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What year was the New Economic Policy? The years of NEP, the reasons for the introduction of the new economic policy, its essence and historical facts

NEP 1921-1928- one of the important stages in the development of the USSR. After the end, the situation in the country became catastrophic. A significant part of the production was stopped, there was no coordination, as well as the distribution of labor. Major changes were needed to rebuild the country.

The surplus appraisal that existed earlier did not justify itself. It caused people's discontent and riots, the country without control still could not provide itself with food. During the transition to the tax was reduced twice, a favorable situation was created for further development.

NEP period.

During the founding of the NEP, the party took up the restoration of production, began to build some factories that were necessary for the new state. Workers were brought in. The main task is to provide everyone with opportunities for full-fledged work for the benefit of the USSR.

Elements of a market economy have been introduced. This was inevitable, because its complete destruction at the founding of the Soviet Union dealt a serious blow to the country.

During this period, a command economy was built. From now on, the state managed production, sent norms and orders to factories. The party could link several enterprises into a single system and establish contacts between them. All this was necessary for the consistent production of products, because to create some complex products, you need to attract several factories.

During the NEP period, enterprises and other participants in economic processes received significant funding. Factories could issue their own bonds to raise funds from people and invest them in the renewal of production.

Basic goals:

  • establishing economic ties;
  • the gradual introduction of a command economy and the adaptation of enterprises to a new system of relationships between industries;
  • stimulating the development and renovation of factories;
  • providing maximum opportunities for the growth of enterprises;
  • rational use of labor and financial resources;
  • carrying out a monetary reform and the introduction of a new payment unit.

Results of the NEP.

Results due to the victory over devastation and chaos, which was poorly controlled by the state. The economy was restored, relations between the participants in economic processes were established, and equipment was upgraded at enterprises. But the problem was the lack of managerial personnel and the qualifications of these people, the minimum amount of foreign investment, and curbing the development of the private sector.

NEP

The NEP is an economic policy that replaced the policy of "war communism" in Soviet Russia.

This abbreviation stands for "new economic policy". Surprisingly, the NEP became a whole era, although all stages of its existence fit into one decade: the new economic policy was adopted by the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b) in 1921.

The main purpose of the proclamation of the NEP was the restoration of the national economy, destroyed by two fierce wars (World War I and Civil War).

Prerequisites for the emergence of the NEP

The state of Soviet Russia in 1921 was very unstable. The young country lay in ruins.

Immediately after the Great October Revolution, at the end of 1917, the US government terminated relations with Russia, and in 1918 the governments of England and France followed its example. Soon (in October 1919), the Supreme Council of the military alliance of the leading capitalist states - the Entente - announced the complete cessation of all economic ties with Soviet Russia. An attempt at an economic blockade was accompanied by military intervention. The blockade was lifted only in January 1920. Then, on the part of Western states, an attempt was made to organize the so-called gold blockade: they refused to accept Soviet gold as a means of payment in international settlements.

The ideology of the Bolsheviks demanded a course towards socialism, but in order to implement this project, it was first necessary to create a material, technical and socio-cultural basis for it.

The policy of war communism, which was carried out until 1921, turned the peasants against the new government, which was embodied for them mainly in the form of food detachments taking away bread. The most dissatisfied was the surplus appraisal. It was time to restore the economy and change a lot. All this was the prerequisite for the emergence of the NEP.

The transition from the policy of war communism to the NEP

To relieve social tension, the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b) took a number of measures, the most important of which were:

Cancellation of the surplus appropriation and its replacement with a tax in kind;

Permission of market relations and denationalization of small enterprises;

The abolition of a number of state monopolies and the introduction of legal guarantees for private property.

Allowing concession agreements with foreign companies (to improve the international environment).

The essence of the NEP

In general, the new economic policy consisted in establishing a balance between planned and market instruments for regulating the country's economy.

The set of principles underlying the New Economic Policy made it possible to:

Ensure significant growth rates of the national economy in Soviet Russia,

Reduce the budget deficit;

To increase the reserves of gold and foreign currency through active communication with foreign countries;

As a result, by 1924, the gold chervonets began to cost more than the pound sterling and the dollar.

Activities and contradictions of the NEP

Thanks to the NEP, in the 1920s. commercial credit became widely used. Banks controlled mutual lending to economic organizations, and also regulated the amount of commercial credit, which at the heyday of the NEP served at least 80% of the volume of all transactions for the sale of goods.

Long-term lending also developed. The recovering industry required investments, and for this the first Soviet banks were created - the Commercial and Industrial Bank of the USSR and Electrobank.

For investment in agriculture, long-term loans were provided by state credit institutions and credit cooperatives.

However, rather quickly, the use of commercial credit created opportunities for an unscheduled redistribution of funds in the areas of the national economy. This was a negative consequence of the measures taken.

