New economic policy of the USSR. NEP is the new economic policy of the country

NEP- the new economic policy pursued in Soviet Russia and the USSR in the 1920s. It was adopted on March 14, 1921 by the X Congress of the RCP (b), replacing the policy of "war communism" that was carried out during the Civil War. The New Economic Policy was aimed at restoring the national economy and the subsequent transition to socialism. The main content of the NEP is the replacement of the surplus appropriation tax in the countryside (up to 70% of grain was confiscated during the surplus appropriation tax, about 30% with the food tax), the use of the market and various forms of ownership, the attraction of foreign capital in the form of concessions, the implementation of the monetary reform (1922-1924), in as a result of which the ruble became a convertible currency.

Reasons for the New Economic Policy.

The extremely difficult situation in the country pushed the Bolsheviks to a more flexible economic policy. In different parts of the country (in the Tambov province, in the Middle Volga region, on the Don, Kuban, in Western Siberia), anti-government uprisings of peasants flare up. By the spring of 1921, there were already about 200 thousand people in the ranks of their participants. Discontent spread to the Armed Forces. In March, the sailors and Red Army soldiers of Kronstadt, the largest naval base of the Baltic Fleet, took up arms against the Communists. A wave of mass strikes and demonstrations of workers grew in the cities.

At their core, these were spontaneous outbursts of popular indignation at the policies of the Soviet government. But in each of them, to a greater or lesser extent, there was also an element of organization. It was introduced by a wide range of political forces: from monarchists to socialists. What united these versatile forces was the desire to take control of the popular movement that had begun and, relying on it, to eliminate the power of the Bolsheviks.

It had to be admitted that not only the war, but also the policy of "war communism" led to the economic and political crisis. "Ruin, need, impoverishment" - this is how Lenin characterized the situation that developed after the end of the civil war. By 1921, the population of Russia, compared with the autumn of 1917, decreased by more than 10 million people; industrial production decreased by 7 times; transport was in complete decline; coal and oil production was at the level of the end of the 19th century; crop areas were sharply reduced; gross agricultural output was 67% of the pre-war level. The people were exhausted. For a number of years people lived from hand to mouth. There were not enough clothes, shoes, medicines.

In the spring and summer of 1921, a terrible famine broke out in the Volga region. It was provoked not so much by a severe drought, but by the fact that after the confiscation of surplus products in the autumn, the peasants had neither grain for sowing, nor the desire to sow and cultivate the land. More than 5 million people died from starvation. The consequences of the civil war also affected the city. Due to the lack of raw materials and fuel, many enterprises were closed. In February 1921, 64 of the largest factories in Petrograd stopped, including the Putilovsky one. The workers were on the street. Many of them went to the countryside in search of food. In 1921 Moscow lost half of its workers, Petrograd two-thirds. Labor productivity dropped sharply. In some branches it reached only 20% of the pre-war level.

One of the most tragic consequences of the war years was child homelessness. It increased sharply during the famine of 1921. According to official figures, in 1922 there were 7 million street children in the Soviet Republic. This phenomenon has become so alarming that F. E. Dzerzhinsky, chairman of the Cheka, was placed at the head of the Commission for the Improvement of the Life of Children, designed to combat homelessness.

As a result, Soviet Russia entered a period of peaceful construction with two divergent lines of domestic policy. On the one hand, a rethinking of the foundations of economic policy began, accompanied by the emancipation of the economic life of the country from total state regulation. On the other hand, the ossification of the Soviet system, the Bolshevik dictatorship, was preserved, any attempts to democratize society and expand the civil rights of the population were resolutely suppressed.

The essence of the new economic policy:

1) The main political task is to relieve social tension in society, to strengthen the social base of Soviet power, in the form of an alliance of workers and peasants.

2) The economic task is to prevent further deepening of the ruin in the national economy, to get out of the crisis and restore the country's economy.

3) The social task is to provide favorable conditions for building socialism in the USSR, in the final analysis. The minimum program could be called such goals as eliminating hunger, unemployment, raising the material standard, saturating the market with necessary goods and services.

4) And, finally, the NEP pursued another, no less important task - the restoration of normal foreign economic and foreign policy relations, to overcome international isolation.

Consider the main changes that have taken place in the life of Russia with the country's transition to the NEP.

Agriculture

Starting from the 1923-1924 business year, a single agricultural tax was introduced, replacing various taxes in kind. This tax was levied partly in products, partly in money. Later, after the monetary reform, the single tax took on an exclusively monetary form. On average, the size of the food tax was half the size of the surplus appropriation, and its main part was assigned to the prosperous peasantry. Great assistance in the restoration of agricultural production was provided by state measures to improve agriculture, the mass dissemination of agricultural knowledge and improved methods of farming among the peasants. Among the measures aimed at the restoration and development of agriculture in 1921-1925, an important place was occupied by financial assistance to the countryside. A network of district and provincial agricultural credit societies was created in the country. Loans were provided to low-power horseless, one-horse peasant farms and middle peasants for the purchase of working livestock, machines, implements, fertilizers, for increasing the breed of livestock, improving soil cultivation, etc.

