NEP and 5-Year Plan

[btpound]

What exactly did Lenin's NEP do, and what was it that Stalin did diffrent with his 5-Year Plan

[Red Commissar]

The New Economic Plan was a backtracking by Lenin which allowed for limited market influence in the Soviet economy- mainly in the form of smaller privately owned industries and businesses. Lenin had even allowed for foreign investment. A form of currency was also introduced, and people were allowed to keep their surplus, and trade or sell it among themselves. There was also Lenin justified this by saying the Soviet Union had not approached the conditions where socialism could work correctly. The NEP could possibly be seen in the light of approaching a more mixed-economy approach.

As a result of its direction, it was opposed by figures like Trotsky, who saw it as a way for capitalism to work its way back into Russia. Other figures, like Bukharin (who was opposed to it at first), supported it later on seeing it as a necessary step to integrate the Russian peasantry to the new socialist society.

The Five-Year plan was much different. Stalin had originally come out in support of the NEP in an attempt to cast Trotsky as being too idealist and not pragmatic in matters of politics. Upon consolidating power however, Stalin ended NEP and returned to many of the policies of war communism and re-initiated collectivization. All businesses and industries were brought under state control. The five-year plans were used to, as the name suggests, provide a plan for the state. It announced their goals, how to go about achieving those goals (employment schemes, where to industrialize, which areas to improve infrastructure, etc), and which part of the economy to focus on (in Stalin's case, heavy industry). Some plans were put on longer time frames as well. In the end, economic development and in Stalin's case, rapid industrialization.

Stalin's five-year plan began a tradition of the state being central to the economy of the Soviet Union: central-planning, compared to the mixed-market approach of the NEP. The Soviet Union continued using five-year plans until its collapse, though it wasn't as brutal or drastic as it was during Stalin's time. The only thing the two shared in common was that Stalin and Lenin thought their policies were necessary for the development of the Soviet Union.

[Kléber]

A Five-Year Plan for industrialization was initially proposed by the Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky. In the mid-1920's, Stalin won the support of centrists and rightists by opposing industrialization and comparing the plan to "a peasant buying a gramophone instead of a cow." After the Left Opposition had been defeated and Trotsky exiled, Stalin switched sides in the industrialization debate and oversaw the first Five-Year Plan.

Stalin's leadership also enacted a second period of liberalization, the "Neo-NEP" beginning 1934 which experimented with greater profit incentives and a relaxation of labor discipline. Neo-NEP was abandoned in 1936.

[Uppercut]

The five-year plans relied on the input of the workers' local councils (soviets) to provide the state with information on what needs to be made, etc.. These locals councils send data to their regional soviet, then to the provincial, all the way up to Gosplan, which was the state planning commission.

The USSR fist needed to industrialize and increase the production of the means of production (tractors, factories, tools, farms, etc.). Workers were quickly given the tools they needed to produce more, and that they did.

As a side note, extra revenue left over from trade was either cross-subsidized from the heavy industrial sector to the consumer industry, or vice versa. This helped to balance out the economy, although the USSR was still lacking in consumer goods at that time. Overall, the five year plans accomplished a lot in a short amount of time.

[FSL]

As a result of its direction, it was opposed by figures like Trotsky, who saw it as a way for capitalism to work its way back into Russia.

No, it wasn't opposed by Trotsky or Bukharin.


The Five-Year plan was much different. Stalin had originally come out in support of the NEP in an attempt to cast Trotsky as being too idealist and not pragmatic in matters of politics. Upon consolidating power however, Stalin ended NEP and returned to many of the policies of war communism and re-initiated collectivization.


The oppositionists were defeated at the party for having the preposterous opinion Russia couldn't and shouldn't go on with the revolution as a result of the revolutions' defeat in Europe. The break with the rightists happened not because they generally rejected socialism in a country, but because they didn't want to move to that direction yet.




A Five-Year Plan for industrialization was initially proposed by the Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky.



Yes, to be implemented just as soon as the whole advanced world had communist revolutions. His "friend-of-the-workers" attitude did little to blur/conceal his views.

[Kléber]

Yes, to be implemented just as soon as the whole advanced world had communist revolutions. His "friend-of-the-workers" attitude did little to blur/conceal his views.
Why don't you post his "views" proving you correct if you know so much about them.

[FSL]

Why don't you post his "views" proving you correct if you know so much about them.


I've done so in the past showing him saying that it would take decades for the Soviet Union to triumph over the kulaks and the rest exploiting classes and arguing that the collectivization started without the much needed preconditions, that would be available in 10 to 15 years (these things were written in 1930) if internal and external circumstances were favourable.

But you probably chose to ignore it back then as well so I'd be bored to do it all over again.

[Kléber]

I've done so in the past showing him saying that it would take decades for the Soviet Union to triumph over the kulaks and the rest exploiting classes and arguing that the collectivization started without the much needed preconditions, that would be available in 10 to 15 years (these things were written in 1930) if internal and external circumstances were favourable."I've done so in the past" pfft.. what now, should I look up your articles on wayback machine, floyce?

Yeah, the terrorist regime used to belatedly solve an agricultural crisis (which LO policies could have prevented) set a bad precedent democracy-wise that facilitated the 1937-8 massacre of the leaders of the Bolshevik Party, which in turn streamlined the rise of careerists like Khrushchev, Brezhnev etc. to the heights of the Party.

[robbo203]

It has to be recognised though that the system of so called central planning was neverthless based on a capitalist market. A regulated market but still a market. This applied not only to consumer goods for which workers had to pay for out of their wages - wage labour being the litmust test of a capitalist system - but also in the relationships between state enterprises which were legally based contractual commercial relationships. State enterprises were in fact obliged to make a profit -managers could be penalised if they did not - with the state creaming off the surplus. As for central planning, there was not a single plan that was ever fulfilled. Most plans were simply adjusted to make it look like they were fulfilled and often plans would only be made available well into the implementation period. Central planning was essentially a myth. A large degree of decisionmaking was necessarily left to lower level structures like the state enterprises that decided on things like technical mixes and labour employment. State bodies like GOSSNAP (State Commission for Materials and Equipment Supply) were essentially supply agents for the enterprises.


In every sense of the word, Stalinist central planning was a fully capitalist system of organisation exhibiting all the primary characteristics of capitalism

[Wakizashi the Bolshevik]

The Five Year Plans were truly Socialist and collectivist reorganisations of the economy, which ended the New Economic Policies, which were a step backward and a partial return to private ownership, intended only to win the Civil War as quick a possible.

The NEP was necessary when it was implemented, but was not revolutionary, nor useful after the end of the Civil War. Lenin was planning to abandon it as soon as the situation would allow him to, but he died before that situation was reached.