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(1921-27) "NEP" or the "New Economic Policy," proclaimed by Lenin on Aug. 9, 1921, was his masterly compromise with Capitalism, both within Russia and without. By restoring the use of money, permitting Russians to buy & sell for what the traffic would bear and letting concessions to foreign capitalists, Nikolai Lenin gave Russia a new lease on economic life. But not in time to avoid the Great Famine. Maxim Gorki appealed for food to Herbert Hoover, then chairman of the American Relief Administration (A. R. A.). It is history that during the desperate famine winter of 1921-22 the A. R. A. fed some 10,000,000 Russians, other foreign relief agencies fed 2,000,000 and the Soviet Relief Administration (S. R. A.) fed 12,000,000. On July 6, 1923 the quiet work of Comrade Stalin as Minister of Nationalities bore fruit when the Constitution of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (U. S. S. R.) was promulgated at Moscow. Couched in terms of uniting voluntarily almost one-seventh of the world under one flag, the Constitution omits mention of the Communist Party which in fact masters and rules Russia.
Lenin died Jan. 21, 1924 and three quarters of a million Russians braved 30° below zero to march past his corpse. The struggle between Trotsky and Stalin for supremacy began. It raged for four years, during which time numerous features of the NEP were modified and Soviet life became less Capitalistic, more Socialistic. In line with this trend Trotsky & Friends demanded the wiping out of the kulak or rich peasant. Stalin called their doctrines a "Left Heresy." He secured their expulsion from the Communistic Party in December 1927—then, as the new year opened Stalin proceeded to adopt Trotsky's heresy as his policy, moved ruthlessly to "liquidate the kulak as a class."
(1928-1932) "Planned Economy" is the Soviet period from Stalin's triumph over Trotsky until now. The point is not that Russia adopted a "FiveYear Plan." The point is that, spurred by Josef Stalin, Russians have pursued the socialist line of their revolution and tried to bring every function of the national life—from tractors to abortions—under the regulation of a Planned Economic Order. Its basic concept is not one but an endless series of Five-Year Plans, stretching off into remotest future. Jan. 1, 1933 is the date set for completion of the Five-Year Plan about which everyone knows. Generally speaking it has raised Soviet production above the pre-Plan level, which level was from 4% to 37% higher than the pre-War level and was far above the pit of stagnation in Russia's famine year. The Plan has marked a tremendous stride toward industrializing Russia and toward proletarianizing Russians, but the Plan has fallen and is falling short of many of its goals.*