War Communism In Russia – By Debi De Silva

Who was involved: The Russian population under Vladimir Lenin and The Soviet Union. The people of Russia were divided into four categories – manual workers, workers who performed hard physical labour, workers in light tasks/housewives and then professional people. Those of which mentioned were involved. Background information: The Bolshevik government had gained entire power of Russia after the October Revolution in 1917. After this, the Russian Civil War occurred and this is what introduced War Communism. Where: Russia. When: The policy of War Communism lasted from the June 1918 to March 1921.

What: The central idea and principals of War Communism was that there was no longer ownership, everything was owned as a state. War Communism aimed to get rid of private trade, production and houses. It was to control labour of every citizen by the state. War Communism caused the state to try and become a distributor as well as the producer. It attempted to get rid of money and replace it with state rationing. All this started by grain monopoly in 1918. Armed brigades were sent into villages to take the grain away by force. Why Was it done: The Bolsheviks took over the economy in such a bad state due to the Civil War/WW1 and also the Russian Revolutions. The Bolsheviks immediately needed to keep the economy going. Another reason why War Communism happened, is because Lenin preferred state capitalism rather than socialism.

The effects of war communism: The peasants were very angry and they were only growing food for themselves as they knew that whatever else they harvested would go to the state. Industrial cities starved. Malnutrition and diseases were very common. The economic strength of Russia fell below the level in 1914. The 33% of the people from the city were moving away and going to the country which meant the ‘power base’ of Russia was leaving. The value of the rouble had dropped massively. Rail system turned into chaos. War Communism lead to the Peasant Rebellion. War Communism was abandoned in 1921. However, the were strikes across Russia and people were still furious. This is when the New Economic Policy (NEP) begun.