Lenin was already facing many burdens, so was obviously frustrated with the distraction of his own party. Where groups were being formed within the party, like the ‘workers opposition’ formed by Alexander Shlyapknikov and Alexandra Kollontai, who criticised Trotsky’s plan to make the trade unions agencies of the state, creating arguments within the party at the end of 1920. The clear split gave unnecessary distraction, given the crises being faced in 1921. So Lenin called for an end to factionalism. Thus in 1921, the Tenth Party Congress agreed to pass a ‘ban on factions’, and penalty for factionalism was expulsion from the party. The Nationalities issue was too on Lenin’s mind, in 1922. He wanted all republics to be more or less on the same footing, whereas Stalin wanted all republics to be under control by Moscow. Yes Lenin won the debate, but despite the victory, the republics were never really free to govern themselves. Lenin wanting to depart from the tsar’s policy of ‘russification’, set up native language schools, encouraged theatre and culture events in Moscow and eventually then run local party branches, “the planting down of roots”, which were shown not to be repressive, but yet in reality was and were always kept control of. this
Faced with the problems of economic collapse and widespread rebellion the wartime policies were abandoned which Russian society no longer wanted to put up with, so made a radical turn around which soon became to be known as the New Economic policy. The radical turn around, abolished grain requisitioning, where now meant that peasants had to give fixed proportions to the state much less than what was taken by grain requisitioning. This enabled peasants to see any surpluses on the market. The NEP allowed small-scale businesses under private ownership to be re-opened, as Lenin realised that peasants would not sell their produce unless there were goods that they wanted on sale. Another feature of the NEP was the removal of the ban on private trade which allowed food and goods to pass more easily between the countryside and towns, thus, rationing was abolished. The policy, allowed the state to keep control of large-scale heavy industries like coal, steel and oil. In addition, it retained control of the transport system. The NEP was answering and implementing radical changes to the economic crisis, and the widespread rebellion.
The NEP led to the issue of political repression, such as attacks on political rivals. Political pressure on the rival socialist parties was intensified. The Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries became much popular during the strikes and revolts and played a part in encouraging them. The Bolsheviks used this as an excuse to arrest some of the Mensheviks in 1921 for ‘counter-revolutionary activities’, they were outlawed as political organisations. The show tiarails made its appearance during the period of the NEP, a classic feature of the later Stalinist terror. The show trials clearly strengthened the control of the state. Censorship became more systematic. In the 1922, many Russian writers and scholars were deported convincing the intelligentsia it wasn’t such a good idea to criticise the government, showing again the control of the state strengthening. Another change was the establishment of the GPU in 1922, once called the Cheka. The secret police grew in importance during the NEP. Arbitrary imprisonment and the death penalty continued to be applied after 1922 as an instrument of social policy. The GPU regularly was harassing and arresting Nepmen as speculators and class enemies in order to assure left communists and the urban workers that they were keeping capitalist tendencies under control.
Other issue that Lenin needed to deal with was the Proletkult, where peasants and workers were encouraged to produce their own culture. It seemed to be developing as an ‘independent working-class organisation’, something the Bolsheviks would not tolerate. So Lenin a clear opponent to the philosophy of Proletkult had its regional and central offices shut down during 1921 and 1922.
The peasants who had staged revolts against the government were dealt with severely. The Tambov region for instance where for some time the red army was unable to keep control of, was swamped by Red Army troops in 1922, villages were destroyed. Villages that supported the Reds were given rewards, further strengthening the control of the state. The communists also mounted a fierce attack on the church in 1922, orders were sent out to strip churches of their precious items, apparently to help famine victims, when really they believed the church to be a rival to the government’s power.
The policy changes of 1921 had a major impact on the development of the state by 1924. Despite the 1924 scissors crisis the NEP had helped Russia economically and resolved the widespread rebellion. The policy led to political repression, which strengthened control. Despite the clear view that the radical changes made were partly due to Lenin’s desperation in the face of crisis, it did resolve the problems but to what extent. What type of state was left in 1924? Had the policies developed a centralised state, a totalitarian state, or a bureaucratic state, what was the end result? In my view the radical changes left a totalitarian state. Yes it could be argued that what had developed was bureaucratic or centralised due to the Nationalities issue, the GPU and the other issues. But looking at the final result of the policies, I believe the state was left in greater control, was left as a ‘one party government’ by 1924.