In the provinces that fulfilled the procurement plan, the state grain monopoly was abolished and free trade in grain and all other agricultural products was allowed. Products left over the tax could be sold to the state or on the market at free prices, and this, in turn, significantly stimulated the expansion of production in peasant farms. It was allowed to lease land and hire workers, but there were severe restrictions.

The state encouraged the development of various forms of simple cooperation: consumer, supply, credit, and trade. Thus, in agriculture, by the end of the 1920s, more than half of the peasant households were covered by these forms of cooperation.

Industry

With the transition to the NEP, an impetus was given to the development of private capitalist entrepreneurship. The main position of the state in this matter was that the freedom of trade and the development of capitalism were allowed only to a certain extent and only under the condition of state regulation. In industry, the sphere of activity of a private trader was mainly limited to the production of consumer goods, the extraction and processing of certain types of raw materials, and the manufacture of the simplest tools.

Developing the idea of state capitalism, the government allowed private enterprise to lease small and medium-sized industrial and commercial enterprises. In fact, these enterprises belonged to the state, the program of their work was approved by local government institutions, but production activities were carried out by private entrepreneurs.

A small number of state-owned enterprises were denationalised. It was allowed to open their own enterprises with the number of employees no more than 20 people. By the mid-1920s, the private sector accounted for 20-25% of industrial production.

One of the signs of the NEP was the development of concessions, a special form of lease, i.e. granting foreign entrepreneurs the right to operate and build enterprises on the territory of the Soviet state, as well as to develop the earth's interior, extract minerals, etc. The concession policy pursued the goal of attracting foreign capital to the country's economy.

Of all the branches of industry during the years of the recovery period, mechanical engineering achieved the greatest success. The country began to implement the Leninist plan for electrification. Electricity generation in 1925 was 6 times higher than in 1921 and significantly higher than in 1913. The metallurgical industry lagged far behind the pre-war level, and a lot of work had to be done in this area. The railway transport, which had been badly damaged during the civil war, was gradually restored. The light and food industries were quickly restored.

Thus, in 1921-1925. the Soviet people successfully completed the tasks of restoring industry, and output increased.

Manufacturing control

Big changes took place in the system of economic management. This concerned primarily the weakening of centralization, characteristic of the period of "war communism". Head offices in the Supreme Economic Council were abolished, their local functions were transferred to large district administrations and provincial economic councils.

Trusts, that is, associations of homogeneous or interconnected enterprises, have become the main form of production management in the public sector.

Trusts were endowed with broad powers, they independently decided what to produce, where to sell products, they were financially responsible for the organization of production, the quality of products, and the safety of state property. The enterprises included in the trust were removed from the state supply and switched to the purchase of resources on the market. All this was called "economic accounting" (self-financing), in accordance with which enterprises received complete financial independence, up to the issuance of long-term bonded loans.

Simultaneously with the formation of the trust system, syndicates began to appear, that is, voluntary associations of several trusts for the wholesale sale of their products, the purchase of raw materials, lending, and the regulation of trade operations in the domestic and foreign markets.

Trade

The development of trade was one of the elements of state capitalism. With the help of trade, it was necessary to ensure economic exchange between industry and agriculture, between town and country, without which the normal economic life of society is impossible.

It was supposed to carry out a wide exchange of goods within the limits of local economic turnover. To do this, it was envisaged to oblige state enterprises to hand over their products to a special commodity exchange fund of the republic. But unexpectedly for the leaders of the country, the local trade turned out to be close to the development of the economy, and already in October 1921 it turned into free trade.

Private capital was allowed into the trade sphere in accordance with the permission received from state institutions to carry out trade operations. The presence of private capital in retail trade was especially noticeable, but it was completely excluded from foreign trade, which was carried out exclusively on the basis of a state monopoly. International trade relations were concluded only with the bodies of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade.

D monetary reform

Of no small importance for the implementation of the NEP was the creation of a stable system and the stabilization of the ruble.

As a result of heated discussions, by the end of 1922, it was decided to carry out a monetary reform based on the gold standard. To stabilize the ruble, a denomination of banknotes was carried out, that is, a change in their face value according to a certain ratio of old and new banknotes. First, in 1922, Soviet signs were issued.

Simultaneously with the release of Soviet signs, at the end of November 1922, a new Soviet currency was put into circulation - the "chervonets", equated to 7.74 g of pure gold, or to the pre-revolutionary ten-ruble coin. Chervonets, first of all, were intended for lending to industry and commercial operations in the wholesale trade, it was strictly forbidden to use them to cover the budget deficit.

In the autumn of 1922, stock exchanges were created, where the sale and purchase of currency, gold, government loans at a free rate was allowed. Already in 1925, the chervonets became a convertible currency; it was officially quoted on various currency exchanges around the world. The final stage of the reform was the procedure for the redemption of Soviet signs.

tax reform

Simultaneously with the monetary reform, a tax reform was carried out. Already at the end of 1923, deductions from the profits of enterprises, and not taxes from the population, became the main source of state budget revenues. The logical consequence of the return to a market economy was the transition from taxation in kind to monetary taxation of peasant farms. During this period, new sources of cash tax are being actively developed. In 1921-1922. taxes were imposed on tobacco, spirits, beer, matches, honey, mineral waters and other goods.

