Order of the Council of People's Commissars on the implementation of the principles of the New Economic Policy.

Collection of legalizations and orders of the government for 1921. Administration of the Affairs of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR M. 1944, pp. 696-700.

Archive: Published in No. 176 of the News of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets of August 11, 1921

Article No. 403.

Decree of the Council of People's Commissars.

Order of the Council of People's Commissars on the implementation of the principles of the New Economic Policy.

1. At the 10th Party Congress and at the All-Russian Party Conference, the main provisions of our new economic policy were established. It must be stated, however, that the implementation of the planned decrees in the field of direct economic activity of the Soviet organs, the implementation of the corresponding decrees and the assimilation of the new principles of economic policy by the broad masses of Party and Soviet workers is proceeding too slowly and is not progressing at the pace required by the difficult situation of the national economy. This difficult situation has been especially aggravated in connection with the food crisis, which has now entailed a sharp deterioration in a number of branches of the economy, even in comparison with the end of 1920. Party, Soviet bodies and unions must take the most resolute measures to get out of the situation that has arisen, which is possible only on the basis of energetic and business-like implementation to the end of the established Party directives in the field of the new economic policy.

2. With the new course of economic policy in the organization of state industry, it is necessary to more resolutely enlist the trade unions, and through them the workers themselves, in resolving questions of the organization of production management, the organization of labor, etc.

The work of the trade unions must entirely coincide with the new course of economic policy for the restoration and strengthening of large-scale industry, both in the direction of their broad educational mass work, and in regard to the participation of the trade unions in the organization of production and labor on the basis of the principle of economic expediency and calculation.

In their tariff policy and in the policy of supplying workers, the trade unions make the creation of the greatest direct interest of the workers as the basis.

3. Our economic policy up to now has been characterized mainly by the following features:

a) The Soviet state was forced to directly manage a huge mass of the most diverse types of enterprises, the service of which was far from corresponding to the raw materials and food resources that were at the disposal of the state. The immediate result of this was the impossibility of rational economic use of the resources provided to the state and, as a result, their dispersion; b) the supply of enterprises was divided among various institutions and was not put in direct connection with the productivity of the enterprise. As a result, many-power and irresponsibility; c) with these methods of supply and under the existing conditions of wages, the participants in production were not and could not be interested in the result of their labor and in the improvement of production methods;

4. Preventing a further decline in the national economy, it is necessary to reorganize on the following principles:

a) the state, represented by the Supreme Council of the National Economy and its local bodies, concentrates in its direct management individual branches of production and a certain number of large or for some reason important from the state point of view, as well as subsidiary enterprises mutually complementing each other.

b) These enterprises are conducted on the basis of exact cost accounting. 

c) Start-up and maintenance by the Supreme Council of the National Economy and its local bodies of enterprises is permissible only to the extent that, according to the national plan, these enterprises will be provided with material, food and financial resources both from national bodies and from other sources (self-procurement, free market, etc.). In order to complement what the state provides, enterprises or their governing bodies are given the right to sell part of the products of their own or auxiliary production, within the limits established by the state for this for each branch of industry or enterprise, for the acquisition of missing supplies both inside and outside the border (see clause 12), moreover, raw materials and fuel are procured by their own apparatus, and food through the All-Russian Central Union of Consumer Societies. 

e) All types of work supplies, except for special clothing, are included in wages (on the basis of collective wages), and the workers of this group of enterprises must be provided in an amount that interests them in production and causes initiative to increase productivity. The supply is distributed both between individual workers and groups of them (working in chords, piecework, etc.). etc.) in accordance with the production results achieved by them. 

f) The matter of supplying the workers both with food and with clothing and overalls is carried out by all supplying bodies through the plant management, which receives the necessary only in the case of obligations given by it to the highest body. 

For plant management, the norms that are established by the trade unions are obligatory in the distribution. The state allocates a fund in kind and money to the direct disposal of the plant administrations for unforeseen cases and for bonuses that go beyond the norms, in which the plant administrations report in the order of follow-up control. which receives what it needs only in the event of obligations given by it to a higher body. For plant management, the norms that are established by the trade unions are obligatory in the distribution. The state allocates a fund in kind and money to the direct disposal of the plant administrations for unforeseen cases and for bonuses that go beyond the norms, in which the plant administrations report in the order of follow-up control. which receives what it needs only in the event of obligations given by it to a higher body. For plant management, the norms that are established by the trade unions are obligatory in the distribution. The state allocates a fund in kind and money to the direct disposal of the plant administrations for unforeseen cases and for bonuses that go beyond the norms, in which the plant administrations report in the order of follow-up control.

