What was the New Econonmic policy introduced by Lenin?

Answer 1

Some background information is needed here so that the reader has a better understanding of the NEP ( New Economic Policy )

The successful Bolshevik revolution in November, 1917 replaced ideology and any internal disputes the Bolsheviks had among themselves ( for the time being ) with the immense responsibility of leading a huge nation with all its complications that had always existed was still there with the exception of having having the Communist Party an illegal one.

Marxism provided no details on how his ideology should deal with industry, workers & their labor unions, the military and most importantly, the peasant population. The "procedure" of eliminating private property was a cornerstone of Marxism, however, the best way for Lenin & his Party to carry this out was clearly a serious problem. It was one thing to stage riots, print anti-government newspapers and call for radical changes, then it was to implement them. Especially so, when the Communist Party had no real experience in the art & practice of governing.

Certainly one crucial problem was the logistics of having the peasant farmers produce the crops & livestock needed to feed the industrial workers and still have enough left over to feed themselves.

This meant that the farmer population which played no major role in the Red Revolution, had to support a rather radical regime.

By the same token, without the proper transportation of food to the cities, whatever support Lenin's regime had with the factory workers would begin to be reduced.

The peasant population was the largest population group in Russia and millions of them were not even Russian, they were Ukrainians. The failure of the Bolshevicks to pay intense attention to Marx's key components for a successful revolution, was a formula for failure. This was because Marx envisioned a revolution in an industrial country such as England and Germany. There the workers had advanced their labor union establishment, had a more sophisticated political & economic mind set.

Russia, on the other hand did not qualify for a Marxist state because as it was an agriculturally based economy.

Lenin was then faced with a sticky problem. The peasant farmers required the products produced by Russian industry to produce the "hardware" needed to run farms. To have all this in balance was not going to be easy. It was an imperfect system before the two previous revolutions. The radical ideas of the second revolution by the Communist Party, was not at all in the mindset of most of the population, especially the farmer population.

By 1921, the Russian economy and Russian society was breaking down. Among the peasant revolts, discontent among the industrial workers and even a revolt in one section of the Red Navy, all were indicators that the revolution was in trouble, even in trouble to survive. The forced socialism, which Lenin called "war communism" needed to change.

Thus we come upon the NEP. The key component of the NEP was the granting to the peasantry the right to trade in the open market for their produce and for the equipment they needed to work their fields and raise their cattle. This was policy after they supplied the government with a certain amount of produce.

This decision meant a return to a profit goaled and free exchange economy to this vital part of the Russian economy.

The NEP also called for the retention of major industries to the government, however, all other business was permitted to operate in a private enterprise mode.

The NEP, no matter how it was propagandized, was a major setback towards the goal of communism. It also exposed the Communist leadership as falliable, inexperienced and prone to serious errors. For the time being the drastic loss of life among a cross section of Russian people, especially the peasantry, was abated.