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Paper Abstract: Analysis of principal elements of the NEP. Lenin's ideological commitment to the interntional socialist revolution; Marxist ideology; Communism. Radical Bolshevik wing & failures of Bolshevik governance. Agrarian polich; Urban industrial and agrarian peasant interests. Soviet commitment to national economic growth. Annotated Bibliographjy. Paper Introduction: This research examines the reasons behind Lenin's adoption of the New Economic Policy (NEP) in 1921 in the wake of the Soviet revolution in 1917. The research will set forth the principal elements of the NEP and the context in which it emerged as an issue for the Bolshevik/Communist government, and then explore the literature of the Soviet state with a view toward identifying factors that positioned Lenin to promulgate the policy. In order to understand Lenin's adoption of the NEP, it is necessary to appreciate Lenin's ideological commitment to international socialist revolution, the establishment of the War Communism policy (precursor of the NEP), as well as the dynamic situation of revolutionary governance in Russia from the time of the 1917 success of the Bolsheviks until 1921, when the NEP was offic Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. 356-7). (1994). Formally endorsed by the TenthCongress at Lenin's behest, the NEP provided a public mandate for socialand economic reconfiguration. (1972). In 1919, says Volkogonov, Lenin resisted agrarian-enterprise policyinitiatives that would later be incorporated into the NEP in 1921. 231-62. 146). To tolerate the bourgeois newspapers would mean to cease being a Socialist. 263-9 . He who now talks about the 'freedom of the Press' goes backward, and halts our headlong course toward Socialism. Public tolerance of such policies,says Husband (1997, p. It wasintended "to invigorate the grass-roots economy and generate investmentcapital for industrialization" (Husband, 1997, p. Freeze (Ed.). This analysis of theneed for the NEP gave Russia's massive social dislocation a human scale,which is to say that the NEP allowed Lenin to put the face of ordinaryhuman experience on the international-socialist agenda: Lenin made a virtueof necessity, or lemonade (or as it were Leninade) out of the NEP lemon. . 264), as well as "other emergency measures reachedit limit, [and] workers and peasants openly defied Soviet power. 146) quote Lenin's descriptionof War Communism as a "makeshift" response to "the war and the ruin," anecessary exercise in proletariat leadership of all society frombourgeoisie to peasantry, to guarantee the ultimate socialist victory. The NEP appears to have occasioned a discernible shift inLenin's revolutionary rhetoric that enabled him to seize the discourse ofpolicy and retain that control. . The era of the NEP was marked by a formal Soviet commitment tonational economic growth. Lenin's cadres set about the project of institutionalizing communistcontrol over all segments of Russian society, overseen by intellectualcadres that guided the course of the dictatorship of the proletariat as ittook control of the means of production. Throughout his tenure in power, Lenin never relinquished the view thatthe locus of political and economic control in Russia should rest with theparty, "the Communists, the responsible officials" (in Fischer and Marek,1972, p. Lenin: A new biography. Ernst Fischer & Franz Marek(Eds.). 258) says Lenindevised after the fact in order to emphasize its provisional nature. penetrates deep into the ranks of theproletariat" (in Fischer and Marek, 1972, p. Reed, J. The mechanism was the SupremeCouncil of the National Economy, which nationalized all factories andprohibited all private commerce, including agricultural production(Husband, 1997, p. (1997). Fischer and Marek (1972, p. G. . It is Lenin's rhetorical pattern to attribute failures of Bolshevikgovernance to various features of bourgeois capitalism, whether the remnantinside Russia that resisted dictatorship of the proletariat orinternational capitalist political economies hostile to the communistvictory. That allowed therevolutionary government to focus on events inside Russia. 265). Industrial production, which was always Marx's concern,meanwhile "remained in the hands of the workers' state. The strength ofLenin's ideological commitment was undoubtedly reinforced by theineffectuality and disintegration of both the Romanoff dynasty and theprovisional revolutionary government of Krenesky, which allowed Lenin'sradical Bolshevik wing to appropriate revolutionary leadership and controlof Russia's state apparatus. Butone need not agree with Volkogonov's logic or with the view that Leninoverreached in a bid for international revolutionary power to see that thecredibility of the revolution and its War Communism economy suffered underBolshevik stewardship. But Lenin was always cynicalabout it: In Lenin's view, War Communism would lead to the future commune-state, a commune imbued with the proletarian consciousness he was to impart to it--although he hardly believed in it himself (Volkogonov, 1994, p. That seems reason enough for anyambitious and capable political operative either to have adopted the NEP orto have taken credit for doing so. (1961). Further, the failure of War Communism can be set beside evidence ofsimple disagreement on the part of a mostly illiterate peasantry with theobjectives of intellectualist-socialist-utopian triumphalism beingimplemented by a newly empowered urban bureaucracy operating in theprovinces. . Building Stalinism, 1929-1941. the petty-bourgeois element which . Russia: A History.G. In order to understand Lenin's adoption of the NEP, it is necessary toappreciate Lenin's ideological commitment to international socialistrevolution, the establishment of the War Communism policy (precursor of theNEP), as well as the dynamic situation of revolutionary governance inRussia from the time of the 1917 success of the Bolsheviks until 1921, whenthe NEP was officially adopted by the Soviet government. I. Vernadsky, G. . New York: Random House. New York: Bantam. 