NEP, the Logical Sequel to the Bolshevik Seizure of Power

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.