After seven years of the First World War and the Civil War, the country's situation was catastrophic. It has lost more than a quarter of its national wealth. There was a shortage of basic food products.
According to some reports, human losses since the beginning of the First World War from combat, hunger and disease, “red” and “white” terror amounted to 19 million people. About 2 million people emigrated from the country, and among them were almost all representatives of the political, financial and industrial elite of pre-revolutionary Russia.
Until the fall of 1918, huge supplies of raw materials and food were carried out, according to peace terms, to Germany and Austria-Hungary. Retreating from Russia, the interventionists took with them furs, wool, timber, oil, manganese, grain, and industrial equipment worth many millions of gold rubles.
Dissatisfaction with the policy of “war communism” became more and more evident in the villages. In 1920, one of the most massive peasant insurgent movements unfolded under the leadership of Antonov - “Antonovshchina”.
Dissatisfaction with the Bolshevik policies also spread in the army. Kronstadt, the largest naval base of the Baltic Fleet, “the key to Petrograd,” rose up in arms. The Bolsheviks took emergency and brutal measures to eliminate the Kronstadt rebellion. A state of siege was introduced in Petrograd. An ultimatum was sent to the Kronstadters, in which those who were ready to surrender were promised to spare their lives. Army units were sent to the walls of the fortress. However, the attack on Kronstadt launched on March 8 ended in failure. On the night of March 16-17, the 7th Army (45 thousand people) under the command of M.N. moved across the already thin ice of the Gulf of Finland to storm the fortress. Tukhachevsky. Delegates from the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b), sent from Moscow, also took part in the offensive. By the morning of March 18, the performance in Kronstadt was suppressed.
The Soviet government responded to all these challenges with the NEP. It was an unexpected and strong move.
History.RF: NEP, infographic video
HOW MANY YEARS LENIN GAVE NEP
The expression “Seriously and for a long time.” From the speech of the Soviet People's Commissar of Agriculture Valerian Valerianovich Osinsky (pseudonym of V.V. Obolensky, 1887-1938) at the X Conference of the RCP (b) on May 26, 1921. This is how he defined the prospects for the new economic policy - NEP.
The words and position of V.V. Osinsky are known only from the reviews of V.I. Lenin, who in his final speech (May 27, 1921) said: “Osinsky gave three conclusions. The first conclusion is “seriously and for a long time.” And; “seriously and for a long time - 25 years.” I'm not such a pessimist."
Later, speaking with a report “On the internal and foreign policy of the republic” at the IX All-Russian Congress of Soviets, V.I. Lenin said about the NEP (December 23, 1921): “We are pursuing this policy seriously and for a long time, but, of course, how right already noticed, not forever.”
It is usually used in the literal sense - thoroughly, fundamentally, firmly.
ABOUT REPLACEMENT OF PRODRAZAPERSTERY
The decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “On replacing food and raw material allocation with a tax in kind”, adopted on the basis of the decision of the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b) “On replacing appropriation with a tax in kind” (March 1921), marked the beginning of the transition to a new economic policy.
1. To ensure correct and calm management of the economy on the basis of more free disposal of the farmer with the products of his labor and his own economic means, to strengthen the peasant economy and raise its productivity, as well as for the purpose of accurately establishing state obligations falling on farmers, appropriation as a method of state procurement food, raw materials and fodder, is replaced by a tax in kind.
2. This tax should be less than that imposed hitherto through appropriation. The amount of the tax should be calculated so as to cover the most necessary needs of the army, urban workers and the non-agricultural population. The total amount of tax should be constantly reduced as the restoration of transport and industry allows the Soviet government to receive products Agriculture in exchange for factory and artisanal products.
3. The tax is levied in the form of a percentage or share of the products produced on the farm, based on the harvest, the number of eaters on the farm and the presence of livestock on it.
4. The tax must be progressive; the percentage of deductions for farms of middle peasants, low-income owners and for farms of urban workers should be reduced. The farms of the poorest peasants may be exempt from some, and in exceptional cases from all types of taxes in kind.
Diligent peasant owners who increase the sowing area on their farms, as well as increase the productivity of farms as a whole, receive benefits for the implementation of the tax in kind. (...)
7. Responsibility for fulfilling the tax is assigned to each individual owner, and the bodies of Soviet power are instructed to impose penalties on everyone who has not complied with the tax. Circular liability is abolished.
To control the application and implementation of the tax, organizations of local peasants are formed according to groups of payers of different tax amounts.
8. All supplies of food, raw materials and fodder remaining with farmers after they have fulfilled the tax are at their full disposal and can be used by them to improve and strengthen their economy, to increase personal consumption and for exchange for products of factory and handicraft industries and agricultural production. Exchange is allowed within the limits of local economic turnover, both through cooperative organizations and in markets and bazaars.
9. Those farmers who wish to hand over the surplus remaining to them after completing the tax to the state, in exchange for these voluntarily surrendered surpluses, should be provided with consumer goods and agricultural implements. For this purpose, a state permanent stock of agricultural implements and consumer goods is created, both from domestically produced products and from products purchased abroad. For the latter purpose, part of the state gold fund and part of the harvested raw materials are allocated.
10. Supply of the poorest rural population is carried out in the state order according to special rules. (...)
Directives of the CPSU and the Soviet government on economic issues. Sat. documents. M.. 1957. T. 1
LIMITED FREEDOM
The transition from “war communism” to the NEP was proclaimed by the Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party on March 8-16, 1921.
In the agricultural sector, surplus appropriation was replaced by a lower tax in kind. In 1923‑1924 it was allowed to pay tax in kind in food and money. Private trade in surplus was allowed. The legalization of market relations entailed a restructuring of the entire economic mechanism. The hiring of labor in the village was facilitated, and land rental was allowed. However, tax policy (the larger the farm, the higher the tax) led to the fragmentation of farms. The kulaks and middle peasants, dividing farms, tried to get rid of high taxes.
The denationalization of small and medium-sized industry was carried out (transfer of enterprises from state ownership to private lease). Limited freedom of private capital in industry and trade was allowed. It was allowed to use hired labor, and it became possible to create private enterprises. The largest and most technically developed factories and plants united into state trusts that operated on self-support and self-sufficiency (“Khimugol”, “State Trust of Machine-Building Plants”, etc.). Metallurgy, the fuel and energy complex, and partly transport were initially supplied by the state. Cooperation developed: consumer agricultural, cultural and commercial.
Equal wages, characteristic of the Civil War, were replaced by a new incentive tariff policy that took into account the qualifications of workers, the quality and quantity of products produced. The card system for distributing food and goods was abolished. The “ration” system has been replaced by a monetary form of wages. Universal labor conscription and labor mobilizations were abolished. Large fairs were restored: Nizhny Novgorod, Baku, Irbit, Kiev, etc. Trade exchanges opened.
In 1921-1924 financial reform was carried out. A banking system has been created: the State Bank, a network of cooperative banks, the Commercial and Industrial Bank, the Bank for Foreign Trade, a network of local communal banks, etc. Direct and indirect taxes(commercial, income, agricultural, excise taxes on consumer goods, local taxes), as well as fees for services (transport, communications, utilities, etc.).
In 1921, monetary reform began. At the end of 1922, a stable currency was released into circulation - the Soviet chervonets, which was used for short-term lending in industry and trade. Chervonets was provided with gold and other easily sold valuables and goods. One chervonets was equivalent to 10 pre-revolutionary gold rubles, and on the world market it cost about 6 dollars. To cover the budget deficit, the old currency continued to be issued - depreciating Soviet notes, which were soon replaced by the chervonets. In 1924, instead of Sovznak, copper and silver coins and treasury notes were issued. During the reform, it was possible to eliminate the budget deficit.
The NEP led to a rapid economic recovery. The economic interest that appeared among peasants in the production of agricultural products made it possible to quickly saturate the market with food and overcome the consequences of the hungry years of “war communism.”
However, already at the early stage of the NEP, recognition of the role of the market was combined with measures to abolish it. Most Communist Party leaders viewed the NEP as a “necessary evil,” fearing that it would lead to the restoration of capitalism.
Gripped by fear of the NEP, the party and state leaders took measures to discredit it. Official propaganda treated the private trader in every possible way, and the image of the “NEPman” as an exploiter, a class enemy, was formed in the public consciousness. Since the mid-1920s. measures to curb the development of the NEP gave way to a course towards its curtailment.
NEPMANS
So what was he like, a NEP man of the 20s? This social group was formed by former employees of commercial and industrial private enterprises, millers, clerks - people who had certain commercial skills, as well as employees of government offices different levels who initially combined their official service with illegal commercial activities. The ranks of the Nepmen were also replenished by housewives, demobilized Red Army soldiers who found themselves on the streets after closing industrial enterprises blue-collar workers, redundant employees.
In its political, social and economic situation representatives of this layer differed sharply from the rest of the population. According to the legislation in force in the 1920s, they were deprived of voting rights, the opportunity to teach their children in the same schools with children of other social groups, could not legally publish their own newspapers or promote their views in any other way, and were not conscripted into military service. army, were not members of trade unions and did not hold positions in the state apparatus...
The group of entrepreneurs who used hired labor both in Siberia and in the USSR as a whole was extremely small - 0.7 percent of the total urban population (1). Their incomes were tens of times higher than those of ordinary citizens...
Entrepreneurs of the 20s were distinguished by amazing mobility. M. Shaginyan wrote: “The Nepmen are leaving. They magnetize vast Russian spaces, moving around them at courier speed, now to the extreme south (Transcaucasia), now to the far north (Murmansk, Yeniseisk), often back and forth without respite” (2).
In terms of culture and education, the social group of “new” entrepreneurs differed little from the rest of the population and included a wide variety of types and characters. The majority were “nepmen-democrats,” as described by one of the authors of the 20s, “nimble, greedy, strong-minded and strong-headed guys” for whom “the air of the bazaar was more useful and profitable than the atmosphere of a cafe.” In the event of a successful deal, the “bazaar Nepman” “grunts joyfully,” and when the deal falls through, “from his lips comes a juicy, strong, like himself, Russian “word.” Here “mother” sounds in the air often and naturally.” “Well-bred Nepmen,” as described by the same author, “in American bowler hats and boots with mother-of-pearl buttons, made the same billion-dollar transactions in the twilight of a cafe, where subtle conversation was conducted on subtle delicacy.”