The Land Code abolished the right of private ownership of land and subsoil in Soviet Russia, but regulated the leasing of land. It was also allowed to use hired labor in agriculture, however, with reservations: all able-bodied members of the farm had to work on an equal basis with hired workers, and if the farm itself was able to perform this work, then hired labor was not allowed.

These measures in agriculture led to an increase in the proportion of "middle peasants" in comparison with the pre-war level, while the number of poor and rich decreased.

There were also contradictions in the implementation of these measures: on the one hand, the peasants got the opportunity to improve their well-being, and on the other hand, there was no point in developing the economy beyond a certain limit.

Trusts were created in the sphere of industry. A trust is an association of enterprises that has complete economic and financial independence. The enterprises that were part of the trust ceased to receive state supplies and purchased resources on the market. The trusts were given the opportunity to decide for themselves what products to produce and where to sell them.

On the basis of the voluntary association of trusts, syndicates began to arise - organizations engaged in marketing, supply and lending on the basis of cooperation.

The following peculiarities in the life of the country that remained from the time were completely eliminated:

Leveling (under the New Economic Policy, restrictions were lifted on increasing wages with an increase in productivity);

Labor armies (compulsory labor service during the New Economic Policy was canceled);

Job change restrictions.

The complex of these measures led to a dual effect: on the one hand, the number of unemployed increased, and on the other hand, the labor market expanded significantly.

Curtailment of the NEP

Already in the second half of the 1920s. the first symptoms of NEP clotting appeared. Syndicates began to be liquidated in industry, and private capital began to be squeezed out of the main sectors of the economy. The creation of economic people's commissariats was the beginning of the establishment of a rigid centralized system of economic management.

In principle, even at the stages of the development and heyday of the NEP (until the mid-1920s), the implementation of the New Economic Policy was quite contradictory, not without regard to the legacy of the era of war communism.

Traditional Soviet historiography defines the reasons for the curtailment of the NEP by a complex of economic factors. But a more careful analysis of the contradictions of the New Economic Policy suggests that, first of all, the reasons for the curtailment of the NEP were the contradictions between the requirements of the natural functioning of the economy and the political course of the top of the party leadership.

So, since the mid-1920s. measures are being actively taken to limit, and soon to completely oust the private producer.

Finally, since 1928, the economy finally became planned: the development of the national economy began to operate.

The new course, which put economy at the forefront, meant that the era of the NEP was fading into the past.

Legally, the new economic policy was completed on October 11, 1931, with the adoption of a decree prohibiting private trade.

Results of the NEP

The implementation of the new economic policy achieved its intended goal: the ruined economy was restored. Taking into account the fact that highly qualified personnel were either oppressed or forced to leave the country because of their social origin, the emergence of a new generation of economists, managers and production workers can also be considered a significant success of the new government.

Impressive successes in the restoration and development of the national economy in the era of the NEP were achieved in the context of fundamentally new social relations. This makes the country's economic recovery environment truly unique.

In the era of the NEP, key positions in industry belonged to state trusts, in the credit and financial sphere - primarily to state banks, in agriculture, small peasant farms were the basis.

Significance of the NEP

Paradoxically, from the height of history, the NEP seems more like a short step, retreating from the socio-economic development programmed by the revolution, and therefore, without denying its achievements, one cannot but say that other measures could lead to the same results.

And the uniqueness of the era of the new economic policy lies primarily in its impact on culture.

As mentioned above, after the Great October Revolution, Russia lost most of the intellectual elite of society. The general cultural and spiritual level of the population fell sharply.

The new era puts forward new heroes - among the Nepmen who rose to the highest social levels, the lion's share is made up of wealthy private merchants, former shopkeepers and handicraftsmen, who were absolutely not touched by the romance of revolutionary trends.

To understand classical art, these "heroes of the new time" did not have enough education, and yet they became trendsetters. In accordance with this, cabarets and restaurants became the main entertainment of the NEP. However, one can say that this was a pan-European trend of those years, but it is in Soviet Russia, sandwiched between the reluctantly fading war communism and the looming dark era of repression, that this makes a special impression.

The artistic value of cabaret performances by coupletists with uncomplicated song plots and primitive rhymes, of course, is more than debatable. However, it was these unpretentious texts and motifs that entered the cultural history of the young country, and then began to be passed on from generation to generation, merging with folk art in their best examples.

The general lightness of the era affected even the genres of dramatic theaters. The Moscow Vakhtangov Studio (now the Vakhtangov Theatre) in 1922 staged the fairy tale "Princess Turandot" by the Italian Carlo Gozzi. And in the dual atmosphere of reigning lightness and premonitions of the future, a performance was born that became a symbol of the theater.

