In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in the problems of using state capitalism in the course of socialist construction in the first years of Soviet power. Soviet historians and economists have written a number of works on state capitalism in general and on certain specific issues of the topic. Nevertheless, there is no reason to consider the problem sufficiently studied. Even on the question of the socio-economic essence of state capitalism, there are still different points of view. Some clarity in the understanding of this issue was brought by the discussion on NEP issues on the pages of the magazine "Voprosy Istorii CPSU" in 1966-1968, during which considerable attention was paid to the problems of state capitalism. From the views expressed, it seems to us that the position put forward by V. Ya .Levin on the coexistence of two forms of ownership in the state-capitalist system - socialist and capitalist, and that state-owned capitalist enterprises represented a "transitional socio-economic type of economy"is erroneous. 1 In our opinion, the point of view of I. A. Gladkov and A. I. Kossogo, who consider state capitalism not only as a way of life in the economy of transition, but also as a special method of economic management, a method of management aimed at using capitalism under the control of the proletarian state in the interests of the development of large-scale production and its socialization, is The discussion undoubtedly contributed to clarifying the historical background and ways of using state capitalism, concretizing ideas about its individual forms, the degree of their spread and the areas of use by the Soviet state. A very important task still remains to study the activities of V. I. Lenin in the development of this policy and its implementation in Soviet Russia. So far, we can name only two authors ' works specifically devoted to this issue: an article by R. M. Savitskaya 3 and a book by E. V. Yufereva 4 . The first work is devoted only to a few months of Lenin's activity in the area under study. The second paper highlights the experience of using various forms of state capital-

1 Voprosy istorii CPSU, 1967, No. 7, pp. 35-44. A detailed critique of the views of V. Ya. Levin and other authors who hold similar positions was given by A. I. Kossoy (see A. Kossoy. Socio-economic essence of state capitalism in the USSR. Voprosy Ekonomiki, 1970, No. 8).

2 See Voprosy istorii CPSU, 1966, No. 10, p. B9, 76-89.

3 R. M. Savitskaya, V. I. Lenin and the Use of State Capitalism during the Peaceful Respite of 1918 (Voprosy Istorii CPSU, 1968, No. 6); see also the chapter on State Capitalism in her Essay on the State Activity of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. And Lenin. March-July 1918". Moscow, 1969.

4 E. V. Yufereva. Lenin's Doctrine of State Capitalism in the Transition period to Socialism, Moscow, 1969.

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Although the author focuses primarily on the economic aspects of the problem, it is important to note that there was a significant increase in socialism in the national economy of the USSR during the entire period of transition from capitalism to socialism (up to 1937). The specific activity of V. I. Lenin on the use of state capitalism is covered in the work only in general terms. It should be noted that, in our opinion, the author's principled positions are erroneous, claiming that state-capitalist enterprises were state-private enterprises based on the combination of public and private ownership of the means of production, that new features of production relations are emerging in state capitalism, and elements of these relations - relations of comradely cooperation-are being established in concession and leased enterprises and mutual assistance 5 .

It is well known that V. I. Lenin paid great attention to the use of various types and forms of state capitalism. 6 However, in the available literature, these Leninist documents, especially the new ones, which were relatively recently published in volumes of the Complete Works and in the recently published XXXVII Lenin Collection, are not sufficiently used. A number of these documents (letters, telegrams, notes, etc.) significantly complement Lenin's well-known works on state capitalism. This article aims to highlight some issues related to V. I. Lenin's development of the idea of using state capitalism in socialist construction and his activities to implement this idea, to explain the policy of using state capitalism, with V. I. Lenin's leadership in concluding agreements with entrepreneurs, his work on these issues in the Council of People's Commissars and other state bodies, and made decisions.

The forms of state capitalism in Soviet Russia were diverse. Lenin considered the simplest, clearest, clearest, and most precisely delineated form of state capitalism to be concessions, which were a contract between the Soviet state and capitalists, usually foreign capitalists, who undertook to organize or improve a particular production (harvesting and rafting timber, mining ore, coal, oil, etc.), paying for it to the state a share of the product produced or produced, and receiving another share in the form of profit. From the point of view of socio - economic structures and their correlation, concessions were essentially an alliance of Soviet state power with state capitalism against the petty-state element. V. I. Lenin emphasized that the concession policy, carried out in moderation and cautiously, despite certain sacrifices, the return of a certain amount of products to the capitalists, could to some extent accelerate the development of productive forces It helped attract foreign equipment for the restoration and development of domestic industry, increase the production of food and industrial goods, and improve the material situation of workers. The work of workers at concession enterprises helped to reduce the existing unemployment in the country to a certain extent. Soviet workers and specialists at the concession enterprises mastered the experience accumulated by the capitalists in the scientific, technical and organizational fields. The situation was also important-

5 Ibid., p. 21 - 24, 27, 100, 137, 202 etc. For criticism of the author's position, see: A. Kossoy. Op. ed., pp. 79-80.

6 There are literally hundreds of his statements on these issues. Issues related to the use of state capitalism were discussed dozens of times at meetings of the Politburo, the Council of People's Commissars, and the Council of Labor and Defense, which were held under the chairmanship or with the direct participation of V. I. Lenin. In a number of cases, he acted as a rapporteur on these issues, headed commissions for their preparation.

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This indicates that the concessions helped establish business relations with the capitalist world. The implementation of the concession policy was one of the most important aspects of the foreign policy activities of the Soviet state.

