In order to responsibly understand what the policy of War Communism was, we will briefly consider public sentiments during the turbulent years of the Civil War, as well as the position of the Bolshevik Party during this period (its
participation in the war and government policy).
The years 1917-1921 were the most difficult period in the history of our fatherland. They were made like that by bloody wars with many opposing sides and the most difficult geopolitical situation.
communism: briefly about the situation of the CPSU (b)
During this difficult time, in various parts of the former empire, many challengers fought for every piece of its land. German army; local national forces that tried to create their own states on the fragments of the empire (for example, the formation of the UPR); local popular associations, which were commanded by regional authorities; the Poles who invaded Ukrainian territory in 1919; whiteguard counter-revolutionaries; allied to the last formations of the Entente; and, finally, the Bolshevik units. Under these conditions, the absolutely necessary guarantee of victory was the complete concentration of forces and the mobilization of all available resources for the military defeat of all opponents. Actually, this mobilization on the part of the communists was military communism, carried out by the leadership of the CPSU (b) from the first months of 1918 to March 1921.
Politics briefly about the essence of the regime
In the course of its implementation, the aforementioned policy has caused many controversial assessments. Its main points were the following measures:
Nationalization of the entire complex of industry and the banking system of the country;
State monopolization of foreign trade;
Compulsory labor service of the entire population capable of labor activity;
Food dictatorship. It was this point that became the most hated for the peasants, since a part of the grain was forcibly confiscated in favor of the soldiers and the starving city. Even today, the surplus appropriation system is often presented as an example of the atrocities of the Bolsheviks, but it should be noted that with its help the workers in the cities were significantly smoothed out.
The Politics of War Communism: Briefly on the Reaction of the Population
Frankly speaking, War Communism was a forceful way of forcing the masses to increase the intensity of work for the victory of the Bolsheviks. As already mentioned, the bulk of the dissatisfaction of Russia - a peasant country at that time - was caused by the surplus appropriation system. However, in fairness, it must be said that the White Guards also used the same technique. It logically followed from the state of affairs in the country, since the First World War and the Civil War completely destroyed traditional trade ties between the village and the city. This has led to the deplorable state of many industrial enterprises. At the same time, there was dissatisfaction with the policy of War Communism in the cities. Here, instead of the expected increase in labor productivity and economic recovery, on the contrary, there was a weakening of discipline at enterprises. The replacement of old cadres with new ones (who were communists, but far from always qualified managers) led to a tangible decline in industry and a decline in economic indicators.
Despite all the difficulties, the policy of War Communism nevertheless fulfilled its intended role. Even if not always successfully, the Bolsheviks were able to muster all their forces against the counter-revolution and withstand the battles. At the same time, it caused popular demonstrations and seriously undermined the authority of the CPSU (b) among the peasantry. The last such massive demonstration was the Kronstadt one, which took place in the spring of 1921. As a result, Lenin initiated the transition to the so-called 1921 in the shortest possible time helped to restore the national economy.
Throughout the civil war, the Bolsheviks pursued a socio-economic policy that later became known as "war communism." It was born, on the one hand, by the extraordinary conditions of that time (the collapse of the economy in 1917, hunger, especially in industrial centers, armed struggle, etc.), and on the other hand, it reflected the idea of the withering away of commodity-money relations and market after the victory of the proletarian revolution. This combination led to the strictest centralization, the growth of the bureaucratic apparatus, the military command system of management, equalizing distribution according to the class principle. The main elements of this policy were:
- - surplus appropriation,
- - prohibition of private trade,
- - nationalization of the entire industry and its management through the headquarters,
- - universal labor service,
- - militarization of labor,
- - labor armies,
- - card system for the distribution of products and goods,
- - compulsory cooperation of the population,
- - compulsory membership in trade unions,
- - free social services (housing, transport, shows, newspapers, education, etc.)
In essence, war communism was engendered even before 1918 by the establishment of a one-party Bolshevik dictatorship, the creation of repressive and terrorist organs, and pressure on the countryside and capital. The actual impetus for its implementation was the decline in production and the reluctance of the peasants, mainly middle peasants, who finally received land, the opportunity to develop their economy, to hand over grain at fixed prices. As a result, a set of measures was put into practice, which were supposed to lead to the defeat of the forces of counterrevolution, to raise the economy and create favorable conditions for the transition to socialism. These measures affected not only politics and economics, but, in fact, all spheres of society.