The 1920s were also the time of a real magazine boom in the new capital of a new country - in Moscow. Since 1922, several satirical and humorous magazines (Splinter, Satyricon, Smekhach) that immediately gained popularity began to appear. All these magazines were aimed at publishing far from only news from the life of workers and peasants, but published primarily humoresques, parodies, caricatures.

However, their publication ends with the end of the NEP. In 1930, Crocodile remained the only satirical magazine. The era of the NEP is over, but the trace of that time is forever preserved in the history of a great 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 men 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 fall, 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 country's economic life 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 granted to low-power horseless, one-horse peasant farms and middle peasants for the purchase of working livestock, machines, tools, 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 emerge, 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 the sphere of 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 issue 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.

New economic policy- economic policy pursued in Soviet Russia and the USSR in the 1920s. It was adopted on March 15, 1921 by the X Congress of the RCP (b), replacing the policy of "war communism", which 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 appraisal, and 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.

Prerequisites for the transition to the NEP

After the end of the civil war, the country found itself in a difficult situation, faced a deep economic and political crisis. As a result of almost seven years of war, Russia has lost more than a quarter of its national wealth. The industry has been especially hard hit. The volume of its gross output decreased by 7 times. Stocks of raw materials and materials by 1920 were basically exhausted. Compared with 1913, the gross output of large-scale industry has decreased by almost 13%, and that of small-scale industry by more than 44%.

Huge destruction was inflicted on transport. In 1920, the volume of railway traffic was 20% compared to the pre-war level. The situation in agriculture worsened. The area under crops, productivity, gross harvest of grain, production of livestock products have decreased. Agriculture has become more and more consumerist, its marketability has fallen by 2.5 times. There was a sharp drop in the standard of living and labor of workers. As a result of the closure of many enterprises, the process of declassing the proletariat continued. Huge hardships led to the fact that from the autumn of 1920, discontent began to increase among the working class. The situation was complicated by the beginning of the demobilization of the Red Army. As the fronts of the civil war retreated to the borders of the country, the peasantry began to more and more actively oppose the surplus appraisal, which was implemented by violent methods with the help of food detachments.

The policy of "war communism" led to the destruction of commodity-money relations. The sale of food and industrial goods was limited, they were distributed by the state in the form of wages in kind. An equalizing system of wages among workers was introduced. This gave them the illusion of social equality. The failure of this policy was manifested in the formation of a "black market" and the flourishing of speculation. In the social sphere, the policy of “war communism” was based on the principle of “ Who does not work shall not eat". In 1918, labor service was introduced for representatives of the former exploiting classes, and in 1920 - universal labor service. Forced mobilization of labor resources was carried out with the help of labor armies sent to restore transport, construction work, etc. The naturalization of wages led to the free provision of housing, utilities, transport, postal and telegraph services. During the period of “war communism”, the undivided dictatorship of the RCP (b) was established in the political sphere, which also later was one of the reasons for the transition to the NEP. The Bolshevik Party ceased to be a purely political organization; its apparatus gradually merged with state structures. It determined the political, ideological, economic and cultural situation in the country, even the personal life of citizens. In essence, it was about the crisis of the policy of "war communism".

Devastation and famine, strikes of workers, uprisings of peasants and sailors - all testified that a deep economic and social crisis had ripened in the country. In addition, by the spring of 1921, the hope for an early world revolution and the material and technical assistance of the European proletariat had been 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

The essence of the NEP was not clear to everyone. Disbelief in the NEP, its socialist orientation gave rise to disputes about the ways of developing the country's economy, about the possibility of building socialism. With the most varied understanding of the NEP, many party leaders agreed that at the end of the civil war in Soviet Russia, two main classes of the population remained: workers and peasants, and at the beginning of the 20 years after the introduction of the NEP, a new bourgeoisie appeared, the bearer of restoration tendencies. A wide field of activity for the Nepman bourgeoisie was made up of industries serving the main and most important consumer interests of the city and countryside. V. I. Lenin understood the inevitable contradictions, the dangers of development on the path of the NEP. He considered it necessary to strengthen the Soviet state in order to ensure victory over capitalism.

In general, the NEP economy was a complex and unstable market-administrative structure. Moreover, the introduction of market elements into it was of a forced nature, while the preservation of administrative-command elements was fundamental and strategic. Without abandoning the ultimate goal (creation of a non-market economic system) of the NEP, the Bolsheviks resorted to using commodity-money relations while maintaining in the hands of the state "commanding heights": nationalized land and mineral resources, large and most of the medium industry, transport, banking, monopoly foreign trade. A relatively long coexistence of the socialist and non-socialist (state-capitalist, private capitalist, small-scale, patriarchal) structures was assumed with the gradual displacement of the latter from the economic life of the country, relying on "commanding heights" and using the levers of economic and administrative influence on large and small owners (taxes, loans , pricing policy, legislation, etc.).

