With the rise to power of the Bolshevik Party after the Socialist Revolution in Russia in October 1917, the revolutionaries adopted measures aimed at nationalizing the economy. Thus, the Russian government was in the hands of Lenin, the main Bolshevik leader. In March 1921, Lenin adopted the implementation of the NEP (New Economic Policy) in order to restructure the economy and end social inequalities, hunger and poverty in Russia. The aim of this text will be to address the New Economic Policy and its main consequences for socialist Russia.
After the end of the civil war in 1921, Russia had its economy in disarray. The search for alternatives to improve the Russian economy was the main issue on the government's agenda. To implement the NEP, the Russian government allowed the application of capitalist practices, admitting the inflow of foreign capital that financed the founding of private companies in the trade sector retailer. Wholesale trade was administered by the state and its main focus was the creation of cooperatives that would carry out commercial activities both at the retail and wholesale levels.
In the countryside, agrarian policy was reassessed, growing agricultural cooperatives were formed and peasants seized the land. lands that previously belonged to the nobility (during the revolution, several peasants got rich and started to rent new lands). The NEP banned the nationalization of industries in cities and only after the deliberation of upper management could factories be nationalized.
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The NEP exempted the population of cities from providing mandatory services, the free movement of labor was allowed, the equal wage payment was suppressed and the correlation between wage and production was sought.
Other changes stipulated by the NEP fell directly on the population, such as the removal of free water, housing and electricity, gains that society had at the beginning of the revolution. Other free services provided to society that the government withdrew were transport, post and newspapers. Many critics of the Russian Revolution, such as sociologist Mauricio Tragtenberg (1929-1998), questioned the directions and outlines of Russian economic policy. For the sociologist, the Socialist Revolution in Russia was transformed into a “State Capitalism” with the implantation of the NEP, or that is, the state nationalized industries, banks and transformed them into bureaucratic state-owned companies controlled by the machine of the State.
Leandro Carvalho
Master in History
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
OAK, Leandro. "New Economic Policy (NEP)"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/nova-politica-economica-nep.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