Banking system

The credit system gradually revived. In 1921, the State Bank, which was abolished in 1918, restored its work. Lending to industry and trade began on a commercial basis. Specialized banks arose in the country: the Commercial and Industrial Bank (Prombank) for financing industry, the Electric Bank for lending to electrification, the Russian Commercial Bank (from 1924 - Vneshtorgbank) for financing foreign trade, etc. These banks carried out short-term and long-term lending, distributed loans, appointed loan, accounting interest and interest on deposits.

The market nature of the economy can be confirmed by the competition that arose between banks in the struggle for customers by providing them with especially favorable credit conditions. Commercial credit, that is, lending to each other by various enterprises and organizations, has become widespread. All this suggests that a single money market with all its attributes has already functioned in the country.

International trade

The monopoly of foreign trade did not make it possible to make fuller use of the country's export potential, since peasants and handicraftsmen received only depreciated Soviet banknotes for their products, and not currency. IN AND. Lenin opposed the weakening of the monopoly of foreign trade, fearing an alleged increase in smuggling. In fact, the government was afraid that producers, having received the right to enter the world market, would feel their independence from the state and would again begin to fight against the authorities. Based on this, the country's leadership tried to prevent the demonopolization of foreign trade

These are the most important measures of the new economic policy carried out by the Soviet state. With all the variety of assessments, the NEP can be called a successful and successful policy, which had a great and invaluable significance. And, of course, like any economic policy, the NEP has vast experience and important lessons.

Reasons for the transition to the new economic policy

In the first half of the 20s. The situation in Soviet Russia was simply catastrophic. This was the situation at the end of the Civil War. Firstly, the country experienced two revolutions in 1917, while simultaneously experiencing the events of World War I, where the situation on the fronts for the Russian army was unsuccessful. Immediately after the October Revolution of 1917. the Civil War began. The country did not have time to rest. Devastation and crisis were observed in everything. 1921 was even called a "total crisis", and Lenin described the country during this period as "a man beaten to a pulp"

The results of World War I, civil war and intervention are as follows:

Destroyed ¼ of the national wealth; in 1920 coal production dropped sharply, it amounted to 30% of the level of 1913, oil in 1920. was mined as much as in 1899. those. 2 times less than in 1913. This led to a fuel crisis, which led to the closure of industrial enterprises, a reduction in industrial production, unemployment;

Demographic crisis, as for 1918 - 1922 9.5 million people died, according to medical statistics, the famine of 1921-1922. carried away 5 million people, 1.5 - 2 million people emigrated. The demographic catastrophe has turned into a mass of unborn children, and with them the losses are estimated at 25 million people;

The crisis of agricultural production was exacerbated by the drought of 1921, which in 1920 covered 7 provinces, and in 1921. - 13 and a territory with a population of 30 million people. Grain production decreased by 50%;

The war isolated our economy from the world economy. the confrontation with the capitalist powers intensified;

The acuteness of class consciousness, born of the war and the revolution, was fixed for a long time, no one considered himself a sinner, people got used to killing, became more cruel;

But the policy of "War Communism" laid the heaviest burden on the shoulders of the people. It was she who led the country to complete collapse. It was not possible to quickly restore the mines and mines of the Donbass, the Urals, and Siberia. The workers were forced to leave their homes and go to the countryside. Petrograd lost 60% of its workers when the Putilovsky, Obukhovsky and other factories were closed, Moscow - 50%. Stopped traffic on 30 railways. Inflation was rampant. The sown areas decreased by 25%, because. The peasants were not interested in expanding the economy.

The Bolshevik government did not immediately realize the failure of the policy of "War Communism". In 1920 The Council of People's Commissars created the State Commission (Gosplan) to develop current and long-term plans for the economic development of the country. The range of agricultural products, which was subject to surplus appropriation, expanded. A Decree on the abolition of monetary circulation was being prepared. However, these measures came into conflict with the demands of the workers and peasants. They ceased to understand what they were fighting for in 1917? And Lenin understood this perfectly. The economic crisis was exacerbated by the social crisis. The workers were annoyed by unemployment and food shortages, they were dissatisfied with the infringement of the rights of trade unions, the introduction of forced labor and its equal pay. Therefore, in the cities at the end of 1920 - early. 1921 strikes began, in which the workers advocated the democratization of the country's political system, the convening of the Constituent Assembly, the abolition of special distributors and rations. This is already a crisis of workers' confidence in the ruling Bolshevik Party. There was a threat of the party losing power in the country due to the delay in the transition after the end of the Civil War to peacetime politics.

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

Thus, by the end of the Civil War, the country was seized by a total crisis that threatened the existence of power, which was established after October 1917, requiring an urgent change in policy. The event that accelerated the introduction of the NEP was the Kronstadt rebellion. In March 1921 sailors and Red Army soldiers of the naval fortress of Krondstadt demanded the release from prison of all representatives of the socialist parties, the holding of re-elections of the Soviets and the expulsion of the communists from them, the granting of freedom of speech, meetings and unions to all parties, ensuring freedom of trade, allowing the peasants to freely use the land and dispose of the products of their economy , i.e. liquidation of the surplus. The Kronstadters were supported by the workers. In response, the government introduced a state of siege in Petrograd, declared the rebels rebels and refused to negotiate with them. Regiments of the Red Army, reinforced by detachments of the Cheka and delegates of the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b), who had specially arrived from Moscow, stormed Kronstadt. 2.5 thousand sailors were arrested, 6-8 thousand emigrated to Finland. Devastation and famine, strikes of workers, uprising of peasants and sailors - all testified to the Crisis state of things. In addition, by the spring of 1921. the hope for an early world revolution and the material and technical assistance of the European proletariat was exhausted. Therefore, V. I. Lenin revised his internal political course and recognized that only the satisfaction of the demands of the peasantry could save the power of the Bolsheviks.

