Nep

[TavareeshKamo]

Lenins biggest mistake? or a result of his biggest Mistake? or both?

I understand thast the NEP was a result of lenins belief that you could pass the stage of capitalism towards socialism, but why did he make such a bad decision, in turning back to capitalism after a so called socialist revolution?

comrade kamo

[des-esseintes]

Because Russia was underdeveloped, and you cannot pass into socialism from a lower stage of production than the highest stage of capitalism. Lenin understood that the revolution was doomed if industrialised countries were not put under social control, that's why he did everything in his power to spread the revolution to Germany.

The early Christians were communists, but the religion was soon degenerated because a high enough mode of production hadn't evolved to provide enough for everyone. Ancient society needed subjugation in order to be able to produce. It was the same in Russia, the country couldn't industrialise without the whip of Stalin. On the basis of an advanced economy, as in the 70's, a social revolution would be possible in the USSR, but the revolutionary propaganda would have to be kind of silly don't you think :D

For more information read Russia: From revolution to counter-revolution by Ted Grant.

[redjordi]

Hi Kamo,

The NEP was not a mistake and was not the result of a mistake. During the civil war years a war economy had to be introduced as a necessity, this implied the highest level of centralisation and even compulsion (including requisition of agricultural products at gun point) in order to ensure the economy worked and the counter-revolution and armies of foreign intervention could be defeated. After the war was over these methods could not be used any more in an isolated backward economy. The basic contradiction was the economy of the cities could not provide enough products to trade for agricultural products. In other words the peasants were not getting enough from the cities in exchange for their products and there was the danger of a further dislocation between cities and countryside.

Thus a number of concessions  were forced onto the Soviet regime by the fact that the revolution had become isolated in an economically backward country.

Lenin and the other leaders of the Soviets were aware of the fact that these were concessions and the dangers they implied. They maintained firm state control over foreign trade and the central planning of the economy as guarantees against capitalist restoration.

This must not be interpreted as the need for some "intermediate stage" between a backward society and socialism, but just as the recognition of the impossibility of building socialism in one country, particularly in a backward agricultural one, unless it is as part of a worldwide movement towards socialism which includes the more advanced capitalist countries.

A good source of info on the NEP and the reasons behind it is the chapter ""Military Communism", the "New Economic Policy" (NEP) and the Course Toward the Kulak   " of Trotsky's Revolution Betrayed.

comradely,

[redjordi]

Also very interesting is Lenin's report to the 11th Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik), which deals with a number of different questions, but has a whole section on the NEP:

http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/mar/27.htm

worth reading!

[John Stalker]

NEP was a smart step. Lenin knew its dangers also, that is why he said that NEP must be maintained as soon as Russia gets out of bacwardness. The effect of the Civil war was monstrous. If Lenin had not introduced the NEP, peasants would have revolted against the whole nation and another Civil war would follow. Stalin did not follow Lenin's orders and postponed NEP further on until Kulaks began to be filthy rich and the differentiation between the city and the village was in an antagonism.

But the revolution did not spread and Lenin died (subjective factor) and then the degeneration of the workers' state began to rise fully. NEP was almost out of control. Typically Stalin collectivised Kulaks or should we say dekulakised them and took all their products, so even more antagonisms were in place. And then the repression, and then killing of stock...