The economic crisis of the interwar years and the associated political upheavals hit all countries integrated into the international economy, although at different times and to varying degrees.

USSR

The USSR, being partially isolated from the networks of international investment and trade, largely escaped from the addition of exceptional new burdens to those it already suffered. From 1921, Russia was able to begin to restructure its society and economy on the basis of the breathing space provided by Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP) which permitted a limited revival of private trade in agricultural and consumer goods. This was only possible, however, after aperiod of fluctuating prices and industrial employment and amid threats of a workers opposition, as agriculture was favoured at the expense of heavy industry. Rowever, NEP had always been seen as a temporary step backwards from socialist ideals and, especiaHy after Lenin's death in 1924, Bolshevik leaders stressed the long-term danger to socialism from excessive encouragement of free enterprise. The alternative was a planned socialized economy, which was pursued with increasing fervour from 1925. The aim of Soviet planning was, within a socialist framework, to transform the USSR into a modem industrial economy matching those of the West and hence to make the country industriaHy as weH as agriculturally selfsufficient, diminishing its dependence upon imports from hostile countries and creating a surplus for export, to increase national wealth.