New Economic Policy

:For the Malaysian New Economic Policy, see Malaysian New Economic Policy.

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The 10th Congress of the Russian Communist Party. It was promulgated by decree on March 21 1921, "On the Replacement of Foodstuff and Natural Resource Assessment by a Natural Tax." In essence, the decree required the peasantry to give the government a specified amount of any surplus agricultural, raw product, and fodder, and allowed them to keep the remaining surplus to use as capital or to trade for industrial goods. Further decrees refined the policy and expanded it to include some industries.

Related Topics:
Russian Communist Party - March 21 - 1921

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The NEP restored some private ownership to small parts of the economy, especially farming. It replaced the policy of "War Communism", which had been used during the Russian civil war and which was deemed unsustainable in an underdeveloped country like Russia, with a kind of "Market Socialism", whereby nationalised (government owned) industries were allowed to operate autonomously, while a market system was introduced in agriculture. To explain the NEP, Lenin had said "We are not civilized enough for socialism", referring to the fact that Russia was still a primarily agrarian nation, with a very small urban population and a weak industrial base, and thus it did not meet the economic criteria necessary for full socialism. Lenin further justified the introduction of the NEP by declaring that the "commanding heights" of industry, that is, the large factories producing coal, iron, electricity etc., would still be under state control.

Related Topics:
Russian civil war - Nationalised

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