Govt. kept control of
'commanding heights' of
the economy: heavy
industry, banking and
foreign trade
Veshenka (Supreme Council of
National Economy) still
exercised control over
independent factories
Money restored
as the principal
means of
exchange
1922: newly valued rouble introduced
Failures
Industry failed to grow at the
same rate as agriculture which
led to the scissor crisis
High unemployment in industrial centres (outside NEPmen)
During scissor crisis peasants had to sell their grain at artificially low prices.
Lenin was afraid the peasants would lose the incentive to produce excess
food.
Production figures
provided may have
been distorted to
highlight the
successes of the
scissor crisis.
NEP recreated the hated Kulak class
1923: and industrial census of 165,000 enterprises showed 88.5% of them
in private hands. But the state employed 85% of all workers, and, as Lenin
put it, controlled the 'commanding heights' of the economy.
Communists complained the
NEP was merely state
capitalism & in no sense
organised on the communist
motto 'from each according
to his ability, to each
according to his needs'
Since 1920 an effort had been made to do without a banking
system. At the end of 1921, a new state bank had to be
created to provide finance for industry, but it was a long time
before it could function adequately.
In this period heavy industry was neglected in favour of consumer
goods of light industry. At the end of 1922 some mines were having
to dismiss workers because they could no pay wages and could get
no credit from the state bank.
Performance in heavy
metallurgical industry
was disastrous - less
than 10% of what it had
been before the war.
Prostitution flourished under the NEP men
Successes
Increase in both
industrial & agricultural
production within 3
years - by 1923 cereal
production increased by
23%
More food was brought into cities
1920 - 1923 factory output rose by 200%
The Scissors
Crisis of 1923
did not last
long, the
govt took
action to
bring
industrial
prices down
and started
to take the
peasant tax
in cash
rather than
in kind
The peasants did well out of the NEP. After the famine, there was rapid recovery with trade between
villages. Peasants could also make money through NEP men (by 1923 they handled 3/4 of all retail trade)
It seemed to the
peasants that they
had won back their
villages - thy could
farm their land
without too much
interference from
the govt.