The Problem of Market Relations and the State in Revolutionary Russia

1994 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
William G. Rosenberg
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Social Order ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Exchange ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Rosetta Stone ◽  
Western Discourse ◽  
Market Relations

If the market has emerged in current Soviet and Western discourse as a notional Rosetta stone capable of deciphering the coded blueprints of post-Soviet reconstruction, its apparent destruction by the Bolsheviks during the Civil War and subsequent resurrection under the New Economic Policy (NEP) is often seen as a similarly defining element of the whole early Soviet project. As many would have it, the party's initial urge to control entirely the whole complex of economic exchange relations firmly situates Soviet totalitarianism in a Leninist political economy. The brutal repression of free traders and the mindless nationalization of production clearly evidences the calamitous utopianism of Bolshevik class-based ideology, while the reemergence after 1921 of limited market mechanisms, even if only a reluctant concession to political weakness and economic devastation, opened alternative paths to a non-Stalinist Soviet modernity involving elements of a civil social order. In a phrase, reified conceptions of the market broadly shape historical constructions of a unique and problematic Soviet past, just as they purportedly demonstrate what is peculiar about the post-Soviet present and necessary for the future.

scholarly journals NEP MODEL OF MODERNIZATION: ON THE ISSUE OF OPPORTUNITIES AND PROBLEMS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF PEASANT-COSSACK FARMS IN THE SOUTH OF RUSSIA)

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-55
Author(s):  
Yu.A. Yakhutl
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
The State ◽  
The South ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
Restoration Potential ◽  
History Of ◽  
Market Relations

The article is devoted to a new economic policy (1921-1929) in the context of interrupted market modernization in the history of Russia and the beginning of a state-planned modernization (end of the 1920s - 1950s). The determining factor in the system of spending reforms of the 1920-s was the level of development of market relations in the agrarian sector of the NEP economy, which was largely determined by the degree of activity of the state and peasant-cossack farms, which capable of implementing food, land and tax policies. One of the conditions for the successful completion of the initiated reforms was the creation of its social base - support of reforms by political allies in the city and the village. It should be noted that the reforms of the 1920-s had their own regional characteristics. Thus, the new economic policy in the south of Russia has acquired lineaments due to special forms of land use, estate relations, and a hidden policy of decossackization by the Bolsheviks. By the mid-1920-s agriculture, as the main branch of the Russian economy, having exhausted its restoration potential, did not have the opportunity to develop independently without financial and organizational assistance from the state, while remaining the main source of socialist accumulation. The formation of new economic relations within the framework of the reforms of 1921-1929 became another attempt in the history of modernization of Russia, including the agricultural sector of the economy, which were forcibly completed by the ruling party through total collectivization.

Russian Protectionism: Problems of Institutional Heritage

2012 ◽  
pp. 96-114
Author(s):  
L. Tsedilin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Foreign Trade ◽  
Economic Integration ◽  
The State ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Monopoly ◽  
The Times ◽  
Soviet Experience

The article analyzes the pre-revolutionary and the Soviet experience of the protectionist policies. Special attention is paid to the external economic policy during the times of NEP (New Economic Policy), socialist industrialization and the years of 1970-1980s. The results of the state monopoly on foreign trade and currency transactions in the Soviet Union are summarized; the economic integration in the frames of Comecon is assessed.

The New Economic Policy and Permanent Migration in Zhejiang Province, China

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiushi Yang
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Zhejiang Province ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Permanent Migration ◽  
The Impact

This article examines the impact of economic reforms on the volume and characteristics of permanent migration in Zhejiang Province, China. The data suggest that the new economic policy induced a surge in permanent migration during the post-reform years. Such positive impact of the reform on permanent migration has started to fade away in 1985, as government relaxed its control over residence. Moreover, market mechanisms started playing a more important role in employment, exchange, and consumption. The data also suggest that the new economic policy has particularly favored the better educated, and thereby increased educational differentials between permanent migrants and nonmigrants. For all other characteristics examined, the results show consistently that post-reform migrants are less differentiated from nonmigrants than their pre-reform counterparts.

scholarly journals THE CRIMINAL SITUATION IN UKRAINE DURING THE NEP

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-104
Author(s):  
Mykola Bondarchuk
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Organized Crime ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Situation ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
Destructive Processes ◽  
Historical Methods

The purpose of the study is a comprehensive analysis of the measures taken by the relevant Soviet authorities in the USSR during the period of the new economic policy (NEP) in order to eliminate the manifestations of organized crime. Objectives of the study: to determine the main causes of banditry and its manifestations in Soviet Ukraine in the NEP; to explore the ways and methods of struggle of the Soviet power against it. The methodological basis of the study are general scientific (logical, comparative), and special historical methods (problem-chronological). They allowed to determine this period, in which the problem of organized crime is studied specifically, in chronological and logical order. Comparative analysis was used to study individual phenomena of this process. The study is also based on the principles of scientificity, historicism and objectivity. The scientific novelty of the study is that for the first time a comprehensive analysis of the manifestations of organized crime in Soviet Ukraine in 1921-1928 and ways to combat them was carried out. New archival documents on this issue and materials of periodicals of those years were put into scientific circulation. An attempt has been made to give an objective, unbiased assessment of these phenomena and the actions of the Soviet authorities in those years. Conclusions. The new economic policy of the Soviet state during the 1920's was implemented against the background of increasing manifestations of various social anomalies. The struggle against them took place in a difficult socio-economic situation in which the society found itself after the First World War. According to the analysis of the archival sources, the Soviet authorities attached great importance to these measures, and first of all to their termination. These problems were caused by various factors, but primarily by the destructive processes in society itself and the struggle of the Bolsheviks for the establishment of their power. This also applies to the events of the recent Civil War in the former Russian Empire and the state liberation struggle in Ukraine in 1917-1921. One of the main reasons for the growth of organized crime was a difficult economic situation caused by the effects of military communism. In the period under study, namely in the first half of the 1920's, the process of formation of the law enforcement system of the Soviet power took place. The main burden of responsibility for the state of the criminogenic situation in the country rested with the local police.

