“A Military Alliance Can Not Exist Without an Economic Alliance”: The New Economic Policy in the Light of Constitutional Framing in the USSR

Abstract

The article is devoted to the problem of the influence of the new economic policy on the constitutional framing in the USSR, which is little studied in Russian historiography. The aim of the article is to study the views of the party and government leadership at the all-union and republic levels on the problem of incorporating the principles of the new economic policy into the Basic Law on the basis of published and archival sources, as well as a wide range of research literature. Since the republics’ constitutions prevailed over the all-Union constitution in terms of including economic foundations and regulating economic life, considerable attention is paid to the history of creation as well as to the forms and features of the development of constitutional drafts of the State Planning Commission and the RSFSR Council of People's Commissars. The original versions, which contained articles on the foundations of the republic's economic system and on the strengthening of the legal basis of the NEP reforms, were not reflected in the final text of the 1925 RSFSR Constitution. The reason for this was the ideological bias of the party leaders and the uncertainty of the prospects of the NEP development. The NEP was recognized as a necessary condition for the restoration and development of the country's economy, but it was by no means an effective tool for building socialism in the historical perspective. In the opinion of the party and government leaders of the country, the NEP entailed too many political risks and dangers; that is why it was not expedient to include its basic provisions in such a long-term system-forming document as the USSR Constitution of 1924.