The Comintern and Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP)

The Third International (Comintern)

The Third International was founded with the goal of supporting world revolutionary uprisings across the globe, thus creating a new Socialist International. The Second International had been dissolved due to the division among socialists before the First World War. The Bolsheviks sought to establish a new form of social democracy and communist parties.

Founding the Third International

To this end, the Third International was founded in Moscow in March 1919. Only communist groups—that is, socialist political parties that had adopted the Bolshevik organizational model—could join. The old parties were required to reject and expel moderate or borderline militants.

Membership Requirements and the Twenty Conditions

The requirements for membership of the Comintern were reflected in a document known as the Twenty Conditions. Although many socialist parties initially sympathized with the Bolshevik revolution and the new International, the strict conditions required for membership provoked a wave of splits within socialist political groups. For example, the Communist Party of Spain was created in 1921.

With the exception of the German party, European communist parties lasted only a short time and remained minor compared to the Socialists until the Second World War. In any case, the establishment of the Third International accounted for the division of the Marxist labor movement but did not prevent the international isolation of the Bolshevik regime caused by the failure of the anticipated world revolution.

Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP)

From 1921, in response to growing popular discontent, the Communist Party led by Lenin launched the New Economic Policy (NEP), a series of measures that introduced capitalist elements into agriculture and industry.

Key Measures of the NEP

The NEP implemented significant changes to stabilize the economy:

• Termination of land confiscations: Farmers were able to dispose freely of their produce and market their products in exchange for paying a fixed tax.
• Private Industry: Small industries ceased to be collective and were returned to private hands.

The result was that production increased and the supply of goods to the cities improved.

Social and Political Debates Under the NEP

In this context, social inequalities reappeared in Russian society, leading to a new class of wealthy merchants and the rise of the rich peasant, or kulak.

The NEP led to a climate of intense debate within the Russian Communist Party. This debate manifested in several areas:

• Economic Debate: Conflict arose between supporters of the NEP (including Lenin) and those who favored accelerated collectivization and industrialization (such as Trotsky and Stalin).
• Political Debate: Controversy centered on the democratization of state structures. In practice, this debate resulted in a reinforced single party and territorial centralization, despite the Bolshevik regime being nominally based on assemblies (soviets) and a federal system.

This centralization led to the birth of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1922. Furthermore, an interesting climate of cultural and artistic debate arose between supporters of the avant-garde and experimental art, and those defending socialist realism.