From the point of view of V. I. Lenin, the essence of the NEP maneuver consisted in laying an economic foundation for the “alliance of the working class and the working peasantry”, in other words, granting a certain freedom of economic management that prevailed in the country among small commodity producers in order to remove their acute dissatisfaction with the authorities and ensure political stability in society. As the Bolshevik leader emphasized more than once, the NEP was a roundabout, indirect way to socialism, the only possible one after the failure of the attempt to directly and quickly break down all market structures. However, he did not reject the direct path to socialism in principle: Lenin recognized it as quite suitable for the developed capitalist states after the victory of the proletarian revolution there.

NEP in agriculture

The resolution of the 10th Congress of the RCP(b) on replacing the apportionment with a tax in kind, which marked the beginning of the new economic policy, was legally formalized by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in March 1921. The size of the tax was almost halved compared to the surplus, and its main burden fell on wealthy rural peasants. The decree limited the freedom of trade in the products remaining with the peasants after paying the tax "within the limits of local economic turnover." Already by 1922, there was a noticeable growth in agriculture. The country was fed. In 1925 the sown area reached the pre-war level. The peasants sowed almost the same area as in pre-war 1913. The gross grain harvest amounted to 82% compared with 1913. The number of livestock exceeded the pre-war level. 13 million peasant farms were members of agricultural cooperatives. There were about 22,000 collective farms in the country. The implementation of grandiose industrialization required a radical restructuring of the agricultural sector. In Western countries, the agrarian revolution, i.e. the system of improving agricultural production preceded the revolutionary industry, and therefore, in general, it was easier to supply the urban population with food. In the USSR, both of these processes had to be carried out simultaneously. At the same time, the village was considered not only as a source of food, but also as the most important channel for replenishing financial resources for the needs of industrialization.

NEP in industry

Radical transformations also took place in industry. Glavki were abolished, and trusts were created instead - associations of homogeneous or interconnected enterprises that received complete economic and financial independence, up to the right to issue long-term bonded loans. By the end of 1922, about 90% of industrial enterprises were united in 421 trusts, 40% of which were centralized, and 60% were local subordination. The trusts themselves decided what to produce and where to sell their products. The enterprises that were part of the trust were removed from the state supply and switched to purchasing resources on the market. The law provided that "the state treasury is not responsible for the debts of trusts."

The Supreme Council of National Economy, having lost the right to interfere in the current activities of enterprises and trusts, turned into a coordinating center. His apparatus was drastically reduced. It was at that time that economic accounting appeared, in which the enterprise (after mandatory fixed contributions to the state budget) has the right to manage the income from the sale of products, is itself responsible for the results of its economic activity, independently uses profits and covers losses. Under the NEP, Lenin wrote, "state enterprises are transferred to the so-called economic accounting, that is, in fact, to a large extent on commercial and capitalist principles."

The Soviet government tried to combine two principles in the activities of trusts - market and planning. Encouraging the former, the state strove, with the help of trusts, to borrow technology and methods of work from the market economy. At the same time, the principle of planning in the activities of trusts was strengthened. The state encouraged the spheres of activity of trusts and the creation of a system of concerns by joining trusts with enterprises producing raw materials and finished products. The concerns were to serve as centers for the planned management of the economy. For these reasons, in 1925, the motivation for “profit” as the purpose of their activities was removed from the provision on trusts and only the mention of “commercial calculation” was left. So, the trust as a form of management combined planned and market elements, which the state tried to use to build a socialist planned economy. This was the complexity and inconsistency of the situation.

Almost simultaneously, syndicates began to be created - associations of trusts for the wholesale sale of products, lending and regulation of trade operations in the market. By the end of 1922, the syndicates controlled 80% of the industry covered by the trusts. In practice, there are three types of syndicates:

  1. with a predominance of the trading function (Textile, Wheat, Tobacco);
  2. with a predominance of the regulatory function (Council of Congresses of the main chemical industry);
  3. syndicates created by the state on a forced basis (Solesyndicat, Oil, Coal, etc.) to maintain control over the most important resources.

Thus, syndicates as a form of management also had a dual character: on the one hand, they combined elements of the market, as they were focused on improving the commercial activities of the trusts included in them, on the other hand, they were monopoly organizations in this industry, regulated by higher state bodies (VSNKh and people's commissariats).

Financial reform of the NEP

The transition to the NEP required the development of a new financial policy. Experienced pre-revolutionary financiers took part in the reform of the financial and monetary system: N. Kutler, V. Tarnovsky, professors L. Yurovsky, P. Genzel, A. Sokolov, Z. Katsenelenbaum, S. Volkner, N. Shaposhnikov, N. Nekrasov, A. Manuilov, former assistant minister A. Khrushchev. Great organizational work was carried out by People's Commissar for Finance G. Sokolnikov, member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Finance V. Vladimirov, Chairman of the Board of the State Bank A. Sheiman. The main directions of the reform were identified: the cessation of money emission, the establishment of a deficit-free budget, the restoration of the banking system and savings banks, the introduction of a single monetary system, the creation of a stable currency, and the development of an appropriate tax system.