The essence of the NEP

So, in the first half of the 20s. the main task for the party was to restore the destroyed economy, to create a material, technical and socio-cultural basis for building socialism, which the Bolsheviks promised to the people.

In March 1921, at the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b), V. I. Lenin proposed a new economic policy. The essence of the new policy is the reconstruction of a multi-structural economy, the use of the organizational and technical experience of the capitalists while maintaining the "commanding heights" in the hands of the Bolshevik government. They were understood as political and economic levers of influence: the absolute power of the RSC (b), the state sector in industry, a centralized financial system and a monopoly of foreign trade.

In assessing the NEP, modern stories were divided into three main groups:

1) some historians proceed from the fact that the NEP was a purely Russian phenomenon, dictated by the crisis caused by the Civil War;

2) others regard the NEP as an attempt by politicians to return the country to a generally civilized path of development;

3) others believe that in the conditions of the political monopoly of the Bolsheviks, the NEP was doomed from the very beginning.

The NEP should be looked at, first of all, as a means that made it possible to get out of a difficult crisis situation. Such an approach is not without interest from the point of view of current realities. The question is - where did the idea of the NEP come from?

Many people are credited with the idea. For a long time, Lenin was recognized as its creator. In 1921 In his pamphlet On the Tax in Kind, Lenin wrote that the principles of the New Economic Policy had been developed by him as early as the spring of 1918. in the work "Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Power" a certain "roll call" between the ideas of 1918 and 1921. of course have. This becomes obvious when taking into account what Lenin said about the multistructural nature of the country's economy and the state's policy in relation to individual modes. And yet, a different arrangement of accents is striking, which Lenin did not pay attention to.

If in 1918 it was supposed to build socialism by maximizing the support and strengthening of the public sector along with the use of elements of state capitalism in opposition to private capital and the "petty-bourgeois elements", now they are talking about the need to attract other forms and structures for the needs of restoration. It would be a mistake to associate the NEP only with the name of Lenin. Ideas about the need to change the economic policy pursued by the Bolsheviks were constantly expressed by more far-sighted people, regardless of their political affiliation. The Bolsheviks had something to emphasize the knowledge of how to rebuild the economy. The ideas of stimulating agricultural production with the help of differentiated taxation, cooperating the marketing and supply system, encouraging trade and exchange to expand the domestic and foreign markets, stabilizing the currency in order to improve the living standards of the population, demonopolizing the management of industry and its partial denationalization were adopted. However, and this is the essential difference between the reforms of the NEP period from the previous and subsequent ones, not particularly trusting their knowledge and experience in practical matters accumulated during the “heroic period”, the Bolshevik leadership widely involved “bourgeois specialists” in economic activities. Almost every governing body - the Supreme Council of National Economy, the State Planning Commission, the Narkomfin, the People's Commissariat of Labor - had an extensive system of institutions that developed a scientifically sound and fairly balanced economic policy. The NEP program was most consistently outlined in the 1920s. in the works of N. I. Bukharin.

In the midst of the implementation of military - communist measures in February 1920. one of their main inspirers, L. D. Trotsky, unexpectedly came up with a proposal to replace the surplus appropriation with a fixed tax, but his proposal had no concrete consequences. It was rather an impulsive act, a reaction to the difficulties associated with food security. Neither then, nor later, did Trotsky ever show himself to be either a consistent supporter of reforms in the spirit of the NEP, or supporters of a return to "war communism", adhering to pragmatic rather than doctrinal economic views.

So, this policy is called New because it recognized the need for maneuver, the assumption of some freedom in economic activity, trade, commodity-money relations, concessions to the peasantry and private capital.

The main goals of the NEP.

Fundamentally, the goal has not changed - the transition to communism remained the programmatic task of the party and the state, but the methods of transition were partly revised.

The main political goal of the NEP is to relieve social tension and strengthen the social base of Soviet power in the form of an alliance of workers and peasants.

The economic goal of the NEP is to prevent devastation, get out of the crisis, restore the economy and strengthen the financial system.

The social goal of the NEP is to provide favorable conditions for building a socialist society and to raise the standard of living.

Foreign policy goals - the restoration of normal foreign policy and foreign economic relations, to overcome international isolation. Achieving these goals led to a gradual exit from the crisis.

Implementation and main steps of the NEP.

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 set of economic and socio-political measures. They meant "retreat from the principles of" war communism "" - the revival of private enterprise, the introduction of freedom of internal trade and the satisfaction of the demands of the peasantry.

Agriculture.

The introduction of the NEP began precisely with agriculture.

1) Prodrazverstka was replaced by a tax in kind (food tax). It was set before the sowing campaign, could not change during the year and was 2 times less than the allotment.

2) After the implementation of state deliveries, free trade in the products of their economy was allowed.