275-6). This research examines the reasons behind Lenin's adoption of the NewEconomic Policy (NEP) in 1921 in the wake of the Soviet revolution in 1917.The research will set forth the principal elements of the NEP and thecontext in which it emerged as an issue for the Bolshevik/Communistgovernment, and then explore the literature of the Soviet state with a viewtoward identifying factors that positioned Lenin to promulgate the policy. 15 ). . In this regard, Orlovsky (1997, p. Freeze (Ed.). And it did not succeed initiallybecause capital equipment was so far depleted or damaged and becauseagricultural production had suffered under the pressures of famine,violence, and attempts at ideological management of farm practices. Invoking theslogan "peace, land, bread" and in concert with fellow Bolsheviks Stalinand Trotsky, Lenin gathered adherents among civilians and the military andsuccessfully dislodged Russia from the Great War in 1917 by means of aseparate peace with the Central Powers at Brest-Litovsk. In that regard, Orlovsky (1997, p. L. The effect was to virtually guarantee WarCommunism's temporary nature. 149). . Second, building on this theme, Lenin proposed that the revolutionarystate seize the instruments of bourgeois economy, becoming a "cautious,assiduous and shrewd 'businessman,'" so as to raise the economic level ofthe small-peasant country (Fischer and Marek, 1972, p. Unfortunately for the program, world-historical events did not comply.Volkogonov (1994, p. 272). (196 ). Lenin, V. . When one makes a Revolution, one cannot mark time; one must always go forward--or go back. Husband, W. But matters had shifted by 1921. Butit is difficult to see how Lenin could attribute the motives of discontentfrom left and right solely to bourgeois capitalist influences, whetherforeign or domestic. Reds. 146) quote Lenin's statement of regretthat the War Communism agrarian policy could not have been structured as anexchange of peasant-supplied food for proletariat-manufactured finishedgoods, as if he might have organized things if only he had realized howpeople felt. Now that the insurrection is over, we have absolutely no desire to suppress the papers of the other Socialist parties, except inasmuch as they appeal to armed insurrection, or to disobedience to the Soviet Government (Reed, 196 , pp. 149). The essential Lenin. A history of Russia. But it is also possible to interpret Lenin's retrospectiveanalysis of the collapse of War Communism as putting the best face onpolicy failure per se, coupled with the convergence, from many quarters, offorces that responded to the consequences of that failure by looking for analternative to it. Harold Shukman (Ed.).New York: Free Press. Through industry,thus controlled, the backward country could be modernized" (Fischer andMarek, 1972, p. New York: Herder and Herder. 147). 265), Lenin faced growingdiscontent over the increasing "repression and centralization" of personalliberties on one side, and disaffection with a perceived lessening ofrevolutionary fervor on the other. Ten days that shook the world. Anna Bostock (Trans.). To put it another way, war and chaos might havedisrupted production, but not necessarily for the reasons Lenin asserts.Either way, Fischer and Marek conclude in this connection, "It wasnecessary to face facts" (1972, p. 259) cites Lenin's land reform as acombination of well-meaning attempts to improve the lot of the landlesspeasantry and a rather ham-handed attempt to foment a peasant version ofclass warfare between landed peasants (kulaks) and two lower peasant tiers.Volkogonov (1994), who is generally hostile to Lenin, credits him for acommonsense approach to establishing farming cooperatives but criticizeshis social engineering of a class for which he had an intellectual'scontempt--all of which resulted in nothing so much as protractedintervillage, almost clannish, conflict that degenerated in 192 to nearfamine and that had to be put down by the Red Army. Lenin appears to have absorbed Marx's view that the internationalsocialist revolution was a historical necessity and that the content ofrevolution was dictatorship of the proletariat--guided by intellectualcadres trained for the purpose and intolerant of further revolutionarydissent. 147) inagricultural matters; some benefited by hoarding and profiteering, in truecapitalist manner. One of the first actions was to suppress press freedom: We Bolsheviki have always said that when we reached a position of power we would close the bourgeois press. 