war communism

Series of economic policies used by the communist Bolshevik government during the Russian civil war (1918-21), a conflict with the Tsarist White armies. Although nationalization of banks and industry had gathered pace since the Russian Revolution (1917) in line with communist ideals, the outbreak of civil war produced draconian measures. Private businesses were nationalized, the factories passed to Bolshevik party control, strikes were banned, and workers relocated where needed. In the countryside, the Bolsheviks' intensive requisitioning of produce for the Red Army and factory workers produced bitter opposition and led to the famine of 1920-21, in which over 7 million people died.

Pre-war economy The communist Bolsheviks disagreed over how to proceed with the creation of a socialist utopia in Russia. While Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was prepared to work with capitalist factory owners and business people in the short term, the communists of the hard-line left demanded that the Bolsheviks move immediately to nationalize all industry and land. Although banks were nationalized in 1918 and the nationalization of factories gathered momentum, the results were disastrous for the Russian economy. Chaos reigned and production fell. Lenin felt that the problem lay with the workers' committees that ran the factories. He believed that they did not produce the maximum efficiency from the workers, and that the workers' committees could not be trusted to run the factories in the interests of the state. However, his attempts to control the workers by increasing the powers of the Bolshevik-dominated trade unions caused friction with communists of the far left, who supported the concept of workers' councils as part of the purity of socialist philosophy. The debate was soon overtaken by the outbreak of the Russian civil war in the spring of 1918, when the Bolsheviks found themselves under attack from the Tsarist Whites and in great danger of losing power.

Civil war economy The Bolsheviks introduced harsh and widespread measures to meet their immediate needs in the war. Private businesses were nationalized and made to work for the war effort. All Russians between the ages of 16 and 60 had to work or face punishment. Control over the factories passed from the workers' committees to the party and state. Strikes, the traditional weapon of the left, were prohibited as against the interests of the Russian people and state. Workers could be sent to any part of Russia where their labour was required. The Cheka secret police arrested any workers who attempted to challenge these policies.

Bolshevik agents were sent into the countryside to encourage the poorer peasants to rise up and attack the kulaks, richer peasants who could afford to hire labour. Excess grain produced by the peasants was requisitioned for the factory workers and the Red Army, and the peasants paid in worthless paper money. Often the peasants had all their grain taken, leaving them to starve. Unable to make any profit from their produce, the peasants stopped growing more than they needed, leading to shortages in the towns and cities. The combination of food shortages in the towns and the forced requisition of peasants' grain supplies led to a famine between 1920 and 1921 that killed over 7 million people. Red Army units were sent to the countryside to force the peasants to comply with Bolshevik policy. Villages were burned to the ground and their population executed as a warning to other villages to comply with Bolshevik demands. Lenin and the head of the Red Army, Leon Trotsky personally managed this policy of oppression and fear. Lenin himself signed orders to destroy whole villages.

Impact of war communism In the short term war communism achieved its aim to supply the Red Army with the means to win the civil war. It also ended the labour chaos that was endemic in the Russia's factories by early 1918, as well as ending the falling levels of worker productivity. War communism allowed the Bolsheviks to assert their control over Russian industry and the population at large. A centralized system of production was created, even if the results by 1921 were production levels that were just 20% of those in 1913. War communism was not popular with the Russian people, who suffered its often devastating impact, but it enabled the Bolsheviks to win the civil war and continue with their revolutionary policies in Russia.