Why did many Bolsheviks oppose the New Economic Policy?

by Cece

Many Bolsheviks opposed the New Economic Policy because it was not a Communist ideal. Lenin adopted a policy that encouraged a capitalist economy, when the Bolshevik’s political backing was challenged by the mutiny of the Kronstadt naval army. The rebellion of the soldiers made Lenin realise he was pressuring the people of Russia to become Communist too rapidly and he settled for trying to integrate Communism into Russia gradually. War Communism had placed strict measures on the economy and denied Russia the ability to flourish in its industrial and agricultural production.

By allowing a private market for peasants to profit on their surplus of grain, this prompted an increase in agricultural production, but the implementation of a private enterprise went against the idea that everyone would be treated equally and would be paid the same wage, as a portion of peasants became rich through the policy. In industry, small factories were sold by the state to individual owners, going against state ownership and although the large-scale production industry predominantly remained state controlled, the state industry was instructed to adapt to the demands of the market. The supply and demand aspect of industry is an important component of capitalism and this shaped the structure of the industrial manufacture. Conventionally, the Communist society doesn’t believe in the celebration of intellectuals or specialists, as they want everyone to contribute in the same fashion as the workers, yet during the NEP, experts were introduced in order to stimulate production and given a high salary for their performance. The NEP also allowed new traders and for private businesses to be set up, another facet of a capitalist economy.

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Members of the Politburo particularly disliked the NEP, as they believed Lenin had betrayed Communism by surrendering to state capitalism. Old Bolsheviks, evidently, despised the mixed monetary economy and decided to leave the party. Those who opposed the NEP believed that classes had been re-established and was not for the greater good of Russia.

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The results of the NEP in 1922 proved that the introduction of the NEP had improved the economy and restored prosperity to the country, and as a result many people were happier, tensions among the workers and the uprising of the peasants had subsided. From 1920 to 1923 factory output rose by nearly 200 per cent, industrial production had made a substantial recovery as small-scale enterprises answered to the needs of the market. However, private trading in free enterprise markets resulted in complications in 1923. Progress was off-balance, as Nepmen came to command up to three quarters of the retail trade and a surge of food in the cities brought a reduction in price of food, this was discouraging to the peasants and they became hesitant to supply food as their hard work to accumulate a surplus of crops went without reward. The value of industrial goods also increased as there was a high demand for them, but they were still in short supply, despite the growth of industry production.

The NEP was a temporary measure to sustain Bolshevik power in Russia, although the NEP was successful in most parts, the NEP led to a ‘scissors crisis’, a period of which there was conflict between the prices of agricultural and industrial goods that demotivated the peasants to produce an excess of goods. On the whole, the peasants prospered from the policy and felt they had gained control over the farming of their land without too much state interference. Additionally, there was a widespread feeling that the NEP signalled the end of Communism as Lenin had reverted to state capitalism, because the former government’s lack of capability to control a centrally directed industry and food supply, but it was outlined by Lenin and members of the Politburo the NEP would not be a permanent policy.