1) The New Economic Policy and the Doctrine of “Economic Management” Taken Seriously
2) To “teach” through “the stick”; through iron discipline; to “take things seriously”
cf. with war, cf. with April 29, 1918
3) “Retreat”—defeated armies learn their lessons
4) Will the capitalist and the merchant unite the petty bourgeoisie?
“The element of war is danger.”
The conquest of the possibility of a “reformist” transition—or, put another way, the possibility of embarking on a path of preliminary approach, of stepping onto the bridges, onto the rungs that lead toward the goal.
(A frontal assault might yield complete success; it might achieve only partial success—namely, the conquest of a secure opportunity for approach and transition, for “reforms,” for the submission of the bourgeoisie, and so forth.)
“The wholesale merchant,” “state capitalism.”

* — “The elemental force of war is danger.” Ed.

Serving the peasant market, peasant consumption; finding a consumer; satisfying that consumer; calculating; profiting; engaging in commercial calculation. Its essence lies in “learning” seriously—in other words, in undergoing a real-life trial, in bearing the fruits of experience.
Was the “frontal assault” a mistake, or was it an attempt to test the ground and clear the way? Both, viewed historically.
But looking at it now, as we move from that method to another, it is crucial to underscore its role—and its errors.
The political revolution and its cultural (economic) digestion.
Written between October and December 1921.
First published in 1933 in Volume XXIII of the Lenin Collection.
Printed from the manuscript.

* — Summa summarum—the overall sum. Ed.