How successful was the NEP

1
? Starter activity
Lenin once said Soviet power plus
electrification equals Communism. His remarks
were made with respect to the dire state of the
Soviet economy in 1921. What do you think he
meant? Why does the US in post-war Iraq think
electrification is equally important?
2
? Your task

• Read your textbook and list the problems facing
  Lenin and the Bolsheviks in 1921.

3
Problems facing the Bolsheviks in 1921

• Infrastructure in ruins
• Grain production collapsed
• 100,000s deaths from typhus, cholera, dysentery
  influenza
• Hostility to grain requisitioning
• Strikes growth of political opposition
• Harsh winter of 1920-21
• March 1921, Kronstadt rebellion

Which of the problems listed on the left were the
most dangerous for the Bolsheviks?
4
How successful was the NEP?
5
? Your task

• Read your textbook and find out what were the
  main features of the policy Lenin started called
  the NEP (New Economic Policy) to rebuild the
  Soviet economy following the Civil War.

6
What were the key features of the NEP?

• Grain requisitioning abolished and replaced by a
  tax in kind which was less harsh.
• Small-scale businesses under private ownership
  permitted
• Rationing abolished - people bought food goods
  from own income
• State control of heavy industry (coal, steel
  iron) banking continued
• Electrification
• Foreign trade (1921, Anglo-Soviet agreement)

Why do you think markets like this one in Moscow
quickly became crowded again with the NEP?
7
? Your task

• Construct a table similar to the one below
  listing the successes and failures of the NEP

8
Successes

• Shops, cafes restaurant re-opened
• By 1923, cereal production increased 23
  compared with 1920
• 1920-23 factory output rose 200, by 1926 reached
  pre-1914 levels
• Food prices dropped
• Emergence of NEPmen (bought up surplus produce
  goods sold at a profit)

9
Failures

• NEPmen handled ¾ retail trade
• Compromised Communist experiment
• Bribery corruption increased (anything could be
  got for the right price!)
• Organised crime prostitution
• Lack of manufactured goods caused price increases
• Class divisions increased (some peasant able to
  buy land better equipment others continued
  subsistence farming)

10
? Your task
1924 cartoon showing a Communist halting a horse
sleigh. The horse has NEP on its bridle. What
do you think the artist is trying to say?
11
? Your task

• Read the sources on p.110-112 and do the
  activities in the box on p.112.