In the economic sphere: the widespread nationalization of the economy (that is, the legalization of the transition of enterprises and industries into the ownership of the state, which, however, does not mean its transformation into the property of the entire society). The SNK decree of June 28, 1918 nationalizes the mining, metallurgical, textile and other industries. By the end of 1918, out of 9 thousand enterprises in European Russia, 3.5 thousand were nationalized, by the summer of 1919 - 4 thousand, and a year later already about 7 thousand enterprises, which employed 2 million people (this is about 70 percent of the employed). The nationalization of industry gave rise to a system of 50 central administrations, which supervised the activities of enterprises that distributed raw materials and received products. In 1920, the state was practically the undivided owner of the industrial means of production.
The next side, which determines the essence of the economic policy of "war communism" - surplus appropriation. In simple words, “surplus appropriation” is a compulsory imposition of the obligation to hand over “surplus” production on food producers. Mainly, of course, this fell on the village, the main producer of food. In practice, this led to the forcible confiscation of the necessary amount of grain from the peasants, and the forms of the surplus appropriation left much to be desired: the authorities followed the usual policy of equalization, and, instead of placing the burden of levies on wealthy peasants, robbed the middle peasants, who make up the bulk of food producers. This could not fail to cause general discontent, riots broke out in many areas, and the food army was ambushed. The unity of the peasantry was manifested in its opposition to the city as to the outside world.
The situation was aggravated by the so-called committees of the poor, created on June 11, 1918, designed to become the "second power" and withdraw surplus products (it was assumed that part of the withdrawn products would go to members of these committees), their actions were to be supported by parts of the "food army". The creation of kombeds testified to the Bolsheviks' complete ignorance of peasant psychology, in which the communal principle played the main role.
As a result of all this, the food appropriation campaign in the summer of 1918 failed: instead of 144 million poods of grain, only 13 were collected. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the authorities from continuing the food appropriation policy for several more years.
On January 1, 1919, the indiscriminate search for surplus was replaced by a centralized and planned system of surplus appropriation. On January 11, 1919, the decree "On appropriation of grain and fodder" was promulgated. According to this decree, the state announced in advance the exact number of its needs for products. That is, each region, county, parish had to hand over to the state a predetermined amount of grain and other products, depending on the expected harvest (determined very approximately, according to the data of the pre-war years). Implementation of the plan was imperative. Each peasant community was responsible for its own supplies. Only after the community fully fulfilled all the requirements of the state for the delivery of agricultural products, this work was downloaded from the Internet, peasants were issued receipts for the purchase of industrial goods, however, in an amount much less than required (10-15 percent), and the range was limited only to goods basic necessities: fabrics, matches, kerosene, salt, sugar, occasionally tools (in principle, the peasants agreed to exchange food for manufactured goods, but the state did not have enough of them). The peasants reacted to the surplus appropriation and the shortage of goods by reducing the acreage (up to 60 percent, depending on the region) and returning to subsistence farming. Subsequently, for example, in 1919, out of the planned 260 million poods of grain, only 100 were procured, and then with great difficulty. And in 1920 the plan was fulfilled by only 3-4%.
Then, having revived the peasantry against itself, the surplus appropriation did not satisfy the townspeople either: it was impossible to live on the daily stipulated ration, the intellectuals and the “former” were supplied with food in the last turn, and often did not receive anything at all. In addition to the inequity of the food supply system, it was also very confusing: in Petrograd there were at least 33 types of food cards with a shelf life of no more than a month.
Along with the surplus appropriation, the Soviet government introduces a number of duties: wood, underwater and horse-drawn, as well as labor.
