War Communism, 1918 (Edexcel A Level History): Revision Note

Summary

• This note will examine the causes and impacts of War Communism

• War Communism was introduced during the Russian Civil War (1918–21) to keep the Red Army supplied and consolidate Bolshevik control

• It involved:

  • State control of industry

  • Grain requisitioning

  • Rationing

  • The banning of private trade

• The policy was closest to communist ideology and prioritised victory in the war

• However, War Communism devastated the economy and created huge resentment among peasants and workers

• Historians debate whether War Communism was a necessary emergency measure or the beginning of full socialist central planning

Why was War Communism introduced?

• The Bolsheviks introduced War Communism in June 1918

  • There were many reasons for this decision

The Civil War

• The Bolsheviks needed to supply the Red Army with food and weapons to win the Civil War

  • This required a high level of industrial and agricultural efficiency

Economic difficulties

• Industrial production and food supplies had already fallen sharply since 1917

  • Emergency measures were needed to ensure food for soldiers, workers and civilians

Political control

• War Communism gave the Bolsheviks tight control over workers and peasants, helping suppress opposition

Ideology

• Some radical Bolsheviks saw War Communism as the beginning of a true command economy

  • They believed its implementation brought Russia closer to socialism

Key features of War Communism

Grain requisitioning

• The Cheka seized grain from peasants to feed the cities and army

  • The peasants did not receive any money for their grain

Rationing

• The state distributed food according to class

  • Workers and soldiers received the largest rations

  • The smallest rations went to the bourgeoisie

Labour discipline

• In 1918, the government extended the working day to 11 hours

• In 1919, all physically-able people between 16-50 had to work

  • They were either conscripted into the army or worked in factories

• Workers received harsh punishments for:

  • Being late

  • Not meeting production targets

Ban on private trade

• The Bolsheviks nationalised all companies

• Local markets were made illegal

  • Goods could only be exchanged through state channels

• The government over-printed money, causing hyperinflation

  • Money became worthless so it was abolished

    • Companies 'paid' workers through rations

    • Public transport became free

    • Bolsheviks such as Lenin and Bukharin argued this was a step towards communism

Impacts of War Communism

On peasants

• Grain requisitioning created hostility

  • Peasants often hid or destroyed crops, rather than give them to the state

• By 1921:

  • The grain harvest was about half of that achieved in 1913

  • Famine affected large parts of Russia, particularly the Volga region

    • Estimates suggest around 6 million people died due to the famine

On workers

• Industrial output fell drastically

  • By 1921, production was only 20% of 1913 level

• Workers resented harsh discipline and falling living standards

  • The industrial workforce declined from 3 million in 1917 to 1.2 million in 1922

• Urban food shortages led to starvation and population decline in cities

  • Many workers left the cities to work in farms for food

On the economy

• The economy collapsed

  • Agricultural and industrial productivity both plummeted

  • Russia had shortages in essential goods, such as fuel

• The black market boomed under War Communism

  • Around 60% of people's food came from the black market

  • Workers stole government resources to barter for food

On politics

• The social and economic impacts of War Communism caused political unrest

Tambov Rebellion (August 1920– June 1921)

• A major peasant uprising in the Tambov region

• Sparked by resentment at grain requisitioning and famine conditions

• Peasants, led by Alexander Antonov, formed a well-organised guerrilla force of around 50,000 fighters

• The rebellion was only suppressed with extreme brutality, including the use of poison gas

Kronstadt Rebellion (1921)

• An uprising by sailors at the Kronstadt naval base

  • They had once been among the strongest supporters of the Bolsheviks in 1917

• The rebels demanded “Soviets without Communists”, calling for:

  • Free elections within the soviets

  • Free trade

  • An end to grain requisitioning

• The rebellion was crushed by the Red Army under Trotsky

  • The government killed or imprisoned thousands of the sailors

• Its significance lay in the fact that even loyal Bolshevik supporters turned against the regime

How successful was War Communism?

Historians debate whether War Communism was a necessary emergency policy or a reckless experiment in socialism

War Communism as a necessary measure

• Some historians argue War Communism was essential to the Bolsheviks' survival, especially during the Civil War

Key historians

"While War Communism policies were in force, it was natural for Bolsheviks to give them an ideological justification - to assert that the party, armed with the scientific ideology of Marxism, was in full control of events, rather than simply struggling to keep up... The Bolsheviks' first steps were cautious, and so were their pronouncements about the future. However, from the outbreak of the Civil War in the mid-1918, the Bolsheviks' earlier caution began to disappear. To cope with a desperate situation, they turned to more radical policies, and, in the process, tried to extend the sphere of centralised government control much further and faster than they had originally intended. In 1920, as the Bolsheviks headed towards victory in the Civil War, and disaster in the economy, a mood of euphoria and desperation took hold, with the old world disappearing in the flames of Revolution and Civil War. It seemed to many Bolsheviks that a new world was about to arise, phoenix-like from the ashes." - Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution (1994)

"The introduction of War Communism was essentially a political response to the urban crisis of 1918... The Bolsheviks were all too conscious of the fact that their power base, like that of the Communards, was confined to major cities and that they were facing defeat because they were surrounded by a hostile peasantry with whom they had no goods to trade for food. They had convinced themselves that, unless they extended their power to the countryside and launched a crusade against the grain-hoarding peasants, their urban revolution, like that of the Commune, would be destroyed by starvation. The flight of the workers from the cities and their strikes and protests against food shortages were seen as the first signs of this collapse. It was essential, as the Bolsheviks saw it, to seize the peasantry's grain by force, to stem the chaos of the bag-trade, and to get a firm grip on industry if they were to avoid certain defeat." - Orlando Figes, A People’s Tragedy (1996)

War Communism as a failed experiment

• Others see it as an attempt to push Russia prematurely toward socialism

  • They argue that War Communism caused significant social and economic damage

Key historians

"In truth, war communism was a tragic travesty of the Marxist vision of the society of the future. That society was to have as its background highly developed and organized productive resources and a superabundance of goods and services. It was to organize and develop the social wealth which capitalism at its best produced only fitfully and could not rationally control, distribute, and promote. Communism was to abolish economic inequality once for all by levelling up the standards of living. War communism had, on the contrary, resulted from social disintegration, from the destruction and disorganization of productive resources, from an unparalleled scarcity of goods and services. It did indeed try to abolish inequality; but of necessity it did so by levelling down the standards of living and making poverty universal." - Isaac Deutscher, The Prophet Armed. Trotsky : 1879-1921 (1954)

"Until March 1921, the Communists tried, and in some measure succeeded, in placing the national economy under state control. Later, this policy came known as "War Communism" - Lenin himself first used this term in April 1921, as he was abandoning it. It was a misnomer coined to justify the disastrous consequences of economic experimentation by the alleged exigencies of the Civil War and foreign intervention. Scrutiny of contemporary records, however, leaves no doubt that these policies were, in fact, not so much emergency responses to war conditions as an attempt, as rapidly as possible, to construct a communist society... These experiments left Russia's economy in shambles." - Richard Pipes, Russia under the Bolshevik Regime (1994)