Everything except `` the commanding heights '' , as Lenin put it , of the economy would be privatized . `` The commanding heights '' included foreign trade , heavy industry , communication and transport among others . In practice this limited the private sector to artisan and agricultural production / trade . The NEP encountered strong resistance within the Bolshevik party . Lenin had to persuade communist skeptics that `` state capitalism '' was a necessary step in achieving communism , while he himself harbored suspicions that the policy could be abused by private businessmen ( `` NEPmen '' ) .

Question: what type of economic system was utilized in the soviet union
Answer: communism