Such forms of state capitalism, which were characteristic of the NEP period, were closely associated with concessions, such as the leasing of factories, crafts, and land plots to various partnerships, Russian and foreign entrepreneurs, and the establishment of mixed public-private societies. Lease agreements "similar", according to V. I. Lenin7 , to concession agreements, were concluded by the state with entrepreneurs with production experience, not excluding former owners, on conditions that determined the direction of production activities of the leased enterprise, the organization of production, the volume and range of products produced, obligations to repair the leased premises, and fulfill state orders etc. As a rule, small businesses were rented out. In the early years of the NEP, rent was widely used in coal, chemical, metalworking, woodworking, cotton processing, leather, food and other industries. The establishment of mixed societies with the participation of the state represented by its representatives (VSNKh, Narkomvneshtorg, etc.) and foreign or Russian entrepreneurs also became widespread during the NEP years. These societies, as V. I. Lenin noted at the XI Party Congress, were "the application by us Communists of trade methods, capitalist methods", one of the forms by which we are able to " establish a link with the peasant economy, we can meet its needs, we can help the peasant to move forward as he is now, with all its darkness, for it cannot be redone in a short time. " 8 When organizing such companies, the state concentrated at least 50% of the shares in its hands and took part in the production, trade and procurement activities of the company; representatives of the state also participated in the management of the companies. The influence of the Soviet state in mixed societies was, as a rule, predominant; their activities were determined by the requirements of the state plan, the interests of the national economy of the country.

In the first years of Soviet power, Lenin also considered the use of bourgeois and petty-bourgeois co-operation in the interests of socialist construction, with the aim of influencing the petty-bourgeois elements economically and subordinating them to state accounting and control, to be a form of state capitalism, though less simple and less clearly defined. Only the cooperation of small commodity producers (their association in handicraft, credit and raw materials, supply and marketing, consumer and other types of cooperatives) can be attributed to a variety of state capitalism. This does not include, for example, the workers 'and consumers' co-operatives9, as well as various types of production co - operatives in the countryside (agricultural artels, communes, etc.) - essentially socialist enterprises. It should be borne in mind, however, that in the conditions of Russia - a country predominantly small - peasant-the predominant type of cooperation, especially in the first period of Soviet power, was precisely the cooperation of small commodity producers. Using the old cooperation by converting

7 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 43, p. 227.

8 V. I. Lenin. PSS, vol. 45, pp. 78, 81.

9 This restriction does not apply to the first months of Soviet power, when Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries also played a major role in the boards of workers ' cooperatives.

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The proletariat could exercise its influence on the peasantry, ensure the victory of socialist consciousness over the petty-bourgeois elements, strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat, consolidate Soviet power, and involve the broad masses of the working people in socialist construction. V. I. Lenin considered cooperation, or rather some of its types, as a form of state capitalism only at a certain stage of development of this system. organizations. He also saw the prospects of its development - the transformation from bourgeois to socialist cooperation. That is why the question of co-operation was an integral part of Lenin's co-operative plan - one of the main components of Lenin's plan for socialist construction.

In Soviet Russia, there were also other varieties and types of state capitalism: the grain monopoly before the introduction of the policy of war communism, the involvement of bourgeois specialists to work in the administrative apparatus and in enterprises, state-controlled industrial and commercial enterprises, trusts, the involvement of private merchants on an intermediary or commission basis in the procurement and sale of foodstuffs, etc.

V. I. Lenin raised the question of state capitalism even before the victory of the socialist revolution. In September-October 1917, in his works "The Impending catastrophe and how to deal with it" and "Towards a Revision of the Party program", V. I. Lenin pointed out that state-monopoly capitalism in a revolutionary - democratic state, in a situation of revolution, inevitably and inevitably means steps towards socialism, directly passes into socialism11 .

After the victory of the October Revolution, the possibilities of using state capitalism in the interests of the dictatorship of the proletariat have grown immeasurably. Already in the first months of Soviet power, V. I. Lenin once again returned to the question of creating state-capitalist enterprises. Of course, in the new conditions, the approach to this issue, the nature and methods of using state capitalism have changed in comparison with the autumn of 1917. The Socialist Revolution gave state capitalism a new, fundamentally different meaning in the country's economy. In the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat, it was supposed to serve a more successful solution of the problem of organizing a new, socialist economy.

V. I. Lenin supports the agreement reached by the trade union of leather Workers with the All-Russian Society of Manufacturers and Breeders of Leather Production. According to this agreement, tanneries were supposed to work on assignments and with the help of subsidies from the Soviet government, and all products were placed at the disposal of the state. In the Main Committee for Leather Affairs and its district committees, which managed the leather industry enterprises, two-thirds of the seats were occupied by workers ' representatives and one-third by entrepreneurs and representatives of the bourgeois-technical intelligentsia. The majority of participants in the First All-Russian Congress of Leather Workers, held in March 1918, spoke in favor of the need for an agreement with entrepreneurs. At the congress, the "point of view of a practical understanding of reality, taking into account the experience that has been gained in the past," prevailed.-

10 In the future, the author focuses mainly on the facts related to the concession policy of the Soviet state and the use of cooperation, and cooperation is taken in those periods (1918 - early 1919, the first years of NEP), when it became widespread as a form of state capitalism. In the works of V. I. Lenin, it is precisely these forms of state capitalism that are given the main attention.

11 See V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 34, pp. 191, 373.

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in this area, a point of view that takes into account social forces, conditions and opportunities"12 Similar agreements were concluded in the textile, sugar, tobacco and some other branches of the light and food industry. V. I. Lenin attached great importance to such agreements that provided workers with the management of entire industries, gave them the opportunity to learn from entrepreneurs and specialists the experience of organizing production, master the complex science of managing the country's economy, establish production and conduct business. accurate accounting of what is produced and consumed. In connection with the interference of local Soviet bodies in the affairs of the leather affairs committees, and even the dissolution of some of them, on April 5, 1918, V. I. Lenin proposed to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs G. I. Petrovsky and the head of the Chemical Industry Department of the Supreme Economic Council L. Ya.Karpov to draft a telegram to the local Soviets demanding

On April 6, such a telegram signed by V. I. Lenin and L. Ya. Karpov was sent to places 13 .