3) It was allowed to rent land and hire labor.

4) The forcible planting of communes has ceased, which has made it possible for the private, small-scale commodity sector to gain a foothold in the countryside.

Individual peasants provided 98% of agricultural products.

In general, the tax in kind system made it possible to accumulate surplus agricultural products and raw materials from the peasantry, which created an incentive for industrial production. As a result, by 1925 on the restored sown areas, the gross grain harvest exceeded the average annual level of pre-war Russia by 20.7%.

The supply of agricultural raw materials to industry has improved.

3. Orlov A. S., Georgiev V. A. History of Russia. - M. 2002. – page 354

Trade

To implement the project, commodity stocks were required, which were not in the devastated country. It became clear that in order to meet the growing demand, it is necessary to attract private capital into the production of consumer goods, and this requires the denationalization of some enterprises.

Since state trade could not ensure the growth of trade, private capital was allowed into the sphere of trade and money circulation. As a result of the admission of private relations to trade, market relations have normalized in the country.

In 1924 The People's Commissariat of Internal Trade of the USSR was created. Fairs began to work (in 1922 - 1923 there were more than 600 of them), the largest - Nizhny Novgorod, Kiev, Baku, Irbit, trade exhibitions and exchanges (in 1924 there were about 100), Gostorgs were formed (GUM, Mostorg, etc.) , state and mixed trading companies ("Khleboprodukt", "Kozhsyrye", etc.). Consumer cooperation played an important role in the market. It was separated from the system of the People's Commissariat of Food and turned into a widely branched system that covered the whole country. Thus, both state, cooperative and private enterprises participated in domestic trade. They complemented each other, and the competition that arose between them further stimulated the growth of trade. By 1924 it already served quite well economic ties in the economy.

Financial system.

In the financial sector, in addition to the single State Bank, private and cooperative banks and insurance companies appeared. Payments were made for the use of transport, communication systems and utilities. State loans were issued, which were forcibly distributed among the population in order to pump out personal funds for the development of industry. The stabilization of the monetary system had a positive effect on market relations in the country.

November 16, 1921 The State Bank of the RSFSR and specialized banks were opened. Bank lending at this stage does not become gratuitous financing, but a purely commercial transaction between banks and customers, for violation of the terms of which one must be held accountable by law.

The tax policy becomes very rigid. 70% of the profits of industrial enterprises were deducted to the treasury. The agricultural tax was 5%. decreasing or increasing depending on the quality of the land, the number of livestock. Income tax consisted of a basic and progressive. The basic was paid by all citizens, except for laborers, day laborers, state pensioners, as well as workers and employees with a salary of less than 75 rubles. per month. The progressive tax was paid only by those who received additional profit (Nepmen, private lawyers, doctors, etc.). There were also indirect taxes: on salt, matches, etc.

In 1922 The monetary reform was carried out by Sokolnikov. The so-called Sovznaks were issued. This was the first denomination of banknotes, one new ruble was equal to 10 thousand old rubles. The ruble became convertible. 1 ruble - 5 US dollars. The Soviet chervonets was put into circulation - 10 rubles. The issue of paper money has been reduced. The Soviet chervonets was highly valued on the world currency market. This allowed not only to strengthen the national currency, but also to overcome inflation. The second denomination was held in 1923. The ruble of this sample was equal to 1 million former rubles. On the basis of hard currency, it became possible to completely eliminate the budget deficit, which is beginning to fulfill the role of a single state plan, and most of the budget expenditure items go to the restoration and development of the economy.

Industry

The restoration of industry began with the restructuring of organizational forms and management methods. Decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars (May - August 1921) suspended the nationalization of small and medium-sized industry, allowed private entrepreneurship, and enterprises with up to 20 people could be transferred to private hands. Renting was allowed everywhere. The reorganization of the public sector was envisaged on the basis of the introduction of economic accounting relations. The basic principle of cost accounting is operational independence and self-sufficiency. The decree on the general nationalization of industry was repealed. But the state reserved the right to leave commanding heights in such industries as:

Metallurgy

Transport

Fuel industry

Oil production

International trade

This allowed the state to control and influence the growth of capitalist elements. Small and medium-sized enterprises producing consumer goods were leased out. The leasing industry as a whole gave positive results: several thousand small enterprises were restored, which contributed to the development of the market for goods and the strengthening of economic ties between the city and the countryside; additional jobs were created; rent increased the material and financial resources of the state.

Another significant form of capitalism in the first half of the 1920s were concessions. They occupied a large place in the relations of the state with foreign capital. Concession (from Latin “assignment”) is an agreement on leasing to foreign firms enterprises or land plots owned by the state, with the right to production activities. The state represented enterprises or territories for the development of natural resources and exercised control over their use without interfering in economic and administrative affairs. Concessions were subject to the same taxes as state-owned enterprises. Part of the profits (in the form of products) was given as a payment to the state, and the other part could be sold abroad. In fact, this is how a new state-capitalist sector emerged for the Russian economy. Strict centralization was canceled in the supply of enterprises with raw materials and the distribution of finished products.