E. Demchik. “New Russians”, 1920s. Homeland. 2000, No. 5
NEP is a policy of the Soviet government, under which all enterprises of one industry were subordinate to a single central management body - the main committee (head office). Changed the policy of “war communism”. The transition from “war communism” to the NEP was proclaimed by the X Congress of the Russian Communist Party in March 1921. The initial idea of the transition was formulated in the works of V.I. Lenin 1921-1923: the ultimate goal remains the same - socialism, but the situation in Russia after the civil war dictates the need resort to a “reformist” method of action in fundamental issues of economic construction. Instead of a direct and complete breakdown of the old system to replace it with a new socio-economic structure, carried out during the years of “war communism”, the Bolsheviks took a “reformist” approach: not to break the old socio-economic structure, trade, small farming, small business, capitalism, but carefully and gradually master them and gain the opportunity to subject them to government regulation. In Lenin's last works, the concept of NEP included ideas about the use of commodity-money relations, all forms of ownership - state, cooperative, private, mixed, self-financing. It was proposed to temporarily retreat from the achieved “military-communist” gains, to take a step back in order to gain strength for the leap to socialism.
Initially, the framework of the NEP reforms was determined by the party leadership by the extent to which the reforms strengthened its monopoly on power. The main measures taken within the framework of the NEP: surplus appropriation was replaced by a food tax, followed by new measures designed to interest broad social strata in the results of their economic activities. Free trade was legalized, private individuals received the right to engage in handicrafts and open industrial enterprises with up to a hundred workers. Small nationalized enterprises were returned to their former owners. In 1922 the right to lease land and use hired labor was recognized; The system of labor duties and labor mobilizations was abolished. Payment in kind was replaced by cash, a new state bank was established and the banking system was restored.
The ruling party carried out all these changes without abandoning its ideological views and command methods of managing socio-political and economic processes. “War communism” gradually lost ground.
For its development, the NEP needed the decentralization of economic management, and in August 1921 the Council of Labor and Defense (SLO) adopted a resolution to reorganize the central administration system, in which all enterprises of the same industry were subordinate to a single central management body - the main committee (main committee). The number of branch headquarters was reduced, and only large industry and basic sectors of the economy remained in the hands of the state.
Partial denationalization of property, privatization of many previously nationalized enterprises, a system of running the economy based on cost accounting, competition, and the introduction of leasing of joint ventures - all these are characteristic features of the NEP. At the same time, these “capitalist” economic elements were combined with coercive measures adopted during the years of “war communism.”
The NEP led to a rapid economic recovery. The economic interest that appeared among peasants in the production of agricultural products made it possible to quickly saturate the market with food and overcome the consequences of the hungry years of “war communism.”
However, already at the early stage of the NEP (1921-1923), recognition of the role of the market was combined with measures to abolish it. Most Communist Party leaders viewed the NEP as a “necessary evil,” fearing that it would lead to the restoration of capitalism. Many Bolsheviks retained “military-communist” illusions that the destruction of private property, trade, money, equality in the distribution of material goods lead to communism, and the NEP is a betrayal of communism. In essence, the NEP was designed to continue the course towards socialism, through maneuvering, social compromise with the majority of the population, to move the country towards the party’s goal - socialism, although more slowly and with less risk. It was believed that in market relations the role of the state is the same as under “war communism”, and it must carry out economic reform within the framework of “socialism”. All this was taken into account in the laws adopted in 1922 and in subsequent legislative acts.
The assumption of market mechanisms, which led to economic recovery, allowed political regime strengthen. However, its fundamental incompatibility with the essence of the NEP as a temporary economic compromise with the peasantry and bourgeois elements of the city inevitably led to the rejection of the idea of the NEP. Even in the most favorable years for its development (until the mid-20s), progressive steps in pursuing this policy were made uncertainly, contradictorily, with an eye to the past stage of “war communism.”
Soviet and, for the most part, post-Soviet historiography, reducing the reasons for the collapse of the NEP to purely economic factors, deprived itself of the opportunity to fully reveal its contradictions - between the requirements for the normal functioning of the economy and the political priorities of the party leadership, aimed first at limiting and then completely crowding out private manufacturer.
The country’s leadership’s interpretation of the dictatorship of the proletariat as the suppression of all those who disagree with it, as well as the continued adherence of the majority of the party’s cadres to the “military-communist” views adopted during the civil war, reflected the communists’ inherent desire to achieve their ideological principles. At the same time, the strategic goal of the party (socialism) remained the same, and the NEP was seen as a temporary retreat from the “war communism” achieved over the years. Therefore, everything was done to prevent the NEP from going beyond limits dangerous for this purpose.
Market methods of regulating the economy in NEP Russia were combined with non-economic methods, with administrative intervention. The predominance of state ownership of the means of production and large-scale industry was the objective basis for such intervention.
During the NEP years, the party and state leaders did not want reforms, but were concerned that the private sector would gain an advantage over the public sector. Fearful of the NEP, they took measures to discredit it. Official propaganda treated the private trader in every possible way, and the image of the “NEPman” as an exploiter, a class enemy, was formed in the public consciousness. Since the mid-20s, measures to curb the development of the NEP gave way to a course towards its curtailment. The dismantling of NEPA began behind the scenes, first with measures to tax the private sector, then depriving it of legal guarantees. At the same time, loyalty to the new economic policy was proclaimed at all party forums. On December 27, 1929, in a speech at a conference of Marxist historians, Stalin stated: “If we adhere to the NEP, it is because it serves the cause of socialism. And when it ceases to serve the cause of socialism, we will throw the new economic policy to hell.”
In the late 20s, considering that the new economic policy ceased to serve socialism, the Stalinist leadership discarded it. The methods by which it curtailed the NEP indicate the difference in the approaches of Stalin and Lenin to the new economic policy. According to Lenin, with the transition to socialism, the NEP will become obsolete in the course of the evolutionary process. But by the end of the 20s there was no socialism in Russia yet, although it had been proclaimed, the NEP had not outlived its usefulness, but Stalin, contrary to Lenin, made the “transition to socialism” by violent, revolutionary means.
One of the negative aspects of this “transition” was the policy of the Stalinist leadership to eliminate the so-called “exploiting classes”. During its implementation, the village “bourgeoisie” (kulaks) were “dekulakized”, all their property was confiscated, exiled to Siberia, and the “remnants of the urban bourgeoisie” - entrepreneurs engaged in private trade, crafts and the sale of their products (“NEPmen”), as well as their family members were deprived of political rights (“disenfranchised”); many were prosecuted.
NEP (details)
In the extreme conditions of the civil war, the internal policy pursued by the Soviet government was called “war communism.” The prerequisites for its implementation were laid by the widespread nationalization of industry and the creation of a state apparatus to manage it (primarily the All-Russian Council of the National Economy - VSNKh), the experience of military-political solutions to food problems through committees of the poor in the countryside. On the one hand, the policy of “war communism” was perceived by part of the country’s leadership as a natural step towards the rapid construction of market-free socialism, which supposedly corresponded to the principles of Marxist theory. In this they hoped to rely on the collectivist ideas of millions of workers and poor peasants who were ready to divide all property in the country equally. On the other hand, it was a forced policy, caused by the violation of traditional economic ties between city and countryside, and the need to mobilize all resources to win the civil war.
The internal situation in the Soviet country was extremely difficult. The country is in crisis:
Political- in the summer of 1920, peasant uprisings broke out in the Tambov and Voronezh provinces (as they were called - “kulak rebellions”) - Antonovism. Peasants' dissatisfaction with surplus appropriation grew into a real peasant war: Makhno's detachments in Ukraine and Antov's “peasant army” in the Tambov region numbered 50 thousand people at the beginning of 1921, the total number of detachments formed in the Urals, Western Siberia, Pomerania , in the Kuban and Don, reached 200 thousand people. On March 1, 1921, the sailors of Kronstadt rebelled. They put forward the slogans “Power to the Soviets, not parties!”, “Soviets without communists!” The rebellion in Kronstadt was eliminated, but peasant uprisings continued. These uprisings were not an accident.” In each of them, to a greater or lesser extent, there was an element of organization. It was contributed by a wide range of political forces: from monarchists to socialists. These disparate forces were united by the desire to take control of the emerging popular movement and, relying on it, to eliminate the power of the Bolsheviks;
Economic- the national economy was fragmented. The country produced 3 percent of pig iron; oil was produced 2.5 times less than in 1913. Industrial production fell to 4-2 percent of 1913 levels. The country lagged behind the United States in iron production by 72 times, in steel by 52 times, and in oil production by 19 times. If in 1913 Russia smelted 4.2 million tons of pig iron, then in 1920 it was only 115 thousand tons. This is approximately the same amount as was received in 1718 under Peter I;
Social- Hunger, poverty, unemployment were rampant in the country, crime was rampant, and child homelessness was rampant. The declassification of the working class intensified, people left the cities and went to the countryside so as not to die of hunger. This led to a reduction in the number of industrial workers by almost half (1 million 270 thousand people in 1920 versus 2 million 400 thousand people in 1913). In 1921, about 40 provinces with a population of 90 million were starving, of which 40 million were on the verge of death. 5 million people died from hunger. Child crime, compared to 1913, has increased 7.4 times. Epidemics of typhoid, cholera, and smallpox were raging in the country.
Immediate, most decisive and energetic measures were needed to improve the situation of the working people and increase the productive forces.
In March 1921, at the X Congress of the RCP (b), a course towards a new economic policy (NEP) was adopted. This policy was introduced seriously and for a long time.
The purpose of adopting the NEP was aimed at:
To overcome the devastation in the country, restore the economy;
Creating the foundation of socialism;
Development of large industry;
Displacement and liquidation of capitalist elements;
Strengthening the alliance of the working class and peasantry.
“The essence of the new economic policy,” said Lenin, “is the union of the proletariat and the peasantry, the essence lies in the union of the avant-garde, the proletariat, with the broad peasant field.”
