The article examines the role of private entrepreneurship as an alternative sphere of employment for a significant mass of the population during the years of the NEP. Incentive mechanisms of citizens’ involvement in trade are considered, assessments of their activities by the merchants themselves are given. The emphasis is placed on the negative consequences that trade entailed, including disenfranchisement. The conclusion is made about the negative social dynamics or statics in the destinies of private entrepreneurs, which indicates the implementation of the mechanism of negative social selection, which went in parallel with the process of forming a new Soviet man. The elimination of mixed economic system, the unification and hybridisation of economic structures, the socialisation of not only material, but also labour resources, deprived private entrepreneurs of an economic basis. As a result, most of them tried to join the state or cooperative way of life, guaranteeing access to channels of distribution of material goods and certain social protection. A small part joined the ranks of the shadow sector of the economy, which existed throughout the Soviet period. The author concludes that along with the fight against illegal forms of trade, the authorities objectively formed the prerequisites for its existence, since defects in the distribution system and chronic commodity shortages created a steady demand for products and services of the shadow economy and the black market.