War Communism 1918-21

Aims of War Communism

• High levels of industrial output of war goods. Supply red army during civil war

• Efficient allocation of resources.

• Food production to feed soldiers, workers and civilian population.

• Ideological considerations? - Establish Bolshevik rule and apply Communist ideology

Key features of war communism

• Nationalisation of all industry without compensation. Only workplaces w/ fewer than 10 workers exempt

• All industry under Vesenkha

• Reintroduction of hierarchical structures in industry- workers councils replaced by strict management

• Harsh military style discipline in factories- death penalty for workers on strike, Unemployed in ‘Labour armies’ e.g road building

  • 1918, 11 hour day

• All private trading banned(by state) but large black market developed. Attempt to abolish money which led to Hyperinflation

• Forcible food requisitioning- feed army and urban areas

  • 150,000 Bolshevik volunteers used to seize grain. Committees used to spy on suspected peasant hoarders, often violent outbreaks

  • Malnutrition and starvation commonplace

• Introduction of Rationing- despite food shortages ensure industrial workers fed, who were key to war effort

Grain requisitioning by Cheka

• Lenin’s food dictatorship’ consisted of:

  • Grain requisitioning:

    • Cheka seized grain from peasants without payment.

  • Rationing: Supply Commissariat rationed the seized foods.

  • Largest rations went to workers and soldiers, smallest rations given to members of the bourgeoisie.

• SOCIAL IMPACTS- Led to famine (with drought and civil war) 5 million died

• Leads to Tambov uprising 1920/21 -Peasants in Tambov, led by Aleksandr Antonov, began a rebellion against communist grain requisitioning and Cheka brutality.

• By January 1921 Antonov had a force of 50,000 anti-communist fighters.

• Antonov’s revolt was not the only challenge to the Bolsheviks in the countryside.

War communism - successes - Ideological and Military

• IDEOLOGICAL

  • Economy is Communist

  • Complete nationalisation - in theory all equal. Some saw as true socialism e.g Trotsky- Centralising industry and abolishing private ownership

• MILITARY

  • Allows Red army to win the Civil war as kept them supplied

War communism - Consequences - Social, economic, political

• SOCIAL

  • Grain requisitioning, drought, war led to famine 5 million dead. Unpopular, great human cost

  • 100 kulaks killed to create terror for peasants ‘hundreds of miles around

• ECONOMIC COLLAPSE

  • Industrial production 1/5 of 1913 1921

  • Factories deprived of manpower- conscription and urban plight, e.g Petrograd for 2.5mill to 0.6m

  • Agriculture- peasants produce less grain- no incentive to work, not paid

  • Mass poverty

• POLITICAL

  • Mass starvation deepened the economic crisis, led to a political crisis.

  • Between August 1920-June 1921, peasants in the Tambov region rebelled against the Communist Government.

  • In Kronstadt, soldiers who hard supported the communists without question, had turned against the government, demanding a return to free trade.

  • In March 1921, the sailors mutinied with a response from the government of extreme force, defending itself  and crushing the rebellions

  • BLACK MARKET

  • Lenin’s economic controls failed to abolish the market.

    • Historians estimate that only 40% of the food consumed in Russia’s cities came from rationing of food during the Civil War.

  • Workers forced to steal government resources to make goods that could be bartered for food.

  • Metal workers would steal scrap metal and fuel to make lighters.

Civil war 1918-21

• From the start, Lenin’s government faced huge opposition.

• Lenin described the war as a battle between the Communist Red and the reactionary Whites.

  • In reality it was bigger than this.

• Senior members of the Russian army wanted to re-establish Tsarist rule, while others wanted a military dictatorship or a democratic system like France or America.

• The new government had radical opponents too.

• The SRs and Mensheviks wanted a more democratic type of socialist government.

  • Anarchists also wanted to abolish government altogether.

• Britain, France, the USA and Japan all sent troops to fight the new government.

  • There was fear that a revolution might spread.

• First signs of military conflict emerged in January 1918 as General Kornilov organised an anti-Bolshevik army in the Don region.

• SRs and liberals set up rival governments.

• A full scale civil war broke out in summer of 1918.

  • Enemies of Bolsheviks gaining grounds in the first 6 months of 1919.

  • In the summer of 1919, the Red Army began to win.

• Red Army extended communist power by winning against Nestor Makhno’s anarchist army in the Ukraine, Alexander Kolchak’s authoritarian government in Siberia, etc.