The activities of state enterprises aimed at greater independence, self-sufficiency and self-financing. Instead of a sectoral management system, a territorial-sectoral one was introduced. After the reorganization of the Supreme Council of National Economy, the leadership was carried out by its central boards through local economic councils (sovnarkhozes) and sectoral economic trusts. Also, large enterprises united in trusts subordinate to the Supreme Council of National Economy. Labor conscription and labor mobilization were abolished, wages were introduced according to tariffs, taking into account the quantity and quality of products. As a result, as a result of the measures of the NEP in 1926. the pre-war level was reached in the main types of industrial products. Light industry developed faster than heavy industry, which required significant capital investments. The living conditions of the urban and rural population have improved significantly. The food rationing system was abolished.

Thus, one of the goals of the NEP - overcoming the devastation - was solved.

Political sphere in 1921 - 1929 and the contradictions of the NEP

New trends in the economy have not changed the methods of political leadership of the country. State issues were still decided by the party apparatus. But the NEP did not go unnoticed for the Bolsheviks. Among them, a discussion began about the role and place of trade unions in the state, about the essence and political significance of the NEP. Factions appeared with their own platforms opposing Lenin's position. They insisted on the democratization of the system of government, presented to trade unions of broad economic rights ("workers' opposition"). Others proposed to further centralize management and liquidate trade unions (L. D. Trotsky). Many communists left the RCP (b), believing that the introduction of the NEP meant the restoration of capitalism and a betrayal of socialist principles, the party was threatened with a split.

At the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b), resolutions were adopted prohibiting the creation of factions, after the congress, the ideological stability of party members was tested (“purge”), which reduced its membership by a quarter. An important link in the political system during these years was the apparatus of violence - the Cheka, in 1922. it was renamed the GPU - Main Political Directorate. The GPU monitored the mood of all sections of society, identified dissidents, sent them to prison. Particular attention was paid to political opponents. In 1922 The GPU accused 47 previously arrested leaders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party of counter-revolutionary activities. The first major political process took place under Soviet rule. In the autumn of 1922 160 scientists and cultural figures were expelled from Russia, who did not share the Bolshevik doctrine (“philosophical ship”). The ideological confrontation was over.

Also during the years of the NEP, churches were hit. In 1922 under the pretext of raising funds to fight hunger, a significant part of church property was confiscated. Anti-religious propaganda intensified, temples and cathedrals were destroyed. Priests began to be persecuted. Patriarch Tikhon was placed under house arrest. After Tikhon's death, the government prevented the election of a new patriarch. Many priests were arrested or forced to show loyalty to the Soviet regime. In 1927 they signed the Declaration, in which they obliged priests who did not recognize the new government to withdraw from church affairs.

Strengthening the unity of the party, the defeat of political and ideological opponents made it possible to strengthen the one-party political system, in which the so-called "dictatorship of the proletariat in alliance with the peasantry" in fact meant the dictatorship of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). This political system, with minor changes, continued to exist throughout the years of Soviet power.

After the death of V.I. post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Stalin concentrated enormous power in his hands and placed cadres devoted to him in the places and in the center.

A different understanding of the principles and methods of socialist construction, the personal ambitions of L. D. Trotsky, A. B. Kamenev, G. E. Zinoviev and their rejection of Stalin's methods - all this caused opposition moods in the press party. Pushing political opponents and skillfully interpreting their statements as anti-Leninist, I.V. Stalin eliminated his opponents, thus. laying the foundation stone for the cult of personality.

In general, the achievements of the NEP were significant. According to the apt expression of the historian V.P. Dmitrenko, it led to the restoration of backwardness: the tasks of modernization, but did not solve them. Moreover, the NEP was characterized by very serious contradictions, which led to a whole series of crises: the sale of goods in the fall of 1923, the shortage of industrial goods in the fall of 1925, grain procurements - the winter of 1927/28.

Contradictions of the NEP:

1) Political - V. I. Lenin, the author of the NEP, who in 1921 suggested that this would be a policy "seriously and for a long time", a year later at the XI Party Congress declared that it was time to stop the "retreat" towards capitalism and it was necessary to move on to building socialism . He wrote a number of works, where he outlined the main goals of the party: industrialization, broad cooperation, cultural revolution. At the same time, Lenin insisted on maintaining the unity and leading role of the party in the state. Lenin warned the party against its bureaucratization, considered the main danger the political rivalry between L. D. Trotsky and J. V. Stalin.

2) Economic contradictions - the technical backwardness of industry - high rates of its recovery, an urgent need to upgrade production capacities and a lack of capital within the country, the impossibility of attracting foreign investment on a large scale, the absolute predominance of small, semi-subsistence peasant farms in the countryside.

3) Social contradictions - increased inequality, non-acceptance of the NEP by a significant part of the working class and peasantry, a sense of the temporary nature of their position among many representatives of the NEPman bourgeoisie.

The most important contradiction was between economics and politics: an economy based on the partial recognition of the market and private property could not develop stably in the face of a tougher one-party political regime, the programmatic goals of which were the transition to communism, a society free from private property. The policy towards the peasantry was inconsistent. Price policy perverted the NEP. The country's leadership deliberately maintained low prices for bread. The unequal relationship between town and country gave rise to a marketing crisis in 1923. The abandonment of NEP was officially announced in December 1929.

