On March 16, 1921, the X Congress of the RCP (b) was closed.

Its participants decided to replace the surplus appropriation system with a tax in kind, which ended the era of war communism and launched a new economic policy in Soviet Russia.

War communism and the X Congress

Food problems in Russia arose during the First World War.

Against the backdrop of two revolutions and the Civil War, they escalated.

Beginning in 1918, the Bolsheviks tried to solve them by resorting to the policy of War Communism.

It involved the establishment of a food dictatorship by government agencies, a ban on the free sale of grain and, most importantly, forcing the peasants to surrender their "surplus" food at fixed prices.

Since 1919, in Soviet Russia, a system of centralized distribution over certain territories of the norms for the supply of products to the state, known as surplus appropriation, began to operate.

At the same time, the norms for the delivery of food were often calculated without taking into account the real capabilities of the peasants, and the banknotes that were used to pay for food quickly depreciated.

Therefore, surplus appropriations often turned into force requisitions carried out by special food detachments and local authorities known as kombedy (committees of the poor).

The situation became especially acute in 1920-1921.

Prior to this, the peasants feared that the victory of the white movement would lead to the confiscation of their land in favor of the landlords.

However, after the White Guard was defeated in the South of Russia, the threat disappeared, and the peasants saw no point in continuing the policy of war communism and surplus appropriation.

Moreover, protest sentiments penetrated the army and navy, which were largely staffed by people from peasants.

At the same time, the Bolsheviks still needed food to support city dwellers, workers and the military.

A wave of anti-Bolshevik uprisings swept across Russia.

“The farm was at zero or close to that.

There was not enough food or ore, and if they were available, there was no way to bring them to where they were needed.

The Bolshevik elites began to realize that they could not rule a country that no longer wants to live without a livelihood and prospects for improving the situation, "said Alexander Krushelnitsky, associate professor of the Russian State Humanitarian University, in an interview with RT.

The situation escalated to the maximum at the beginning of March 1921, when the troops of the Kronstadt garrison and the crews of the Baltic Fleet ships in Kronstadt rebelled.

The Bolsheviks could not agree with the participants in the Kronstadt mutiny and threw military units that remained loyal to the authorities against them.

  • Peasants hand over grain for surplus at the dumping point of the Makugino railway station

  • RIA News

The socio-economic situation in the country became one of the central topics at the X Congress of the RCP (b), which opened on March 8, 1921 in Moscow.

After discussing the problems of party building, agitation and the development of trade unions, the participants in the congress moved on to food policy.

Vladimir Lenin made a report on this issue.

He stressed that the situation of the peasants had become extremely difficult, and made it clear that "only an agreement with the peasantry can save the socialist revolution in Russia."

In this regard, he called for replacing the surplus with a less burdensome tax in kind and allowing the free exchange of surplus food within the "local economic turnover."

In addition, the participants of the X Congress criticized the activities of the food detachments, and also recognized the expediency of carrying out monetary reform and restoring full-fledged foreign economic activity.

Lenin's proposals were officially supported.

“It should be noted that initially there was no unanimous support for the new economic policy among the Bolsheviks.

In particular, Leon Trotsky opposed it.

But Lenin was able to insist on his own, "- emphasized the professor of Moscow State Pedagogical University Vasily Tsvetkov.

  • IN AND.

    Lenin, K.E.

    Voroshilov, L. D.

    Trotsky and others are among the delegates to the 10th Party Congress of the RCP (b) who returned after the suppression of the Kronstadt uprising.

  • © Wikimedia

The congress ended on March 16, 1921.

Immediately after its completion, the executive authorities began to implement specific measures aimed at changing the economic policy in the country.

“It was necessary to give people hope and back it up with real changes for the better,” stressed Alexander Krushelnitsky.

New economic policy

Fulfilling the decisions of the 10th Congress, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on March 21, 1921 adopted a decree "On the replacement of food and raw materials distribution with a tax in kind."

The document officially terminated the surplus appropriation system, introduced a progressive natural tax, abolished circular property liability in villages, replacing it with an individual one, and also - allowed peasants to freely use food and fodder stocks "to improve and strengthen their economy."

According to the associate professor of the Faculty of History of Moscow State University named after M.V.

Lomonosov Yuri Shchetinov, the transition to the new economic policy was carried out gradually.

In May 1921, the Council of People's Commissars carried out a partial denationalization of small enterprises and launched the process of decentralization of production.

In the provinces that completed the surplus allocation over the past year, trade in agricultural products and other goods was allowed.

In August, in order to ensure profitability of production, the Soviet government transferred most of the large state enterprises to self-financing.

Factories and plants received the right to sell their products at self-determined prices, as well as create trusts and syndicates.

In less than a year and a half, 90% of large industrial enterprises have united in 421 trusts.

At the same time, cash wages were restored at enterprises.

Individuals, cooperatives and artels could lease state-owned enterprises.

And the former owners of non-functioning nationalized enterprises were given the opportunity to return them to their ownership.

In 1922, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee introduced official legal guarantees for private owners, and the peasants were able to use hired labor and take additional land plots for short-term rent.

  • 1923 gold ducat, named "The Sower"

  • © Wikimedia / Anton Fedorovich Vasyutinsky

Another important economic innovation was the monetary reform carried out in 1922-1924.

Within its framework, a hard currency was introduced into circulation - the chervonets, equated to ten-ruble gold coins of the tsarist minting.

Their emission was based on the growth of production and trade.

New banknotes were provided with precious metals and foreign currency.

In addition, within the framework of the implementation of the new economic policy, it was allowed to create commercial banks and joint stock companies.

A wide network of trade enterprises and fairs was revived in the country, commodity exchanges appeared.

The share of private trade in retail turnover reached, according to various estimates, from 40 to 80%.

As historians note, the NEP began to change the social structure of society.

According to the 1926 census, representatives of the "non-agricultural bourgeoisie" and members of their families accounted for about 1.6% of the population of the USSR, or about 2.34 million people.

A stratum of prosperous peasants was formed in the villages.

In the 1920s, the level of industrial development of the Soviet Union began to approach that which existed in Russia before the First World War.

“NEP had a strong impact on Soviet society as a whole.

It was a breath of freedom.

The old intelligentsia revived, various magazines began to be published, ”noted Yuri Shchetinov.

  • Painting "The Napmans".

    Artist V. V. Lebedev, 1926, Russian Museum (St. Petersburg)

The gross agricultural output in 1921-1927 almost doubled, and the food deficit was eliminated.

According to Alexander Krushelnitsky, despite the positive dynamics in industry and agriculture, the NEP could not eliminate a number of socio-economic problems.

As historians note, the flourishing of private trade irritated many ordinary participants in the October Revolution and the Civil War.

And attempts by the authorities to raise prices for industrial products sold to agricultural producers have led to a surge of discontent among peasants.

In addition, the NEP could not solve the problem of a qualitative breakthrough in the country's industrial development.

Therefore, in the late 1920s, the Soviet leadership began to gradually abandon it, and in 1931, it banned private trade.

The USSR completely switched over to the policy of industrialization and collectivization.

“Continuing the NEP policy meant condemning oneself to a long, evolutionary path of development.

Part of the party leadership believed that during this time external forces could eat the USSR in an effort to seize the resources that it possessed.

Re-equipping the army and developing the military economy under the conditions of the NEP was a failed idea, ”summed up Alexander Krushelnitsky.