Lenin's New Economic Policy

In order to understand Lenin's adoption of the NEP, it is necessary to appreciate Lenin's ideological commitment to international socialist revolution, the establishment of the War Communism policy (precursor of the NEP), as well as the dynamic situation of revolutionary governance in Russia from the time of the 1917 success of the Bolsheviks until 1921, when the NEP was officially adopted by the Soviet government. The strength of Lenin's ideological commitment was undoubtedly reinforced by the ineffectuality and disintegration of both the Romanoff dynasty and the provisional revolutionary government of Krenesky, which allowed Lenin's radical Bolshevik wing to appropriate revolutionary leadership and control of Russia's state apparatus. Strongly influenced by Marxist ideology, Lenin advocated "the necessity of creating a strong and active revolutionary Marxist group that would lead the proletariat in their struggle for an immediate social revolution" (Vernadsky, 1961, pp. 275-6). Invoking the slogan "peace, land, bread" and in concert with fellow B

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an geopolitical influence (p. 272). But one need not agree with Volkogonov's logic or with the view that Lenin overreached in a bid for international revolutionary power to see that the credibility of the revolution and its War Communism economy suffered under Bolshevik stewardship. The effect was to virtually guarantee War Communism's temporary nature. In this regard, Orlovsky (1997, p. 259) cites Lenin's land reform as a combination of well-meaning attempts to improve the lot of the landless peasantry and a rather ham-handed attempt to foment a peasant version of class warfare between landed peasants (kulaks) and two lower peasant tiers. Volkogonov (1994), who is generally hostile to Lenin, credits him for a commonsense approach to establishing farming cooperatives but criticizes his social engineering of a class for which he had an intellectual's contempt--all of which resulted in nothing so much as protracted intervillage, almost clannish, conflict that degenerated in 1920 to near famine and that had to be put down by the Red Army. And all of this took place in the context of party-cadre requisitioning of peasant grain stores. Public tolerance of such policies, says Husband (1997, p. 264), as well as "other emergency measure
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Some common words found in the essay are:
War Communism, Fischer Marek, Russia Lenin, War Communism's, Congress Lenin's, Policy NEP, Red Army, Communism Lenin, According Orlovsky, Undoubtedly Lenin's, war communism, fischer marek, fischer marek 1972, marek 1972, husband 1997, volkogonov 1994, 1972 146, marek 1972 146, orlovsky 1997, socialist revolution, international socialist revolution, dictatorship proletariat, international socialist, orlovsky 1997 258, beatty griffiths 1981,
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Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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