ABSTRACT
Foreign trade under the New Economic Policy has been slowly increasing, although the excessive profits exacted by the state monopoly have constituted a serious impediment. The provincial agricultural co-operatives, as also the consumers' co-operatives, were allowed access to foreign markets for sale and purchase, through the All-Russian Central Rural Union. Up till the moment of the adoption of the New Economic Policy at the instance of Lenin, the Soviet press, even technical journals, constantly referred to the necessity of 'the extirpation of the remnants of the capitalist system, the carrying out of socialist measures, and the creation for that purpose of appropriate organs'. In so far as the New Economic Policy means release of private enterprise from the strangulation which it was suffering, and from constant or spasmodic interference by politicians, Soviets, or committees, there is some prospect that it will contribute, within the limits of its operation to the economic recovery of Russia.
