👸🏿 🚵🏾 🦓 What is the essence of NEP - the economic policy of the USSR in the 1920s? 🖐🏾 🏝️ 🖐🏿

The New Economic Policy (NEP) is a complex of economic measures of the Bolshevik Party to lead the USSR out of the crisis in the 1920s. Speaking about NEP briefly, this is some revival of private initiative.

The reasons for NEP

The policy of war communism led to a complete rupture of economic ties between the city and the village. It was very difficult for city residents in the sense that they did not receive the proper amount of food from the village. The traditional economic exchange was disrupted when the city bought food in the village for money. In addition, the peasants began a series of revolts against the policy of expropriation of food.

Repeatedly, cases were recorded when military pens drove into the villages and took away all grain reserves. As you know, in 1921 there was a very strong famine, therefore, the protest movement of the peasants was caused by objective reasons.

The country was completely destroyed by the First World War and the Civil War, all economic ties with foreign countries were destroyed. The same can be said of diplomatic relations. The leadership of the USSR understood that at this stage without restoring ties with foreign states, the country would be very difficult.

Another reason for the rejection of the policy of war communism was the understanding by the leadership that a sharp transition to communism is impossible.

What is the essence of NEP?

The first economic transformations, which can be described as a manifestation of NEP, began in 1922-1923. The main activities of the NEP (briefly) are actions aimed at improving people's lives.

First, it was necessary to restore the country's monetary system by intensifying trade in food and industrial goods. The Bolsheviks had to make an unprecedented deviation from the planned program in order to remove the economic situation in the country from a stupor.

To understand what the essence of NEP is, let's compare it with the politics of war communism.

Parameters	War communism	New Economic Policy
Goals in the economy	urgent building of communist relations; abolition of the monetary system; overcoming the effects of war	cash flow recovery; limited private initiative
Agriculture	surplus appraisal; the establishment of consumer communes that distribute food in a regulated manner; committees of the poor appeared as class bodies for fighting fists	replacement of the surplus with a tax that could be paid in cash; the opportunity to trade in their products; the first general households in rural areas appeared that had a voluntary principle of education
Industry	full nationalization of all enterprises; the objects are directly managed by the main departments (in different years there were from 20 to 50)	partial abolition of nationalization; free trade; the opportunity to attract investment by foreign companies

The main feature of the economic policy of the Civil War was the expropriation of products from peasants. In simple terms, the army or government officials could pick up food for free. The party leadership understood the need for the introduction of NEP, a table comparing the periods 1918-1921 and 1922-1929 will clearly show this.

NEP events

As part of the new economic policy, the state carried out some reforms. Consider the nature of NEP in the financial sector.

As you know, for several years commodity-money relations in the country were practically frozen. In 1922, a monetary reform was carried out. The new currency (chervonets) was recognized by Western countries, so it became possible to conduct foreign exchange transactions. Over time, trade resumed both domestically and with foreign partners.

NEP in agriculture

Important changes have affected agriculture. The peasants finally felt relief from the burden of war communism, because in 1921 the food surplus was canceled. Of course, they were not completely exempted from taxes. A food tax was introduced, but it was 2 times less than the norm of the surplus surplus. It was allowed to pay this tax in money. The poorest peasants were exempted from tax. The peasants immediately understood what the essence of NEP was. This form of relationship suited them, so many did not want to go to collective farms in 1930-1932.

Industry development

In the industry, NEP events were also sharp. Private capital again got the opportunity to work in different areas of production. In those areas where the state did not want to weaken its influence, there were cases of mixed capital in enterprises. Control over the activities of enterprises has decreased, so it has become easier to conduct economic activity. Such changes in the course of the state were immediately felt by foreign investors, starting to invest in the creation of new enterprises.

The results of NEP in the USSR

The NEP policy, the table with the results of which before your eyes, in addition to the positive ones, had some negative results.

Positive results:	Negative results of NEP:
the revival of trade between city and village; there were conditions for the construction of industrial enterprises; stabilization of the country's monetary system; agricultural revival; the abolition of the policy of war communism made it possible to create conditions for the formation of large agricultural enterprises; attracting private foreign investment	high unemployment; inflationary processes associated with the global economic crisis; suppression of opposition in society

But still, the importance of the period of the new economic policy in the development of the Soviet state is difficult to overestimate. The country was able to recover from the difficult events of the 10s of the 20th century.