The discovered huge shortage of goods, including basic necessities, creates fertile ground for the formation and development of a "black market" in Russia. The government tried in vain to fight the "bagmen". Law enforcement officers were ordered to arrest anyone with a suspicious bag. In response, the workers of many Petrograd factories went on strike. They demanded permission to freely transport sacks weighing up to one and a half pounds, which indicated that not only peasants were selling their "surplus" in secret. The people were busy looking for food, the workers abandoned the factories and, fleeing from hunger, returned to the villages. The need of the state to take into account and consolidate the labor force in one place forces the government to introduce "work books", this work was downloaded from the Internet, and the Labor Code extends labor service to the entire population aged 16 to 50 years. At the same time, the state has the right to carry out labor mobilization for any work, in addition to the main one.
A fundamentally new way of recruiting workers was the decision to turn the Red Army into a "labor army" and to militarize the railways. The militarization of labor turns workers into fighters on the labor front, who can be deployed anywhere, who can be commanded and who are subject to criminal liability for violation of labor discipline.
Trotsky, for example, believed that workers and peasants should be placed in the position of mobilized soldiers. Considering that "who does not work, he does not eat, but, since everyone should eat, then everyone should work." By 1920, in Ukraine, an area under the direct control of Trotsky, the railways were militarized, and any strike was regarded as a betrayal. On January 15, 1920, the First Revolutionary Labor Army was formed, which arose from the 3rd Ural Army, and in April the Second Revolutionary Labor Army was created in Kazan.
The results were depressing: the soldiers, the peasants were unskilled labor, they were in a hurry to go home and were not at all eager to work.
Another aspect of politics, which is probably the main one and has the right to be in the first place, is the establishment of a political dictatorship, a one-party dictatorship of the Bolshevik party.
Political opponents, opponents and competitors of the Bolsheviks fell under the press of all-encompassing violence. Publishing activities are curtailed, non-Bolshevik newspapers are banned, and leaders of opposition parties are arrested, which are subsequently outlawed. Within the framework of the dictatorship, the independent institutions of society are controlled and gradually destroyed, the terror of the Cheka is intensifying, and the "recalcitrant" Soviets in Luga and Kronstadt are forcibly disbanded.
Created in 1917, the Cheka was originally conceived as an investigative body, but the local Cheka quickly arrogated to themselves the right, after a short trial, to shoot those arrested. The terror was massive. For the attempt on Lenin's life alone, the Petrograd Cheka shot, according to official reports, 500 hostages. This is called the "Red Terror".
"Power from below", that is, "power of the Soviets", which had been gaining strength since February 1917 through various decentralized institutions created as a potential opposition to power, began to turn into "power from above", having appropriated all possible powers, using bureaucratic measures and resorting to violence.
It is necessary to say more about bureaucracy. On the eve of 1917, there were about 500 thousand officials in Russia, and during the years of the civil war, the bureaucratic apparatus doubled. Initially, the Bolsheviks hoped to solve this problem by destroying the old administrative apparatus, but it turned out that it was impossible to do without the previous cadres, "specialists", and the new economic system, with its control over all aspects of life, was conducive to the formation of a completely new, Soviet, type bureaucracy. This is how bureaucracy became an integral part of the new system.
Another important aspect of the policy of "war communism" is the destruction of the market and commodity-money relations. The market, the main engine of the country's development, is the economic ties between individual commodity producers, industries, and various regions of the country. The war broke all ties, broke them. Along with the irreversible fall in the ruble exchange rate (in 1919 it was equal to 1 kopeck of the pre-war ruble), the role of money as a whole declined, inevitably brought on by the war. Also, the nationalization of the economy, the undivided domination of the state mode of production, the overcentralization of economic bodies, the general approach of the Bolsheviks to the new society, as to a moneyless society, ultimately led to the abolition of the market and commodity-money relations.
On July 22, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree "On speculation", which prohibited any non-state trade. By the fall, private wholesale trade had been liquidated in half of the provinces not captured by whites, and in a third, retail. To provide the population with food, personal consumption items, the Council of People's Commissars decreed the creation of a network of state supplies. Such a policy required the creation of special super-centralized economic bodies in charge of accounting and distribution of all available products. The head offices (or centers) created at the Supreme Council of the National Economy controlled the activities of certain industries, were in charge of their financing, material and technical supply, and the distribution of manufactured products.
At the same time, the nationalization of banking takes place, in their place the People's Bank was created in 1918, which, in fact, was a department of the Commissariat of Finance (by a decree of January 31, 1920, it was merged with another department of the same institution and turned into the Department of Budget Calculations). By the beginning of 1919, private trade was also completely nationalized, except for the bazaar trade (from the stalls).
