NEP is one of the biggest steps back taken by the USSR; it was not for nothing that Lenin compared it to the Brest Peace. The decision was extremely difficult and, judging by the doubts that tormented Lenin's soul in the last years of his life, if he had lived for a few more years, he would have rectified the most dangerous consequences of this decision. But his successors did not see this danger, and so a huge Trojan horse appeared in the construction of socialism - a direct material interest, as the main economic lever. The NEP took shape, not being directed against small-scale commodity production, but as an embodiment of the requirements of this production

Everything stems from an erroneous concept - the desire to build socialism from the elements of capitalism, without changing the latter in essence. This leads to the creation of a hybrid system that is bewildering; moreover, into a dead end, hardly noticeable, which forces us to make more and more concessions to the state of economic methods, i.e. forces to retreat.

My thesis is that the changes that took place in connection with the NEP affected the life of Soviet society so deeply that they left an imprint on the entire subsequent stage of its history. And the results of this are discouraging: the capitalist superstructure in an ever more distinct form influences production relations, and the conflicts caused by the "hybridization" that the NEP designated, are being resolved today in favor of the superstructure; there is a return to capitalism.

Ernesto Che Guevara

Situation in USSR had been much better, as it did not have any billionaires and openly capitalist factories like China.

Chinese elite more and more will rely on censorship and pure force despite capitalist elements are rising their head each day, they become stronger.