September 30, 2018 Sunday
Bedtime Story
Discarding of NEP during the "Great Break"
Stalin was not impressed with the results
of NEP particularly when the Soviet Union was facing the Grain Procurement Crisis
of 1928.
Even though the years from 1922 to 1926
were fairly successful for the Soviet agriculture by returning to the free
market policy, the 1928 grain shortage was the testimony to this “fact” that
NEP was not working.
By 1926 the agricultural production had
reached the pre-revolutionary levels, cereal grain production had returned to
pre war levels and livestock populations at least for pigs and sheep had
returned to normalcy while the count of horses was gradually picking up.
For reasons not clear to me the January of
1928 saw a slump in the production of wheat, rye and other cereal crops or at
least it seemed to be inadequate in the eyes of the planners of the state
economy.
At that time the industrial production of
basic farm and household items and consumer goods had dropped drastically since
during the war time the entire production was targeted to cater to wartime
demands setting aside the needs of average consumers.
This had led to the scissor effect or the
scissor crisis which meant that there was an ever widening gap between the
prices of the industrial goods and the agricultural products; the industrial
prices were soaring high and the agricultural prices were dropping down.
The drop in the agricultural prices was
actually a reflection of the successful NEP policies that greatly favored
peasants to grow and sell their products, at least till the January of
1928.
On a map this gave the appearance of the
blades of a pair of open scissors and the term was coined by the Extreme Left
Communist and a harsh critic of NEP Leon Trotsky.
This meant that the rural peasants were
unable to buy manufactured goods from their incomes and thus fearing recession
or famine they resorted to subsistence farming which meant that instead of
growing cereals for selling they began to grow it only for their consumption.
So the party thought of the obvious; now is
the time to get rid of the NEP and spearhead rapid industrialization along with
collectivization of agriculture which meant that the individual landholders and
owners of cattle stock were forced to sacrifice their private property into
collective farms known as kolkhozy or sovkhozy.
This 1928/29 event is now known as the
Great Turn or Great Break from the title of an article written by Stalin “God
velikava pereloma” or the “year of the Great Turn”.
Bukharin had himself sided with Stalin
against the Left Opposition that consisted of Leon Trotsky, Grigory Zinoviev
and Lev Kamanev which in turn favored Stalin to amass unchecked power within
the elite of the party.
Very soon Stalin would turn against NEP and
thereby Bukharin leaving the later completely outmaneuvered.
In 1928/29 when Stalin now in total command
of the party introduced a new policy of The Great Turn or Great Break, it
signaled the end of NEP.
Lenin’s idea of creating a socialized state
that would operate on “a profit basis” was discarded into the dustbin of
history.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