So, the public sector already makes up almost 100 percent of the economy, so there was no need for either the market or the money. But if natural economic ties are absent or ignored, then their place is taken by administrative ties established by the state, organized by its decrees, orders, implemented by agents of the state - officials, commissars. Accordingly, in order for people to believe in the justification of those changes that are taking place in society, the state applied another method of influencing the minds, which is also an integral part of the policy of "war communism", namely: ideological, theoretical and cultural. The state implanted: belief in a bright future, propaganda of the inevitability of a world revolution, the need to accept the leadership of the Bolsheviks, the establishment of ethics justifying any act committed in the name of the revolution, the need to create a new, proletarian, culture was promoted.
What, in the end, did "War Communism" bring to the country? Socio-economic conditions have been created for victory over the interventionists and the White Guards. It was possible to mobilize those insignificant forces at the disposal of the Bolsheviks, to subordinate the economy to one goal - to provide the Red Army with the necessary weapons, uniforms, and food. The Bolsheviks had at their disposal no more than a third of Russia's military enterprises, controlled areas that produced no more than 10 percent of coal, iron and steel, and had almost no oil. Despite this, during the war, the army received 4 thousand guns, 8 million shells, 2.5 million rifles. In 1919-1920 she was given 6 million overcoats, 10 million pairs of shoes.
The Bolshevik methods of solving problems led to the establishment of the party-bureaucratic dictatorship and, at the same time, to spontaneously growing unrest of the masses: the peasantry degraded, not feeling at least some significance, the value of their labor; the number of unemployed grew; prices doubled every month.
Also, the result of "war communism" was an unheard-of decline in production. In 1921, the volume of industrial production amounted to only 12% of the pre-war level, the volume of products for sale decreased by 92%, the state treasury was replenished by 80% due to food appropriation. In the spring and summer, a terrible famine broke out in the Volga region - after the confiscation there was no grain left. “War communism” also failed to provide food for the urban population: the mortality rate among workers increased. With the departure of workers to the countryside, the social base of the Bolsheviks narrowed. Only half of the grain came through government distribution, the rest through the black market, at speculative prices. Social dependency grew. The bureaucratic apparatus grew, interested in preserving the existing situation, since it also meant the existence of privileges.
By the winter of 1921, general dissatisfaction with "War Communism" had reached its limit. The grave economic situation, the collapse of hopes for a world revolution and the need for any immediate action to improve the country's situation and strengthen the power of the Bolsheviks forced the ruling circles to admit defeat and abandon war communism in favor of the New Economic Policy.
Surplus allocation.
Artist I.A. Vladimirov (1869-1947)
War communism - This is the policy pursued by the Bolsheviks during the civil war in 1918-1921, which includes a complex of emergency political and economic measures to win the civil war and protect the Soviet regime. It is not by chance that this policy has received such a name: "communism" - equalization of all rights, "military" -the policy was carried out by forceful coercion.
Start the policy of war communism was laid down in the summer of 1918, when two government documents appeared on the requisition (seizure) of grain and the nationalization of industry. In September 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the transformation of the republic into a single military camp, the slogan - “Everything for the front! Everything for the victory! "
Reasons for adopting the policy of War Communism
The need to protect the country from internal and external enemies
Defense and final approval of the power of the Soviets
The country's exit from the economic crisis
Goals:
The ultimate concentration of labor and material resources to repel external and internal enemies.
Building communism by violent methods ("cavalry attack on capitalism")
Features of War Communism
Centralization management of the economy, the system of the Supreme Council of the National Economy (Supreme Council of the National Economy), central administrations.
Nationalization industry, banks and land, liquidation of private property. The process of nationalization of property during the Civil War was called "expropriation".
Ban wage labor and land lease
Food dictatorship. Introduction surplus allocation(SNK decree January 1919) - food distribution. These are state measures for the implementation of plans for agricultural preparations: the obligatory delivery to the state of the established ("expanded) standard of products (bread, etc.) at state prices." The peasants could leave only a minimum of products for consumption and economic needs.
