The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-12
FIVE YEAR PLAN POSSIBLE ONLY
BECAUSE WORKERS RULE COUNTRY

{ and the provincial governments, they replaced
dictatorship of capitalists and big landowners
with a dictatorship of the working class in
alliance with the masses of poor peasantry.
| But the taking over of power by the Russian
workers did not complete the social revolution.
1t only gave the workers the political power
to carry it through. For the Soviets therefore
the main tasks Of the revolution really only be-
gan after they had taken power.
The first measures of the Soviet Govern
ment had to be taken in defense of it's own
power. Counter-revoution and military CAPT.
talist invasion challenged it. During this
period all economic measures were taken by
the Soviets with view to weaken the enemy
in the Civil War The prohibition of all pri-
vate trading and the rationing system were
such measures. This period of the Russian
Revolution produced the war Communism.
When in the end of 1920 the Soviet Gov
eminent emerged VIGOROUSLY from civil war
and foreign invasion, it had to orientate it's
economic policies from the needs of the Civil
War to the needs of socialist construction. Of
course, the measures of war Communism were
euqally necessary for the building of social
ism. They had to preserve the political power
of the working class Without that power So
cialism could never be built. But now the very
building of socialism itself became the prob
lem.
The NEP Was Step Toward Socialism
The New Economic Policy initiated in March
1921, inaugurated this new orientation. The
NEP was retreat from war Communism It
was an advance upon field from which the
building of socialism could be undertaken sue
cessfully.
The New Economic Policy was scheme of
economic construction in which three forms
of economy were given respective tasks: state
economy, cooperative economy and private
economy.
The admission Of private economy aimed at
utilizing private enterprises as long as Soviet
economy was insufficient to supply the econ
omic needs. Cooperative economy was fitted
into the scheme of the NEP primarily as
distributing and retailing apparatus. In order
to place in the sector of Soviet economy the
center of gravity, the NEP was based on the
inviolable principle of naturalization of all
basic industries and of all means of trans
portation, Soviet monopoly of foreign trade
and naturalization of banking. The workers
control of the government guarded against a
degeneration Of this scheme into state capital
ism.
The New Economic Policy provided for the
growth of all three sectors Of economy as q
means of rapid development of the productive
forces of the Soviet Union. In the course of
development the Soviet economy and the CO
operative economy were gradually to take all
the wind out of the sails of private economy
The relative positions assigned to Soviet econ
omy and to cooperative economy as well as the
definite support and preference given to these
sectors from the workers government were
to accelerate their growth. Thereby the rel
ative position and Importance of private econ
omp was progressively to be minimized to the
point of its complete uselessness. This use
lessness once established. private economy
could be completely liquidated-and with it
could be liquidated the NEP- man as a social
fact and factor.
With the liquidation of private econ
omy in industry and agriculture, there
would be no more capitalist class. Since as
we have previously seen every government ap-
paratus is primarily an instrument of one class
to suppress another the disappearance of all
the elements of capitalism would liquidate the
political functions of the government as far
as the inner relations of the Soviet Union are
The Soviets would gradually lose
their character as an instrument of clsss die
tatorshp and would become instead the admin
istrators of public economy in a classics So
ciety This would be the accomplishment of
the revolution.