By a decree of the Soviet government dated October 4, 1921, the State Bank was formed as part of the Narkomfin, savings and loan offices were opened, payment for transport, cash and telegraph services was introduced. The system of direct and indirect taxes was restored. To strengthen the budget, they sharply reduced all expenses that did not correspond to state revenues. Further normalization of the financial and banking system required the strengthening of the Soviet ruble.

In accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars, from November 1922, the issuance of a parallel Soviet currency, the "Chervonets", began. It was equated to 1 spool - 78.24 shares or 7.74234 g of pure gold, i.e. the amount that was contained in the pre-revolutionary golden ten. It was forbidden to pay off the budget deficit with chervonets. They were intended to serve the credit operations of the State Bank, industry, and wholesale trade.

To maintain the stability of the chervonets, the special part (SP) of the currency department of the Narkomfin bought up or sold gold, foreign currency and chervonets. Despite the fact that this measure was in the interests of the state, such commercial activities of the OCH were regarded by the OGPU as speculation, therefore, in May 1926, arrests and executions of the leaders and employees of the OCH began (L. Volin, A.M. Chepelevsky and others, who were only rehabilitated 1996).

The high nominal value of chervonets (10, 25, 50 and 100 rubles) created difficulties with their exchange. In February 1924, a decision was made to issue state treasury notes in denominations of 1, 3, and 5 rubles. gold, as well as small changeable silver and copper coins.

In 1923 and 1924 two devaluations of the soviet mark (the former settlement banknote) were carried out. This gave the monetary reform a confiscatory character. On March 7, 1924, a decision was made to issue state marks by the State Bank. For every 500 million rubles handed over to the state. sample 1923, their owner received 1 kopeck. So the system of two parallel currencies was liquidated.

In general, the state has achieved some success in carrying out monetary reform. Chervonets began to be produced by stock exchanges in Constantinople, the Baltic countries (Riga, Revel), Rome, and some eastern countries. The course of the chervonets was equal to 5 dollars. 14 US cents.

The strengthening of the country's financial system was facilitated by the revival of the credit and tax systems, the creation of stock exchanges and a network of joint-stock banks, the spread of commercial credit, and the development of foreign trade.

However, the financial system created on the basis of the NEP began to destabilize in the second half of the 1920s. due to several reasons. The state strengthened the planning principles in the economy. The control figures for the financial year 1925-26 affirmed the idea of ​​maintaining money circulation by increasing emission. By December 1925, the money supply had increased by 1.5 times compared to 1924. This led to an imbalance between the volume of trade and the money supply. Since the State Bank constantly introduced gold and foreign currency into circulation in order to withdraw cash surpluses and maintain the exchange rate of the gold coin, the state's foreign exchange reserves were soon depleted. The fight against inflation was lost. From July 1926, it was forbidden to export chervonets abroad and the purchase of chervonets on the foreign market was stopped. Chervonets from a convertible currency has become the internal currency of the USSR.

Thus, the monetary reform of 1922-1924. was a comprehensive reform of the sphere of circulation. The monetary system was rebuilt simultaneously with the establishment of wholesale and retail trade, the elimination of the budget deficit, and the revision of prices. All these measures helped restore and streamline monetary circulation, overcome emission, and ensure the formation of a solid budget. At the same time, financial and economic reform helped streamline taxation. A hard currency and a solid state budget were the most important achievements of the financial policy of the Soviet state in those years. In general, the monetary reform and financial recovery contributed to the restructuring of the mechanism of operation of the entire national economy on the basis of the NEP.

The role of the private sector during the NEP

During the NEP period, the private sector played a major role in restoring the light and food industries - it produced up to 20% of all industrial output (1923) and dominated wholesale (15%) and retail (83%) trade.

Private industry took the form of handicraft, rental, joint-stock and cooperative enterprises. Private entrepreneurship has become notable in the food, clothing, and leather industries, as well as in the oil-pressing, flour-grinding, and shag industries. About 70% of private enterprises were located on the territory of the RSFSR. In total in 1924-1925. in the USSR there were 325 thousand private enterprises. They employed about 12% of the entire workforce, with an average of 2-3 employees per enterprise. Private enterprises produced about 5% of all industrial output (1923). the state constantly restricted the activities of private entrepreneurs by using the tax press, depriving entrepreneurs of voting rights, etc.

At the end of the 20s. in connection with the curtailment of the NEP, the policy of restricting the private sector was replaced by a course towards its elimination.

Consequences of the NEP

In the second half of the 1920s, the first attempts to curtail the NEP began. Syndicates in industry were liquidated, from which private capital was administratively ousted, and a rigid centralized system of economic management (economic people's commissariats) was created.

