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NEP, the Logical Sequel to the Bolshevik Seizure of Power

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Abstract

The New Economic Policy (NEP) was a sequel to the nature of the Bolshevik Revolution. The seizure of power was not by the workers, but in their name by a small group of radicalized intelligentsia representing a single party substituting for a class. A minority from the start and necessarily coercive, the regime considered all political dissidence to be counter revolutionary. At the same time, the Bolsheviks were strangers to the vast majority of the peasantry. A substantial part of the latter was coerced to deliver food to the government, which led to mass dissatisfaction, unrest and finally armed uprising. In order to change the situation, NEP was introduced in 1921. Administered socialism was replaced by the laws of the market, including the wage system. Lenin realized that the country did not yet have the necessary material foundation for constructing socialism. That foundation had first to be created and NEP was intended to inaugurate it.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    V.I. Lenin, (1917) “Extraordinary All Russia Congress of Soviets of Peasant Deputies”, Selected Works, vol. 2, p. 447, Moscow: Progress Publishers.

  2. 2.

    V.I. Lenin, (1917) ‘The Tasks of the Proletariat in our Revolution’, Selected Works, vol. 2, p. 37, and the Seventh Conference of R.S.D.L., Selected Works, vol. 2, Moscow: Progress Publishers, p. 68.

  3. 3.

    V.I. Lenin, (1917) Selected Works, vol. 2, Moscow: Progress Publishers, p. 37.

  4. 4.

    Oskar Anweiler, Die Rätebewegung in Russland 1905–1921, Leiden: E.J.Brill, 1958, pp. 258–259. In a relatively recent work, the eminent historian Alexander Rabinowitch reports that the delegates to the Second Congress were asked to fill out personal questionnaires, one of which concerned the type of government they would like to see. Tabulation of the responses showed that the overwhelming number committed to supporting transfer of “all power to the Soviets.” That is, creation of a Soviet government reflecting party composition of the Congress, a Soviet government uniting all socialist elements (The Bolsheviks Come to Power, 2004, pp. 139, 167, 291–292). For his part, the eminent historian Moshe Lewin observed that “the opposition to the seizure of power by the Bolsheviks alone was more significant within Lenin’s own party than is commonly thought.” (Moshe Lewin, The Making of the Soviet System, New York: Pantheon Books, 1985, p. 194).

  5. 5.

    V.I. Lenin, Selected Works (hereafter SW) vol. 2, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 348; Izbrannye Proizvedeniya (hereafter IP) vol. 2, Moscow: Izdatel’stvo politicheskoi literaturi 1982, pp. 345, 346. Hanna Arendt very pertinently remarks: “Without Lenin’s slogan ‘all power to the Soviets,’ there would never have been an October Revolution in Russia. But whether or not Lenin was sincere in proclaiming the Soviet Republic, the fact of the matter was even then his slogan was in complete contradiction to the openly proclaimed revolutionary goals of the Bolshevik Party to ‘seize power’. That is, to replace the state machinery with the party apparatus.” See Arendt, On Revolution, New York:Viking Press, 1963, p. 269.

  6. 6.

    Lenin SW, vol. 2, p. 369.

  7. 7.

    Lenin SW, vol. 2, p. 169.

  8. 8.

    Lenin SW, vol. 2, p. 385.

  9. 9.

    Victor Serge, Mémoires d’un révolutionnaire, Paris: Robert Laffont, 2001, p. 832.

  10. 10.

    Oskar Anweiler, Die Rätebewegung in Russland 1905–1921, Leiden: Brill 1958, p. 139.

  11. 11.

    Oskar Anweiler, 1958, p. 84.

  12. 12.

    Oskar Anweiler, 1958, p. 85.

  13. 13.

    Anweiler, 1958, p. 92.

  14. 14.

    Anweiler, 1958, pp. 92, 93, 94.

  15. 15.

    Getzler, Israel, Martov : The Political Biography of a Russian Social Democrat, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 109.

  16. 16.

