NEP: Limitations to Its Success
It can be argued that the NEP dealt successfuly to some the problems it was designed to solve in the period 1921-4 but there were limitations to its sucess.
Once the victory had been achieved against the Whites in 1921, Lenin began to focus on rebuilding the Russian economy as war communism had caused industrial and agricultural production to decrease. The decrease in agriculutrual produce had been a particular problem as it resulted in a fame. Moreover, the Kronstadt rising made Lenin aware that war communism was not truly working as the Kronstadt sailors had initially supported the Bolshevik policies but now they no longer did thus changes needed to be made to the economy so Lenin introduced NEP.
Firsly, regarding the famine, the NEP sucessfully ended this. During war communism, there had been grain requistioning which angered peasants so they had refused to proudce which had led to disastorous famines. To avoid this problem, the NEP ended grain requisitioning and allowed peasants to trade a part of their total grain for profit which moticiated them to produce more. During the NEP grain produce increased from 37.3 million tonnes to 51.4 million tonnes.
Secondly, to adress the problem of industrial production, the NEP introduced a mixed economy with the restoration of money and markerts. This encouraged workers to produce as they knew money was involved. This meant that by 1923, 85% of companies were privately owned which increased their efficiency. Factory output increased from 2004 million roubles to 4610 million roubles which shows what a sucess the NEP was.
However, the industry failed to expand as fast as the agriculure which resulted in the crisis. Moreover, the produce of more crops resulted in the falling of agricultural prices which meant that there was less income for peasants. Thus the cost of industiral goods increassed to a level that peasants could not afford because of their falling incomes thus the NEP was not completely sucessful in
Once the victory had been achieved against the Whites in 1921, Lenin began to focus on rebuilding the Russian economy as war communism had caused industrial and agricultural production to decrease. The decrease in agriculutrual produce had been a particular problem as it resulted in a fame. Moreover, the Kronstadt rising made Lenin aware that war communism was not truly working as the Kronstadt sailors had initially supported the Bolshevik policies but now they no longer did thus changes needed to be made to the economy so Lenin introduced NEP.
Firsly, regarding the famine, the NEP sucessfully ended this. During war communism, there had been grain requistioning which angered peasants so they had refused to proudce which had led to disastorous famines. To avoid this problem, the NEP ended grain requisitioning and allowed peasants to trade a part of their total grain for profit which moticiated them to produce more. During the NEP grain produce increased from 37.3 million tonnes to 51.4 million tonnes.
Secondly, to adress the problem of industrial production, the NEP introduced a mixed economy with the restoration of money and markerts. This encouraged workers to produce as they knew money was involved. This meant that by 1923, 85% of companies were privately owned which increased their efficiency. Factory output increased from 2004 million roubles to 4610 million roubles which shows what a sucess the NEP was.
However, the industry failed to expand as fast as the agriculure which resulted in the crisis. Moreover, the produce of more crops resulted in the falling of agricultural prices which meant that there was less income for peasants. Thus the cost of industiral goods increassed to a level that peasants could not afford because of their falling incomes thus the NEP was not completely sucessful in