We explain what war communism was, what were the objectives of this system and the consequences it produced.
What was War Communism?
War Communism was called the political and economic system with which Soviet Russia was administered (prior to the existence of the USSR) between June 1918 and March 1921, in the framework of the Russian Civil War. It consisted of a management totally aimed at keeping the cities and to the Red Army the best supplies of weapons and food possible, given the exceptional conditions imposed by the war.
War Communism was decreed by the Higher Council for the Economy, known as VSNJ, and culminated in the announcement of the New Economic Policy (NEP) proposed by Vladimir Lenin and which lasted until 1928. The implementation of this method The special event consisted of a series of economic and political measures, such as:
- The government He controlled all the big factories in Russia.
- The railroads passed under military control.
- The government planned and controlled production according to its needs.
- Maximum was required discipline and obedience to the workers (strike ban).
- The "non-working" classes had to do compulsory jobs.
- Rationing and controlled distribution of food and goods.
- Illegalization of all forms of business private.
- Distribution of the agricultural surpluses of the peasants among the population all.
It should be noted that these measures were taken in a context of civil war, so they were much less coordinated and coherent in practice. Many territories were isolated and acted without instructions from the central government, so it is often understood the Communism of war as just a desperate set of measures to win the armed conflict.
Objectives of war communism
There is debate about the real purpose of War Communism. For many, including the Bolsheviks, it was nothing more than an attempt to survive the civil war and win at any cost. Seen this way, the Soviet government would have operated under pressure from socio-economic contingencies.
However, War Communism is also accused of having been a strategy to advance unpopular and radical economic and social measures, such as the extermination of the private property and the market economy, being able to attribute them to the urgency that the war efforts entailed.
Consequences of war communism
War Communism further complicated the difficulties that the civil war implied for the Condition Russian. The refusal of the peasantry to hand over their surplus production caused a massive exodus from the cities to the countryside, where it was easier to feed, causing large cities like Moscow and Petrograd to lose around 50 and 75% of their population respectively, between the years 1918 and 1920.
The shortage created a black market for goods, despite the fact that there was a martial law in force against speculation, and the collapse of the ruble created a system of bartering of goods and food. 90% of wages were paid for with goods rather than money, and in 1921 there was a massive famine that caused between 3 and 10 million deaths.
This catastrophic series of events came to an end after the outbreak of peasant strikes and rebellions (such as the Tambov Rebellion) throughout the country, before which it was decided to implement a model of capitalism of State denominated New Economic Policy (NEP), in which the establishment of small private companies was allowed. The latter model existed until 1928, when it was superseded by Josef Stalin's First Five-Year Plan.