The ways to accomplish these tasks were:
All-round development of cooperation;
Widespread encouragement of trade;
The use of material incentives and economic calculations.
Contents of the new economic policy:
Replacing the surplus appropriation system with a tax in kind (the peasant could sell the remaining products after paying the tax in kind at his own discretion - either to the state or on the free market);
Introduction of free trade and circulation;
Allowance of private small commercial and industrial enterprises, while maintaining the leading industries (banks, transport, large-scale industry, foreign trade) in the hands of the state;
Permission to rent concessions, mixed companies;
Providing freedom of action to state-owned enterprises (introducing self-financing, self-financing, product sales, self-sufficiency);
Introduction of material incentives for workers;
Elimination of rigid sectoral formations of an administrative nature - headquarters and centers;
Introduction of territorial - sectoral management of industry;
Carrying out monetary reform;
Transition from in-kind to cash wages;
Streamlining the income tax (income tax was divided into basic, which was paid by all citizens except pensioners, and progressive - paid by NEPmen, privately practicing doctors, and all those who received additional income). The greater the profit, the greater the tax. A profit limit was introduced;
Permission to hire labor, rent land, enterprises;
Revival of the credit system - the State Bank was recreated, a number of specialized banks were formed;
The introduction of the NEP caused a change in the social structure and way of life of people. The NEP provided organizational economic freedom to people and gave them the opportunity to show initiative and entrepreneurship. Private enterprises were created everywhere in the country, self-financing was introduced at state enterprises, a struggle arose against bureaucracy and administrative-command habits, and culture improved in all spheres of human activity. The introduction of a tax in kind in the countryside made it possible for the broad development of agriculture, including strong owners, who were later called “kulaks.”
The most colorful figure of that time was the new Soviet bourgeoisie - the “NEPmen”. These people largely defined the face of their era, but they were, as it were, outside of Soviet society: they were deprived of voting rights and could not be members of trade unions. Among the Nepmen, the old bourgeoisie had a large share (from 30 to 50 percent, depending on their occupation). The rest of the Nepmen came from among Soviet employees, peasants and artisans. Due to the rapid turnover of capital, the main area of activity of the Nepmen was trade. Store shelves began to quickly fill with goods and products.
At the same time, criticism of Lenin and the NEP as a “disastrous petty-bourgeois policy” was heard throughout the country.
Many communists left the RCP (b), believing that the introduction of the NEP meant the restoration of capitalism and a betrayal of socialist principles. At the same time, it should be noted that, despite partial denationalization and concession, the state retained at its disposal the most powerful sector of the national economy. Basic industries remained completely outside the market - energy, metallurgy, oil production and refining, coal mining, defense industry, foreign trade, railways, communications.
Important points of the new economic policy:
The peasant was given the opportunity to truly become a master;
Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs were given freedom of development;
Monetary reform, the introduction of convertible currency - the chervonets - stabilized the financial situation in the country.
In 1923, all types of natural taxation in the countryside were replaced by a single agricultural tax in cash, which, of course, was beneficial to the peasant, because allowed you to maneuver crop rotation at your own discretion and determine the direction of development of your farm in terms of growing certain crops, raising livestock, production handicrafts and so on.
On the basis of the NEP, rapid economic growth began in the city and countryside, and the living standards of the working people rose. The market mechanism made it possible to quickly restore industry, the size of the working class and, most importantly, increase labor productivity. Already by the end of 1923 year it more than doubled. By 1925, the country had restored the destroyed national economy.
The New Economic Policy made it possible:
Economic relations between city and countryside;
Development of industry based on electrification;
Cooperation based on the country's population;
The widespread introduction of cost accounting and personal interest in the results of labor;
Improving government planning and management;
The fight against bureaucracy, administrative and command habits;
Improving culture in all spheres of human activity.
Showing a certain flexibility in economic policy, the Bolsheviks had no doubts or hesitations in strengthening the control of the ruling party over the political and spiritual life of society.
The most important instrument in the hands of the Bolsheviks here were the bodies of the Cheka (from the 1922 congress - the GPU). This apparatus was not only preserved in the form in which it existed during the era of the civil war, but also developed rapidly, surrounded by the special care of those in power, and more and more fully embraced state, party, economic and other public institutions. There is a widespread opinion that the initiator of these repressive and fiscal measures and their implementer was F.E. Dzerzhinsky, in fact, this is not so. Archival sources and research by historians allow us to note that at the head of the terror was L.D. Trotsky (Bronstein), who, as chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, and then the People's Commissar of the Military and Naval Affairs, had punitive bodies unaccountable to the party that administered their justice and reprisals, were in his hands a valid means of usurping power and establishing a personal military-political dictatorship in the country.
During the years of the NEP, many legally published newspapers and magazines, party associations and other parties were closed, and the last underground groups of right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were liquidated.
Through an extensive system of secret employees of the Cheka-GPU, control was established over the political sentiments of civil servants, workers and peasants. Particular attention was paid to kulaks and urban private entrepreneurs, as well as the intelligentsia. At the same time, it should be noted that the Soviet government sought to involve the old intelligentsia in active labor activity. Specialists in various fields of knowledge were provided with more tolerable living and working conditions compared to the general population.
This was especially true for those who were in one way or another connected with strengthening the scientific, economic and defense potential of the state.
The transition to the NEP contributed to the return of emigrants to their homeland. For 1921-1931 181,432 emigrants returned to Russia, of which 121,843 (two thirds) - in 1921,
However, the class approach remained the main principle of building government policy towards the intelligentsia. If opposition was suspected, the authorities resorted to repression. In 1921, many representatives of the intelligentsia were arrested in connection with the Petrograd Combat Organization case. Among them there were few scientific and creative intellectuals. By decision of the Petrograd Cheka, 61 of those arrested, including the prominent Russian poet N.S. Gumilyov, were shot. At the same time, remaining in the position of historicism, it should be noted that many of them opposed the Soviet regime, involving in public and other organizations, including military and combat organizations, all those who did not accept the new system.
The Bolshevik Party is heading towards the formation of its own socialist intelligentsia, devoted to the regime and serving it faithfully. New universities and institutes are opening. At higher educational institutions The first workers' faculties (workers' faculties) are created. The system also underwent radical reform school education. It ensured continuity of education, from preschool institutions to universities. A program to eliminate illiteracy was proclaimed.
In 1923, the voluntary society “Down with Illiteracy” was established, headed by the chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee M.I. Kalinin. By the end of the 1920s, about 40 percent of the population could read and write (versus 27 percent in 1913), and a decade later the figure was 80 percent.
During the years of the NEP, the literary and artistic life of Soviet Russia was distinguished by its diversity and abundance of various creative groups and movements. In Moscow alone there were over 30 of them.
The NEP made it much easier for the USSR to break the economic blockade, enter international markets, and gain diplomatic recognition.
In just 5 years - from 1921 to 1926. the index of industrial production increased more than 3 times, agricultural production increased 2 times and exceeded the level of 1913 by 18 percent. But even after the end of the recovery period, economic growth continued at a rapid pace: in 1927, 1928. the increase in industrial production was 13 and 19 percent, respectively. In general, for the period 1921-1928. the average annual growth rate of national income was 18 percent.
Monetary reform played an important role in the restoration of the national economy and its further development. At the beginning of 1924, the Soviet government stopped issuing unstable banknotes. Instead, a gold-backed chervonets was introduced into circulation. This contributed to the stabilization of the Soviet ruble and the strengthening of the country's financial system.
An important point during the years of the new economic policy was that impressive economic successes were achieved on the basis of fundamentally new social relations, hitherto unknown to history. The private sector emerged in industry and commerce; some state-owned enterprises were denationalized, others were leased out: private individuals were allowed to create their own industrial enterprises with no more than 20 employees (later this “ceiling” was raised). Among the factories rented by private owners there were those that employed 200-300 people, and in general the private sector during the NEP period accounted for from 1/5 to 1/4 of industrial output and 40-80 percent of retail trade. A number of enterprises were leased to foreign firms in the form of concessions. In 1926-1927, there were 117 existing agreements of this kind. They covered enterprises that employed 18 thousand people and produced just over one percent of industrial output.
In industry key positions occupied by state trusts, in the credit and financial sphere - by state and cooperative banks. The state put pressure on producers, forced them to find internal reserves for increasing production, to mobilize efforts to increase production efficiency, which alone could now ensure an increase in profits.
NEP Russia, whether it wanted it or not, created the basis of socialism. NEP is both a strategy and tactics of the Bolsheviks. “From NEP Russia,” said V.I. Lenin, “Russia will be socialist.” At the same time, V.I. Lenin demanded that we reconsider our entire point of view on socialism. The driving force of the NEP should be the working people, the alliance of the working class and the peasantry. The taxes paid by the Nepmen made it possible to expand the socialist sector. New plants, factories, and enterprises were built. In 1928, industrial production surpassed the pre-war level in a number of important indicators. Since 1929, the country has become a huge construction site.
NEP meant the economic competition of socialism with capitalism. But this was an unusual competition. It took place in the form of a fierce struggle of capitalist elements against socialist forms of economy. The struggle was not for life, but for death, according to the principle of “who will win.” The Soviet state had everything it needed to win the fight against capitalism: political power, commanding heights in the economy, natural resources. There was only one thing missing - the ability to run a household and trade culturally. Even in the first days of Soviet power, V.I. Lenin said: “We, the Bolshevik Party, convinced Russia. We won Russia - from the rich for the poor, from the exploiters for the working people. We must now govern Russia.” The matter of management turned out to be extremely difficult. This was also evident during the years of the New Economic Policy.
The priority of politics over economics, proclaimed by the Bolsheviks in the process of social development, introduced disruptions into the mechanisms of the NEP. During the NEP period, many crisis situations arose in the country. They were caused by both objective and subjective reasons.
First crisis in economics arose in 1923. It went down in history as a sales crisis. 100 million peasants who received economic freedom filled the city market with cheap agricultural products. To stimulate labor productivity in industry (5 million workers), the state artificially inflates prices for industrial goods. By the fall of 1923, the price difference was more than 30 percent. This phenomenon, at the instigation of L. Trotsky, began to be called “scissors” of prices.