    Deutscher, Isaac, The Prophet Armed: Trotsky 1879–1921, New York: Oxford University Press, 1963, p. 518. Emphasis added.

  17. 17.

    Cited by Bukharin as an example of “breach of party discipline.” See Bukharin O kharktere nashei revoliutsi (On the character of our revolution) in Izbrannye Proizvedeniya, Moscow: Politizdat, 1988, p. 299. Emphasis in original.

  18. 18.

    Schumpeter, Joseph, Socialism, Capitalism and Democracy, New York: Harper, 1950, pp. 329–330.

  19. 19.

    Lenin at the Tenth Congress of the R.C.P. (B)March 8–16, 1921 in SW vol. 3, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971, p. 583.

  20. 20.

    Borkenau, Franz, World Communism: A History of the Communist International, University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, 1962, pp. 186, 187, 188.

  21. 21.

    Borkenau, 1962, p. 89, who makes the interesting remark: “Bakunin had already preached centralised, clandestine organisation of selected revolutionaries. He had attempted to create it in the West, among members of the First International. His argument was that a mass movement is inevitably shifting, uncertain and half-bourgeois, and that only a clandestine group of selected, disciplined revolutionaries can guarantee revolutionary purity” (Borkenau 1962, p. 33).

  22. 22.

    Roy Medvedev, The October Revolution , New York: Columbia University Press, 1979, pp. 168–169.

  23. 23.

    Alec Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, Penguin, 1982, pp. 59–60.

  24. 24.

    Dobb, Maurice, Soviet Economic Development since 1917, New York: International Publishers, 1966, pp. 104, 105, 117, 118.

  25. 25.

    N. Shmelev and V. Popov, Revitalization of the Soviet Economy, New York: Doubleday 1989, p. 7.

  26. 26.

    V. I. Lenin, ‘The Tasks of the Youth League’ (1920, October 2) in Selected Works, vol. 3, 1971, p. 483.

  27. 27.

    Lorenz, Richard, Sozialgeschichte der Sowietunion, vol. 1, 1917–1945. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag 1976. pp. 119–120. Emphasis added.

  28. 28.

    Carr, E.H. The Bolshevik Revolution, vol. 2 London: Macmillan, 1963, p. 271.

  29. 29.

    In this connection it is interesting to read what Alec Nove has written on Lenin’s reaction when faced with the peasant unrest as found in his notes, 1794 vs.1921. “The Jacobins, in the French revolution, had found that the terror and economic centralization had lost their raison d’ȇtre with the victory of 1794. The beneficiaries of the revolution, the more prosperous peasants, pressed for relaxation and freedom to make money. This had swept away Robespierre, and the whole revolution moved to the right after the ‘Thermidor’ (the month of Robespierre’s downfall).” (Nove 1982, p. 81).

  30. 30.

    Daniels, Robert V. The Conscience of the Revolution, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1960, p. 144.

  31. 31.

    Getzler, Israel, Kronstadt 1917–1921: The Fate of a Soviet Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983, pp. 257–258.

  32. 32.

    See N. Shmelev and V. Popov, 1989, p. 8.

  33. 33.

    Nove, 1982, p. 85.

  34. 34.

    E.H. Carr and R.W. Davies, Foundations of a Planned Economy, vol. 1, London: Penguin Books, 1974, p. 665.

  35. 35.

    E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution, vol. 2, London: Macmillan, 1963, p. 195.

  36. 36.

    E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution, vol. 2 London: Macmillan, 1963, p. 295.

  37. 37.

    Shmelev and Popov, Revitalizing the Soviet Economy, New York: Doubleday 1989, p. 13.

  38. 38.

    Nove, 1982, p. 96.

  39. 39.

    Shmelev and Popov, 1989, p. 18.

  40. 40.

    Lenin SW, vol. 3, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971, p. 568.

  41. 41.

    Lenin SW, vol. 3, 1971, p. 569.

  42. 42.

    Lenin SW, vol. 3, 1971, p. 572.