5. Enterprises not included in the above groups must be leased to cooperatives, partnerships and other associations, as well as private individuals, on the basis provided for by the decree on leasing and the instructions of the Supreme Council of the National Economy. The exclusion from this of individual enterprises and entire branches of industry is established by the Supreme Council of the National Economy and its bodies. These enterprises can also be put into operation on the basis of special agreements with individual Soviet bodies in the form of experience. The Soviet authorities must not hesitate and vigorously enforce the decree on leasing in relation to those enterprises that cannot be put into operation and are supported by the Soviet economic authorities, thereby helping to unload the state apparatus from small enterprises and factories.

6. Enterprises that remain unleased and whose management the state and its bodies do not take upon themselves are subject to closure, and workers and employees are distributed among operating enterprises, state works and Soviet farms; those who remain unemployed are registered with the Departments of Labor and receive assistance from the state.

7. Considering handicraft and small-scale industry as ancillary to large-scale state and peasant economy, it is necessary to recognize the need to create conditions under which handicraftsmen and artisans could properly develop their production and freely dispose of the products of their labor.

In the development and organization of small and handicraft industries, we must definitely and firmly follow the path of co-operation among small producers, combining, where it is economically and technically expedient, a cooperatively organized handicraft industry with large industrial enterprises.

It is necessary to create the most favorable conditions, first of all, for those branches of small and handicraft industries that serve the needs of large-scale industry or work on instructions from the state or for consumer cooperatives.

8. All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions; should set up a number of commissions to work out questions of the life of workers in leased, concession, and other enterprises not in the hands of the state, taking as a basis the collective agreements concluded between the unions and the administration of the enterprise.

9. Local economic bodies (Provincial Soviets of the National Economy) must immediately apply the same division into enterprises that remain under their control, which are leased out or operate on special contractual grounds, applying accordingly to these groups all the above provisions.

10. In connection with the shortage of crops, it turned out that the proposed collection of tax in kind would not cover in several areas the state's need for bread, the lack of which could be made up in the domestic market by the development of commodity exchange. On the other hand, the development of commodity exchange between town and country requires the interests of restoring the national economy in general and monetary circulation in particular. In view of all this, measures must be taken to develop state and cooperative commodity exchange, and one should not be limited to the framework of local turnover and, where possible and advantageous, go over to the monetary form of exchange.

11. For the same purposes, in order to raise and stabilize our ruble, it is necessary to carry out a number of measures to reverse the flow of money into the state coffers, based on the principle that in the field of the national economy, the state, given the current state of its state resources, will continue to raise at least the main branches of it, cannot provide any economic services to anyone for nothing. Among the measures taken, attention should be paid to the opening of savings and loan banks, the permission of credit cooperation, the transition to the management of public utilities on the basis of payment, etc.

12. In order to develop trade relations with foreign countries, economic bodies should be granted the right to participate in the conclusion of transactions and the implementation of such transactions, as well as the right to have their own representations at foreign bodies of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Trade.

13. At the present moment of changing economic policy, the State General Planning Commission is entrusted with a particularly responsible task of urgently developing a general economic plan and linking the interests of industry with agricultural transport, food, etc., for which the State General Planning Commission must, in particular, set its the task of carrying out in the shortest possible time the correct selection of the main viable enterprises and individual industries with their maximum industrial compaction of the efficiency of concentration, with the identification of certain shock directions for decisive industries and sectors of the economy. At the same time, the special needs of the districts and the advantage of the principle of combined enterprises should be taken into account.

14. In the implementation of all the above economic policy, a precise delimitation of the functions and competences of the various economic Soviet institutions is necessary. The Council of Labor and Defense should be the general leader of economic policy, establishing a single economic plan through the State General Planning Commission and coordinating the plans of the economic Commissariats, as well as supervising the implementation of the economic plan, both as a whole and in all its parts.

The Supreme Council of the National Economy is a body (with the rights of a commissariat) that carries out in a businesslike manner the plans approved by the Council of Labor and Defense and the general economic directives in the field of industry. In carrying out the production assignments of the Council of Labor and Defense, all industry management bodies bear strict personal responsibility in court for the rational management, on the above economic basis, of the enterprises entrusted to them. Under these conditions, the preliminary control of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate is removed.

15. The implementation of all the above provisions, in particular the determination of enterprises that remain under the direct control of the state, or are subject to leasing or closing, as well as the determination of supply and wage standards, is carried out with the direct participation of trade unions.

The Council of Labor and Defense, the Supreme Council of the National Economy, and the All-Russian Central Council of Trade Unions immediately begin to develop a number of decrees and instructions arising from this order.

Signed:

Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars V. Ulyanov (Lenin).

For the Executive Director of the Council of People's Commissars V. Smolyaninov.

Secretary of the Council of People's Commissars L. Fotieva .

August 9, 1921.

Published in No. 176 of the News of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of Soviets of August 11, 1921.