The domestic policy of the Soviet government in the summer of 1918 at the beginning of 1921 was called "war communism". The prerequisites for its implementation were laid by the widespread nationalization of industry and the creation of a powerful centralized state apparatus (VSNKh), the introduction of a food dictatorship and the experience of military-political pressure on the village (food detachments, commanders). Thus, the features of the policy of "war communism" were traced even in the first economic and social measures of the Soviet government.
On the one hand, the policy of "war communism" was caused by the idea of a part of the leadership of the RCP (b) about the possibility of quickly building a marketless socialism. On the other hand, it was a forced policy, due to the extreme devastation in the country, the disruption of traditional economic ties between town and countryside, as well as the need to mobilize all resources to win the civil war. Subsequently, many Bolsheviks recognized the fallacy of the policy of "war communism", tried to justify it by the difficult internal and external situation of the young Soviet state, the wartime situation.
The policy of "war communism" included a set of measures that affected the economic and socio-political sphere. The main thing in this was: the nationalization of all means of production, the introduction of centralized management, equal distribution of products, forced labor and the political dictatorship of the Bolshevik Party.
The Decree of June 28, 1918 prescribed the accelerated nationalization of large and medium-sized enterprises. In subsequent years, it was extended to small ones, which led to the elimination of private property in industry. At the same time, a rigid sectoral management system was being formed. In the spring of 1918, the state monopoly of foreign trade was established.
The surplus appropriation became a logical continuation of the food dictatorship. The state determined its needs for agricultural products and forced the peasantry to supply them without taking into account the possibilities of the countryside. On January 11, 1919, the surplus appraisal was introduced for bread. By 1920, it spread to potatoes, vegetables, etc. For the confiscated products, the peasants were given receipts and money, which lost their value due to inflation. The established fixed prices for products were 40 times lower than the market ones. The village desperately resisted and therefore the surplus was implemented by violent methods with the help of food detachments.
The policy of "war communism" led to the destruction of commodity-money relations. The sale of food and industrial goods was limited, they were distributed by the state in the form of wages in kind. An equalizing system of wages among workers was introduced. This gave them the illusion of social equality. The failure of this policy was manifested in the formation of a "black market" and the flourishing of speculation.
In the social sphere, the policy of "war communism" was based on the principle "He who does not work shall not eat." In 1918 labor service was introduced for representatives of the former exploiting classes, and in 1920 universal labor service. Forced mobilization of labor resources was carried out with the help of labor armies sent to restore transport, construction work, etc. The naturalization of wages led to the free provision of housing, utilities, transport, postal and telegraph services.
During the period of "war communism" the undivided dictatorship of the RCP(b) was established in the political sphere. The Bolshevik Party ceased to be a purely political organization; its apparatus gradually merged with state structures. It determined the political, ideological, economic and cultural situation in the country, even the personal life of citizens.
The activities of other political parties that fought against the dictatorship of the Bolsheviks, their economic and social policies: the Cadets, the Mensheviks, the Socialist-Revolutionaries (first the right, and then the left), were banned. Some prominent public figures emigrated, others were repressed. All attempts to revive the political opposition were forcibly suppressed. In the Soviets of all levels, the Bolsheviks achieved complete autocracy through their re-elections or dispersal. The activities of the Soviets acquired a formal character, since they only carried out the instructions of the Bolshevik party organs. Trade unions, placed under party and state control, lost their independence. They ceased to be defenders of the interests of the workers. The strike movement was forbidden under the pretext that the proletariat should not oppose its own state. The proclaimed freedom of speech and press was not respected. Almost all non-Bolshevik press organs were closed. In general, publishing activity was strictly regulated and was extremely limited.
The country lived in an atmosphere of class hatred. In February 1918, the death penalty was restored. Opponents of the Bolshevik regime who organized armed uprisings were imprisoned in prisons and concentration camps. Assassination attempts on V.I. Lenin and the murder of M.S. Uritsky, chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, was summoned by a decree on the "Red Terror" (September 1918). The arbitrariness of the Cheka and local authorities unfolded, which, in turn, provoked anti-Soviet speeches. The rampant terror was generated by many factors: the aggravation of the confrontation between various social groups; low intellectual level of the bulk of the population, poorly prepared for political life;
the uncompromising position of the Bolshevik leadership, which considered it necessary and possible to retain power at any cost.