Creation in the countryside "Committees of the poor" (kombedov), who were engaged in surplus allocation. In the cities, armed workers were created food detachments for the withdrawal of grain from the peasants.
An attempt to introduce collective farms (collective farms, communes).
Private trade prohibition
The curtailment of commodity-money relations, the supply of products was carried out by the People's Commissariat for Food, the abolition of payments for housing, heating, etc., that is, free utilities. Cancellation of money.
Equalizing principle in the distribution of material goods (rations were issued), naturalization of wages, card system.
Militarization of labor (that is, its focus on military purposes, the defense of the country). General labor service(since 1920) Slogan: "Who does not work shall not eat!". Mobilization of the population to carry out work of national importance: logging, road, construction and other works. Labor mobilization was carried out from 15 to 50 years and was equated with military mobilization.
Decision on ending the policy of war communism taken on 10 Congress of the RCP (B) in March 1921 the year in which the course for the transition to NEP.
Results of the policy of war communism
Mobilization of all resources in the fight against anti-Bolshevik forces, which made it possible to win the civil war.
Nationalization of oil, large and small industries, railway transport, banks,
Massive discontent of the population
Peasant performances
Increased economic disruption
Each revolution becomes the basis for a significant change in the rules of the political game in the state. In most situations, the new authorities require serious tightening of the screws. In Russia in 1917, this perfectly confirmed the government's desire to impose communism by force. Such a system was the official internal policy of the newly created Soviet state from 1917 to 1921. What was the policy of War Communism, let's briefly consider the main features.
In contact with
Main provisions
Its basis was the introduction of centralization of the economy on the principles of communism. This decision was confirmed by the Second Program adopted in 1919 at the VII Congress of the RCP (b), which officially determined the procedure for transition from to.
The reason for this decision was the economic crisis, in which the state found itself, having survived, in fact, a lost revolution and a bloody Civil War. The survival of the new system depended on its readiness to improve the quality of life of the population, who found themselves, in most cases, below the poverty line. To implement the new economic course, the entire state was officially declared a "military camp".
Consider the main provisions of the policy of military terror , whose main goal was systematic destruction of commodity-money relations and entrepreneurship.
The essence of politics
What was the essence of the policy of War Communism. At the stage of the overthrow of the autocracy and the Provisional Government, the Bolsheviks relied simultaneously on the proletariat and the peasantry, regardless of the level of income. First, the new government decides on the choice of the main driving force of the new state, which will become the poorest strata of the population. In such a situation, the well-to-do peasants cease to be of interest to the new government, so an internal policy focused only on the "poor" was adopted. This is what has received the name "war communism".
War communism events:
- maximum centralization of the economy, both large and medium and even small;
- economic management was as centralized as possible;
- the introduction of a monopoly on all agricultural products, food appropriation;
- complete curtailment of commodity-money relations;
- a ban on private trade;
- militarization of labor.
The ideologists of the Soviet state immediately after the change of the regime in the country thought it right to introduce an economic system, which, from their point of view, was closest to the principles of complete economic equality - communism.
Attention! The introduction of new principles was implemented rigidly, meeting with active resistance from the citizens of the country.
The main feature of this type of economic policy was an attempt to mobilize all the country's resources. Given the stake specifically on the poorest segments of the population, it actually helped to rally the part of the nation on which the stake was placed.
Labor service
Positive advocacy played a major role in the success. The population had the appearance of the prospect of free and gratuitous receipt of previously inaccessible benefits. The actual confirmation of such a possibility was the official refusal of mandatory payments: utilities, transport. The provision of free housing has played a colossal role. The combination of minimal social bonuses and strict control over the willingness to selflessly and free of charge is the main feature of War Communism. It was effective, given the colossal property stratification characteristic of imperialism.
Attention! As a result of this decision, an economic system was formed, the basis of which was the equalization of the rights of the entire population. Forceful methods were used to introduce new principles.
Why was this path chosen?
What were the real causes of War Communism. Its introduction was a risky but necessary decision. The leading reason was the tragic situation in the country against the background of active popular unrest and the dire consequences of the First World War.
Other reasons also included:
- in most regions.
- Making a decision on the full mobilization at the state level of all the resources of the Soviet state.