  43. 43.

    Lenin SW, vol. 3, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971, p. 600.

  44. 44.

    Lenin SW, vol. 3, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971, p. 607.

  45. 45.

    V.I. Lenin, 17th Moscow Gubernia Conference, in Collected Works, vol. 33, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1973, pp. 94, 99. Emphasis added.

  46. 46.

    V.I. Lenin, Report to the 9th Congress of the soviets, December, 1921, in Collected Works, vol. 33, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1973, p. 156.

  47. 47.

    V.I. Lenin, Report to the 9th Congress of the soviets, Collected Works, vol. 33, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1973, pp. 158, 160.

  48. 48.

    V.I. Lenin, ‘On Co-operation’, Selected Works, vol. 3, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971, p. 765.

  49. 49.

    Marx, “Konspekt von Bakunins Buch ‘Staatlichkeit und Anarchie’” (1874–1875) in Marx-Engels-Werke vol. 18, Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1973, p. 633.

  50. 50.

    Marx, ‘Preface’ to the Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859) in Marx and Engels Selected Works in One Volume, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1970, p. 182.

  51. 51.

    Marx, ‘Die moralisierende Kritik und die kritisierende Moral’ (1847) in Marx-Engels-Werke, vol. 4 Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1972, p. 339.

  52. 52.

    Marx, Grundrisse (1857–1858) in Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy (Rough Draft) Penguin 1993, p. 159.

  53. 53.

    Marx, “Die moralisierende Kritik”, p. 339.

  54. 54.

    Marx and Engels, ‘Die deutsche Ideologie’ (1845–1846) in Marx-Engels-Werke, vol. 3, Berlin: Dietz Verlag 1973b, pp. 38–39.

  55. 55.

    Marx, Ökonomische Manuskripte (1863–1867) MEGA2.4.1, Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1988, p. 216.

  56. 56.

    Marx, Ökonomisch-philosophische Manuskripte (1844) in MEW, Ergänzungsband, Part I, Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1973. p. 575.

  57. 57.

    Marx, Grundrisse (1857–1858), Penguin 1993, p. 749.

  58. 58.

    Marx, 1965, p. 135.

  59. 59.

    Marx, 1970, p. 182.

  60. 60.

    Marx, Part of the passage beginning with “advice … social production” is in English in the manuscript of Grundrisse, 1993, p. 749.

  61. 61.

    Marx, ‘Preface’ to A Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy (1859) in Marx and Engels Selected Works in One Volume, 1970, p. 182.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    V.I. Lenin, “Political Report at the Extraordinary Seventh Congress of the Party” (1918) in Selected Works, vol. 2. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1975, p. 529.

  64. 64.

    V.I. Lenin, “Eleventh Congress of the Party” (1922) in Selected Works, vol. 3. Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971, p. 705.

  65. 65.

    E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution vol. 2, London: Macmillan, 1963, p. 185.

  66. 66.

    V.I. Lenin, “Integrated Economic Plan” (1921) in Selected Works, vol. 3, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1971, p. 561.

  67. 67.

    E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution, vol. 2, London: Macmillan, 1963, p. 92.

  68. 68.

    E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution, vol. 2, London: Macmillan, 1963, p. 270.

  69. 69.

    E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution, vol. 2, London: Macmillan,1963, p. 322.

  70. 70.

    E.H. Carr, The Bolshevik Revolution, vol. 2, London: Macmillan, 1963, p. 323.

  71. 71.

    Marx, Capital, a Critique of Political Economy, vol. 1, Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1954(1867), p. 84. Translation slightly modified. Emphasis added.

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada

    Paresh Chattopadhyay

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  1. Avignon, France

    Tom Rockmore

  2. Independent scholar, AL, USA

    Norman Levine

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Chattopadhyay, P. (2018). NEP, the Logical Sequel to the Bolshevik Seizure of Power. In: Rockmore, T., Levine, N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Leninist Political Philosophy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-51650-3_17

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