How Successful Was the New Economic Policy

The rude(a) Economic Policy (NEP) was a measure implemented in order to counter the arguably disastrous effects struggle socialism. The naked Economic is contr e actu completelyyplacesial. Some historians argue it allowed the Soviet economy to solidify and under sham to recover, and in any case allowed the rednesss to retain control over Russia. Others, like Orlando Figes, state it was lastly a failure, arguing that under the NEP the peasants grew a route from the Bolshevik regime, inviting a future, and brutal, reassertion of central control. This essay forget discuss the effectiveness of the NEP economicalally and politically as well as outlining War Communism and why it failed Michael lynch argues that By 1921, the grim economic situation had undermined the original sightlyification for state of fight communism. During its operation, industrial and uncouth outturn had fall alarmingly. War Communism was fore just about introduced as an extreme economic measure in order to pass around with problems created during the Civil War as well as enabling the troops to be fed.However in accordance with Lynch, the constitution did not remedy Russias productivity or indeed the Bolshevik popity. The existence of the Cheka and the passing Army enabled Lenin to embark on the insurance constitution of centralisation. This resulted in a bulky increase in Bolshevik influence in the factories via the infiltration of the Workers committees by political commissars. This development helped prepare the way for issuing the Decree of communisation in June 1918 and within two years it brought practically all study industrial enterp prepares in Russia under central government control.Yet nationalism did nothing to increase issue due to organism imposed at the time of severe industrial disruption caused initially by the strains of foundation War One besides which worsened during the Civil War. Further more the armed services needs were minded(p) priorit y thus denying resources to those industries not considered essential. The situation was make more serious by factories being deprived of man major(ip) power as a result of rough drawing into the Red army and race from urban areas of large numbers of inhabitants who left in search of intellectual nourishment or by means of escape from the Civil War.This led to the state of Petrograd and Moscow to drop by half(a) surrounded by 1918 and 1921 causing a dramatic decrease in Russias productivity. Problems were deepened further by hyper-inflation. The scarcity of goods and the governments policy of continuing to print coin notes efficaciously destroyed the value of money and by the complete of 1920 the rouble had fallen to 1% of its worth in 1917. Ultimately War Communism tightened the Bolsheviks grip on pains but did not acquire to economic growth. Agriculture was also largely affected by War Communism. A major purpose of War Communism was to force the peasants to come throu gh more aliment.However peasants were resistant to the governments demands and this was largely deuced on the Kulaks who the Bolsheviks claimed were hoarding the grain. As a result the government make out infuriated by the peasants refusal to conform and condemned them as counter-revolutionaries and shackored to coercion. Cheka requisition form units were sent into the countryside to take the grain by force. In 1920 the order was given to hang one hundred kulaks publically in order to affright the population however this seemed to have the reverse effect of the one intended.With the familiarity that any surplus would be confiscated, peasants produced the bare minimum to feed themselves and their family. By 1921 a combination of requisitioning, draught and general disruption of fight resulted in national shortage with grain harvest-tides in 1920 and 1921 being less than half that ga at that placed in 1913. The matters became so despe pose that the Bolsheviks admitted famine and accepted contrary assistance however foreign help was too late to obstruct mass starvation. Of the 10 gazillion of the Civil War period over half starved to death.Although War Communism proved catastrophic in terms of industrial and agricultural payoff the Bolsheviks saw it as original socialism due to the squeezing of the peasants and the ending of private ownership. Even aft(prenominal) the Red Armys victory in the Civil War, the policy of War Communism was maintained. As a short-term measure the policy produced the results Lenin wanted but severity increased Bolshevik unpopularity resulting in a number of minor outbreaks of resistance during the 1920s. But the Kronstadt Rising of 1921 proved to be utmostly disturbing to Lenin as he described it as the sparklingen flash that illuminated the true reality of things.Lynch claims that As yen as unrest was confined to the peasants and the Bolsheviks political enemies it was a containable problem but Lenin began to worry over the development of War Communism within the caller itself. The two prominent Bolsheviks involved Alexander Shlyapnikov, labour commissar, and Alexandra Kollontai, who led a workers Opposition movement against the excess of war communism. Kollontai accused company leadership of losing touch with the proletariat and from this, groups of workers in Petrograd went on