Which of the following was/were the feature(s) of Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP) for the Soviet Union ? 1. Private retail trading was strictly forbidden 2. Private enterprise was strictly forbidden 3. Peasants were not allowed to sell their surplus 4. To secure liquid capital, concessions were allowed to foreign capitalists, but the State retained the option of purchasing the products of such concerns Select the correct answer using the code given below :
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 and 3
- (c)1, 2 and 4
- (d)4 only
Correct — D, 4 only. The New Economic Policy that Lenin introduced in 1921 was a deliberate partial retreat from War Communism, and every one of the first three statements describes War Communism rather than the policy that replaced it. Statements 1, 2 and 3 are therefore all false, which forces the answer to the one option that leaves only statement 4 standing. Statement 4 fits what the policy actually did on the foreign side: short of capital and equipment after seven years of world war, revolution and civil war, the Soviet state offered concessions to foreign capitalists to bring in money and technology, while keeping the commanding heights — large industry, banking and foreign trade — in its own hands and reserving its rights over what the concessionaires produced.
- (a)1 only — Private retail trade was not forbidden under the New Economic Policy — it was legalised by it. The small private traders of the period, nicknamed NEPmen, came to handle the great bulk of Soviet retail commerce within a year or so of the policy's launch. The ban on private trade belongs to War Communism, from 1918 to 1921.
- (b)2 and 3 — Both halves fail. Small private firms were permitted under the policy, subject to a ceiling on the number of workers they could employ. And the peasant was the whole point of the reform: forcible grain requisitioning was replaced by a fixed tax in kind, after which the peasant was free to sell what was left on the open market.
- (c)1, 2 and 4 — This option is right about statement 4 but carries statements 1 and 2 with it, and both of those describe the system the New Economic Policy dismantled. It is the trap for a candidate who recognises the foreign-concessions point but still pictures the Soviet economy of the 1920s as one that had banned all private activity.
War Communism, in force from 1918 to 1921 during the civil war, nationalised industry, abolished private trade and requisitioned grain from the peasantry by force. It kept the Red Army fed but wrecked production and provoked open revolt. The New Economic Policy, adopted in March 1921, replaced requisitioning with a tax in kind, legalised private retail trade and small private manufacture, and invited foreign concessions — while the state kept large-scale industry, banking and foreign trade. Lenin himself described the mixture as state capitalism and as a temporary retreat.
This item is easiest to answer by dating the statements rather than by judging them. Three of the four describe prohibitions, and prohibition of private activity is the signature of War Communism; the New Economic Policy is remembered precisely because it lifted those prohibitions. That single test disposes of statements 1, 2 and 3 together and leaves only statement 4 in play. The policy was reversed after Lenin's death: Stalin ended it from 1928 with the first Five Year Plan and forced collectivisation of agriculture.
- The New Economic Policy was adopted in 1921, replacing War Communism after the economic collapse and unrest that War Communism produced.
- Forced grain requisitioning gave way to a fixed tax in kind, leaving the peasant free to sell the surplus.
- Private retail trade and small private manufacture were permitted, while the state retained large industry, banking and foreign trade.
- Stalin abandoned the policy from 1928 in favour of the Five Year Plans and collectivisation of agriculture.
- Attaching War Communism's prohibitions to the New Economic Policy — the two are opposites and the exam relies on the confusion.
- Assuming a socialist state could not have dealt with foreign capitalists at all; the concessions policy is exactly what statement 4 records.
- Missing that three statements can all be false in a multi-statement item, which forces an apparently thin single-statement option.
World history in the GAT leans on the NCERT treatment of revolutions and industrialisation, and favours multi-statement items where dating the claim to the right phase settles it.
Consider the following statements concerning the Russian Revolution : 1. The Bolsheviks believed that in a repressive society like Tsarist Russia, the party should be disciplined and should control the number of its members. 2. The Mensheviks believed that the party should be opened to all (as in Germany). Which of the statement/s given above is/are correct ?
- (a) 1 only
- (b) 2 only
- (c) Both 1 and 2
- (d) Neither 1 nor 2
Answer(c) Both 1 and 2
The same chapter of Soviet history one stage earlier — the party Lenin built in that split is the one that had to choose between War Communism and the New Economic Policy four years later.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Under Lenin's New Economic Policy, forced requisitioning of grain from the peasantry was replaced by
- (a)collectivisation of all farms
- (b)a fixed tax in kind, after which the peasant could sell the surplus
- (c)a complete ban on private trade in grain
- (d)state purchase of the entire crop at fixed prices
Answer(b) a fixed tax in kind, after which the peasant could sell the surplus — this was the central concession that ended the peasant revolts of 1920-21.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The New Economic Policy of the Soviet Union was brought to an end by
- (a)the October Revolution
- (b)the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
- (c)Stalin's first Five Year Plan and collectivisation
- (d)the Second World War
Answer(c) Stalin's first Five Year Plan and collectivisation — launched from 1928, they replaced the policy's market elements with central planning.