Results of the NEP

NEP ensured the stabilization and restoration of the economy. By 1925 industry produced 75.5% of pre-war output. It was a big success. Energy construction on the basis of the GOERLO plan played a huge role in it: old power plants were restored and new ones were erected - Kashirskaya, Shaturskaya, Kizelovskaya, Nizhny Novgorod, etc. Electricity generation increased 6 times. Despite their thoughtfulness, the measures to establish direct trade between the city and the countryside suffered a complete failure. By the end of 1925 there was a sharp jump in agricultural production: grain yields exceeded the pre-war level: 1913 - 7 c / ha, 1925 - 7.6 c / ha, gross grain harvests increased: 1913 - 65 million tons, 1926 - 77 million tons.

Although the NEP allowed private trade, but already in 1923. an attack began on the Nepmen in the capitals, the expulsion of them and their families, it was forbidden to live and trade in large centers.

Since 1924 private trade is being squeezed out; with the transition to the NEP, unemployment has increased. Workers in the cities constantly felt the threat of starvation, although there was bread in the country, but because of the pumping out of funds from the countryside, difficulties arose in providing the city with food and, moreover, at affordable prices for the working masses. The standard of living of the peasantry, according to the calculations of modern economists, was below the level of 1913. The process of fragmentation of peasant farms continued, more focused on their own consumption than on the market.

The need to ensure the independence of the country's defense capability required the further development of the economy, primarily heavy industry. The transfer of funds from the city to the countryside began, purchase prices were underestimated, prices for manufactured goods were artificially inflated. The quality of industrial products also limped. As a result, in 1923 - sales crisis, overstocking with bad expensive manufactured goods. 1924 - a price crisis, when the peasants refused to hand over the bread, having gathered a good harvest, at fixed prices, deciding to sell it on the market. Mass uprisings began in the Amur region, Georgia because of the refusal to hand over bread according to the food tax.

In the mid 20s. the volume of state procurements of grain and raw materials fell. This reduced the ability to export agricultural products, and consequently reduced the foreign exchange earnings needed to buy industrial equipment from abroad. As a result, the government has taken a number of administrative measures to overcome the crisis. The centralized management of the economy was strengthened, the independence of enterprises was limited, prices for manufactured goods were increased, taxes were increased for private entrepreneurs, merchants and kulaks. This meant the beginning of the collapse of the NEP.

NEP is an abbreviation made up of the first letters of the phrase "New Economic Policy". The NEP was introduced in Soviet Russia on March 14, 1921 by the decision of the Tenth Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks instead of politics.

"Shut up. And listen! - Izya said that he had just entered the printing house of the Odessa Provincial Committee and saw there ... (Izya choked with excitement) .. a set of a speech recently delivered by Lenin in Moscow on the new economic policy. A vague rumor about this speech had been wandering around Odessa for three days now. But no one really knew anything. “We must print this speech,” said Izya ... The operation of kidnapping the set was done quickly and silently. Together and imperceptibly, we carried out the heavy lead typed speech, put it on a cab and drove to our printing house. The set was placed in the car. The machine rumbled softly and rustled as it typed out the historic speech. We eagerly read it by the light of a kitchen kerosene lamp, agitated and realizing that history stands next to us in this dark printing house and we also participate in it to some extent ... And on the morning of April 16, 1921, the old Odessa newspaper sellers were skeptics, misanthropes and the sclerotics went hurriedly shuffling through the streets with pieces of wood and shouting in hoarse voices: “Morak newspaper!” Comrade Lenin's speech! Read everything! Only in Morak, you won't read it anywhere else! Morak Newspaper! The number of "Sailor" with a speech sold out in a few minutes. (K. Paustovsky "Time of great expectations")

Causes of the NEP

From 1914 to 1921, the volume of gross output of Russian industry decreased by 7 times
Stocks of raw materials and materials by 1920 were exhausted
Marketability of agriculture fell by 2.5 times
In 1920, the volume of railway traffic was one-fifth of that in 1914.
The area under crops, grain yields, and the production of livestock products have been reduced.
Commodity-money relations were destroyed
A "black market" was formed, speculation flourished
The standard of living of workers has plummeted.
As a result of the closure of many enterprises, the process of declassing the proletariat began.
In the political sphere, the undivided dictatorship of the RCP (b) was established
Workers' strikes, uprisings of peasants and sailors began

The essence of the NEP

Revival of commodity-money relations
Granting freedom of management to small commodity producers
Replacing the surplus tax with a tax in kind, the size of the tax has almost halved compared to the surplus appraisal
Creation of trusts in industry - associations of enterprises that themselves decided what to produce and where to sell products.
Creation of syndicates - associations of trusts for the wholesale distribution of products, lending and regulation of trade operations in the market.
Reduction of the bureaucracy
Introduction of cost accounting
Creation of the State Bank, savings banks
Restoration of the system of direct and indirect taxes.
Carrying out monetary reform

Results of the NEP

The success of the NEP was the restoration of the destroyed Russian economy and overcoming hunger

Legally, the new economic policy was curtailed on October 11, 1931 by a party resolution on the complete ban on private trade in the USSR. But in fact, it ended in 1928 with the adoption of the first five-year plan and the announcement of a course towards accelerated industrialization and collectivization of the USSR.

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).