- The failure of a significant part of the population to change the government, which required severe punitive measures
What steps have been taken
All activities were transferred to a paramilitary track. What's happened:
- The food appropriation system introduced in 1919 presupposed the “spreading out” between all the provinces of the country's food needs. They had to donate all fodder and bread to the general resource.
- The militarized "pickers" left the peasants only the minimum required to keep their livelihoods at a minimum.
- The private trade in bread and other items was prohibited and severely punished.
- Labor service implied compulsory employment in industry or agriculture for every citizen of the country from 18 to 60 years old.
- Production management and distribution of products was transferred to the state level.
- Since November 1918, martial law was introduced on transport, which significantly reduced the level of mobility.
- As part of the transition to communist rails, any utility bills, transport fees and other similar services were canceled.
After a short period of time, the decision was considered unsuccessful, and the New Economic Policy (NEP) replaced the policy of War Communism.
What is NEP
What united the NEP and War Communism was an attempt to find a way to improve the quality of life of the population, in fear of a new round in the development of revolutionary sentiments. The goal continued to be the restoration of the economy of the state destroyed by the shocks.
Three years of War Communism continued the policy of destruction. Full centralization, a reliance on the ability to work of the poorest strata of the population without tangible financial benefits from everyday activities continued the collapse of industry and agriculture. Against the background of a difficult social situation, a decision was made to choose a completely alternative economic policy.
In this case, on the contrary, the focus was on pluralism and the development of private entrepreneurship. The official direction of development was "civil peace" and the absence of social catastrophes. The introduction of the NEP at the 10th Congress of the RCP (b) completely overturned the economic principles of the country's development. The stake was placed on the middle class, primarily on the well-to-do part of the peasantry, which could restore its own economic level using the NEP. It was planned to cope with hunger and total unemployment by opening small industries. The principles of peaceful interaction between workers and peasants were finally introduced.
The leading factors in the recovery of the country's economy included:
- transfer of industrial production to private hands, creation of small private industrial production. Medium and large industry could not be frequent;
- the surplus appropriation system, which required the transfer of all the results of its activities to the state, was replaced by a tax in kind, which assumed a partial transfer of the results of its work to the state with the surplus preserved as personal savings;
- return of the principles of monetary financial remuneration based on the results of work.
Policy Outcomes
In a short time, at the official state level, the results of war communism, a complete transfer of the economy to a war footing, were summed up. In reality, the adopted policy became the basis for terror.
The attempt of the state to create an economy on the principles of voluntary and gratuitous action of each citizen led to the final disintegration of production and agriculture. This made it difficult to try to end the Civil War. The state was on the verge of complete collapse. Only the NEP helped to save the situation, allowing the population to partially regain the minimum financial stability.
The consequences of war communism later became the basis of the life of the Soviet state for many decades. These include the nationalization of the banking system, railway enterprises, the oil industry, medium and large industrial production. There was a mobilization of all the country's resources, which made it possible to win the Civil War. At the same time, a new round of impoverishment of the population began, the flourishing of corruption and speculation.
MILITARY COMMUNISM MILITARY COMMUNISM
MILITARY COMMUNISM, a system of socio-economic relations based on the elimination of commodity-money relations and the concentration of all resources in the hands of the Bolshevik state during the Civil War (cm. CIVIL WAR in Russia); provided for the introduction of a food dictatorship, food appropriation (cm. ADVANCEMENT), direct product exchange between town and country; state distribution of products by class (card system); naturalization of economic relations; universal labor service; the equalizing principle in wages.
Goals and Objectives of War Communism
With the help of war communism, the Bolsheviks solved two problems: they created the foundations of "communism", as it seemed, a system fundamentally different from capitalism, and concentrated in their hands all the resources necessary for waging a war. The Bolshevik Party sought to restore the integrity of the social organism on a non-market basis, mediating economic and social ties by the state. This led to the growth of bureaucracy unprecedented even for tsarist Russia. It was the bureaucracy that became the main social carrier of the new dictatorship, the new ruling elite of society, which replaced the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. Trade was replaced by government distribution of products. The Bolsheviks took radical measures to create "communist" relations in Russia, where even in accordance with the theory of Marxism (cm. MARXISM) there were no economic prerequisites for this. In conditions when industry was destroyed, agricultural products and foodstuffs became the main resource. It was necessary to feed the army, workers, bureaucracy. To prevent food distribution outside the state, the Bolsheviks banned trade. When buying food from peasants, wealthier people would benefit.
