1) Was the NEP working?

part 2 - read Corin and Fiehn 200-201;  

-1926= Party Congress had charged the leadership with ‘the transformation of our 
country from an agrarian into an industrial one, capable by its own efforts of 
producing the necessary means.” 
- the push for industrialization, however by the end of the 1920s it seemed that the 
NEP had run out of ‘push’  
- 1926= excess capacity in the industry  
-The massive injection of capital investment was now needed to move the 
industrialization process froward   
- The economy suffered serious difficulties, at the end of the 1920s’  
-  
- Relationship between gov + Peasants deteriorated 
towards of the 1920s   
- Change in Strategie, The NEP, and the Peasants​ =  
- Gov stopped collecting taxes from the peasants to put 
more grain on the market  
- It stopped collecting taxes in the form of grain and made 
them pay in money tax, thus they would have to sell grain 
in order to pay for this tax. (temporarily worked)  
- BUT→ Peasants “soon got wise to the governments 
ploy”   
- Meat prices were still going up= started to feed 
grain to their animals rather than sell it at a lower 
price   
- Not much benefit in having surplus money since 
there were little they could buy with it since 
Industrial consumers goods were still in short 
supply.=  
- Peasants started to hold back grain from 
the market, hoping for price to rise,  
- Grain procured = 3 quarter at the end of 
1927 of what it had been in 1926  
= STALIN sents out police, and Officials to seize grain  
- 1928= he himself went to Siberia on a rqusition 
campaign  
- He did get more grain, however, peasant gov. The 
relationship was breaking down and there was 
substantial resistance to Stalin’s actions  
 - Resistance in the party to Stalins action = Buhkarin 
he still used in once more after a poor harvest in 
1928 = Stalin had to ration bread in the cities  
 
2) complete 200 Focus route;  
Why did the majority of the party think a new approach to the peasantry was 
required?  
- Needed To become more self-sufficient 
- Evidence: 1926= Party Congress had charged the leadership with ‘the 
transformation of our country from an agrarian into an industrial one, 
capable by its own efforts of producing the necessary means  
- The NEP was no longer progressing with industrialization.  
- Evidence: the push for industrialization, however by the end of the 
1920s it seemed that the NEP had run out of ‘push’  
- Ex. in 1913= export 12 million tons of grains  
- NEP peak = export 3 million tons of grains   
- = devastating effect on foreign trade   
- 1926-27 
- exports = 33%  
- imports= 38%  
- Due to the decline in grain exports  
- SO the USSR was unable to bring in the technology needed for 
industrial expansion   
- 1926= excess capacity in the industry  
- The grain was not reaching the market due too: 
- Reliance on traditional methods of farming  
- Ex. 1927= 5 million inefficient wooden 
ploughs(farming implement) were still in use  
- Large-farm areas = were divided post-1917 
revolution = most small landowners ate most of 
what they produced.   
- Peasants started to hold back grain from the market, hoping for the 
price to rise  
- Grain procured = 3 quarter at the end of 1927 of what it had 
been in 1926  
- For peasents= Not much benefit in having surplus money since 
there were little they could buy with it since Industrial consumer 
goods were still in short supply.  
- -high unemployment persisted throughout the NEP  
-  
  
 
Was the Nep working for the urban workers?  
-by 1928 real wages= only just passed their pre-war level  
-Most industrial organizations were still hierarchical→ Trade unions tended to 
support the government-appointed managers rather than their own  
- Lenin preferred USA type schemes= used time and motion studies to speed 
production  
- 1,000 of workers= unemployed 
-high unemployment persisted throughout the NEP  
-Workers complained between the gaps in social classes  
- Complain about high prices charged for food  
Burgouise paid so much more then they were  
NEP against Female Labour  
- Women were forced out of their jobs when the Red Army was demobilized  
- Forced to move from skill→ to → Unskilled worker lived in overcrowded 
poor-quality houses and flats  
- Evidence: Smolensk 1929: Factory committed of a cement work  
- “ Everyday there are many complaints about apartments: many 
workers have families of six and seven people, and live in one room”   
- Mounting crime problems in cities  
- As a result of WWI, and Civil war Thousands of People were 
parentless and rootless = formed gangs, etc..  
- It was not the workers’ paradise that the revolution had promised  
3) activity on p.201;  
Advice on which pro-industrialization policy + consider the circumstances at 
the end of the 1920s 
Policy 2  
- It will provide rapid industrialization which is what is needed in order to stand 
up to other powers when the “threat” becomes reality.  
- Either perish or overtake and outstrip the advanced capitalist countries, We are 50 or
100 years behind the advanced countries. We must make a good distance in ten
years. Either we do it or they crush us.’  
 
 
 
 
 
Cons of Policy 1  
- Long term industrialization is not what they want since the status quo is that Russia 
is “ under attack “  
- They have to industrialize and match the western powers within a period of “10 
years”, however, this policy calls for “industrialization having to proceed more slowly” 
due to the economical methods being imposed.  
-Secondly, by encouraging the “best farmers” to produce more you are most likely to 
create a higher richer class and follow policies opposing your ideological stands   
 
 
4) check your ideas with p. 202 discussions and review section;  
-Bukharin = Policy 1 co-operation with peasantry main method  
- Eugen Preobrazhensky= Policy 2- USSR had to pass through a state of ‘primitive 
socialist accumulation’ → ‘Primitive accumulation’= Marx = Stage of development of 
industrial societies  
5) p 202 and 203 notes  
The Great Turn  
- 15th Party congress Dec 1927 announcement of the f​ irst 5-year plan​ marked 
the end of the NEP  
- Plan= rapid industrialization, setting high targets for industry to achieve  
- Agriculture= collectivization 15% of peasants households were to be 
collectivized  
- NEP= ‘breathing Space’= Not providing an industrial, urban, proletarian, 
social society  
- Bolsheviks point of view= creating the wrong type of society  
- NEP=  
- encouraging private markets, private enterprise, and Nepmen  
- Peasants biggest mass of population= no signs of becoming 
good socialist could not be relied upon to produce grain needed 
for this new “socialist utopia”  
- Majority of Party members accepted constraints of the NEP but never 
liked it  
- Most were wanting(itching) to move forward to an establishment of the 
Socialist state  
- Thus→ Warmly welcomed Stalin’s ‘left turn’  
- Five-year plan= step towards achieving the goals of the revolution  
 - Fear of invasion = increase the support for industrialization  
- CONTEXT OF TIME: 1927 relations with France a Poland deteriorated, 
Britain had broken of Diplomatic relations and suspicions about 
Japanese intentions   
- USSR needed an industrial base to build armaments   
- Change from NEP→ five-year plans = Great Turn  
- ‘Command Economy’= shifting the economy towards the center 
planning  
- Land to be established through ‘collectivization’ no longer 
individuals  
- ‘Good society’ - Industrialization= lead to the growth of the 
proletariat workers would aspire to make a well self-sufficient 
state 
- ‘ New soviet man’-  
Interpretation:  
- The 5-year plan is where USSR went wrong  
- Where tyranny, totalitarianism, and inhumanity began