Vladimir
Lenin found himself in yet another precarious position in the last
days of the Russian Civil War. The economy was in ruins; the policy
of “War Communism”, which practiced the redistribution of
peasant-farmer's grains for the industrial workers and the military,
had been a complete disaster, only deepening the hunger that years of
war had forced Russians into. Something new had to be done. Whether
out of Marxist theory or pure pragmatism, Lenin proposed a “strategic
retreat” – a new policy of “tax in kind” would be the lead
into his idea of state capitalism. Lenin sought to reconcile state
capitalism under his “New Economic Policy” with Bolshevik
ideology, and also to utilize a controlled capitalism in order to
rebuild the Russian economy.
Many
Soviet citizens feared that Lenin's undertakings were a move away from
Bolshevik ideals, and Lenin needed a propaganda element in order to
win Bolshevik support. He would utilize his own writings and
argumentation to bolster support of the NEP, while simultaneously
taking harsh authoritarian measures. Lenin argued that under atypical
Marxist history, there is a linear progression of time. Russia could
not simply skip from the beginning stages of capitalism all the way
to communism. Lenin asks, rhetorically, “Can the Soviet state and
the dictatorship of the proletariat be combined with state
capitalism? Are they compatible?” and he answers his own question
with a resounding “yes.” Lenin further argues that there must be
a dictatorship of the proletariat to guide capitalism, avoiding any
further ills beyond the revival of the “petty bourgeoisie.” Lenin
writes, “Capitalism is a bane compared with socialism. Capitalism
is a boon compared with medievalism.” He appeals to the ideological
and intellectual senses of the communists, that capitalism must be
used in order to build Russia. “Those who compare state capitalism
only with socialism commit a host of mistakes.” He cautions in an
October 1921 publication, furthermore, that “We must not count on
going straight to communism.” Lenin warns in this same publication
that the Communists risk being their own worst enemies with
“communist conceit” with the belief that all problems could be
issued by empty idealism. It was not just other Communists that were
proving an issue, but resistant peasants. Lenin could not risk this
undermining of Soviet recovery, and he directed Agitprop, the
Department for Agitation and Propaganda, to undermine culture and
religion in order to bolster support for Bolsheviks as a supplement
to the New Economic Policy (Brovkin). This attack would not be
limited to merely words, and the GRU secret police also took a dual
role of monitoring Russians, and to silence dissent (Brovkin).
Lenin
hammers out the details of his economic scheme, after his attempts at
gaining ideological temperance by his comrades. Put another way, he
tries to argue the beneficial effects of a controlled capitalism for
Soviet Russia beyond ideological rectification. Lenin explains the
first element of the transition from War Communism to
state-capitalism – that of a new and incredibly lower tax. “The
correct policy of the proletariat exercising its dictator ship in a
small-peasant country is to obtain grain in exchange for the
manufactured goods the peasant needs...The tax in kind is a
transition to this policy.” Lenin points to the successes of
Western European capitalism as the most civilized, and recommends its
adoptions with key changes. Namely, profiteering would not be
illegal, but the state-capitalist system would be so closely
monitored that those who pilfer private capital would be subject to
particularly harsh punishments. The peasant farmers would also be
allowed to sell their food on an open market, as well as employing
others and expanding their farms. A greater degree of private
commerce would be allowed, and small factories would be
denationalized (Simkin). Lenin also recommends massive, large-scale
state-run initiatives for manufacture and industry, all closely
regulated, as to not become overpowered by “the anarchy of petty
bourgeois relations.”
Lenin
eloquently attempted to make the case for concessions to capitalism,
alienating many of his allies but at the same time hoping to save
Soviet Russia from collapse. He expended massive effort, both in
terms of propaganda to support his ideas as well as their
implementation. Ultimately, Lenin's New Economic Policy would prove
decently successful at restoring the Russian economy, but only to the
level it had been in the first World War. Nevertheless, his successor
Josef Stalin would quickly get rid of Lenin's concessions to
capitalism and implement his own ideas – the first Five-Year Plan
(Simkin). With Lenin's death, so too died the brief taste of a
greater economic freedom and recovery.
Sources cited:
Brovkin,
Vladimir. “Russia After Lenin.” eBook.
[http://www.revalvaatio.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/brovkin-russia_after_lenin_politics_culture_society_1921-1929.pdf],
accessed 6 Nov. 2012.
Lenin, Vladimir.
“The Tax In Kind.” 21 Apr. 1921. Course material; provided
reading.
Lenin,
Vladimir. “The New Economic Policy.” 17 Oct. 1921. Web.
[http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1921/oct/17.htm],
accessed 6 Nov. 2012.
Simkin,
John. “New Economic Policy.” Web.
[http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSnep.htm],
accessed 6 Nov. 2012.
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