V. I. Lenin thoroughly substantiated his ideas about the use of state capitalism, its character and peculiarities in the conditions of the economy in transition in his report on the next tasks of the Soviet government at the meeting of the Central Executive Committee on April 29, 1918, and in his article" On" Left "Childishness and petty-bourgeoisness", written in May of the same year. He pointed out that state capitalism in the conditions of Soviet Russia would be a giant step forward, would facilitate the transition to socialism, because " state capitalism is something centralized, calculated, controlled and socialized, and this is exactly what we lack, we are threatened by the element of petty-bourgeois sloppiness, which is most important in the history of Russia and abroad." its economy has been prepared, and it is precisely this step, on which the success of socialism depends, that we are prevented from taking. " 14
Describing the five socio-economic systems that existed in the country (patriarchal peasant economy, small-scale production, private-farm capitalism, state capitalism and socialism), V. I. Lenin convincingly showed the advantages of state capitalism in comparison with the first three modes that prevailed in the economy of Soviet Russia at that time. "It is not state capitalism that is fighting socialism here," he stressed, " but the petty bourgeoisie and private-economy capitalism are fighting together, both against state capitalism and against socialism." In the conditions of the predominance of the petty-bourgeois element in the country, the main "internal" enemies, the enemies of the economic measures of the Soviet government were speculators, marauders of trade, violators of monopolies, who "tear here and there "" the shell of state capitalism (the grain monopoly, controlled entrepreneurs and merchants, bourgeois co-operatives)...", " speculation instead of the state monopoly is breaking into all the pores of our social and economic life. " 15 V. I. Lenin resolutely opposed the "left Communists" who dogmatically denied the permissibility of state capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat and declared that state capitalism would supposedly establish the capitalist system in Soviet Russia. They considered the main enemy of socialism not the petty-bourgeois element, but state capitalism. They didn't understand the originality and the new

12 "The Voice of the Tanner", 1918, N 10-11, p. 2, 17-18.

13 See V. I. Lenin, PSS. vol. 50, p. 418.

14 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 36, pp. 254, 255-256.

15 Ibid., pp. 296, 297.

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the role of state capitalism in the conditions of the dictatorship of the proletariat, did not see the possibility of combining Soviet power with state capitalism 16 .

In the spring of 1918, during a peaceful respite, Lenin specifically addressed the issue of granting concessions to foreign capital. On May 15, 1918, at a meeting on the conditions for the resumption of economic relations between Russia and Germany, Deputy People's Commissar of Trade and Industry M. G. Vronsky made a report, the main provisions of which were reviewed and approved by V. I. Lenin. He stated that the Soviet government intended to "grant certain concessions for the exploitation of Russian natural resources", listed the objects of the proposed concessions and outlined the conditions for their granting .17 V. I. Lenin said the same thing in his letters to A. A. Ioffe and V. R. Menzhinsky, written at this time. Meeting with the head of the American Red Cross mission, R. Robins, V. I. Lenin expressed a desire to establish trade relations with the United States, emphasizing that " a friendly attitude towards Soviet Russia is in the interests of the United States."19 On his initiative, in the spring of 1918, the Foreign Trade Commission of the Supreme Economic Council developed a plan for the development of trade and economic relations with the United States, according to which the Soviet government was ready to grant the United States, along with other countries, concessions for the exploitation of coal and other mines, water resources of Eastern Siberia, in railway and water transport construction, utilization of agricultural land 20 . V. I. Lenin sent the plan to America with Robins, where it was published in the publication "Russian American relations" with a letter from V. I. Lenin to R. Robins on this issue .21
An important step in the development of the concession policy was the First All-Russian Congress of Sovnarkhozes, held on May 26-June 4, 1918. Already at the meeting of the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council on May 23, 1918, with the participation of V. I. Lenin, along with issues related to the congress, the issue of concessions was discussed .22 The report on the economic consequences of the Brest Treaty of May 26, 1918 set out the conditions for granting concessions. One of the main ones among them was the requirement that concessions should be granted "only for the creation of new enterprises necessary for the systematic development of the still unused productive forces of Russia"23. On July 20, 1918, at a meeting of the Council of People's Commissars, V. I. Lenin made a statement on the issue of concessions. The commission established at the meeting was instructed to develop a draft concession agreement, as well as to consider the available proposals of foreigners for the concession 24 . By the end of July, the SNK commission had prepared "Theses on the conditions for attracting foreign capital to Russia". They defined the basic principles on which it was planned to grant concessions: mandatory compliance by concessionaires with the norms of Soviet legislation, ensuring that the Soviet state has the right to control and audit the affairs of the enterprise at all stages of its organization and operation, the pre-emptive right

16 For more information, see R.N. Timoshenko's article "V. I. Lenin's Struggle against the 'Left Communists' on the Use of State Capitalism in the Construction of Socialism". "Scientific Notes" of the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute named after V. I. Lenin, No. 279, 1967.

17 "Bulletin of the People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry", 1918, No. 1, pp. 3-7.

18 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 50, pp. 79-80, 87-88.

19 "Lenin's Collection" XXXVII, p. 254.

20 "Documents of Foreign Policy of the USSR", vol. 1, Moscow, 1957, pp. 286-294.

21 See V. I. Lenin, PSS. Vol. 50, pp. 74-75, 427.

22 "National Economy", 1918, N 5, p. 37.

23 "Proceedings of the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of National Economy". Stenographic report, Moscow, 1918, p. 21.

24 TSPA NML at the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 19, op. 1, ed. chr. 161.

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the state's right to purchase manufactured products, the right to early purchase of the entire enterprise, and so on.