The crisis threatened the “link” between city and countryside and was aggravated by social conflicts. Workers' strikes began in a number of industrial centers. The fact is that the loans that enterprises previously received from the state were closed. There was no way to pay the workers. The problem was complicated by rising unemployment. From January 1922 to September 1923, the number of unemployed increased from 680 thousand to 1 million 60 thousand.
At the end of 1923 - beginning of 1924, prices for industrial goods were reduced by an average of more than 25 percent, and in light industry serving the mass consumer - by 30-45 percent. At the same time, prices for agricultural goods were increased almost 2 times. Big job was carried out to improve state and cooperative trade. In May 1924, the People's Commissariat of Domestic and Foreign Trade was created. 30-year-old A.I. Mikoyan, the youngest People's Commissar of the USSR, was appointed to this post.
The economic crisis at this time is closely intertwined with the intensification of the struggle for power within the party due to the illness of the leader, V.I. Lenin. The fate of the country was influenced by internal party discussions that covered a wide range of issues: about worker and party democracy, bureaucracy and the apparatus, about the style and methods of leadership.
Second crisis arose in 1925. It brought new economic problems and difficulties. If during the recovery period the country immediately received a return in the form of agricultural and industrial goods, then during the construction of new and expansion of old enterprises, the return came after 3-5 years, and the construction paid off even longer. The country still received few goods, and wages had to be paid to workers regularly. Where can I get money backed by goods? They can be “pumped out of the village by raising prices for manufactured goods, or they can be printed further. But raising prices for manufactured goods did not mean getting more food from the village. The peasantry simply did not buy these goods, leading a subsistence economy; His incentive to sell bread became less and less. This threatened to reduce the export of bread and the import of equipment, which, in turn, hampered the construction of new and expansion of old industries.
In 1925-1926 got out of difficulties due to foreign currency reserves and allowing state sales of alcohol. However, there was little prospect of the situation improving. In addition, in just one year, unemployment in the country, due to agrarian overpopulation, increased by a thousand people and amounted to . 1 million 300 thousand.
Third crisis NEP was associated with industrialization and collectivization. This policy required the expansion of planning principles in the economy, an active attack on the capitalist elements of the city and countryside. Practical steps to implement this party line led to the completion of the reconstruction of the administrative-command system.
Collapsing NEP
Until recently, scientists disagreed regarding the end of the NEP. Some believed that by the mid-30s the tasks set for the new economic policy had been solved. The New Economic Policy “ended in the second half of the 1930s. victory of socialism. Nowadays, the beginning of the NEP restrictions dates back to 1924 (after the death of V.I. Lenin). V.P. Danilov, one of the most authoritative researchers of the agrarian history of Russia, believes that 1928 was the time of transition to the frontal scrapping of the NEP, and in 1929 it was finished. Modern historians A.S. Barsenkov and A.I. Vdovin, the authors of the textbook “History of Russia 1917-2004,” connect the end of the NEP with the beginning of the first five-year plan.
History shows that the assumption of multi-structure and the determination of the place of each of these structures in the socio-economic development of the country occurred in an atmosphere of intense struggle for power between several party groups. In the end, the struggle ended in victory for the Stalinist group. By 1928-1929 she mastered all the heights of the party and state leadership and pursued an openly anti-NEP line.
The NEP was never officially cancelled, but in 1928 it began to wind down. What did this mean?
In the public sector, planned principles of economic management were introduced, the private sector was closed, and in agriculture a course was taken to eliminate the kulaks as a class. The collapse of the NEP was facilitated by internal and external factors.
Domestic:
Private entrepreneurs have strengthened economically, both in the city and in the countryside; The restrictions on profits introduced by the Soviet government reached their maximum. The experience of socio-political development shows: whoever has a lot of money wants power. Private owners needed power to remove restrictions on making profits and to increase them;
The party's policy of collectivization in the countryside aroused resistance from the kulaks;
Industrialization required an influx of labor, which only the countryside could provide;
The peasantry demanded the abolition of the foreign trade monopoly, claiming access to the world market, and refused to feed the city under conditions of low purchase prices for agricultural products, primarily grain;
In the country, dissatisfaction with the everyday behavior of the “Nepmen” was becoming more and more acute among the general population, who staged revelries and various entertainments in full view.
External:
The aggressiveness of capitalist states against the USSR increased. The very fact of the existence of the Soviet state and its successes aroused the furious hatred of the imperialists. International reaction aimed to disrupt the industrialization that had begun in the USSR at any cost and to create a united front of capitalist powers for anti-Soviet military intervention. An active role in anti-Soviet politics during this period belonged to the British imperialists. It is enough to note that W. Churchill, an outstanding politician of that time, repeatedly noted that we did not leave Soviet Russia out of our attention for a single day, and constantly directed efforts to destroy, at any cost, the communist regime. In February 1927, an attack was organized on the Soviet plenipotentiary mission in London and Beijing, and the plenipotentiary representative in Poland P.L. was killed. Voikova;
The Kuomintang government of China in 1927 suspended diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and closed all Soviet diplomatic missions.
In 1929, emergency measures to limit the free sale of bread were legalized. Priority sale of grain under government obligations is established. Already in the second half of 1929, partial expropriation of the kulaks began. The year 1929 was essentially decisive in the rejection of the NEP. The year 1929 went down in the history of the USSR as the “Year of the Great Turning Point.”
In the early 30s, there was an almost complete displacement of private capital from various sectors of the economy. The share of private enterprises in industry in 1928 was 18%, in agriculture - 97%, in retail trade - 24%, and by 1933 - 0.5%, 20% and zero, respectively.
Page 1 of 2
1. Prerequisites for the transition to a new economic policy
1.1. Economic . The need to change the internal political course of the Soviet state after the end of the Civil War was caused by a crisis that acquired a total character, affecting the area of economic, political and social relations. The state distribution policy has not fulfilled the task of providing food to the urban population. The policy of war communism gave economic development a one-sided character and became a brake on expanded reproduction. It was necessary to restore the economy destroyed by the war and war communism.
1.2. Socio-political. Economic problems were closely intertwined with the most important political issues, such as the attitude towards Soviet power.
The reluctance to tolerate surplus appropriation led to the creation of rebel centers in the Middle Volga region, on the Don, and Kuban. The Basmachi became more active in Turkestan. In February - March 1921, West Siberian rebels created armed formations of several thousand people. On March 1, 1921, a rebellion broke out in Kronstadt, during which political slogans were put forward (Power to the Soviets, not parties!, Soviets without Bolsheviks!). There were strikes and demonstrations by workers. Emergency measures in the economy were criticized by representatives of the moderate socialist parties, who had supported the Bolsheviks’ struggle against the whites and interventionists since the end of 1918.
As a result, the Soviet regime faced a serious internal political crisis. A real threat to the power of the Bolsheviks arose. In the absence of a world revolution, only an agreement with the peasantry could save the situation. The question of changing the economic course - replacing surplus appropriation with a tax in kind - was at the center of party discussions.
2. Main elements of NEP
2.1. The essence of NEP (1921-1928). This policy began with the decision to replace surplus appropriation with a tax in kind, adopted at the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b) in March 1921. Initially, the NEP was considered by the Bolsheviks as a temporary retreat caused by an unfavorable balance of forces. The category of retreats included a return to state capitalism (in a number of sectors of the economy) and the establishment of a connection between industry and agriculture on the basis of trade and money circulation.
Then the NEP was assessed as one of the possible paths to socialism through the coexistence of socialist and market economies and the gradual - with the support of commanding heights in politics, economics, and ideology - the displacement of non-socialist economic forms. This meant that the entire peasantry (and not just its poorest part) became full participants in socialist construction.
2.2. I started first of all restoration of commodity-money relations in trade, industry, agriculture In order to restore industry and establish trade exchange between city and countryside, it was envisaged:
Carrying out partial denationalization of industry, development of small and handicraft production;
Was introduced self-financing, self-supporting associations were created - trusts and syndicates;
There was a rejection of labor mobilizations and equalization of wages;
State capitalist enterprises were created - in the form of concessions, mixed companies, and leases.
2.3. Financial policy During the NEP years, it was characterized by a certain decentralization of the credit system (commercial loans were allocated).
2.3.1. Credit system. In 1921, the State Bank was recreated, and later the Commercial and Industrial Bank, the Russian Commercial Bank, the Consumer Cooperative Bank, and a network of cooperative and local communal banks arose. The Central Agricultural Bank, created in 1924, allocated loans to rural cooperation in the amount of 400 million rubles over 3 years. A system of direct and indirect taxes was introduced (trade, income, excise taxes on consumer goods, local taxes).
2.3.2. Currency reform (1922-1924) was the most effective and most market-based measure of the financial policy of the Soviet government of that period. The reform stabilized the financial situation. A stable (convertible) currency was released into circulation - chervonets, which was equivalent to 10 pre-revolutionary gold rubles. It is important that the reform, carried out by financiers with pre-revolutionary experience, established the ratio of supply and demand as a criterion for the size of the issue.
2.4. Trade. The New Economic Policy demonstrated significant economic results, especially in its early years. The development of commodity-money relations led to the restoration of the all-Russian domestic market (large fairs were recreated - Nizhny Novgorod, Baku, Irbit, etc.). By 1923, 54 exchanges had been opened for wholesale transactions. Retail trade developed rapidly, 3/4 of which was in the hands of private traders.
2.5. Industry.
2.5.1. Decentralization. Real transformations took place in industry. The chapters were abolished, and instead they were created trusts- associations of single-industry enterprises that received partial economic and economic independence. In 1922, about 90% of industrial enterprises were united into 421 trusts. VSNKh lost the right to interfere in the current activities of enterprises and trusts. Trusts merged to syndicates involved in sales, supply, and lending. By the end of 1922, 80% of the trust industry was syndicated (by 1928 there were 23 syndicates).
The industry has developed rent A number of enterprises were handed over to foreign firms in the form of concessions. In 1926-27 there were 117 existing agreements of this kind, under which 1% of industrial output was produced.
2.5.2. Industry growth rate. As a result, production in industry increased at a very high rate in the first years of the NEP. In 1921 they were 42.1%; 1925 - 66.1%, 1926 - 43.2%, 1927 - 14.2%. The trust's self-financing, even limited, made it possible to revive heavy industry and transport. By the end of the 1920s, the Soviet economy as a whole was only slightly behind pre-war levels.