strike in archeozoic 1921 justifying their actions in the proclamation than change is needed in the policies of the government.By February 1921 thousands of Petrograd workers feel over the naval base on Kronstadt claiming that Russia should be discontinue, not worse, than Tsarist time ,as the Bolshevik government claimed Russia to be a workers state. In an attempt to reconcile strikers Lenin sent a team of political commissars to Kronstadt who were greeted with derision. In early March, the sailors and workers of Kronstadt produced a manifesto. It was not the demands that frightened the Bolsheviks but the peop le who drafted them as the workers and sailors of Kronstadt had been great and popular supporters of the Bolsheviks in 1917.Shelia Fitzpatrick describes them as The Kronstadters, heroes of the July Days and supporters of the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution, had become almost legendary figures in Bolshevik mythology. Now they were repudiating the Bolsheviks revolution, denouncing the arbitrary rule of the commissar and business for a true society republic of workers and peasants. The danger for the Bolsheviks was that due to their popularity of the Kronstadters revolted the rest of the people would be due to follow. The rising was finally crushed when Trotsky request the Red Army to storm the Kronstadt base with violent results.Lenin took an important lesson from the Kronstadt insurrection which was to avoid scandal and embarrassment of anformer(a) open challenge to his company and government and so decided it was time to soften his severity of war communism leading to the i ntroduction of the NEP in order to tackle the famine and thus prevent further uprising. The majority of historians agree that the NEP was certainly an economic success compared to the catastrophe of War Communism with both Shelia Fitzpatrick and Orlando Figes agreeing that NEP was introduced as an devoid response to desperate economic conditions.Lenin is a pragmatic character and so seeing that peasants could not be forced to produce more food so instead must be persuaded and thus temporarily fall by the wayside the idea of War Communism. The success of the NEP can in reality and be measured by its aims. The NEP was set up primarily to energize the economy this included decreasing inflation, increasing agricultural and industrial production and re-establishing trade outside of the country. The other major aim of the policy was to derogate the gap among the worker and the peasant in order to get peasant co-operation and support.Due to the fact that the NEP was set up as a resul t of Kronstadt its other aim is to demolish the possibility of such a rebellion happening again. Many reforms took place in Russia due to the NEP. on a lower floor the NEP the Government close upped its policy of requisitioning the peasants entire crop and instead began to take only what was needed to meet the minimum requirements of the army and the urban workers. laid tax in kind was introduced and although the peasants were forced to pay the tax, they were now allowed to contend the remainder of their crop for profit.They could bewray either privately or to the state. This gave peasants the curtain raising to grow more crops as a result the grain harvest went up from 37. 6 gazillion wads in 1921 to 72. 5 million tons in 1925. This was a success of the NEP as it increased agricultural production to Russias pre-war levels, which helped to stabilize the economy. Nationalisation was minimised with only the large industries be under state control. However, this was still a l ot as 85% of the workforce worked for state enterprises, the rest for private enterprises or co-operatives.Also conscription of the workforce was abandoned. Over the course of five years, the NEP allowed industrial and agricultural output to rise to its pre-war levels. In this sense, the NEP did achieve economic recovery. However, the NEP was bitterly disliked by many leading communists who saw it as a reversal of everything they believed which will be discussed later in the essay. Although industrial production increased at a slower pace than agricultural production, which caused many problems such as the scissors crisis in 1923, it did increase. For example, coal in 1921 did not exceed 8. million tons while in 1925, it was around 18. 1 million tons, and leaf blade production increased nearly 10 times from 183 thousand tons being produced in 1921 to 2135 thousand tons in 1925. However industry did not attain the same levels of recovery as agriculture and did not reach the pre-war level. This shows that the NEP was successful in increasing industrial production. However, the increase in heavy industry was not as great as light industry, consequently it suffered in comparison. Trade with foreign countries was also reintroduced, as former it had been prohibited.The ban against shift trade was lifted too so the full population was permitted to trade with one another. The state only had control over 15% of the trade the rest was under Nepmen or co-operative control. However, the boom in private trade led to a widening gap between well-fixed and poor. This can clearly be seen by the sudden rise in unemployment in the first two years of the setting up of the NEP. There was a lot of anger focused on the