What is NEP?
NEP is the acronym for New Economic Policy and was the economic policy followed in the Soviet Union after the end of communism in the war of 1921 and with the rise to power of Stalin in 1928. The NEP was based on small farms, industrial and commercial to the private initiative, to make the Soviet Union come out of the crisis.
The New Economic Policy has regained some traces of capitalism to fuel the nascent Soviet economy. The NEP, according to Lenin, consisted of a tactical retreat, characterized by the reestablishment of free enterprise and small private property, admitting the support of foreign financing. Lenin said “One step behind to give two ahead”.
The NEP had some principles: freedom of internal trade, freedom of wages for workers, authorization for the operation of private companies and permission to enter foreign capital for the reconstruction of the country.
The NEP came into force in 1921, it was idealized and built by Lenin, and it reinstated old capitalist practices. This economic policy reversed previous economic policies, such as the suspension of the nationalization of factories, the abandonment of the forced requisition of agricultural supplies and raw materials, the interruption of the rationing of foodstuffs and industrialized products, the end of the distribution of ration cards and tickets in place of payments in currency and direct exchanges of products.