Impact on the Working Classes

• In 1917, Lenin issued a Decree on Workers Control which gave workers the right to right to control production, finance and to "supervise" management.
• The Decree on Workers Control did not work as workers gave themselves pay rises and longer holidays.
• During the Civil War, discipline was restored in factories through bringing back managers and harsh labour regulations.
• The trade unions were brought under state control.
• At the end of the war in 1921, there were significant protests among workers including the Workers Opposition faction within the Communist Party itself, against the authoritarian nature of the new regime.
• During the NEP period, workers' lives did not improve.
• Heavy industries such as coal, iron, steel and oil remained under state control during the NEP.
• Passports were introduced to prevent workers from leaving the cities to return to the countryside or move to another city.
• Managers broke even and kept wages low and laid off staff in order to keep production costs down.

  • This led to significant discontent among workers but with no unions anymore to represent them, they were in a weak position.
• Consumer based industries which were privatised in the NEP period, the motive of profit meant that costs were kept down by paying workers as little as possible and increasing hours.
• Workers nicknamed the NEP as the "New Exploitation of the Proletariat".
• The period after Stalin's Great Turn in 1928 was meant to represent significant progress towards achieving the classless society envisaged by Marxist ideology.
• Soviet propaganda proclaimed the creation of a "New Soviet Man", who was somebody that was totally committed to the creation of true socialism in Russia and who would sacrifice his individual needs and desires for the benefit of the community as a whole.
• Social responsibility and moral virtue were the key characteristics of the New Soviet Man.