In October 1928, the implementation of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy began, the country's leadership set a course for accelerated industrialization and collectivization. Although no one officially canceled the NEP, by that time it had already been actually curtailed.

Legally, the NEP was terminated only on October 11, 1931, when a resolution was adopted on the complete ban on private trade in the USSR.

The undoubted success of the NEP was the restoration of the destroyed economy, and, given that after the revolution, Russia lost highly qualified personnel (economists, managers, production workers), the success of the new government becomes a "victory over devastation." At the same time, the lack of those same highly qualified personnel has become the cause of miscalculations and errors.

Significant economic growth rates, however, were achieved only due to the return to operation of pre-war capacities, because Russia reached the economic indicators of the pre-war years only by 1926-1927. The potential for further economic growth turned out to be extremely low. The private sector was not allowed to "command heights in the economy", foreign investment was not welcomed, and investors themselves were not particularly in a hurry to Russia because of the ongoing instability and the threat of nationalization of capital. The state, on the other hand, was unable to make long-term capital-intensive investments only from its own funds.

The situation in the countryside was also contradictory, where the "kulaks" were clearly oppressed.

Ulyanovsk state agricultural

academy

Department of National History

Test

By discipline: "National History"

On the topic: "The New Economic Policy of the Soviet State (1921-1928)"

Completed by a student of the 1st year of the SSO

Faculty of Economics

Correspondence department

Specialty "Accounting, analysis

and audit"

Melnikova Natalia

Alekseevna

Code number 29037

Ulyanovsk - 2010

Prerequisites for the transition to a new economic policy (NEP).

The main task of the internal policy of the Bolsheviks was to restore the economy destroyed by the revolution and the civil war, to create a material, technical and socio-cultural basis for building socialism, which the Bolsheviks promised to the people. In the autumn of 1920, a series of crises broke out in the country.

1. Economic crisis:

Population decrease (due to losses during the civil war and emigration);

Destruction of mines and mines (Donbass, the Baku oil region, the Urals and Siberia were especially affected);

Lack of fuel and raw materials; stopping factories (which led to the decline of the role of large industrial centers);

Mass exodus of workers from the city to the countryside;

Cessation of traffic on 30 railways;

Rising inflation;

The reduction in the area under crops and the lack of interest of the peasants in the expansion of the economy;

A decrease in the level of management, which affected the quality of decisions made and was expressed in the violation of economic ties between enterprises and regions of the country, the fall in labor discipline;

Mass starvation in the city and countryside, a decline in living standards, an increase in morbidity and mortality.

2. Socio-political crisis:

Dissatisfaction of workers with unemployment and lack of food, infringement of the rights of trade unions, the introduction of forced labor and its equal pay;

The expansion of strike movements in the city, in which the workers advocated the democratization of the country's political system, the convening of the Constituent Assembly;

The indignation of the peasants by the continuation of the surplus appropriation;

The beginning of the armed struggle of the peasants, who demanded a change in agrarian policy, the elimination of the dictates of the RCP (b), the convening of the Constituent Assembly on the basis of universal equal suffrage;

Activation of the activities of the Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries;

Fluctuations in the army, often involved in the fight against peasant uprisings.

3. Internal party crisis:

The stratification of party members into an elite group and the party mass;

The emergence of opposition groups that defended the ideals of "true socialism" (the "democratic centralism" group, the "workers' opposition");

An increase in the number of people who claimed leadership in the party (L.D. Trotsky, I.V. Stalin) and the emergence of a danger of its split;

Signs of moral degradation of party members.

4. Crisis of theory.

Russia had to live in a capitalist environment, because. hopes for a world revolution did not come true. And this required a different strategy and tactics. V.I. Lenin was forced to reconsider his internal political course and admit that only the satisfaction of the demands of the peasantry could save the power of the Bolsheviks.

So, with the help of the policy of "war communism" it was not possible to overcome the devastation generated by 4 years of Russia's participation in the First World War, revolutions (February and October 1917) and deepened by the civil war. A decisive change in the economic course was required. In December 1920, the VIII All-Russian Congress of Soviets took place. Among its most important decisions, the following can be noted: a bribe for the development of "war communism" and the material and technical modernization of the national economy on the basis of electrification (the GOELRO plan), and on the other hand, the rejection of the mass creation of communes, state farms, the stake on the "diligent peasant", who provided financial incentives.

NEP: goals, essence, methods, main activities.

After the congress, the State Planning Committee was created by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of February 22, 1921. In March 1921, at the 10th Congress of the RCP(b), two important decisions were made: on the replacement of the surplus appropriation with a tax in kind and on the unity of the party. These two resolutions reflected the internal inconsistency of the New Economic Policy, the transition to which meant the decisions of the congress.

