Lenin was the ultimate practitioner of dialectics and exploitation of contradictions in “capitalist” countries, and the 8-year NEP was his crowning achievement. Four years into the revolution, Soviet Russia was teetering on collapse, economically and politically. Collectivization of ag produced less than before 1917, there was no hard cu…
Lenin was the ultimate practitioner of dialectics and exploitation of contradictions in “capitalist” countries, and the 8-year NEP was his crowning achievement. Four years into the revolution, Soviet Russia was teetering on collapse, economically and politically. Collectivization of ag produced less than before 1917, there was no hard currency, nationalists in Ukraine (among others) agitated for independence, sailors in Kronstadt revolted, etc.
By appearing to soften on ideology, Lenin gained time to restore the economy. Western industries, rope in hand, rushed to set up shop in partnership with the Soviets, western central banks gladly loaned fiat currency and financed infrastructure. At the same time, independence movements were appeased with a sop to federalism by creation of a union of “republics,” the USSR. This was also the period of Operation Trust.
When the objectives had been achieved, the mask was dropped, businesses nationalized, loans defaulted, currency confiscated, etc. The NEP was followed by the inevitable terror and repression, the “liquidation of kulacs as a class,” and the purges of the Great Terror.
No matter what costume he wears, the wolf is always a carnivorous predator.
Lenin was the ultimate practitioner of dialectics and exploitation of contradictions in “capitalist” countries, and the 8-year NEP was his crowning achievement. Four years into the revolution, Soviet Russia was teetering on collapse, economically and politically. Collectivization of ag produced less than before 1917, there was no hard currency, nationalists in Ukraine (among others) agitated for independence, sailors in Kronstadt revolted, etc.
By appearing to soften on ideology, Lenin gained time to restore the economy. Western industries, rope in hand, rushed to set up shop in partnership with the Soviets, western central banks gladly loaned fiat currency and financed infrastructure. At the same time, independence movements were appeased with a sop to federalism by creation of a union of “republics,” the USSR. This was also the period of Operation Trust.
When the objectives had been achieved, the mask was dropped, businesses nationalized, loans defaulted, currency confiscated, etc. The NEP was followed by the inevitable terror and repression, the “liquidation of kulacs as a class,” and the purges of the Great Terror.
No matter what costume he wears, the wolf is always a carnivorous predator.
Excellent comment. And those that funded the Bolshevik Revolution profited on all sides of the deal.