Nepmen, who were seen as the new class, between rich and poor. The workers also matt-up resentful towards the Bolsheviks as they felt the NEP was sacrificing their class interests in favour of the peasantry.Therefore although the NEP allowed free trade and re-es tablished foreign trade, not everyone benefited from it. And in fact this lead to the very thing communism went against class. Nepmen became the new beneficiaries, as they grew rich. Also, the gap between rich peasants and poor ones increased as class, once again became an issue. In addition, a new silver was set up to ease the economic problem. This currency was known as the chervontsy. However, they were in heavy demand and only for sale in large denominations. The rouble was still legal tender until February 1924. pretentiousness can clearly be seen as in January 1921 there was 1,169 milliards of roubles in circulation and by January 1923 there were 1, 9994,464 milliards. This clearly shows that a change in currency was needed. Although this helped the economy as the rate of inflation decreased slightly, it did not do enough to help the people and their financial difficulties. The NEP did minimise the gap between workers and peasants. The policy meant that peasants could make m ore of a profit as they were allowed to sell their own produce and trade with others. It also encouraged them to work harder.However, it was the peasants who suffered most due to inflation. Although they made money, it was worth little in industry. In this way the NEP had been partly a success as it had minimised the gap and made things better for the peasants but did not improve everything. As for the NEPs other aim, that being avoiding another rebellion like Kronstadt, the policy was successful as there was no threat of them ever losing power. Although there were protests against the NEP or some split of it, overall these were unthreatening to Bolshevik power and were ignored or came to an end after a while.Aside from economic issues, the NEP also caused dispute amongst the Bolsheviks themselves in political terms. As Fitzpatrick argues From the communist standpoint NEP was a retreat, and a partial tone admission of failure. Many Communists felt deeply disillusioned it seemed tha t the revolution had changed so little. The NEP was a mixture of socialism and capitalism and was referred to as a stride back for the Bolsheviks as they had just defended socialism in the civil war but was now retreating into capitalism and the old ways. A major objection from theBolsheviks was the reintroduction of money and private trading had created the Nepmen. It was the profiteering that Victor Serge, a interpreter of the Left Bolsheviks, had in mind when he described the immediate social effects of NEP the cities we ruled over assumed a foreign aspect, we felt ourselves sinking into the mire. Money lubricated and befouled the entire machine just as under capitalism As the NEP had become such a contentious issue among the Bolsheviks Lenin introduced the banning of factionalism as well as outlawing all other parties except from Bolshevism.The object of this was to eliminate party disputes and political rivals and to a certain extent this worked. In conclusion, the NEP was su ccessful to a certain extent. Because of the New Economic Policy the Soviet economy revived quickly. There was more food from the farmers there were goods in the shops and outdoor markets, However many Bolshevik members did not consider the NEP as socialism and thought that it was a high treason of communist principles. On the whole the NEP was a success. It met most of its aims. The policy helped stabilise the crumbling economy and re-established pre-war levels.The policy decreased the rate of inflation, it increased agricultural and industrial production, it allowed free trade and re-established foreign trade. However, some of these aims it only met partly. For example although the rate of inflation did decrease it was still very high and the NEP did not stop it completely. Industry production also suffered as a result of the NEP. Although its production increased its prices rose due to the fast increase of agriculture. Trade also caused problems like the re-establishment of class es.So these aims were only partly successful and created many other problems. The NEP tried to minimise the gap between peasants and workers. Many of the aims in brace the economy were for the peasants benefits like the end of requisitioning and allowing them to trade. However, the high prices in industry and high inflation left the peasants with money which was not worth as much. However, the policy did try to get peasant support. It was partly successful in transport workers and peasants together, however many workers felt let down by the party that was supposed to cater to their needs.The fact no major rebellions threatened the Communists shows that the policy had kept many people happy and those that protested were insignificant or in such small numbers they were unable to mount a flop threat on the party. Thus the NEP was one of the major factors that had enabled the survival of Communism in Russia. The step back from socialism and the reintroduction of capitalism had worked . Peasant uprisings most ceased, the economy recovered and the Bolshevik regime was consolidated