contrary, the NEP was due to a number of factors:

Political, economic, social and even ideological. The concept of the New Economic Policy was formulated in general terms by VI Lenin at the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b). The leader urged at this stage to change approaches to governing the country.

The concept that the driving force of the socialist revolution is the proletariat is unshakable. But the working peasantry is its ally, and the Soviet government must learn to "get along" with it.

The country should have a built-in system with a unified ideology suppressing any opposition to the existing government.

Only in such a situation could the NEP provide a solution to the economic problems that wars and revolutions confronted the young Soviet state.

General characteristics of the NEP

The NEP in the Soviet country is an ambiguous phenomenon, since it directly contradicted Marxist theory. When the policy of "war communism" failed, the "new economic policy" played the role of an unplanned detour on the road to building socialism. V. I. Lenin constantly emphasized the thesis: "NEP is a temporary phenomenon." Based on this, the NEP can be broadly characterized by the main parameters:

	Characteristics
	Overcome the political and socio-economic crisis in the young Soviet state; finding new ways to build the economic foundation of a socialist society; raising the standard of living in Soviet society and creating an environment of stability in domestic politics.
	The combination of the command-administrative system and the market method in the Soviet economy. commanding heights remained in the hands of representatives of the proletarian party.
	Agriculture; industry (private small enterprises, lease of state enterprises, state-capitalist enterprises, concessions); financial area.
specifics	The surplus appropriation is replaced by a tax in kind (March 21, 1921); the bond between town and country through the restoration of trade and commodity-money relations; admission of private capital into industry; permission to rent land and hire laborers in agriculture; liquidation of the system of distribution by cards; competition between private, cooperative and state trade; introduction of self-management and self-sufficiency of enterprises; the abolition of labor conscription, the elimination of labor armies, the distribution of labor through the stock exchange; financial reform, the transition to wages and the abolition of free services.

The Soviet state allowed private capitalist relations in trade, small-scale and even in some enterprises of medium industry. At the same time, large-scale industry, transport and the financial system were regulated by the state. In relation to private capital, the NEP allowed the application of a formula of three elements: admission, containment and crowding out. What and at what moment to use the Soviet and party organs based on the emerging political expediency.

Chronological framework of the NEP

The New Economic Policy fell within the time frame from 1921 to 1931.

	Action	Course of events
	Starting a process	The gradual curtailment of the system of war communism and the introduction of elements of the NEP.
1923, 1925, 1927	Crises of the New Economic Policy	Emergence and intensification of the causes and signs of the tendency to curtail the NEP.
	Activation of the program termination process.	The actual departure from the NEP, a sharp increase in the critical attitude towards the "kulaks" and "Nepmen".
	Complete collapse of the NEP.	The legal prohibition of private property has been formalized.

In general, the NEP in short time restored and made the economic system of the Soviet Union relatively viable.

Pros and cons of the NEP

One of the most important negative aspects of the new economic policy, according to many analysts, was that during this period the industry (heavy industry) did not develop. This circumstance could have catastrophic consequences in this period of history for a country like the USSR. But besides this, in the NEP, not everything was assessed with the sign “plus”, there were also significant disadvantages.

	"Minuses"
Restoration and development of commodity-money relations.	Mass unemployment (more than 2 million people).
Development of small business in the fields of industry and services.	High prices for manufactured goods. Inflation.
Some rise in the living standards of the industrial proletariat.	Low qualification of the majority of workers.
The prevalence of "middle peasants" in the social structure of the village.	Exacerbation of the housing problem.
Conditions have been created for the industrialization of the country.	Growth in the number of soviet employees (officials). Bureaucracy of the system.

The reasons for many economic troubles that led to crises were the low competence of personnel and the inconsistency of the policy of the party and state structures.

Inevitable Crises

From the very beginning, the NEP showed the unstable economic growth characteristic of capitalist relations, which resulted in three crises:

The marketing crisis of 1923, as a result of the discrepancy between low prices for agricultural products and high prices for industrial consumer goods ("scissors" of prices).

The crisis of grain procurements in 1925, expressed in the preservation of mandatory state purchases at fixed prices, with a decrease in the volume of grain exports.

The acute crisis of grain procurements in 1927-1928, overcome with the help of administrative and legal measures. Closing of the New Economic Policy project.

Reasons for abandoning the NEP

The collapse of the NEP in the Soviet Union had a number of justifications:

1. The New Economic Policy did not have a clear vision of the prospects for the development of the USSR.
2. The instability of economic growth.
3. Socio-economic flaws (property stratification, unemployment, specific crime, theft and drug addiction).
4. The isolation of the Soviet economy from the world economy.
5. Dissatisfaction with the NEP by a significant part of the proletariat.
6. Disbelief in the success of the NEP by a significant part of the communists.
7. The CPSU(b) risked losing its monopoly on power.
8. The predominance of administrative methods of management national economy and non-economic coercion.
9. Aggravation of the danger of military aggression against the USSR.

Results of the New Economic Policy

Political	in 1921, the Tenth Congress adopted a resolution "on the unity of the party", thereby putting an end to factionalism and dissent in the ruling party; a trial of prominent socialist-revolutionaries was organized and the AKP itself was liquidated; the Menshevik party was discredited and destroyed as a political force.
Economic	increasing the volume of agricultural production; achievement of the pre-war level of animal husbandry; the level of production of consumer goods did not satisfy demand; rising prices; slow growth in the well-being of the population of the country.
Social	a fivefold increase in the size of the proletariat; the emergence of a layer of Soviet capitalists ("Nepmen" and "Sovburs"); the working class markedly raised the standard of living; aggravated "housing problem"; the apparatus of bureaucratic-democratic management increased.

The New Economic Policy and was not up to the end understood and accepted as a given by the authorities and the people of the country. To some extent, the NEP measures justified themselves, but there were still more negative aspects of the process. The main outcome was rapid recovery of the economic system to the level of readiness for the next stage in the construction of socialism - a large-scale industrialization.