The Crisis of the "N. E. P." in Soviet Russia

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THE cross-roads at which the economic policy of the Soviets stands today -- and with it their general policy -- was reached by wholly logical stages. When in 1921 Lenin abandoned "pure Communism," reversed his system of taxation, and decreed the "New Economic Policy" or "N. E. P." -- that is, decided to support the socialization of the Soviet economic system by permitting individualistic and capitalistic business methods -- his program assumed the correctness of a hypothesis that had never been tested. It assumed that two economic systems which in theory are hopelessly divided would in practice prove entirely compatible. Lenin's idea was that while wider and wider economic fields were methodically being brought under the sway of economic socialization, individual business should continue to fulfill such functions as socialization was not yet able to take over. This implied that socialization should extend its field of operations only when it felt itself capable of duplicating the accomplishments of private business. From the very beginning Lenin vigorously insisted on reserving for socialization the celebrated "controlling economic heights" of business, that is, industry and foreign trade. These, primarily, constituted the "socialized sector" of the economic structure. At the same time, in domestic trade Lenin created "starting points" of socialization, through state wholesale organizations; and in agriculture through the Soviet landed estates. He believed that in this way he had at the outset assured the dominance of the Bolshevik idea; and to that extent he was quite correct in advocating his N. E. P...