2.6. NEP in agriculture.
2.1.1. Tax in kind. Introduced instead of surplus appropriation food tax was initially set at 20% of the net product of peasant labor, and then reduced to 10% of the harvest or less, and took the form of money. . The tax was half the size of the appropriation; its size was announced in advance (on the eve of the sowing season) and could not be increased during the year. The surplus that remained with the peasants was allowed to be sold at market prices. However, the retreat was carried out gradually, under the pressure of circumstances. The peasantry received the right to free trade in grain only in August-September 1921 (before that, sales were possible only within the limits of local circulation), when it became clear that the village was in no hurry to deliver grain to the state.
In 1922, according to the new land code, it was allowed to lease land for a long term (up to 12 years), to allocate peasants from the community to organize farmsteads and cutting farms (this measure turned out to be timely, because as a result agrarian reform 1917-1920 Almost all the peasants found themselves back in the community). The ban on the use of hired labor and the creation of credit partnerships was lifted. The total amount of the single agricultural tax.
2.6.2. Development of cooperation. Various forms of cooperation developed in the village. Cooperative ownership was viewed as a form of socialist ownership. During the NEP period, cooperation became an amateur organization, which was characterized by voluntary membership, share contributions, as well as the principles of material interest and self-financing. Agricultural cooperation united 6.5 million peasant farms, which accounted for the procurement of half of the types of raw materials consumed by state industry, as well as the promotion of agricultural machinery to the countryside. There was an increase in agricultural cooperation: in 1920, there were 12,850 different types of associations (of which 10,521 were production); in 1925 - 54,813 (production - 15,178). Production cooperation included agricultural communes, artels, TOZs, state farms - all mainly poor and middle peasants. State and cooperative trade amounted to 47.3% in 1924; in 1927 - 65.4%.
2.6.3. Restoration of peasant farming. The revival of the agricultural market, the rise of industry, and the introduction of hard currency stimulated the restoration of the Russian countryside. By 1923, the sown areas had largely been restored. In 1925, the gross grain harvest exceeded the level of 1909-1913 by 20.7%. By 1927, the pre-war level in livestock farming had been achieved. The export of agricultural products and raw materials abroad began to develop.
2.7. Social status
2.7.1. The standard of living of the people. Some economic successes contributed to some improvement in the financial situation of the population. Compulsory labor service was abolished and the main restrictions on changing jobs were lifted. In industry and other sectors, cash wages were restored, and wage tariffs were introduced that exclude equalization. The real wages of workers increased markedly, amounting to 1925-1926. the industry average is 93.7% of the pre-war level. Food consumption has approached pre-revolutionary levels.
2.7.2. Busy. During the NEP years, the absolute number of unemployed increased from 1.2 to 1.7 million people in 1924-1929, but the expansion of the labor market was even more significant. The number of workers and employees increased from 5.8 to 12.4 million people over the same period. The length of the working day was 7 hours with a 6-day working week.
There have been changes in social structure villages. In the 20s in the countryside, middle peasant farms predominated (over 60%), wealthy peasants (whose development was limited by the state) accounted for 3-4%, poor peasants - 22-26%, farm laborers - 10-11%.
this work The main changes in the agricultural policy of the Soviet government that occurred after the transition to the NEP (Control) in the subject (History), was custom-made by specialists of our company and was successfully defended. Work - The main changes in the agricultural policy of the Soviet government that occurred after the transition to the NEP in the subject History reflects its topic and the logical component of its disclosure, the essence of the issue under study is revealed, the main provisions and leading ideas of this topic are highlighted.
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Essence – partial restoration market economy while maintaining command leverage. The strategic goal is to build socialism.
1. Replacement of the surplus appropriation tax with a tax in kind (03/21/1921 - decree), 5% of the harvest, announced on the eve of sowing. There are 13 taxes in total (meat, oil, wool, leather, etc.).
Increased taxation of wealthy peasants.
2. Freedom of trade (09.1921).
3. Land Code (10.1922) – the right to leave the community, land lease, hired labor.
4. Development of cooperation, primarily in agriculture. 04/07/1921 - decree on cooperation, cooperative production in agriculture (efficiency is twice as high) - for marketing products, purchasing equipment, obtaining loans, cultivating land.
Transfer of small and medium-sized industry to private ownership. Enterprises began to transfer to self-financing, cat. provided the opportunity for self-sufficiency, self-financing, self-government. Material incentives for workers. The decree on the nationalization of all small handicraft industries was canceled (7/7/1921). The enterprises were returned to the old owners - the old bourgeoisie, the new bourgeoisie - the Nepmen.
The organization of enterprises with the number of workers no more than 20 is allowed. Later - larger ones.
14 Question. Transition to NEP. Legal basis of NEP. The most important economic reforms.
The state retained control over large factories and factories. Plants and factories were transferred to self-financing.
6. Attracting foreign capital. Some industries are leased to foreigners - concessions (trade, mining, manufacturing).
7. Abolition of universal labor service (1921). It gave me the opportunity to do business, but there were unemployed people.
Financial reform, head. Sokolnikov People's Commissar of Finance, reconstruction of the banking system (1921-1924), sharp reduction in the issue of paper money, denominations (1922-1923), 1922 - introduction of gold chervonets into circulation.
9. The equalization system of wages and the card system have been eliminated.
10. Money emission as the main source of state income has been replaced by a system of direct and indirect taxes.
11. Transition to planning the entire national economy. Planned market economy.
The introduction of the NEP made it possible to restore the country's national economy (especially agriculture).
But there was no single NEP plan, the transformation was inconsistent. Crises of sales of industrial goods and grain procurements. Industrial enterprises set high prices arbitrarily, without taking into account the solvency of the population. Peasants stopped buying industrial goods.
(1923-1924) State intervention. The peasants did not want to trade with the state at artificially low prices. Free trade in grain was prohibited.
The standard of living of workers and peasants remained still low. Unemployment was growing in the country. From the very beginning, the NEP was a temporary concession that could lead the country out of the economic and political crisis.
At the end of the 1920s, the NEP was curtailed, although formally until 1936.
NEP crises 1923,1925,1927
Reasons for the collapse of NEP:
1.Economic crises, low rates of economic development.
2. Lack of a clear prospect for the country’s development, the complexity of economic and socio-political problems.
3. The growing popularity of the ideas of the “political NEP”, the threat of the loss of the VKP9b) monopoly on power.
4.The continuing danger of military aggression.
5. Disbelief in the NEP by a significant part of the communists.
Threat of split of the CPSU(b).
6. Unemployment, wealth stratification of the population.
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“Seeing Moscow again, I was amazed: after all, I went abroad in the last weeks of war communism. Everything looked different now. The cards disappeared, people were no longer attached.
The staff of various institutions was greatly reduced, and no one drew up grandiose projects... Old workers and engineers had difficulty restoring production. Products have appeared. Peasants began to bring livestock to markets. Muscovites have eaten their fill and become happier. I remember how, upon arriving in Moscow, I froze in front of a grocery store.
The main changes in the agricultural policy of the Soviet government that occurred after the transition to the NEP
What was not there! The most convincing sign was: “Estomak” (stomach). The belly was not only rehabilitated, but exalted. In a cafe on the corner of Petrovka and Stoleshnikov, the inscription made me laugh: “Children visit us to eat the cream.” I didn’t find any children, but there were a lot of visitors, and they seemed to be getting fat before our eyes. Many restaurants opened: here is “Prague”, there is “Hermitage”, then “Lisbon”, “Bar”. Beer houses were noisy on every corner - with a foxtrot, with a Russian choir, with gypsies, with balalaikas, just with massacres.
There were reckless drivers standing near the restaurants, waiting for the revelers, and, as in the distant times of my childhood, they said: “Your Excellency, I’ll give you a ride...” Here you could also see beggars and street children; they moaned pitifully: “A pretty penny.” There were no kopecks: there were millions (“lemons”) and brand new chervonets. In the casino, several million were lost overnight: the profits of brokers, speculators or ordinary thieves" (I.
Ehrenburg "People, years, life")
Question 63. New Economic Policy (NEP) 1921 - 1929
1. Periodization of the country’s economic development in 1921 - 1941.
The crisis of the economic policy of “war communism” in 1920-1921.
3. GOELRO plan
4. The beginning of the NEP policy. The first steps of the Soviet government to normalize economic life
5. Soviet trusts, their features. Private capitalist methods in economics
Currency reforms. Chervonets
7. NEP crisis at the end of the 1920s. His reasons
8. Refusal of NEP, transition to industrialization and collectivization
1. In 1921 - 1941
The economy of the RSFSR and the USSR went through two stages of development:
✓ 1921 - 1929 - the NEP period, during which the state temporarily moved away from total administrative-command methods and moved towards partial denationalization of the economy and the admission of small and medium-sized private capitalist activities;
✓ 1929 - 1941 - a period of return to full nationalization of the economy, collectivization and industrialization, and the transition to a planned economy.
A significant change in the country's economic policy in 1921 was caused by the fact that:
✓ the policy of “war communism”, which justified itself at the height of the civil war (1918 - 1920), became ineffective during the country’s transition to peaceful life;
✓ the “militarized” economy did not provide the state with everything necessary, forced unpaid labor was ineffective;
✓ agriculture was in an extremely neglected state; there was an economic and spiritual break between the city and the countryside, the peasants and the Bolsheviks;
✓ anti-Bolshevik protests by workers and peasants began across the country (the largest: “Antonovschina” - a peasant war against the Bolsheviks in the Tambov province led by Antonov; the Kronstadt rebellion);
✓ the slogans “For councils without communists!”, “All power to the councils, not parties!” became popular in society; “Down with the dictatorship of the proletariat!”
With the continued preservation of “war communism”, labor conscription, non-monetary exchange and distribution of goods by the state, the Bolsheviks risked completely losing the trust of the majority of the masses - workers, peasants and soldiers who supported them during the Civil War.
At the end of 1920 - beginning of 1921.