The first attempts to conclude concession contracts were made during the civil war. In 1918-1919. The Soviet government negotiated the construction of the Great Northern Railway on a concession basis. According to the project of the initiators of the concession, A. A. Borisov and the Norwegian citizen E. Gannevig, the route of the new road was to connect the Ob through Kotlas with Petrograd and Murmansk, which would allow the development of woodlands and minerals on a vast territory. On February 4, 1919, V. I. Lenin wrote a special draft resolution adopted by the Council of People's Commissars, which stated the desirability of concluding a concession agreement. However, the contract was not concluded due to the revealed economic insolvency of the concessionaires .25 V. I. Lenin spoke about the Soviet government's readiness to grant concessions after the war in September 1919 and February 1920 in a letter to American workers, in conversations with correspondents of the American newspapers "The Christian Science Monitor" and "The World" M. Bryde and L. Eyre, as well as in answers to questions from a correspondent of the American newspaper "The Christian Science Monitor" and "The World". K. Wiegand's Universal Service Agency 26 . Receiving, in particular, M. Bride, Vladimir Ilyich said: "The conclusion of concessions on reasonable terms... it is desirable for us as one of the ways to attract countries that are more developed in this area to Russia's technical assistance during the coexistence of socialist and capitalist countries."27 . During a peaceful respite in 1920. On March 20, the Council of People's Commissars, based on the report of L. B. Krasin, discussed the theses on concessions, in the development of which V. I. Lenin took part. Even before the official signing of the theses (a report on this was heard by the Council of People's Commissars on April 8, 1920), at a meeting on March 20, the Council of People's Commissars recognized "it is desirable and timely to immediately familiarize abroad with those possible concessions that have already been outlined in the preparatory commissions of the Supreme Economic Council and are sufficiently justified"28 . However, the outbreak of war with the White Poles and Wrangel's troops again did not make it possible to implement the planned plans.

In the very first months of Soviet power, V. I. Lenin also raised the question of using bourgeois and petty-bourgeois cooperation. In December 1917, he wrote a "Draft decree on consumer communes", in which he defined the basic principles of the work of cooperative bodies .29 The "project" was detailed by the People's Commissariat for Food and published in Izvestiya VTSIK on January 19 (February 1), 1918. It provoked fierce resistance on the part of the bourgeois co-operatives, who defended the independence of the co-operatives from the organs of Soviet power. Considering it necessary to use the experience and knowledge of co-operatives in order to establish trade and distribute products among the population, to preserve and improve the apparatus created by them and tested by many years of development, the Soviet government made some concessions to the co-operatives (refusal of the principle of free entry into the cooperative, from uniting the entire population of a certain area in management boards, etc.). As a result of negotiations between representatives of the Supreme Economic Council, cooperatives and food companies

25 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 37, p. 473; TSPA IML, f. 19, op. 1, ed. hr. 253; "Economic Life", 30. III. 1922.

26 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 39, p. 197; vol. 40, p. 147, 152.

27 "The Christian Science Monitor", 17. XII.1919. (Published in the newspaper Izvestia 5. II. 1960.)

28 TSPA IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 19, op. 1, units hr. 356.

29 See V. I. Lenin. PSS, Vol. 35, pp. 206-210.

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A new draft decree was drawn up by the organizations that Vladimir Ilyich closely followed. On April 9 and 10, 1918, the draft was discussed at meetings of the Council of People's Commissars with the participation of representatives of the cooperative. V. I. Lenin, who spoke several times at these meetings, made many amendments and additions to the draft decree, and some items were written in their entirety. On April 10, the draft was adopted as a decree of the Council of People's Commissars 30 . The decree was essentially a step towards transforming the old co-operation into a form of state capitalism, a form of using bourgeois elements controlled by the proletarian State in the interests of socialist construction. The implementation of the decree in practice, although, of course, not all of its provisions were implemented, made it possible to preserve and strengthen the network of trade cooperatives, to put it at the service of the Soviet state, and to a certain extent already in 1918 helped to change its social composition and strengthen the influence of the Communist Party in the cooperative bodies.

In the autumn of 1918, the mood of the masses of petty-bourgeois democracy began to turn from hostility to neutrality towards the Soviet government, and even to support it. The literature covers quite extensively the reasons for this turn, which has placed on the agenda the task of using and consolidating it in the policy, tactics of the party, and in the decrees and resolutions of the Soviet Government. Conditions were created that made it possible, compared with April 1918, to take further steps to use the cooperative apparatus in the interests of the proletarian state. On November 21, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree "On the organization of supply" 31, according to which the cooperative was assigned a significant role in organizing the supply of the population. It was given a number of rights in comparison with the private owner, and the Soviet authorities were instructed to reasonably negotiate with co-operators on specific issues of organizing supplies.

Proposing to make full use of the cooperative apparatus in the procurement and distribution of goods and products, V. I. Lenin and the party resolutely fought the attempts of individual workers to create various obstacles in the work of the cooperative. On November 30, 1918, Vladimir Ilyich sent a telegram to Mr. Zinoviev in connection with the obstacles created in Petrograd to the activity of the co-operatives, suggesting that they "consider the issue carefully and allow the co-operatives to work", who "express a desire to work quite loyally on the basis of the new decree".32 In December 1918, government instructions signed by V. I. Lenin with demands to provide all possible assistance to the activities of cooperatives were also sent to the heads of local Soviet economic and food authorities in Perm ,Vyatka, Sarapul, Osu, Kungur, Cherdyn, Usolye, Olonets, Cherepovets, Novgorod and Pskov. 33 V. I. Lenin suggested that those guilty of illegal prosecution of cooperative organizations, confiscation of their products, goods, etc., should be severely punished.

Military intervention, famine and devastation required the strictest centralization in the distribution of food and goods. In view of this, the Communist Party was forced to adopt a policy of war communism, which minimized the circulation of goods and money in the country. March 16, 1919 The Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree that predus-

30 "Decrees of the Soviet Government", vol. 2, Moscow, 1959, pp. 77-93. R. M. Savitskaya writes in more detail about the development of the decree in the above-mentioned works.

31 "Decrees of the Soviet Government", vol. 4, Moscow, 1968, pp. 41-47.

32 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 50, p. 214.

33 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 50, pp. 225-226; "Lenin's Collection" XVIII, pp. 283-284.

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It approved the unification of all consumer cooperatives in cities and rural areas into single consumer communes, 34 and on January 27, 1920, a decree on the unification of all types of cooperative organizations was issued. Consumer societies and their unions were infused with other types of cooperation. The rights of co-operatives in the field of harvesting agricultural products in the conditions of the existence of a system of customs clearance for these products were limited. All practical activities of the cooperative were put under the control of the People's Commissariat of Food.