scholarly journals Attitude to the New Economic Policy in the RCP (B) Party Organizations of the Vyatka Gubernia in 1921-1923: Archival Materials

2020 ◽  
pp. 169-179
Author(s):  
Yuri N. Timkin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
Clear Understanding ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Party Organizations ◽  
Archival Documents ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Military

Drawing on archival materials from the State Archive of the Kirov Region and the State Archive of Social and Political History of the Kirov Region, the article analyzes attitudes to the New Economic Policy (NEP) in the party organizations of the RCP (B) of the Vyatka guberina in 1921. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that the author draws on archival documents to investigate the attitude of communists to the decision of the X Congress of the RCP (B) to replace surplus tax by tax in kind (prodnalog) and other measures for the development of the NEP in 1921. It turns out that party workers in position of responsibility and ordinary members of the party, as a rule, understood and perceived the NEP in their own way, reading into it the interests and needs of different social and professional groups. Moreover, there emerged some ideological differences due to different understanding of the political goals of the New Economic Policy. For the first time in local historiography, the author has introduced into scientific use some previously unknown archival facts. The analysis of the archival material allows the author to conclude that the attitude to the NEP of party workers in position of responsibility and of rank-and-file members differed. If the “top” of the party discussed the ideological aspects of the NEP, the “bottom” members, as a rule, were interested in its practical orientation. There was no unanimous support for the NEP not just among the responsible party workers, but also among the rank-and-file members. The author comes to the conclusion that the lack of clear understanding of the nature of the New Economic Policy caused disagreements in the party ranks, which, in absence of the tradition of broad discussion of controversial issues, was fraught with danger of a split. The Military Communism ideology and low literacy (including political one) that prevailed in the party ranks did not promote good understanding of the new party course and its creative application under specific regional conditions. Critics and open opponents of the NEP faced “organizational conclusions.”

The role of social communications in the modernization of the Russian village in the 1920s (based on the materials of the Bryansk, Smolensk, Gomel, Oryol and Kursk provinces)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (10-4) ◽  
pp. 93-103
Author(s):  
Vadim Kulachkov ◽  
Irina Goncharova ◽  
German Chuvardin
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Rural Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
Communication Models ◽  
Social Communications ◽  
The Village

The article examines the role of social communications in the modernization of the Russian village in the 1920s, which were used by the authorities to transform rural life and form “Pro-Soviet” attitudes in the village. On the basis of archived data, we analyze communication models and determine the political and social order in this area. It is proved that the achievement of optimal results was hindered by material, financial and technical problems of the period of the new economic policy.

Russian Reforms: Comparing the New Economic Policy Period to Post-Soviet Russia

2010 ◽  
pp. 82-99
Author(s):  
Yu. Goland
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
State Regulation ◽  
Market Reforms ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
Production Growth ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Market Relations

The article compares market reforms during the New Economic Policy (NEP) period in the 1920s to Post-Soviet Russia in relation to the transformation of institutions and economic policy. The consecutive stages in the development of NEP and Post-Soviet Russia are identified. The differences in the ideology and practice of financial stabilization in both periods leading to the production growth under NEP and economic fall in the 1990s are considered. Benefits of the combination of state regulation and market relations at the first stage of NEP and the lack of such combination in the 1990s are demonstrated. At the same time, excessive state intervention in the economy led to the erosion of NEP and hampers economy efficiency in modern Russia.

Soviet Schools: Policy Pursues Practice, 1921–1928

Slavic Review ◽  
1989 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 234-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Larry E. Holmes
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
School Policy ◽  
The State ◽  
October Revolution ◽  
New Economic Policy ◽  
New Era ◽  
Party Members

Many Bolsheviks heralded the October Revolution of 1917 as the beginning of a new era in history; by 1921, however, much of this optimism had disappeared. Civil war, peasant rebellion, empty factories, closed schools, strikes in the industrial establishments that had survived, and the Kronstadt Revolt made many party members weary and cynical. A few, however, stubbornly adhered to an untarnished vision of a grand future. They could be found especially among those officials responsible for primary and secondary schools at the Commissariat of Enlightenment (Narkompros). Anatolii V. Lunacharskii, commissar of enlightenment from 1917 to 1929; Nadezhda K. Krupskaia, his chief assistant for school policy; and their colleagues still believed that they possessed the means to reshape not only the schools but also human behavior and society. While the party engineered a calculated retreat with the New Economic Policy (NEP) and the state slashed the educational budget, Narkompros remained determined to challenge the present and storm the future. It did so by launching a program of sweeping changes in the content and methods of school instruction. With a faith it hoped was infectious, Narkompros assumed that teachers would follow its lead. It would not be so simple.

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