There is a significant change in the economic policy of the Bolsheviks:
✓ at the end of December 1920, the GOELRO plan was adopted at the VIII Congress of Soviets;
✓ in March 1921, at the X Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, a decision was made to end the policy of “war communism” and begin a new economic policy (NEP);
✓ both decisions, especially on the NEP, were made by the Bolsheviks after fierce discussions, with the active influence of V.I.
3. GOELRO Plan - The State Plan for the Electrification of Russia envisaged carrying out work to electrify the country within 10 years. This plan provided for the construction of power plants and power lines throughout the country; the spread of electrical engineering both in production and in everyday life.
According to V.I. Lenin, electrification was supposed to be the first step to overcome the economic backwardness of Russia. The importance of this task was emphasized by V.I. Lenin’s phrase: “Communism is Soviet power plus electrification of the entire country.” After the adoption of the GOELRO plan, electrification became one of the main directions of the economic policy of the Soviet government.
By the beginning of the 1930s.
In the USSR as a whole, a system of electrical networks was created, the use of electricity was widespread in industry and everyday life, and in 1932 the first large hydroelectric power station, the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Station, was launched on the Dnieper.
Subsequently, the construction of hydroelectric power stations began throughout the country.
4. The first steps of the NEP were:
✓ replacement of surplus appropriation in the countryside with tax in kind;
✓ abolition of labor service - labor ceased to be a duty (like military service) and became free;
✓ gradual abandonment of distribution and introduction of monetary circulation;
✓ partial denationalization of the economy.
When the Bolsheviks carried out the NEP, exclusively command-administrative methods began to be replaced:
✓ state-capitalist methods in large-scale industry;
✓ using private capitalist methods in small and medium-sized production and the service sector.
In the early 1920s. Trusts were created throughout the country that united many enterprises, sometimes industries, and managed them. The trusts tried to operate as capitalist enterprises (they independently organized production and sales of products based on economic interests; they were self-financing), but at the same time they were owned by the Soviet state, and not by individual capitalists.
Control and evaluation tools for History
Because of this, this stage of the NEP was called state capitalism (as opposed to “war communism”, its management-distribution and private capitalism of the USA and other countries).
The largest trusts of Soviet state capitalism were:
✓ “Donugol”;
✓ Khimugol;
✓ Yugostal;
✓ “State Trust of Machine-Building Plants” (“GOMZA”);
✓ Severles;
✓ "Sakharotrest".
In small and medium-sized production and the service sector, the state agreed to allow private capitalist methods.
The most common areas of application of private capital:
✓ agriculture;
✓ small trade;
✓ handicrafts;
✓ service sector.
Private shops, shops, restaurants, workshops, and private farms in rural areas are being created throughout the country.
The most common form of small-scale private farming was cooperation - the association of several individuals for the purpose of carrying out economic or other activities.
Production, consumer, trade and other types of cooperatives are being created throughout Russia.
6. During the NEP period, reforms were also carried out in the macroeconomic sphere:
✓ the banking system has been revived;
✓ in 1922 - 1924 several monetary reforms were carried out, in particular, two denominations (reducing the denomination of money, “reducing zeros”) and reducing the money supply;
Along with the devalued Soviet money in circulation (“Sovznaki”), another currency was introduced in parallel - the chervonets, a monetary unit equal to 10 pre-revolutionary “tsarist” rubles and backed by gold;
✓ due to the fact that the chervonets (unlike other money) was backed by gold, it quickly gained popularity in Russia and became the international convertible currency of Russia;
✓ throughout the country, the replacement of natural commodity exchange with monetary exchange gradually began;
✓ cash payments and payment of wages began.
If in 1921 workers received 95-100% of their earnings in the form of rations or other goods, then in 1925 80-90% of wages were paid in cash.
The NEP policy led to some economic recovery:
✓ the bulk of the population no longer experienced hunger, although the standard of living continued to remain very low;
✓ the market is saturated with basic necessities that were in short supply during the civil war (bread, clothing, salt, matches, soap, etc.);
✓ the overall economic situation began to improve (an increase in production, while production was at the level of 50 - 70% of the pre-war level);
✓ development of domestic trade, banking activities;
✓ tension between city and countryside decreased - peasants began to produce products and earn money; some peasants became wealthy rural entrepreneurs; Peasant riots stopped throughout the country, since their social basis(surplus appropriation and complete poverty).
Thus, the NEP helped to exit the regime of “war communism”, transition to peaceful life, and satisfied the basic needs of the population.
At the same time, the NEP did not solve the main strategic problems - Russia’s lag behind the developed capitalist states continued, Russia, 10 years after the revolution, remained an economically weak agrarian state.
In 1926 - 1929
The NEP crisis began, which was expressed in:
✓ the collapse of the chervonets - by 1926, the bulk of the country's enterprises and citizens 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 in value, and soon the state stopped providing it with gold; the chervonets, like the rest of the USSR currency ("Sovznaki"), ceased to be convertible - this was a strong blow to both internal economic development and the international prestige of the USSR;
✓ sales crisis - the majority of the population and small businesses did not have enough convertible money to buy goods, as a result, entire industries could not sell their goods.
The causes of the NEP crisis were predetermined by its very half-hearted nature - it was impossible to build a hybrid of capitalism and socialism without the main means - capital.
Capital in Soviet Russia in the 1920s. there was clearly not enough, there were no conditions for its free circulation (free market), Russia was completely cut off from the world economy and foreign investment, which also contributed to financial starvation.
In addition, the NEP did not solve the problem of accelerating industrial development, contributed to the revival of bourgeois relations in the countryside, and, in the long term, undermined the power of the Bolsheviks.
Due to these circumstances, by the end of the 1920s. NEP had exhausted itself and was doomed.
8. In 1928 - 1929 The Bolshevik leadership abandoned the NEP. The economy was again nationalized.
The country moved to a planned economy. Industrialization and collectivization began.
USSR during the NEP period (1921-1929)
Reasons for introducing the New Economic Policy (NEP):
1) the severe economic crisis in Russia after the end of the civil war and foreign intervention;
2) the crisis of Soviet Power caused by the continuation of the policy of “war communism” (manifested in mass peasant uprisings in the Volga region, in the Tambov region (“Antonovschina”) and Western Siberia, workers’ protests in Petrograd and other cities, a sailors’ uprising in Kronstadt in March 1921) ;
3) the presence of a subjective factor - the flexibility of Lenin’s thinking in connection with the changed internal political situation.
The strategic policy of V.I. Lenin in the construction of socialism in the conditions of a capitalist encirclement (the impossibility of a world revolution in the coming years and the development of Marxist theory in the USSR).
In March 1921
at the X Congress of the RCP(b) were adopted two important decisions: on replacing surplus appropriation with a tax in kind and on party unity. These two resolutions reflected the internal contradictions new economic policy, the transition to which was indicated by the decisions of the congress.
NEP is an anti-crisis program, the essence of which was to recreate a multi-structured economy while maintaining the “commanding heights” in the hands of the Bolshevik government.
NEP goals:
-political: relieve social tensions, strengthen the social base of Soviet power in the form of an alliance of workers and peasants;
—economic: prevent devastation, overcome the crisis and restore the economy;
Social: without waiting for the world revolution, to ensure favorable conditions for building a socialist society;
- foreign policy: overcome international isolation and restore political and economic relations with other states.
Thus, tactical goal NEP was the way out of the crisis by strengthening the construction of socialism.
The NEP included a set of economic and socio-political measures that meant a “retreat” from the principles of “war communism” and assumed:
- replacement of surplus appropriation with a tax (until 1925
in kind); which was half as much and was announced in advance, which means it was beneficial to the peasants. Since 1925, it began to be collected in money and amounted to 5-10% of the harvest. Products remaining on the farm after paying the tax in kind were allowed to be sold on the market;
— permission to private trade;
— attracting foreign capital to industrial development;
- leasing by the state of many small enterprises and retaining large and medium-sized industrial enterprises;
— land lease under state control;
- attracting foreign capital to the development of industry (some enterprises were concessioned to foreign capitalists);
— transfer of industry to full self-financing and self-sufficiency.
Instead of central boards - state structures - trusts were created that were responsible for the results of their activities with their property;
— hiring labor;
— abolition of the card system and equal distribution;
— payment for all services;
- replacement of natural wages with cash wages, established depending on the quantity and quality of labor;
- abolition of universal labor conscription, maintenance of labor exchanges.
The NEP was a major achievement in the theory and practice of creating a new society, confirming the natural historical nature and continuity of the stages of development of human civilization as a whole.
The departure from the dogmatized understanding of Marxism made it possible to discover the laws governing the construction of a new society in a peasant country and to bring together the interests of the working class and the peasantry.
The new economic policy ensured the stabilization and restoration of the national economy, and the financial situation of people improved.
At the same time, this restoration meant reaching the pre-war level, the fixed assets of Russian industry were worn out, the equipment was outdated, the country became even more agrarian than it was, its industrial development directly depended on the state of agriculture.
As the restoration proceeded, the old problems of the economy of pre-revolutionary Russia, its structural imbalances and contradictions, returned. During the NEP period, many processes generated by the market also developed - increased unemployment, reduced spending on social needs and education, corruption, and increased crime.
Reasons for canceling the NEP:
1) foreign policy crisis of 1927-28.
- the severance of relations with England, the threat of war from the capitalist powers was perceived as real, which is why the time frame for industrialization was adjusted to an ultra-short one, as a result, the NEP could no longer provide sources of funds for industrialization at an ultra-accelerated, accelerated pace.
2) contradictions and crises of the NEP itself (the sales crisis of 1923 and 1924, the grain procurement crises of 1925/26 and 1928/29.
-the last of which led to the failure of the industrialization plan).
3) the inconsistency of the NEP with the ideology of the ruling party.
4) 1929 - the final abolition of the NEP, the transition to a super-centralized, command-administrative economy.
Education of the USSR.
Basic plans of the merger:
People's Commissar for Nationalities I.V. Stalin proposed an autonomization plan. Its essence was as follows: the Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus, the Transcaucasian Federation as part of Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan were to become part of the RSFSR with autonomous rights.
Stalin's plan was criticized by Lenin as anti-democratic and a return to the imperial past.