The Bolsheviks tried to rely on the most disadvantaged strata of the population, as well as on the mass of Red Army men, party activists and new officials. They should have received the benefits in the distribution of food. A system of "rations" was introduced, in which each person could receive food only from the state, which took food from the peasants with the help of the food dictatorship - the forcible and practically free withdrawal of grain from the peasants. The system of war communism created the absolute dependence of man on the state. The suppression of all social forces dissatisfied with the policy of the Bolshevik regime was carried out with the help of the "red terror". The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage received virtually unlimited powers to carry out repressions (cm. STATE SECURITY BODIES)(Cheka), extraordinary commissions were created on other issues, including food, education, etc. In the socio-political and economic spheres, the desire for total control over society by the ruling group and the struggle for destruction with political and economic entities not under the control of the regime reached scales that allow evaluating war communism as a form of a totalitarian regime.
The system of war communism began to take shape with the outbreak of the Civil War in Russia, although some of its elements emerged as early as 1917. The decisive step in the formation of the system largely predetermined the beginning of a large-scale civil war. On May 13, 1918, the decree "On the Emergency Powers of the People's Commissar for Food" was adopted, known as the Decree on the Food Dictatorship. Now food was forcibly alienated from the peasants. Food detachments (food detachments) were created, mainly from workers (proletariat), who were to seize food from the peasants by force. The backbone of the proletariat (in fact, urban declassed strata) became the marginalized strata of the countryside. Having united in June 1918 into committees of the poor (kombeda), the poor turned into an exploiting stratum, receiving half of the grain confiscated from the peasants. The cleansing of the Soviets of non-Bolshevik deputies intensified, and their dispersal began. Society was losing legal ways to resist government actions. Civil War (cm. CIVIL WAR in Russia) became inevitable.
In the summer of 1918, the country was turned into a "single military camp", which was led by the Council of People's Commissars. (cm. SOVNARKOM), Council of Labor and Defense, Revolutionary Military Council, in turn subordinate to the Central Committee of the RCP (b) (cm. COMMUNIST PARTY OF THE SOVIET UNION) and his Politburo (cm. POLITBURO of the Central Committee of the CPSU)(from March 1919). The bodies of the councils were deprived of power in favor of the appointed revolutionary committees and bodies of the Council of People's Commissars. An attempt by the Soviets to resist the food dictatorship was thwarted. The real power of the soviets was curtailed in favor of the Bolshevik government and its structures, especially the repressive ones. The Bolshevik slogan "all power to the Soviets" was replaced by the slogan "all power to the emergency services."
However, totalitarian institutions during the period of the large-scale Civil War were unstable and were assessed by the leaders of the regime as extraordinary, temporary. The war was the main mobilization of significant social forces around the Bolsheviks. But its continuation also threatened the regime, as it aggravated the economic devastation. The industry has almost stopped. War production and handicraft industry worked. Totalitarian structures were deprived of their industrial base, without which they could not be stable either. Society began to become primitivized, acquiring the features of pre-industrial eras based on non-economic compulsion to labor.
The new ruling elite was formed from the most active and radical part of the social bottom, marginal strata and part of the former elite, ready to accept Bolshevik principles or at least remain loyal to the new regime. The old bourgeois landlord elite was discriminated against and partially destroyed.
Aftermath of War Communism
The destruction and social cataclysms that accompanied the Bolshevik revolution, despair and previously unseen opportunities for social mobility gave rise to irrational hopes for an early victory of communism. The radical slogans of Bolshevism disorientated other revolutionary forces, which did not immediately determine that the RCP (Bolsheviks) pursued goals opposite to those of the anti-authoritarian wing of the Russian revolution. Many national movements were similarly disoriented. Opponents of the Bolsheviks, represented by the white movement (cm. WHITE MOVEMENT), were considered by the peasant masses as supporters of restoration, the return of land to the landowners. The majority of the country's population was culturally closer to the Bolsheviks than to their opponents. All this allowed the Bolsheviks to create the most solid social base that ensured their victory in the struggle for power.