NEP - an anti-crisis program, the essence of which was to recreate a mixed economy while maintaining the "commanding heights" in the hands of the Bolshevik government. The levers of influence were to be the absolute power of the RCP (b), the state sector in industry, a decentralized financial system and a monopoly of foreign trade.

Goals of the NEP:

Political: remove social tension, strengthen the social base of Soviet power in the form of an alliance of workers and peasants;

Economic: to prevent devastation, get out of the crisis and restore the economy;

Social: without waiting for the world revolution, to provide favorable conditions for building a socialist society;

Foreign policy: overcome international isolation and restore political and economic relations with other states.

Achieving these goals led to the gradual phasing out of the NEP in the second half of the 1920s.

The transition to the NEP was legally formalized by decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, decisions of the IX All-Russian Congress of Soviets in December 1921. The NEP included a complex economic and socio-political events:

Replacement of the surplus appropriation with a food tax (until 1925 in kind); products left on the farm after payment of the tax in kind were allowed to be sold on the market;

Permission for private trade;

Attracting foreign capital to the development of industry;

Leasing by the state of many small enterprises and retaining large and medium-sized industrial enterprises;

Lease of land under state control;

Attracting foreign capital to the development of industry (some enterprises were leased to foreign capitalists on concession);

Transfer of industry to full cost accounting and self-sufficiency;

Hiring labor force;

Cancellation of the rationing system and egalitarian distribution;

Payment for all services;

Replacement of wages in kind with cash wages, established depending on the quantity and quality of labor;

The abolition of universal labor service, the introduction of labor exchanges.

The introduction of the NEP was not a one-time measure, but was a process stretched out over several years. So, initially, trade was allowed to peasants only close to their place of residence. At the same time, Lenin counted on the exchange of goods (the exchange of products of production at fixed prices and only

through state or cooperative stores), but by the autumn of 1921 he recognized the need for commodity-money relations.

The NEP was not only an economic policy. This is a set of economic, political and ideological measures. During this period, the idea of ​​civil peace was put forward, the Code of Labor Laws, the Criminal Code were developed, the powers of the Cheka (renamed to the OGPU) were somewhat limited, an amnesty for white emigration was announced, etc. technical intelligentsia, creating conditions for creative work, etc.) were simultaneously combined with the suppression of those who could pose a danger to the dominance of the communist party (repressions against church ministers in 1921-1922, the trial of the leadership of the Right SR party in 1922, the expulsion abroad of about 200 prominent figures of the Russian intelligentsia: N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, A.A. Kizevetter, P.A. Sorokin, etc.).

In general, the NEP was assessed by contemporaries as a transitional stage. The fundamental difference in positions was associated with the answer to the question: “What does this transition lead to?”, according to which there were different points of view:

1. Some believed that, despite the utopian nature of their socialist goals, the Bolsheviks, having switched to the NEP, opened the way for the evolution of the Russian economy to capitalism. They believed that the next stage in the development of the country would be political liberalization. Therefore, the intelligentsia must support the Soviet government. This point of view was most clearly expressed by the "Smenovekhites" - representatives of the ideological trend in the intelligentsia, who received the name from the collection of articles by the authors of the cadet orientation "Change of milestones" (Prague, 1921).

2. The Mensheviks believed that the prerequisites for socialism would be created on the rails of the NEP, without which, in the absence of a world revolution, there could be no socialism in Russia. The development of the NEP would inevitably lead to the Bolsheviks giving up their monopoly on power. Pluralism in the economic sphere will create pluralism in the political system and undermine the foundations of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

3. The Socialist-Revolutionaries in the NEP saw the possibility of implementing the "third way" - non-capitalist development. Taking into account the peculiarities of Russia - a multi-structural economy, the predominance of the peasantry - the Social Revolutionaries assumed that for socialism in Russia it was necessary to combine democracy with a cooperative socio-economic system.

4. The liberals developed their own concept of the NEP. The essence of the new economic policy was seen by him in the revival of capitalist relations in Russia. According to the liberals, the NEP was an objective process that made it possible to solve the main task: to complete the modernization of the country begun by Peter I, to bring it into the mainstream of world civilization.

5. Bolshevik theorists (Lenin, Trotsky, and others) viewed the transition to the NEP as a tactical move, a temporary retreat caused by an unfavorable balance of power. They tended to understand the NEP as one of the possible

paths to socialism, but not direct, but relatively long. Lenin believed that although the technical and economic backwardness of Russia did not allow the direct introduction of socialism, it could be gradually built, relying on the state of the "dictatorship of the proletariat." This plan presupposed not a "softening", but an all-out strengthening of the regime of the "proletarian", but in fact the Bolshevik dictatorship. The "immaturity" of the socio-economic and cultural preconditions for socialism was intended to compensate (as in the period of "war communism") terror. Lenin did not agree with the proposed (even by individual Bolsheviks) measures for some political liberalization - allowing the activity of socialist parties, a free press, the creation of a peasant union, etc. He proposed to expand the application of execution (with the replacement of expulsion abroad) to all types of activities of the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, etc. Remains of a multi-party system in the USSR

were eliminated, persecution of the church was launched, and the intra-party regime was tightened. However, part of the Bolsheviks did not accept the NEP, considering it a capitulation.