Lenin proposed a plan for creating a federation. The Soviet republics created a federation on the principles of equality and preservation of sovereign rights, up to the right of secession. This project was implemented.
December 27, 1922 - signing of the Union Treaty (RSFSR, Ukrainian SSR, BSSR, ZSFSR) on the formation of the USSR.
Issues of defense, foreign policy, state security, border protection, and foreign trade came under the jurisdiction of the Union.
Transport, budget, communications and monetary circulation.
New Economic Policy
At the same time, the right to freely leave the USSR was declared.
In January 1924
The Constitution of the USSR was adopted.
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Concession(from Latin concessio - permission, assignment) - a form of agreement on the transfer for use of a set of exclusive rights belonging to the copyright holder. The concession is carried out on a reimbursable basis for a specified period or without specifying a period. The object of the agreement may be the transfer of rights to exploit natural resources, enterprises, equipment and other rights, including the use of a company name and (or) commercial designation, protected commercial information, trademarks, service marks, etc.
Payment of remuneration can be made in the form of one-time (lump sum) or periodic (royalty) payments, percentage of revenue, markups at the wholesale price of goods or in another form established by the contract.
Concession, concession agreement- form of public-private partnership, involvement of the private sector in effective management state property or in the provision of services usually provided by the state on mutually beneficial terms.
- 1 Concept
- 2 History
- 3 Types of concession agreements
- 4 Concession agreements in Russia
- 4.1 History
- 4.1.1 New Economic Policy (1920s)
- 4.2 Legislative regulation
- 4.1 History
- 5 Interesting facts
- 6 Notes
- 7 Literature
- 8 See
Concept
A concession implies that the grantor (state) transfers to the concessionaire the right to exploit natural resources, infrastructure, enterprises, and equipment. In return, the grantor receives remuneration in the form of one-time (lump sum) or periodic (royalty) payments.
Concession agreements are implemented on the basis of public property, including the use budget funds. In the absence of involvement of a public property resource in the partnership, the private partner is vested with the right to conduct a certain business, the exclusive or monopoly rights to conduct which belong to a public legal entity, for example, conducting parking activities, etc.
The role of concessions in the global economy is increasing. If throughout the 20th century concessions were used primarily in subsoil use, then in the 1990s numerous other state-owned objects began to be transferred to concessions.
The objects of the concession agreement are primarily socially significant objects that cannot be privatized, such as airfields, railways, housing and communal services facilities and other infrastructure facilities, as well as systems public transport, healthcare, education, culture and sports facilities.
Story
A concession can be considered as a form of public-private partnership agreement.
With this approach, it can be placed on a par with “feeding,” which was formed in the 12th century and existed until the reforms of Peter I, and “farming,” which was the transfer by the state of the right to collect taxes and other state revenues to private individuals (farmers) for a certain fee. .
Feeding
Main article: Feeding
Feeding is a type of grant from the great and appanage princes to their officials, according to which the princely administration was supported at the expense of the local population during the period of service.
Initially, feeding was sporadic.
In accordance with the norms of Russian Pravda, fine collectors (virs), city builders and some other categories received a certain allowance in kind from the population. In the XII-XIV centuries, feeding played a significant role in the formation of the local government system.
The princes sent boyars to cities and volosts as governors and volostels, and other service people as tiuns. The population was obliged to support them (“feed”) during the entire period of service. The feeding system reached its greatest development in the XIV-XV centuries.
Farming
Main article: Farming
Farming- transfer by the state for a certain fee under certain conditions of the right to collect taxes and other state revenues.
The tax farming system is essentially a prototype of concessions, a form of agreement between the state and entrepreneurs.
Initially, farming was used in conditions of subsistence farming, underdeveloped credit, financial difficulties of the state, and weak communications.
Farming first became widespread in Ancient Iran (VI century BC), in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome (IV century BC).
In the Middle Ages, tax farming became one of the important sources of initial capital accumulation.
Types of concession agreements
In international practice, the following types of concession agreements are distinguished:
- BOT (Build - Operate - Transfer) - “Construction - management - transfer”.
The concessionaire carries out construction and operation (mainly on the right of ownership) for a specified period, after which the facility is transferred to the state;
- BTO (Build - Transfer - Operate) - “Construction - Transfer - Management”. The concessionaire builds an object, which is transferred to the state (concessor) in ownership immediately after completion of construction, after which it is transferred to the operation of the concessionaire;
- SBI (Build - Own - Operate) - “Construction - Ownership - Management”.
Answers to the history test 2 options 100 questions
The concessionaire builds the facility and carries out subsequent operation, owning it on the right of ownership, the validity of which is not limited;
- BOOT (Build - Own - Operate - Transfer) - “Construction - ownership - management - transfer” - ownership and use of a constructed object on the right of private ownership is carried out for a certain period, after which the object becomes the property of the state;
- BBO (Buy - Build - Operate) - “Purchase - Build - Operate” is a form of sale that involves the restoration or expansion of an existing facility.
The state sells the property to the private sector, which makes the necessary improvements for effective management.
Concession agreements in Russia
Story
New Economic Policy (1920s)
Main article: Foreign concessions in the USSR
During the NEP era, concessions became widespread in the RSFSR. In April 1921, in a speech “On concessions and the development of capitalism,” V. I. Lenin stated:
Isn’t it dangerous to invite capitalists? Doesn’t this mean developing capitalism?
Yes, this means developing capitalism, but this is not dangerous, because power remains in the hands of workers and peasants, and the property of landowners and capitalists is not restored. A concession is a kind of lease agreement. The capitalist becomes a tenant of a part of state property, under an agreement, for a certain period, but does not become the owner. Property remains with the state.
Before the Hague Conference of 1922, L. B. Krasin proposed returning up to 90% of nationalized property to foreigners, former owners of enterprises, but only in the form of long-term concessions.
Many foreign concessionaires agreed, but the idea met with strong domestic resistance.
In 1922-1927. The country received more than 2,000 concession offers, of which almost 10% were implemented.
Legislative regulation
In accordance with the Law “On Concession Agreements”, under a concession agreement one party (concessionaire) undertakes, at its own expense, to create and (or) reconstruct what is specified in this agreement real estate, the ownership of which belongs or will belong to the other party (the grantor), and carry out activities using the object of the concession agreement.
In turn, the grantor undertakes to provide the concessionaire with the rights to own and use the object of the agreement for the period established by this agreement.
The grantor is the Russian Federation, or a subject of the federation, or municipality. A concessionaire - an individual entrepreneur or a legal entity - by investing in a project under a concession agreement, receives the object of the agreement for management and the majority of the profit.
The state, for its part, can assume part of the costs and guarantee the safety of the invested capital.
Thus, of the listed types of concession agreements, the law “On Concession Agreements” provides only for the first type - BOT (“Construction - Management - Transfer”). In fact, the second type is used - BTO (Build-Transfer-Operate).
However, not all agreements between the state and business, which are actually concession agreements, are regulated by this law. For example, a special case of a concession agreement is the Life Cycle Contract.
From January 1, 2014, information on open tenders for the right to conclude concession agreements is subject to posting on the official website of the Russian Federation for posting information on tendering - www.torgi.gov.ru.
- Ilf and Petrov, authors of the novel “The Twelve Chairs” (1928), often call its main characters “concessionaires.”
Before marrying Gritsatsueva, Ostap Bender says: “What can’t you do for the benefit of the concession!” The corresponding terminology was very widespread at that time.
- Having received a long-term concession to manage the South Container Terminal in the port of Constanta (Romania), the Jebel Ali Directorate from the UAE was able to achieve an increase in cargo turnover by more than 400% and reach 500,000 TEU on November 23, 2005, while in 2004 this figure was 100,000 TEU.
Notes
- Concession // Economic Dictionary.
- State and market: concessions as a form of interaction
- Research project“Risks of participants in public-private partnerships” (inaccessible link - history) (2006).
- Lenin V.I.
About concessions and the development of capitalism. Retrieved August 7, 2008. Archived from the original on February 8, 2012.
- Mechanic Alexander New forms of good neighborliness // Expert. - 2004. - No. 39 (439).
- Samarina Natalya, Karpov Sergey Market technologies: Concessions in process // Vedomosti. - 2006. - No. 47 (1574).
- Federal Law of the Russian Federation of July 21, 2005
N 115-FZ “On concession agreements”
Literature
- Mikhail Subbotin Return of the concession // Russian Business Newspaper. - 2004. - No. 452.
- Kashin Sergey Not into friendship, but into the civil service // The secret of the company. - 2005. - No. 30(117).
- Popov Alexander Unnecessary concessions // Finance. - 2006. - No. 21.
see also
- Rent
- Leasing
- Superficies
- Franchising
- Cession
Concession Information about
Concession
Concession
Concession Information Video
Concession View topic.
Concession what, Concession who, Concession explanation
There are excerpts from wikipedia on this article and video
New Economic Policy- economic policy pursued in Soviet Russia and the USSR in the 20s. It was adopted on March 15, 1921 by the X Congress of the RCP (b), replacing the policy of “war communism” pursued during the Civil War. The New Economic Policy aimed at restoring the national economy and the subsequent transition to socialism. The main content of the NEP is the replacement of surplus appropriation with a tax in kind in the countryside (up to 70% of grain was confiscated during surplus appropriation, and about 30% with the tax in kind), the use of the market and various forms of ownership, attracting foreign capital in the form of concessions, carrying out a 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 and faced a deep economic and political crisis. As a result of almost seven years of war, Russia lost more than a quarter of its national wealth. Industry suffered particularly heavy losses. The volume of its gross output decreased by 7 times. By 1920, reserves of raw materials and supplies were largely exhausted. Compared to 1913, the gross production of large-scale industry decreased by almost 13%, and small-scale industry by more than 44%.
