NEP. - Abbreviation for Novaja ekonomičeskaja politika (“New Economic Policy”). When, as a consequence of the civil war and war communism (an attempt at the immediate and total realization of communism), Russia found itself facing economic collapse, Lenin was compelled to alter the economic course.
Heavy industry and foreign trade remained nationalized, while private capital was again tolerated, within certain limits and in retail trade. The N. was decided upon at the Tenth Congress of the Bolshevik Party, in March 1921, and lasted until the period of industrialization and the First Five-Year Plan. It was definitively abolished in 1928. The departure from communist theory underlying the N. resulted in the rise of strong opposition within the Party, which broke out with particular violence after Lenin’s death (v. BOLSCEVISMO; INTERNAZIONALE; LENIN).