More favorable conditions for the use of various forms of state capitalism in socialist construction were created only during the transition from civil war to peaceful economic construction. Ideas about the necessity and expediency of using state capitalism in those conditions were most comprehensively substantiated by V. I. Lenin in his report on the food tax at the meeting of secretaries and responsible representatives of the RCP (b) cells of Moscow and the Moscow province on April 9, 1921, and in the pamphlet "On the Food Tax", written at the same time. It is obvious that his statements about the role of state capitalism in the spring of 1918 retained their relevance for the spring of 1921, since the basic elements of the country's economy remained the same, and the petty-property, petty-bourgeois element even intensified as a result of the transformation of a significant part of the poor (proletarians and semi-proletarians) into middle peasants. Under these conditions, one of the most important tasks of the Soviet state was to direct the development of private-owned capitalism in the direction of state capitalism, which is a step forward in comparison with the small-owned element.

V. I. Lenin vigorously fought for the use of state capitalism in the course of socialist construction. He sought an understanding by all party members of the necessity and expediency of using state capitalism, even defending the legitimacy of using the term "state capitalism". "The term ' state capitalism'," V. I. Lenin pointed out, "is used to describe the concept of 'state capitalism'...It is the only theoretically correct and necessary way to make the stagnant Communists understand that the new policy is being pursued in earnest. " 35 At the same time, he sharply condemned those workers who identified state capitalism under the dictatorship of the proletariat with state capitalism in bourgeois society. In the political report of the Central Committee to the XI Party Congress, V. I. Lenin, criticizing such workers for their desire to interpret state capitalism according to "old books", said that they "write absolutely not about that: they write about the state capitalism that happens under capitalism, but there is not a single book in which it is written." about state capitalism, which happens under communism. Even Marx did not think to write a single word on this subject and died without leaving a single accurate quote and irrefutable instructions. Therefore, we now have to pull through on our own. " 36 V. I. Lenin sharply opposed the slanderous claims of the Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries that NEP, including the use of state capitalism, was a deviation from the principles of socialism. "Such malicious helpers of the White Guards as all the Mensheviks," wrote V. I. Lenin, "may pretend not to understand that state capitalism in a state with proletarian power can exist only limited by the time and scope of its distribution and the conditions of its application, the method of supervising it, etc." 37
34 "Decrees of Soviet Power", vol. 4, pp. 503-507.

35 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 54, p. 131.

36 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 45, p. 84.

37 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 54, p. 131.

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V. I. Lenin demanded to fight vigorously against capitalist elements who abused the rights granted to private entrepreneurs under the NEP. Pointing out in a letter to the People's Commissar of Justice D. I. Kursky on February 20, 1922, the weak struggle of the People's Commissariat of Justice headed by him against such elements, V. I. Lenin wrote: "There is no understanding that we have recognized and will continue to recognize only state capitalism, and the state is us, we, class-conscious workers, we, communists. Therefore, those communists who have failed to understand their task of limiting, curbing, controlling, catching in the act of crime, and punishing impressively any capitalism that goes beyond the scope of state capitalism, as we understand the concept and tasks of the state, must be recognized as useless communists." 38
Of the specific forms of state capitalism that took place in our country in the early years of NEP, V. I. Lenin paid the most attention to concessions. The battles in the south of Ukraine and in the Crimea had not yet died down, when on October 13, 1920 V. I. Lenin stated in an interview with an American journalist L. Bryant: "We offered concessions to foreign capital. American businessmen who are now coming to Moscow agree with us." Emphasizing the interest of the United States in developing economic and trade relations with Soviet Russia, V. I. Lenin went on to say that it was expedient for all countries to use " the vast, undeveloped reserves of raw materials offered by Soviet Russia... After the World War, Soviet Russia remains the only solvent European power. " 39 October 26, 1920 The Council of People's Commissars discussed the issue of concessions in Siberia based on Lenin's report 40 . On November 16, the Council of People's Commissars instructed a commission consisting of V. I. Lenin, V. P. Milyutin, D. I. Kursky, A. M. Lezhava and S. P. Sereda to prepare a document on concessions for publication abroad within a week. It should have included a general decision in principle on the granting of concessions, a summary of the general economic and legal conditions for granting them, a list of concession objects with a fairly clear statement of the economic significance of the object 41. A week later, on November 23, 1920, the Council of People's Commissars discussed the draft resolution 42 developed by the commission and approved it as a decree of the Council of People's Commissars under the title "General economic and legal conditions of Concessions". In the proofreading of the pamphlet with the text of the decree prepared for publication, V. I. Lenin made a number of other corrections .43 He made sure that the pamphlet was published as quickly as possible and without errors, and was concerned about its republication abroad. The decree stated that concession contracts can only be concluded with solid, trustworthy foreign industrial companies and organizations. Concessionaires were rewarded with a share of the products of their enterprises with the right to export it abroad. In case of applying special technical improvements on a large scale, the concessionaire was granted trade advantages: procurement of raw materials, special contracts for large orders, etc. In the concession, it was planned to hand over objects that at that time could not be developed on their own.

An important step towards the implementation of the concession policy was the development and adoption of March 29, 1921. Council of People's Commissars "Basic principles of concession agreements". The draft resolution and almost all changes made to the final text of the "Basic Principles".-

38 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 44, p. 397.

39 "Lenin's Collection" XXXVII, p. 254.

40 TSPA IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 19, op. 1, ed. hr. 394.

41 The text of the decree was written by V. I. Lenin (see V. I. Lenin. PSS. vol. 54, pp. 433-434).

42 TSPA IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 19, op. 1, units hr. 401.

43 "Lenin's Collection" XXXVII, p. 269.