The totalitarian methods allowed the RCP (b), despite the extreme inefficiency of the bureaucracy and the associated losses, to concentrate the resources necessary to create a massive Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA), necessary to win the civil war. In January 1919, a colossal food tax was introduced - the surplus appropriation. With its help, in the first year of the food dictatorship (until June 1919), the state managed to obtain 44.6 million poods of grain, and in the second year (until June 1920) - 113.9 million poods. The army consumed 60% of fish and meat, 40% of bread, 100% of tobacco. But due to bureaucratic confusion, a significant part of the food simply rotted. The workers and peasants were starving. Where the peasants managed to keep some of the food, they tried to exchange bread for some manufactured goods from the townspeople. Such "bagmen" who flooded the railways were pursued by barrage detachments, designed to suppress the exchange uncontrolled by the state.
Lenin considered the struggle against uncontrolled commodity exchange to be the most important direction in the creation of communist relations. Bread was not supposed to go to cities outside of the state, in addition to the lion's share belonging to the army and bureaucracy. Nevertheless, under pressure from workers 'and peasants' uprisings, temporary decisions were made to soften the regime of product exchange, which allowed the transport of a small amount of private food (for example, "one and a half pudding"). In the context of a general shortage of food, the inhabitants of the Kremlin were provided with regular three meals a day. The diet included meat (including game) or fish, butter or lard, cheese, caviar.
The system of war communism caused massive discontent among workers, peasants and intellectuals. Strikes and peasant unrest did not stop. The disaffected were arrested by the Cheka and shot. The policy of war communism allowed the Bolsheviks to win the Civil War, but contributed to the final ruin of the country.
The victory over the whites deprived of the meaning of the state of a single military camp, but the rejection of war communism in 1920 did not follow - this policy was seen as a direct path to communism as such. At the same time, on the territory of Russia and Ukraine, the peasant war flared up more and more, in which hundreds of thousands of people were involved (Antonov uprising (cm. ANTONOV Alexander Stepanovich), West Siberian uprising, hundreds of smaller protests). Workers' unrest intensified. Broad social strata put forward demands for freedom of trade, an end to food appropriation, and the elimination of the Bolshevik dictatorship. The culmination of this phase of the revolution was the workers' unrest in Petrograd and the Kronstadt uprising. (cm. Kronstadt Uprising of 1921)... In the face of widespread popular uprisings against the Bolshevik government, the X Congress of the RCP (b) decided to abolish the food appropriation and replace it with a lighter tax in kind, paying which the peasants could sell the rest of the food. These decisions marked the end of "War Communism" and marked the beginning of a series of measures known as the New Economic Policy. (cm. NEW ECONOMIC POLICY)(NEP).
encyclopedic Dictionary. 2009 .
See what "MILITARY COMMUNISM" is in other dictionaries:
Held in Soviet Russia from 1918 to 1921. state economic policy, the main task of which was to ensure strict control over the distribution of material and labor resources in conditions of a decline in production, shortages ... ... Financial vocabulary
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The name of the internal policy of the Soviet state during the Civil War. The policy of War Communism was aimed at overcoming the economic crisis and was based on theoretical ideas about the possibility of direct introduction ... Modern encyclopedia
Internal Policy of the Soviet State during the Civil War. The policy of War Communism was aimed at overcoming the economic crisis and was based on theoretical ideas about the possibility of direct introduction ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
Domestic policy of the Soviet state during the Civil War. It was an attempt to overcome the economic crisis by dictatorial methods, based on a theoretical idea of the possibility of the direct introduction of communism. Os ... Russian history
The system of socio-economic relations based on the elimination of commodity-money relations and the concentration of all resources in the hands of the Bolshevik state during the Civil War; provided for the introduction of a food dictatorship, ... ... Political science. Vocabulary.
"War communism"- "MILITARY COMMUNISM", the name of the internal policy of the Soviet state in the conditions of the Civil War. The policy of "war communism" was aimed at overcoming the economic crisis and was based on theoretical ideas about the possibility ... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary