New economic policy. NEP - New Economic Policy Reasons for the introduction of NEP briefly point by point

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

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

The peasants were forced to surrender all surplus, and most often part of the most necessary, to the state without any equivalent, because there were almost no industrial goods. The products were forcibly confiscated. Because of this, mass demonstrations of peasants began in the country.

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

They avoided the surplus appropriation by hiding grain, transferring grain to moonshine, and in other ways. Small-scale agriculture had no incentive to maintain production at the current level, let alone expand. Lack of traction, labor force, wear and tear of equipment led to a reduction in production. The absolute number of the rural population from 1913 to 1920 remained almost unchanged, but the percentage of able-bodied workers in connection with mobilizations and the results of the war dropped noticeably from 45% to about 36%. The area of plowing decreased in 1913-1916. by 7%, and for 1916-1920. - by 20.3%. Production was limited only by their own needs, by the desire to provide themselves with everything necessary. In Central Asia, the cultivation of cotton has practically ceased, instead they began to sow grain. Sugar beet sowing has sharply decreased in Ukraine. This led to a decrease in the marketability and productivity of agriculture, because beets and cotton are highly commodity crops. Agriculture became natural. It was necessary, first of all, to economically interest the peasantry in restoring the economy and expanding production. To do this, it was necessary to limit his obligations to the state within a certain framework and provide the right to freely dispose of the rest of the products. The exchange of agricultural products for industrial goods of prime importance was supposed to strengthen ties between town and country, and promote the development of light industry. On the basis of this, it was then possible to create savings, organize a financial economy, in order to then raise heavy industry.

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

Later, due to limited funds, the state abandoned the direct management of small and partly medium-sized industrial enterprises. They were handed over to local authorities or leased to private individuals. A small part of the enterprises was leased to foreign capital in the form of concessions. The state sector was made up of large and medium-sized enterprises that formed the core of socialist industry. Along with this, the state abandoned the centralized supply and sale of products, giving enterprises the right to resort to the services of the market for the purchase of the necessary materials and for the sale of products. Self-financing began to be actively introduced into the activities of enterprises. The national economy from the strictly regulated economy of the natural type of the period of "war communism" gradually moved to the path of a commodity-money economy. In it, along with a significant sector of state-owned enterprises, enterprises of the private capitalist and state capitalist type also appeared.

The decree on the tax in kind was the beginning of the elimination of the "War Communism" methods of management and a turning point towards the New Economic Policy. The development of the ideas underlying this decree was the basis of the NEP. However, the transition to NEP was not seen as the restoration of capitalism. It was believed that, having strengthened its main positions, the Soviet state would be able to expand the socialist sector in the future, displacing the capitalist elements.

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

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

NEP is a new economic policy.

NEP – this is a cycle of economic measures to overcome the crisis, which replaced the policy of "war communism".

"We are to a certain extent re-creating capitalism"

IN AND. Lenin

NEP "is being introduced seriously and for a long time, but ... not forever"

IN AND. Lenin

"NEP is economic Brest"

"From NEP Russia will be socialist Russia"

IN AND. Lenin

Chronological framework – March 1921 - 1928/1929.

Reasons for the transition to NEP.

The policy of "war communism" led the country's economy to complete collapse ... With its help, it was not possible to overcome the devastation generated by 4 years of Russia's participation in the First World War and aggravated by 3 years of the Civil War. The population decreased, many mines and mines were destroyed. Due to lack of fuel and raw materials factories stopped ... The workers were forced to leave the cities and went to the countryside. Petrograd lost 60% of its workers when the main factories were closed. Inflation was rampant. Agricultural production was only 60% of the pre-war volume. The sown area was reduced, as the peasants were not interested in expanding the economy. In 1921, due to a poor harvest, a massive famine engulfed the city and the countryside.

In parallel with the economic crisis, a social crisis was growing in the country. 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 equalizing pay. Therefore, in the cities in late 1920 - early 1921, strikes began, in which workers advocated the democratization of the country's political system, the convocation of the Constituent Assembly, and the abolition of rations. The peasants, indignant at the actions of the food detachments, stopped not only handing over grain for the surplus appropriation, but also rose up for an armed struggle ( one of the largest - "Antonovshchina"). In 1921, an uprising broke out in Kronstadt .

Devastation and famine, workers' strikes, uprisings of peasants and sailors - all testified that a deep economic, political and social crisis. In addition, by the spring of 1921 there was the hope for an early world revolution and material and technical assistance from the European proletariat has been exhausted. Therefore, VI Lenin revised the internal political course and recognized that only the satisfaction of the demands of the peasantry could save the power of the Bolsheviks.

At the X Congress of the RCP (b) in March 1921, V. I. Lenin proposed a new economic policy. It was an anti-crisis program, the essence of which was to recreate a multi-structured economy and use 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 sovereignty of the RCP (b), the state sector in industry, the centralized financial system and the monopoly of foreign trade.

NEP goals:

1) Overcoming the political crisis of the power of the Bolsheviks.

2) Search for new ways to build the economic foundations of socialism.

3) Improving the socio-economic state of society, creating internal political stability.

The economic essence of NEP- an economic bond between industry and the small-scale peasantry through trade.

The political essence of NEP- an alliance of the working class with the working peasantry.

The main elements of NEP:

1) Replacement of surplus appropriation by tax in kind (tax in kind). The tax in kind was announced in advance, on the eve of the sowing tax, it was 2 times less than the surplus tax and could not be increased during the year. The main burden of the tax fell on the wealthy strata of the village, the poor were exempted from it.

2) Permitting free trade in grain, and later permitting the lease of land and the hiring of workers ... Thus, the peasants' interest in their work was restored.

3) Permitting private enterprise in industry ... The decree on the complete nationalization of industry was canceled, the lease of state enterprises by private individuals was allowed, the creation of concessions was encouraged.

Concession- This is an agreement for the lease of enterprises or land to foreign firms with the right to production activities (also called an enterprise created on the basis of such an agreement).

With a certain danger of the restoration of capitalism through concessions, Lenin saw in them an opportunity to acquire the necessary machines and locomotives, machine tools and equipment, without which it was impossible to restore the economy. However, the concessions did not receive a significant spread, since foreigners faced rigid state centralization, and the distrust of foreigners to the Soviet state also affected.

4) Refusal from forced recruitment of labor, transition to voluntary employment (through labor exchanges). Workers were now free to move from one place of work to another. Abolition of universal labor service.

5) Material incentives for workers were introduced depending on the qualifications and quality of the products (instead of equalization - a new tariff scale).

6) Changes in the management of state-owned industry: state-owned enterprises were transferred to self-financing, which made it possible to gradually transition to self-sufficiency, self-financing, and self-government.

7) Restoring the banking system and the role of money. In 1922 - 1924, a monetary reform was carried out (People's Commissar of Finance G. Ya Sokolnikov): a solid monetary unit was introduced, backed by a zloty chervonets.

8) Introduction of free trade, restoration of market relations. Coexistence of state, cooperative and private trade.

9) Elimination of the card system, introduction of payments for housing, utilities, transport, etc. etc.

The peculiarity of NEP is a combination of administrative and market methods of management,

NEP is an abbreviation made up of the first letters of the phrase "New Economic Policy". NEP was introduced in Soviet Russia on March 14, 1921 by the decision of the X Congress of the CPSU (b) to replace politics.

“- Be quiet. And listen! - Izya said that he had just entered the printing house of the Odessa Provincial Committee and saw there ... (Izya gasped with excitement) ... a set of Lenin's recent speech on the New Economic Policy in Moscow. An obscure rumor about this speech had been wandering around Odessa for the third day. But no one really knew anything. “We have to print this speech,” Izya said ... The operation to steal the set was done quickly and silently. Together and imperceptibly we carried out the heavy lead set of speech, put it on a cab and drove to our printing house. The set was put into the car. The machine rumbled softly and rustled, typing the historical speech. We eagerly read it by the light of a kitchen kerosene lamp, worrying and realizing that history stands next to us in this dark printing house and we, to some extent, participate in it ... And on the morning of April 16, 1921, the old Odessa newspaper sellers - skeptics, misanthropes and sclerotids - went hastily shuffling with pieces of wood through the streets and shouting in hoarse voices: "The Morak newspaper!" Comrade Lenin's speech! Read it all! Only in "Moraka", you will not read it anywhere else! Morak newspaper! The Sailor's number with the speech sold out in a few minutes. " (K. Paustovsky "Time of great expectations")

Causes of the NEP

From 1914 to 1921, the gross output of Russian industry decreased by 7 times
Stocks of raw materials and supplies were depleted by 1920
Agricultural marketability fell 2.5 times
In 1920, the volume of railroad traffic was one-fifth of that in 1914.
Sown areas, grain yields, and production of livestock products have decreased.
Commodity-money relations were destroyed
Black market formed, speculation flourished
The living standards of workers fell sharply
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, peasant and sailor uprisings began

The essence of the NEP

Revival of commodity-money relations
Granting freedom of management to small commodity producers
Replacement of surplus appropriation with tax in kind, the size of the tax has been reduced by almost two times in comparison with surplus appropriation
Creation of trusts in industry - associations of enterprises, which 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 bureaucratic apparatus
Introduction of self-financing
Creation of the State Bank, savings banks
Restoring 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 decree on a 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 for the forced industrialization and collectivization of the USSR.

They were colossal. By the early 1920s, the country, having retained its independence, nevertheless hopelessly lagged behind the leading Western countries, which threatened to result in the loss of the status of a great power. The policy of "war communism" has exhausted itself. Front Lenin the problem of choosing the path of development arose: 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 NEP were the following processes:

The policy of "war communism" justified itself in the midst of Civil War(1918-1920), became ineffective during the transition of the country to a peaceful life; The “militarized” economy did not provide the state with everything it needed; forced labor was ineffective;

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

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

2. The main activities of the NEP

In March 1921. at the X Congress of the CPSU (b) after fierce discussions and with active influence IN AND. Lenin a decision is made on the transition to the New Economic Policy (NEP).

The most important economic measures of the NEP were:

1) replacing the dimensionless surplus (food layout) with limited tax in kind. The state began not to confiscate grain from the peasants, but to buy with money;

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

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

When carrying out the NEP the Bolsheviks exclusively command-administrative methods of managing the economy began to be replaced: state-capitalist methods in large industry and private capitalist in small and medium-sized production, service sector.

In the early 1920s. all over the country, trusts were created, which 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 authorities were powerless to stop the surge of corruption in the state capitalist sector.

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

4) Was the financial system was revived:

Restored State Bank and allowed to create private commercial banks

In 1924. along with the depreciated "sovznaki" in circulation, another currency was introduced - gold duct- 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. Bolsheviks- ardent supporters of communism - attempted 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 with a division into rich and poor?"). But Lenin realizing that after the devastation of the Civil War it was impossible to start building communism, he said that NEP is a temporary phenomenon, designed to revive the economy and to save up strength and resources to start building a social welfare organization.

Positive results of the NEP:

The level of industrial production in the main sectors reached the level of 1913;

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

The tension between the city and the countryside decreased - the peasants began to produce goods, earn money, some of the peasants became wealthy 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 the growing mass of money with gold, as a result of which the chervonets began to depreciate, and soon the government ceased to provide 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 were unwilling to pay excessive taxes as a source of funds for the development of industry. Stalin they had to be forced by creating collective farms.

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