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pov " 44 , were written by V. I. Lenin. Concessionaires were obliged to take care of improving the material situation of workers employed at their enterprises, to comply with the laws of the RSFSR, scientific and technical rules corresponding to Russian and foreign legislation. The decree defined the conditions for hiring and paying workers at concession enterprises. V. I. Lenin gave a detailed justification for each of the ten points of the resolution in his report at a meeting of the Communist faction of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions on April 11, 1921.45

The decisions on concession policy were not immediately understood by many workers, peasants, and even some party and Soviet workers. There was talk that after the expulsion of their own bourgeoisie, it was planned to invite a foreign one, that foreigners would exploit our workers and those working in concession enterprises would find it difficult to get along with foreign capitalists, etc.46 It required a thorough explanation to party members and the broad non-party masses of the essence and significance of the concession policy. The very day after the decree on concessions was published, on November 26, V. I. Lenin made a speech on this issue at a meeting of the secretaries of the cells of the Moscow organization of the RCP (b). On December 6, he made a report on concessions at a meeting of the activists of the Moscow party organization. Speakers in the debate at the meeting thoroughly discussed the main provisions of the report. Many doubts were expressed about the appropriateness of implementing the concession policy in general and on specific issues. Thus, G. I. Korzinov (in 1920-1921, he joined the anarcho-syndicalist group of E. N. Ignatov), stating that, of course, from the concession of such remote territories as Kamchatka, "we will not be able to completely capture the republic by capital", because "it is like surrendering the republic to the state." England", in general, in his speech criticized the policy of concessions. Doubts on a number of issues related to the implementation of the concession policy were expressed in the speeches of the party employee F. A. Kolesnikov. Fedotov, a participant in the meeting Evseev and some other speakers. Lenin, in his closing remarks on the report, showed the inconsistency of the doubts expressed about the concessions .47
The issue of concessions was thoroughly discussed at a meeting of the RCP (b) faction of the VIII All-Russian Congress of Soviets. The Tenth Party Congress paid considerable attention to it. At a meeting of the Communist faction of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions on April 11, 1921, Lenin's report was heard and discussed. In the debate and in his closing remarks on the report, V. I. Lenin analyzed in detail the erroneous views of A. G. Shlyapnikov, D. B. Ryazanov, M. P. Tomsky and other speakers on the question of concession policy. V. I. Lenin returned again and again to explaining the essence and meaning of concessions in his later speeches and works. This helped many comrades to correctly understand the essence of the concession policy. E. I. Brudno, a member of the Central Committee of the Railway Workers 'Trade Union, testified in his memoirs:" Lenin's conclusions about the need for concessions were so clear to us that if on the way to the meeting many of us had a vague idea of what concessions were and how we would let a living capitalist into our workplace with our own hands-

44 See Lenin's Collection XX, pp. 148-150.

45 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 43, pp. 165-182.

46 See the unpublished memoirs of M. Nazarov, then secretary of the party organization of the Military Pedagogical Academy, "Experienced and Unforgettable" (Scientific Reference Office of the section of works of V. I. Lenin NML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. neop. vosp.), etc.

47 See V. I. Lenin, PSS. vol. 42, pp. 79-83.

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on the way back, this question in most cases did not require any explanations for us"49 . Another example is given in the memoirs of M. Nazarov. He writes that at one of the meetings (November 26 or December 6, 1920) a railway worker who spoke out against concessions, after V. I. Lenin's explanations, asked for the floor and said that now "the question is completely clear to him and he will actively explain this question in his party organization."50
One of the first entrepreneurs with whom the Soviet government entered into negotiations was an American businessman, V. V. Putin. Vanderlip. At the suggestion of V. I. Lenin, this question was put up for discussion by the Council of People's Commissars on September 30, 192051 . A commission consisting of representatives of the Supreme Economic Council, the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs and the People's Commissariat of Foreign Trade was set up to conduct negotiations. According to the draft agreement, the Vanderlip syndicate was to receive a concession for the operation of fisheries, exploration and production of oil and coal in Kamchatka and Primorsky Krai for a period of 60 years. One of the main conditions for granting the concession was the normalization of relations between Soviet Russia and the United States. However, this condition was not fulfilled: the influence of anti-Soviet circles on the policy of the US government was too strong at that time. Because of this, the concession agreement with Vanderlip was not finalized and did not enter into force.

The history of long negotiations in 1921-1922 on granting a concession for the extraction of copper, zinc, lead, gold and silver to the British industrialist and financier L. Urquhart, a former owner of mining enterprises in the Urals, Siberia and Kazakhstan (Kyshtym, Tanalyk, Ridder - Ekibastuz), is very instructive. In September 1922, V. I. Lenin spoke out against approving the preliminary draft of the treaty signed during his illness by the People's Commissar of Foreign Trade, L. B. Krasin, because of the excessively large size of the territory granted in concession, unfavorable financial conditions and the hostile policy of the British government towards Soviet Russia. The agreement was rejected by the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b)52 and the Council of People's Commissars. This example shows that when it came to preserving the command of the country's economy in the hands of the proletarian state or demanding political concessions from foreign capitalists, the Soviet Government did not make any compromises.

V. I. Lenin repeatedly stressed that although concessions are important for increasing the quantity of products in a country and developing its productive forces, the main thing is their political significance, since they help establish business ties with other countries. The conclusion of concession agreements with representatives of the capitalist world favored the implementation of the policy of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems. V. I. Lenin pointed out that the concession policy indicates the peacefulness of the Soviet government, its readiness to fight for the restoration of productive forces not only in Soviet Russia, but also to participate in the development of the world economy 53 . He noted the huge propaganda value of such a policy, which took into account the economic interests of other countries. Thanks to its implementation, sympathies for the Soviet Union were awakened.

49 Unpublished memoirs of E. I. Brudio " Titan of Ages "(Scientific reference cabinet of the section of works of V. I. Lenin NML at the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. neop. Judging by the content of the memoirs, they refer to a meeting of the active members of the Moscow Party Organization on December 6, 1920.

50 Unpublished memoirs of M. Nazarov "Experienced and unforgettable". In the same place.

51 "Lenin's Collection" XXXVII, p. 243.

52 TSPA NML at the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 17, op. 2, ed. hr. 83, l. 1.

53 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 42, p. 70.