334). There were too many dissatisfied peoplefrom too many different quarters in Russia for Lenin to ignore. How a revolutionary could not have anticipated thepossibility that the course of postrevolutionary of policy might not runsmooth is even more difficult to see; social disarray, particularly in thecontext of self-conscious social experimentation, would seem to be alogical extension of the most organized of revolutions. His view isthat War Communism was from the beginning the foundation of Lenin's policyand was always meant to be a mechanism of both international socialistrevolution and domestic control. Volkogonov cites Lenin's statement in State and Revolution that thepeople would become habituated to the dictatorship of the proletariat andthe fact that Russians did indeed become accustomed to dictatorialgovernance to support his contention that War Communism was conceived as apermanent economic framework, revolutionary icon, and symbol of ultimatevictory of international socialism. Volkogonov, D. To have accomplished this vision of revolutionary Russia wouldundoubtedly have been a socialist victory of just the kind that Leninappears to have craved. This whole line of thought can be interpretedas Lenin's use of the NEP to repair the disconnect between urban industrialand agrarian peasant interests in a fractured nation-state revolution stillreeling from the fact that previously anticipated world revolution "hadfailed" (Fischer and Marek, p. It should also be remembered thatduring the period of War Communism Lenin spearheaded the founding of theComintern, or communist International, which was the policy arm of theinternational revolution and which Husband suggests Lenin originallyintended as an instrument of Russian geopolitical influence (p. The NEP was atemporary retreat from communism into a semicapitalistic system. According to Orlovsky, complete state takeover ofall economic life did not occur until after 1918, in the wake of thehostile Allied response to the treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the letdown feltby Russian radicals who had thought that the separate peace would end theGreat War altogether and usher in world socialism. The NEP, meanwhile, enabled Lenin to positionhimself as architect of the nation-building goal for Russia and of futuresocialist revolution for all the world. 151)--itself of course governed by the responsibleCommunists. 148). Fischer and Marek (1972, p. New York: Oxford University Press. War Communism formally placed industrial and agricultural productionas well as trade and prices under state control. He alsocontrasted ordinary salesmen having "ten years' warehouse experience [who]know the business," with "responsible Communists and devotedrevolutionaries" who are so ignorant of the business that they do not knowthey do not know it (p. 335). Paramount/Barclays FinancingLimited. 146). Wewill struggle against that to the last drop of blood" (Volkogonov, 1994, p.478). Undoubtedly it was Lenin's formulation, his ideaof a way to handle the problem of industrial production. (1981). 284). As a practical matter thatmeant that agrarian peasants' cash crops (and sometimes foodstuffs, Leninadmits) were appropriated by the state (for cash, says Lenin) to "meet therequirements of the army and sustain workers" (quoted in Fischer and Marek,1972, p. B. " Atelling moment in this regard comes in the motion picture Reds, when adisaffected communist wails: "Nothing works!" (Beatty & Griffiths, 1981). . Russia: A History. Lenin characterized revolutionary critics as "lackeys of thebourgeoisie," saying that he faced exploitation and pressure "from the mostpowerful countries of the world" (in Fischer and Marek, 1972, p. Strongly influenced by Marxist ideology, Leninadvocated "the necessity of creating a strong and active revolutionaryMarxist group that would lead the proletariat in their struggle for animmediate social revolution" (Vernadsky, 1961, pp. 334) cites the "chaos created by the revolution" asLenin's reason for "harsh regulations, coercion and control, policiespresented as a new structure called 'War Communism,'" but rejects Lenin'sassertion that it was a temporary response to dislocations caused by war,whether red-white (revolutionary-bourgeoisie) or the Great War. References Beatty, W., & Griffiths, T. First, there was retreat from unmediated demonization ofbourgeois evil. Orlovsky, D. "Meanwhile, according to Husband (1997, p. The New Economic Policy (NEP) and the revolutionaryexperiment, 1921-1929. New York:Oxford University Press. 15 ). Fischer and Marek identify several aspectsof this process. It can be viewed as a species of top-downreform meant to truncate bottom-up revolt. In any case, the wholeproject of Bolshevik/Soviet usurpation of complete economic control came tobe called War Communism, a term that Orlovsky (1997, p. Lenin called for the revolutionaryintelligentsia to link and cooperate with rather than force the peasantmasses, with a view toward a reconfigured society governed by proletarianleadership (p. Orlovsky's view is that (clannish, tribal) civilwar persisted in peasant areas "long after the Whites had been crushed,providing the final impulse for the 'New Economic Policy' in 1921. Lenincriticized urban workers "who want to trade freedom for bread. (1997). It survived, he says, "in various formseven until the end of the 198 s" (p. 148). The enemy of the revolution, Lenin told the Comintern in1921, was not international bourgeois conspiracy but "everyday economics ina small-peasant country with a ruined large-scale industry . Whatever the attribution of responsibility for looming anarchy andfactionalism, the evidence of events is that Lenin adopted the NEP in orderto prevent further deterioration and as a mechanism of reassertingpolitical control. And all of this took place in the context of party-cadrerequisitioning of peasant grain stores. . 258) says that many peasants"viewed Bolshevik commissars, grain detachments, army draft apparatus andthe like as worse than any conceivable class enemy." It is not clear in anycase that the great mass of illiterate Russian peasants could conceptualizethe notion class enemy. A. L. Its effect was mostmarkedly felt by the kulaks, or upper-class peasants, who were given "acertain freedom of exchange" (Fischer and Marek, 1972, p. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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