Huge destruction was caused to transport. In 1920, the volume of traffic railways amounted to 20% compared to pre-war. The situation in agriculture has worsened. Cultivated areas, yields, gross grain harvests, and production of livestock products have decreased. Agriculture has increasingly acquired a consumer nature, its marketability has fallen by 2.5 times. There was a sharp decline in the living standards and labor of workers. As a result of the closure of many enterprises, the process of declassification of the proletariat continued. Enormous deprivations led to the fact that, from the autumn of 1920, discontent began to intensify among the working class. The situation was complicated by the beginning demobilization of the Red Army. As the fronts of the civil war retreated to the country's borders, the peasantry began to increasingly actively oppose food appropriation, 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 in-kind wages. An equalization 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 social sphere The policy of “war communism” was based on the principle of “ Who does not work shall not eat" In 1918, labor conscription was introduced for representatives of the former exploiting classes, and in 1920, universal labor conscription. Forced mobilization of labor resources was carried out with the help of labor armies sent to restore transport, construction work, etc. Naturalization of wages led to the free provision of housing, utilities, transport, postal and telegraph services. During the period of "war communism" in political sphere An undivided dictatorship of the RCP(b) was established, which also subsequently became one of the reasons for the transition to 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. Essentially, it was about the crisis of the policy of “war communism”.
Devastation and hunger, workers' strikes, uprisings of peasants and sailors - everything indicated that a deep economic and social crisis was brewing in the country. In addition, by the spring of 1921, the hope for an early world revolution and material and technical assistance from the European proletariat had been exhausted. Therefore, V.I. Lenin revised the internal political course and recognized that only satisfying 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 and its socialist orientation gave rise to disputes about the ways of developing the country's economy and about the possibility of building socialism. With very different understandings 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 implementation of the NEP, a new bourgeoisie appeared, the bearer of restorationist tendencies. A wide field of activity for the Nepman bourgeoisie consisted of industries serving the basic most important consumer interests of the city and countryside. V.I. Lenin understood the inevitable contradictions and dangers of development along the path of the NEP. He considered it necessary to strengthen the Soviet state 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 the use of commodity-money relations while simultaneously maintaining the “commanding heights” in the hands of the state: nationalized land and mineral resources, large and most of medium-sized industry, transport, banking, monopoly foreign trade. It was assumed that there would be a relatively long coexistence of socialist and non-socialist (state-capitalist, private capitalist, small-scale commodity, patriarchal) structures with the gradual displacement of the latter from the economic life of the country while relying on “commanding heights” and the use of levers of economic and administrative influence on large and small owners (taxes, loans , price policy, legislation, etc.).
From the point of view of V.I. Lenin, the essence of the NEP maneuver was to lay an economic foundation under the “union of the working class and the working peasantry,” in other words, to provide a certain freedom of management that prevailed in the country among small commodity producers in order to relieve 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 path to socialism, the only one possible after the failure of the attempt to directly and quickly break all market structures. The direct path to socialism, however, was not rejected by him in principle: Lenin recognized it as quite suitable for developed capitalist states after the victory of the proletarian revolution there.
NEP in agriculture
The resolution of the X Congress of the RCP (b) on replacing the appropriation tax with a tax in kind, which laid the foundation for the new economic policy, was formalized legislatively by a decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in March 1921. The tax amount was reduced by almost half compared to the surplus appropriation system, and the main burden fell on wealthy rural peasants. The decree limited the freedom of trade of 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 pre-war levels. The peasants sown almost the same area as in pre-war 1913. The gross grain harvest was 82% compared to 1913. The number of livestock exceeded the pre-war level. 13 million peasant farms were members of agricultural cooperation. There were about 22 thousand collective farms in the country. The implementation of grandiose industrialization required a radical restructuring of the agricultural sector. IN Western countries agricultural revolution, i.e. the system of improving agricultural production preceded 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 changes also took place in industry. The chapters were abolished, and in their place trusts were created - associations of homogeneous or interconnected enterprises that received complete economic and financial independence, up to the right to issue long-term bond issues. By the end of 1922, about 90% of industrial enterprises were united into 421 trusts, with 40% of them being centralized and 60% of local subordination. The trusts themselves decided what to produce and where to sell the products. The enterprises that were part of the trust were withdrawn from state supplies and began purchasing resources on the market. The law provided that “the state treasury is not responsible for the debts of trusts.”
VSNKh, having lost the right to intervene in the current activities of enterprises and trusts, turned into a coordination center. His staff was sharply reduced. It was at that time that economic accounting appeared, in which an enterprise (after mandatory fixed contributions to the state budget) has the right to independently dispose of income from the sale of products, is itself responsible for the results of its economic activities, independently uses profits and covers losses. Under the conditions of the NEP, Lenin wrote, “state enterprises are transferred to the so-called economic accounting, that is, in fact, to a large extent to commercial and capitalist principles.”
The Soviet government tried to combine two principles in the activities of trusts - market and planned. Encouraging the first, the state sought, with the help of trusts, to borrow technology and work methods from the market economy. At the same time, the principle of planning in the activities of trusts was strengthened. The state encouraged the areas of activity of trusts and the creation of a system of concerns by joining the trusts with enterprises producing raw materials and finished products. The concerns were supposed to serve as centers for planned economic management. For these reasons, in 1925, the motivation for “profit” as the goal of their activities was removed from the regulations on trusts and only the mention of “commercial calculation” was left. So, the trust as a form of management combined planned and market elements that the state tried to use to build a socialist planned economy. This was the complexity and contradictory nature of the situation.
Almost simultaneously, syndicates began to be created - associations of trusts for the wholesale distribution of products, lending and regulation of trade operations on the market. By the end of 1922, the syndicates controlled 80% of the industry covered by the trusts. In practice, three types of syndicates have emerged:
- with a predominance of trade function (Textile, Wheat, Tobacco);
- with a predominance of the regulatory function (Council of Congresses of the Main Chemical Industry);
- syndicates created by the state on a compulsory basis (Salt Syndicate, Oil Syndicate, Coal Syndicate, 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, since they were focused on improving the commercial activities of the trusts that were part of them, on the other hand, they were monopoly organizations in this industry, regulated by higher government 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 to minister A. Khrushchev. Great organizational work was carried out by the People's Commissar of Finance G. Sokolnikov, a member of the Narkomfin Board V. Vladimirov, and the Chairman of the Board of the State Bank A. Sheiman. The main directions of the reform were identified: stopping the issue of money, establishing a deficit-free budget, restoring the banking system and savings banks, introducing a unified monetary system, creating a stable currency, and developing an appropriate tax system.
By decree of the Soviet government of October 4, 1921, the State Bank was formed as part of the Narkomfin, savings and loan banks were opened, and payment for transport, cash register and telegraph services was introduced. The system of direct and indirect taxes was restored. To strengthen the budget, all expenses that did not correspond to state revenues were sharply reduced. Further normalization of the financial and banking system required the strengthening of the Soviet ruble.
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In accordance with the decree of the Council of People's Commissars, in November 1922 the issue of a parallel Soviet currency, the “chervonets”, began. It was equal to 1 spool - 78.24 shares or 7.74234 g of pure gold, i.e. the amount contained in the pre-revolutionary gold ten. It was forbidden to pay off the budget deficit in chervonets. They were intended to service the credit operations of the State Bank, industry, and wholesale trade.
To maintain the stability of the chervonets, a special part (OS) of the currency department of the People's Commissariat of Finance bought or sold gold, foreign currency and chervonets. Despite the fact that this measure corresponded to the interests of the state, such commercial activities of the OC were regarded by the OGPU as speculation, so in May 1926, arrests and executions of the leaders and employees of the OC 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 in exchanging them. 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 silver and copper coins.
In 1923 and 1924 two devaluations of the sovznak (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 Sovznak by the State Bank. For every 500 million rubles handed over to the state. model 1923, their owner received 1 kopeck. Thus, the system of two parallel currencies was eliminated.
In general, the state has achieved some success in carrying out monetary reform. Exchanges began to produce chervonets in Constantinople, the Baltic countries (Riga, Revel), Rome, and some eastern countries. The chervonets exchange rate was 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 exchanges and a network of joint-stock banks, the spread of commercial credit, and the development of foreign trade.
However financial system, created on the basis of the NEP, began to destabilize in the second half of the 20s. for several reasons. The state strengthened planning principles in the economy. The control figures for the 1925-26 financial year affirmed the idea of maintaining monetary circulation through increasing emissions. By December 1925, the money supply increased 1.5 times compared to 1924. This led to an imbalance between the size of trade turnover 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 chervonets, the state’s foreign exchange reserves were soon depleted. The fight against inflation was lost. Since July 1926, it was prohibited to export chervonets abroad and the purchase of chervonets on the foreign market was stopped. Chervonets turned from a convertible currency into 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 money turnover, overcome emissions, ensure the formation of a solid budget. At the same time, financial and economic reform helped streamline taxation. 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, 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 the restoration of the light and food industries - it produced up to 20% of all industrial products (1923) and predominated in wholesale (15%) and retail (83%) trade.
Private industry took the form of handicraft, rental, joint-stock and cooperative enterprises. Private entrepreneurship has become noticeably widespread in the food, clothing and leather industries, as well as 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 There were 325 thousand private enterprises in the USSR. They employed about 12% of the total workforce, with an average of 2-3 workers per enterprise. Private enterprises produced about 5% of all industrial output (1923). the state constantly limited the activities of private entrepreneurs through the use of tax pressure, depriving entrepreneurs of voting rights, etc.
At the end of the 20s. In connection with the collapse 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 squeezed out, and a rigid centralized system of economic management was created (economic people's commissariats).
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 effectively curtailed.
Legally, the NEP was terminated only on October 11, 1931, when a resolution was adopted to completely ban private trade in the USSR.
The undoubted success of the NEP was the restoration of the destroyed economy, and if we take into account that after the revolution Russia lost highly qualified personnel (economists, managers, production workers), then the success of the new government becomes a “victory over devastation.” At the same time, the lack of those highly qualified personnel became the cause of miscalculations and mistakes.
Significant rates of economic growth, however, were achieved only through the return to operation of pre-war capacities, because Russia only reached the economic indicators of the pre-war years by 1926-1927. The potential for further economic growth turned out to be extremely low. The private sector was not allowed to the “commanding heights of the economy,” foreign investment was not welcomed, and investors themselves were in no particular hurry to come to Russia due to ongoing instability and the threat of nationalization of capital. The state was unable to make long-term capital-intensive investments using its own funds alone.
The situation in the village was also contradictory, where the “kulaks” were clearly oppressed.