The development of the political system of Soviet society during the years of the NEP.

Already in 1921-1924. reforms are being carried out in the management of industry, trade, cooperation, the credit and financial sector, and a two-tier banking system is being created: the State Bank, the Commercial and Industrial Bank, the Bank for Foreign Trade, a network of cooperative and local communal banks. Money issue (issue of money and securities, which is a state monopoly), as the main source of state budget revenues, is replaced by a system of direct and indirect taxes (commercial, income, agricultural, excises on consumer goods, local taxes), fees for services (transport , communications, utilities, etc.).

The development of commodity-money relations led to the restoration of the all-Russian internal market. Large fairs are being recreated: Nizhny Novgorod, Baku, Irbit, Kyiv, etc. Trade exchanges are opening. A certain freedom is allowed for the development of private capital in industry and trade. It is allowed to create small private enterprises (with no more than 20 workers), concessions, leases, mixed companies. According to the conditions of economic activity, consumer, agricultural, handicraft cooperation was placed in a more advantageous position than private capital.

The rise of industry and the introduction of hard currency stimulated the restoration of agriculture. The high growth rates during the years of the New Economic Policy were largely due to the “restorative effect”: equipment that was already available but idle was loaded, and old arable lands abandoned during the civil war were put into circulation in agriculture. When these reserves dried up at the end of the 1920s, the country faced the need for huge investments in industry - in order to reconstruct old factories with worn-out equipment and create new industrial

Meanwhile, due to legislative restrictions (private capital was not allowed in large, and to a large extent, in medium-sized industry), high taxation of the private trader in both town and countryside, non-state investments were extremely limited.

Nor is the Soviet government successful in its attempts to attract foreign capital on any significant scale.

So, the new economic policy ensured the stabilization and restoration of the economy, but soon after the introduction of the first successes were replaced by new difficulties. The party leadership explained its inability to overcome the crisis phenomena by economic methods and the use of command and directive methods by the activities of the class “enemies of the people” (nepmen, kulaks, agronomists, engineers and other specialists). This was the basis for the deployment of repressions and the organization of new political processes.

The results and reasons for the curtailment of the NEP.

By 1925, the restoration of the national economy was basically completed. The total industrial output over the 5 years of the New Economic Policy increased more than 5 times and in 1925 reached 75% of the 1913 level, in 1926 this level was exceeded in terms of gross industrial output. There has been an upsurge in new industries. In agriculture, the gross grain harvest amounted to 94% of the harvest in 1913, and in many indicators of animal husbandry, the pre-war figures were left behind.

The aforementioned recovery of the financial system and the stabilization of the domestic currency can be called a real economic miracle. In the fiscal year 1924/1925, the state budget deficit was completely eliminated, and the Soviet ruble became one of the hardest currencies in the world. The rapid pace of restoration of the national economy in the conditions of a socially oriented economy, set by the existing Bolshevik regime, was accompanied by a significant increase in the living standards of the people, the rapid development of public education, science, culture and art.

The NEP gave rise to new difficulties, along with successes. The difficulties were explained mainly by three reasons: the imbalance of industry and agriculture; purposeful class orientation of the internal policy of the government; strengthening contradictions between the diversity of social interests of different strata of society and authoritarianism. The need to ensure the independence and defense of the country required the further development of the economy and, first of all, the heavy defense industry. The priority of the industry over the agrosphere resulted in the overt transfer of funds from the countryside to the city through pricing and tax policies. Sales prices for industrial goods were artificially raised, while purchase prices for raw materials and products were underestimated, that is, the notorious "scissors" of prices were introduced. The quality of supplied industrial products was low. On the one hand, there was an overstocking of warehouses with expensive and poor manufactured goods. On the other hand, the peasants, who had good harvests in the mid-1920s, refused to sell grain to the state at fixed prices, preferring to sell it on the market.

Bibliography.

1) T.M. Timoshina "Economic history of Russia", "Filin", 1998.

2) N. Werth "History of the Soviet state", "The whole world", 1998

3) "Our fatherland: the experience of political history" Kuleshov S.V., Volobuev O.V., Pivovar E.I. et al., "Terra", 1991

4) “The latest history of the fatherland. XX century, edited by A.F. Kiselev, E.M. Shchagina, Vlados, 1998.

5) L.D. Trotsky “The Revolution Betrayed. What is the USSR and where is it going? (http://www.alina.ru/koi/magister/library/revolt/trotl001.htm)