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Lenin strongly opposed the view that the conclusion of concession agreements could negatively affect the development of the revolutionary movement in capitalist countries, and that the situation in the Soviet Union was very difficult for the workers of other countries, representatives of the oppressed peoples, and all working people, which made it difficult to organize a new intervention against the Country of Soviets. In his closing remarks on the report on concessions to the RCP (b) faction of the Eighth All-Russian Congress of Soviets, he pointed out that our existence and the acceleration of the way out of the critical situation, the overcoming of famine, which would be facilitated by the conclusion of concession agreements, "is a gigantic force and a factor of revolution stronger than those pennies from the point of view of world economy, which they receive from us " 54 . The conclusion of concessions strengthened the international position of Soviet Russia, and to strengthen it, to make it invincible, V. I. Lenin pointed out, means to ensure the main condition for the successful development of the revolutionary movement and the struggle of the oppressed and colonial countries. The concession policy, he emphasized, was one of the factors of the coming proletarian revolution, and it helped to strengthen the alliance of peoples against imperialism. 55

Attaching great importance to negotiations on concessions, V. I. Lenin suggested that a "most merciless struggle" should be waged against those who opposed the concessions .56 V. I. Lenin devoted a lot of time and effort to negotiations with representatives of the American United Company of Medicines and Chemicals A. Hammer and B. Michel on the transfer of asbestos mines in the Alapaevsky district in the Urals to the concession of this company, and the conclusion of a concession agreement with the joint - stock company of Swedish ball bearing plants in Gothenburg-SKF 57 . parts of oil fields 58, iron ore deposits in the area of the Kursk magnetic anomaly 59, some coal mines in the Donbass. In his field of vision were also negotiations on forest concessions, concessions for vacant land, on concessions for water, air transport and in the postal and telegraph business, as well as in a variety of extractive and manufacturing industries .60
The Soviet Government approached the issue of concluding concession contracts with extreme caution and caution. All the pros and cons were thoroughly weighed. During 1921, only four concession agreements were concluded, and in 1922 - fourteen (more than 300 proposals were received in 1922) 61 . The large number of rejected proposals is explained by the fact that many of them were speculative, not supported by the appropriate material, technical and financial base. Some concessionaires put forward extortionate or unacceptable political conditions for the Soviet Republic, or their proposals related to objects that the Soviet Government did not accept.

54 Ibid., p. 120.

55 See ibid., pp. 108, 124.

56 See V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 54, p. 136.

57 Central Administration of the IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 19, op. 1, units hr. 420, 445, 447, etc.

58 There are a number of Lenin's documents (notes to various persons, underscores, notes on memos and other documents about the oil industry) that show how V. I. Lenin studied in detail the issues of leasing certain oil fields.

59 Central Administration of the IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. 19, op. 1, ed. hr. 425, etc.

60 See unpublished memoirs of V. V. Gombarg about V. I. Lenin (Scientific Reference Cabinet of the Works of V. I. Lenin Sector of the IML under the Central Committee of the CPSU, f. neop. vos.).

61 "Planned Economy", 1927, No. 1, p. 78. As of October 1, 1929, 2,670 proposals had been received from foreign concession applicants. In the entire period of their existence in our country (from 1921 to 1944), there were 112 concessions, including 36 mixed joint-stock companies; entrepreneurs from 20 countries acted as concessionaires (Sovetskie Arkhivy, 1969, No. 2, pp. 45-46).

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the government did not consider it possible to pass the concession. Later, as business ties with the capitalist world and diplomatic relations with individual countries were established, the number of contracts concluded increased slightly.

In general, concessions are not widespread in our country. Their share in the gross output of the entire price industry did not exceed 0.6%. However, in some industries, the share of concessions in the production of products was very significant. Thus, the share of concessions in the products of the silver-lead ore industry reached 62%, in the manganese ore industry-40%, in the production of consumer goods-22% 62 . In 1927, the Lena Goldfields concession alone accounted for about 30% of the country's total gold production .63
Under the conditions of peaceful economic construction, various types of cooperatives of small commodity producers also developed significantly. The need for restrictions imposed during war communism on cooperatives in the field of procurement and distribution of products disappeared with the transition to the NEP, when the system of sales was replaced by a natural tax and the free exchange of surplus products remaining with the population after taxes were met was allowed. In accordance with the changed conditions, on March 15, 1921, the Tenth Party Congress adopted a resolution written by V. I. Lenin, according to which the Congress instructed the Central Committee to work out and carry out, in the party and Soviet order, resolutions on cooperation in relation to the replacement of distribution with a natural tax. The Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of April 7, 1921 "On Consumer Cooperation" granted consumer societies the right to exchange and buy up surplus agricultural production, as well as handicraft and handicraft products, and sell them 64 . This created conditions for a broad expansion of the cooperative's activities.

In the spring of 1921, V. I. Lenin, as in the spring of 1918, considered the cooperation of small commodity producers as a kind of state capitalism. Cooperative capitalism, he emphasized, facilitated accounting, control, supervision, and contractual relations between the state and the capitalist. Through cooperation, private capital was attracted to economic cooperation with the Soviet state and, in fact, was forced to fulfill its tasks. However, in the conditions of almost complete economic ruin and only the first steps of socialist transformations, the cooperation of small commodity producers by its socio-economic nature still remained a non-Soviet organization. The methods of its work were still state-capitalist in nature; at that time the well - to-do strata of the countryside held important positions in the leadership of the cooperative; the influence of the Mensheviks, Social Revolutionaries, and other petty-bourgeois and bourgeois elements was strong. Nevertheless, V. I. Lenin and in the spring of 1921. He pointed out that co-operation facilitates the unification and organization of millions of the population, and then of the entire population, and this circumstance "is a huge plus from the point of view of the further transition from state capitalism to socialism." 65 Lenin believed that a co-operative policy would give us the rise of small-scale farming and facilitate its transition "to large-scale production on the on the basis of voluntary association", that the transition to socialism from co-operation is capable of "embracing, in case of success, the wider masses of the population", is capable of "pulling out deeper and more vital resources."-

62 "Factory industry of the USSR for 1927-1928 and 1928-1929", Moscow, 1930, pp. 43, 44, 45, 50.

63 " USSR. Year of work of the Government (materials and reports for the 1925-26 budget year)". Moscow, 1927, pp. 408-409.

