How did the new economic policy cosolidate the boshevik rule?

Authors Avatar

How did the New Economic Policy consolidate Bolshevik rule?

The new economic policy helped the Bolsheviks consolidate power in multiple ways.

It abolished grain requisitioning, reopened small businesses and removed the ban on private trade. However there were many other ways in which the Bolsheviks consolidated their power. The leadership of the Bolsheviks was excellent with powerful figures such as Lenin and Trotsky. The Bolsheviks removed all opposition, and red terror kept people loyal to the Bolsheviks through fear and discipline. The Bolsheviks also massively increased their popularity releasing a mass of decrees and by giving the Russians what they wanted and had been promised, Peace, Land and Bread.

Although war communism had been effective in winning the Bolsheviks the civil war, it had caused terrible hardship for the Russian people. Peasants refused to produce food as it just got taken away by the government. This, along with the terrible weather of 1920 and 1921, led to a huge famine. It is estimated 7 million Russians died as a result of the famine. In February 1921 war communism sparked off mutiny at Kronstadt naval base. Trotsky put down the revolt but war communism was immediately abandoned. This is because the Kronstatd sailors had been amongst the strongest supporters of Lenin and bolshevism. Lenin recognised that changes were necessary to consolidate the Bolshevik power, and so in March 1921 Lenin announced the New Economic Policy.

Join now!

The New economic policy was very successful. It abolished grain requisitioning which meant that Peasants could now sell any surplus food they produced to the open market. This made the peasants happy as it gave them incentive to work hard and they could make more money, and it also meant that more food was available on the market for the Russian people to buy. The New economic policy allowed small businesses to be reopened under private ownership. Although this was quite a capitalist approach, it meant that Russians could earn a living, then spent what they earnt to strengthen ...

This is a preview of the whole essay