By the beginning of 1921, the Red Army had established complete control over a significant part of the territory of the former Russian Empire, with the exception of Finland, Poland, the Baltic states, and Bessarabia. But the internal situation of the Soviet state forced the Bolshevik leadership to abandon "war communism" and move on to the NEP.

Reasons for the transition to the NEP:

1) The socio-economic crisis caused by the First World War and the Civil War, the policy of "war communism". Industrial production decreased in 1920 compared with 1913 by 7 times, agricultural - by a third. Total population losses for 1914-1920 amounted to more than 20 million people. There was massive unemployment. Major cities were depopulated. The economic ruin was exacerbated by the drought of 1920-1921. Famine covered the most fertile regions - the Volga region, southern Ukraine, Crimea, the North Caucasus, and the Southern Urals. According to various sources, from 1 to 8 million people became victims of hunger.

2) The political crisis, expressed in a decrease in the support of the population of the Bolshevik government. Dissatisfaction with the surplus became the cause of numerous peasant uprisings. The largest was the uprising in the Tambov province under the leadership of A.S. Antonov ("Antonovism") and the uprising in Western Siberia. At the beginning of 1921 there were spontaneous strikes in Petrograd and a number of other cities. Unrest began in the army and navy. In March 1921, an uprising of sailors broke out in Kronstadt, during which political demands were put forward. All these speeches were suppressed, but the threat of losing their social support forced the country's leadership to abandon the policy of "war communism" and look for new ways.

The essence and main features of the NEP.

The 10th Congress of the RCP(b) in March 1921 decided to change the course of domestic policy. V.I. Lenin called it the "new economic policy". Its essence was the partial resolution of the market economy while maintaining control in the hands of the state.

Initially, the NEP was seen by the Bolsheviks as a temporary measure. Then the NEP was already assessed as one of the possible paths to socialism through the coexistence of the socialist and market economies and the gradual displacement of non-socialist economic forms.

The main goal of the NEP is to restore the country's economy and, on this basis, to strengthen the social base of Bolshevik power.

The beginning of the New Economic Policy was initiated by the decision to replace the surplus appropriation with a food tax, adopted at the X Congress of the RCP (b) in March 1921. The tax in kind was 2 times less than the apportionment, since 1924 it took on a monetary form. Its size was announced in advance and could not be increased during the year. The surplus left by the peasants was allowed to be sold at market prices. The lease of land and the hiring of labor were allowed. As a result of the measures taken, agriculture in 1925 restored pre-war indicators.

In industry and trade, private individuals were allowed to open small and rent medium-sized enterprises. Large enterprises united in trusts that worked on the basis of cost accounting and self-sufficiency. To increase labor productivity, the material interest of workers was stimulated. Instead of remuneration in kind, a monetary system based on the tariff scale was introduced. Labor was abolished. Cooperation developed.

In 1922-1924. under the leadership of People's Commissar of Finance G.Ya. Sokolnikov, a monetary reform was carried out, a solid monetary unit appeared - the gold chervonets. Payment for services (communications, transport, utilities) was introduced.

The monetary reform helped to attract foreign investment in the form of concessions - enterprises with the participation of foreign capital. True, the concessions, which were created mainly in the extractive industries, produced about 1% of industrial output.

As a result of the new economic policy in 1926, industry also restored its pre-war level. The living conditions of the urban and rural population have improved.

Contradictions in the implementation of the NEP and its curtailment.

Along with the successes, contradictions were revealed in the implementation of the NEP, due to which in the late 1920s. she was folded:

1) The main thing was the contradiction between politics (socialist) and economics (capitalist). The Bolshevik leadership could not but take into account the mood in the party and society. The attitude towards the NEP was negative, because it was considered a return to the old order (they asked "what did they fight for in the civil war?"). Particularly negative was the attitude towards the Nepmen - the "new bourgeoisie", who earned much more than the workers. The concept of "NEP frenzy" appeared - the desire to flaunt one's wealth, like the behavior of the "new Russians". The NEP reality was very different from the Bolshevik ideology with its idea of equality.

2) The contradiction between industry and agriculture. Agriculture recovered faster than industry. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks were interested precisely in the accelerated development of industry. For its development, funds were needed, which were withdrawn from agriculture at the expense of "price scissors", i.e. artificial overpricing of manufactured goods, and underpricing of agricultural goods (primarily bread). The peasants did not want to sell grain at low prices and buy low-quality manufactured goods. All this caused constant grain procurement crises, known as the NEP crises.

3) Contradiction between rich and poor. Having proclaimed a classless society, the Bolsheviks tried to equalize everyone. In the system of taxation, the main burden fell on private entrepreneurs in the city and kulaks in the countryside. The poor were exempted from paying taxes, the middle peasants paid half. The kulaks, in order to free themselves from the tax burden, split up their farms. As a result, the marketability of agriculture decreased. In fact, during the years of the NEP, for the first time, peasants were able to eat their fill, supplying only excess amounts of food to the market.

Low marketability led to a decrease in the volume of exports of agricultural products, and, accordingly, imports of equipment for industry. In the late 1920s the international situation escalated, a new world war became apparent. The NEP allowed our country to restore the economy, but could not solve the problem of modernizing the country in a short time. Therefore, Stalin and his entourage went to the curtailment of the NEP, which was replaced by industrialization and collectivization.