64 SU, 1921, N 26, pp. 155-156.

65 V. I. Lenin. PSS. Vol. 43, p. 226.

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These are the mighty roots of the old, pre-socialist, even pre-capitalist relations, which are most persistent in resisting any "novelty" 66 .

The tasks of cooperation in the context of NEP have significantly expanded. If earlier it was used by the Soviet state mainly as an apparatus for the distribution of products and goods, now the tasks of economic communication with small commodity producers through cooperation, the tasks of monitoring and regulating their activities were set. There are still various points of view on the development of cooperation and its socio-economic nature in the early years of NEP (1921-1922). Some researchers, in fact, defend the thesis that its socio - economic nature remains unchanged during these years .67 We believe that the point of view of L. F. Morozov and other researchers, who trace significant changes in the socio-economic nature of cooperation that occurred in 1921-1922, is more correct .68
As a result of success in implementing the first steps of the NEP, by the end of 1922 and the beginning of 1923, a significant increase in industrial and agricultural production was achieved in the country: various types of cooperatives of small commodity producers are being strengthened. Significant qualitative changes are also taking place in the social nature of cooperation, in the nature of its functions and working methods. In the persistent struggle against the old co-operatives hostile to the Soviet government, the Communist Party's influence in various types of co-operatives of small commodity producers increases, and bourgeois elements are increasingly removed from its leadership. The participation of the working masses of the peasantry, poor and middle peasants in co-operation is growing, and social principles are being introduced more widely into the activity of co-operation. These changes took place against the background of significant changes in the country's economic life, and clearly outlined prospects for the transition to socialist forms of economy. With the success of the socialist sector, with the growth of socialization in the national economy, and with the strengthening of the economic alliance between the working class and the peasantry, cooperation is increasingly becoming a method of socialist reconstruction of society, an instrument of struggle against the bourgeoisie. The rapidly developing socialist industry has a strong influence in the socialist spirit on cooperation.

It was also important for the transformation of the cooperative in this direction that by the beginning of 1923 the Communist Party and the Soviet State were able to provide more serious assistance to the cooperative than before by allocating funds to strengthen its material base, directing their best forces to work in its organs, and strengthening them by communists who knew the cooperative business. Of course, for two years, since the spring of 1921, the cooperative has not yet radically changed its social nature. Nevertheless, important steps were taken to transform it into a form of socialist restructuring of small-scale production, primarily agricultural production. They made it possible to carry out further development of cooperation along the path of its inclusion in the socialist system.-

66 Ibid., pp. 226-227.

67 See, for example, the theses of I. I. Sergeev's report "On the question of V. I. Lenin's development of a Cooperative plan during the NEP Years" ("Lenin's Cooperative Plan and its implementation in the USSR. Abstracts of reports and reports", Moscow, 1969, pp. 26-27). The same point of view was essentially defended by A. I. Kosoy in his article "On the Nature and role of Cooperation in the Transition Period from capitalism to Socialism" (Voprosy Ekonomiki, 1963, No. 2).

68 See L. F. Morozov. On state capitalism and the social nature of cooperation at the beginning of the NEP. "Questions of the History of the CPSU", 1966, No. 12, pp. 44-45; "To the results of discussion of the problems of the new economic policy" "Questions of the History of the CPSU", 1968, No. 12, pp. 89.

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the Russian sector of the economy. In this connection, in his article "On Co-operation" in early 1923, Lenin raised the question of its social nature in a new way and concluded that co-operation is the simplest, easiest and most accessible path to socialism for the vast peasant masses. V. I. Lenin already considers cooperative enterprises as socialist enterprises. He had in mind not only the situation in various types of co-operation by the beginning of 1923, but also the prospects (and, apparently, mainly the prospects) of its development and growth, which he identified with the growth of socialism. V. I. Lenin's new assessment of the social character of the cooperative, based on the development of this organization in a socialist direction, testified that V. I. Lenin's hopes were fully justified. The co-operative movement was rising to a new level; it was beginning to see clear socialist prospects for development .69
Let's summarize. V. I. Lenin's teaching on state capitalism is an integral part of the Marxist-Leninist theory of the transition from capitalism to socialism, and a serious contribution to the science of building a socialist society. At the same time, V. I. Lenin devoted a lot of effort and energy to explaining the policy of state capitalism at party congresses, congresses of Soviets, various meetings and conferences, and its consistent implementation in practice. He corresponded with foreign firms and individuals applying for concessions, and fought for the creation of conditions that would ensure the implementation of decisions taken on these issues.

True, state capitalism did not play the role it was intended to play during the transition period in the economic development of Soviet Russia. Foreign and Russian entrepreneurs counted on the speedy death of the Soviet government and believed that without their help it would not be able to restore the destroyed economy. The rapid pace of development of socialist production, which made it possible to solve the fundamental issues of the country's economic recovery by the forces of the socialist state, was also important.

At the same time, it would be wrong to underestimate the practice of using state capitalism, which played a certain role in the rise and development of the country's economy, and contributed to the transfer of small-scale production to the rails of a large-scale socialist economy. Attracting entrepreneurs on a state-capitalist basis contributed to the development of backward regions at that time (the north of the European part of the country, Siberia, and the Far East), and helped restore a number of enterprises in various industries. The implementation of a policy designed to use state capitalism strengthened the Soviet country's position on the world market and helped overcome its economic and political isolation.

The experience of using State capitalism in our country is also of international importance. It facilitated the use of state capitalism as a form of transition from a capitalist economy to a socialist one in most countries of the socialist camp, at various stages of revolutionary transformation. The need to use state capitalism is now faced by young countries that have got rid of the oppression of colonialism and are getting rid of it and are embarking on the path of non-capitalist development. In view of this, the theory of state capitalism developed by V. I. Lenin, which has passed practical testing in the conditions of our country and other socialist states, still retains its significance.

69 For more information on cooperation in the early years of NEP and its transformation into a socialist direction, see: L. F. Morozov. From bourgeois cooperation to Socialist Cooperation, Moscow, 1969.

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