The New Economic Policy (NEP)
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1. Farmers to contribute 10% of production to state and sell any surplus on open market for profit.
2. Small private businesses were allowed to operate.
3. State controlled industry operated under capitalist notions such as: the profit motive, the right to dismiss workers, the right to reduce wages.
4. Trade passed into private hands (created a new middle class)
5. Currency reform w/ reintroduction of gold backing and balanced budgets
6. Confiscated property returned and loans made available to those willing to develop timber, oil and other resources.

An Evaluation of the N.E.P.:

• Moved opposite to the goals of the communists but was necessary to avoid continuation of chaos and the possibility of counter-revolution
• Disagreement w/in the party concerning NEP was quenched by Lenin but it was to reappear after his death.
• The Agricultural part represented a compromise between Lenin and a now majority of ‘middle class’ peasants
• The return of capitalist managers was criticized but Lenin realized they were the only ones w/ the necessary expertise
• Lenin retained control of the ‘commanding heights’ of the economy, although many enterprises went back into private hands.
• Lenin grouped state-controlled industries together assuming it would then be easier to more from this to socialism.
• Food production increased.
• Industrial production increased.
• A massive electricity program was started.

Lenin also brought education under state control, introduced social security schemes, attacked the Church’s position, purged opposing factions of the Party, and replaced the Cheka by the G.P.U. which had greater powers.

Other Notes in this Category

1. Czar Alexander II (1855-1881)
2. Czar Alexander III (1881-1894)
3. Czar Nicholas II (1894-1917)
4. End of the Tsars according to Orland Figes
5. Foreign Policy 1919 to 1934
6. Russia Time-Line
7. The Civil War 1918-1921:
8. The New Economic Policy (NEP)
9. The Period of Lenin’s Rule (1917-24)
10. The Period of Stalin’s Rule (1924-53)
11. The Russian Revolutions of 1917

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