The policy of "war communism" not only did not lead Russia out of economic ruin, but even aggravated it. Violation of market relations caused the collapse of finance, the reduction of production in industry and agriculture. The population of the cities was starving. However, the centralization of government allowed the Bolsheviks to mobilize all resources and retain power during the civil war.
44. New Economic Policy (NEP)
The essence and purpose of the NEP. At the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b) in March 1921, V.I. Lenin proposed a new economic policy. It was an anti-crisis program.
The main political goal of the NEP is to relieve social tension, to strengthen the social base of Soviet power in the form of an alliance of workers and peasants. The economic goal is to prevent further aggravation of the devastation, to get out of the crisis and restore the economy. The social goal is to provide favorable conditions for building a socialist society without waiting for the world revolution. In addition, the NEP was aimed at restoring normal foreign policy and foreign economic relations, at overcoming international isolation. The achievement of these goals led to the gradual curtailment of the NEP in the second half of the 1920s.
NEP implementation. The transition to the NEP was legally formalized by decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars, decisions of the IX All-Russian Congress of Soviets in December 1921. The NEP included a set of economic and socio-political measures. They meant a "retreat" from the principles of "war communism" - the revival of private enterprise, the introduction of freedom of internal trade and the satisfaction of certain demands of the peasantry.
The introduction of the NEP began with agriculture by replacing the surplus appropriation with a food tax.
In production and trade, private individuals were allowed to open small and rent medium-sized enterprises. The decree on general nationalization was repealed.
Instead of a sectoral system of industrial management, a territorial-sectoral system was introduced. After the reorganization of the Supreme Council of National Economy, the leadership was carried out by its central boards through local economic councils (sovnarkhozes) and sectoral economic trusts.
In the financial sector, in addition to the single State Bank, private and cooperative banks and insurance companies appeared. In 1922, a monetary reform was carried out: the issue of paper money was reduced and the Soviet chervonets (10 rubles) was introduced into circulation, which was highly valued on the world currency market. This made it possible to strengthen the national currency and put an end to inflation. Evidence of the stabilization of the financial situation was the replacement of the tax in kind with its monetary equivalent.
As a result of the new economic policy in 1926, the main types of industrial products reached the pre-war level. Light industry developed faster than heavy industry, which required significant capital investments. The living conditions of the urban and rural population have improved. The abolition of the food distribution rationing system has begun. Thus, one of the tasks of the NEP - overcoming the devastation - was solved.
NEP caused some changes in social policy. In 1922, a new Labor Code was adopted, which abolished general labor service and introduced free employment of labor
Planting the Bolshevik ideology in society. The Soviet government dealt a blow to the Russian Orthodox Church and brought it under its control.
Strengthening the unity of the party, the defeat of political and ideological opponents made it possible to strengthen the one-party political system. This political system, with minor changes, continued to exist throughout the years of Soviet power.
Results of the domestic policy of the early 20s. NEP ensured the stabilization and restoration of the economy. However, soon after its introduction, the first successes gave way to new difficulties. Their occurrence was due to three reasons: the imbalance of industry and agriculture; purposefully class orientation of the internal policy of the government; strengthening contradictions between the diversity of social interests of different strata of society and the authoritarianism of the Bolshevik leadership.
The need to ensure the independence and defense of the country required the further development of the economy, primarily heavy industry. The priority of industry over agriculture: the economy resulted in the transfer of funds from the countryside to the city through pricing and tax policies. Sales prices for manufactured goods were artificially raised, and purchase prices for raw materials and products were lowered (price scissors). The difficulty of establishing a normal exchange of goods between the city and the countryside also gave rise to the unsatisfactory quality of industrial products. In the mid-1920s, the volume of state procurements of grain and raw materials fell. This reduced the ability to export agricultural products and therefore reduced the foreign exchange earnings needed to buy industrial equipment from abroad.
To overcome the crisis, the government has taken a number of administrative measures. The centralized management of the economy was strengthened, the independence of enterprises was limited, prices for manufactured goods were increased, taxes were increased for private entrepreneurs, merchants and kulaks. This meant the beginning of the collapse of the NEP.
Intra-party struggle for power. The economic and socio-political difficulties that manifested themselves already in the first years of the NEP, the desire to build socialism in the absence of experience in realizing this goal gave rise to an ideological crisis. All the fundamental questions of the country's development provoked sharp inner-party discussions.
IN AND. Lenin, the author of the NEP, who in 1921 assumed that this would be a policy "in earnest and for a long time", already a year later at the Eleventh Party Congress declared that it was time to stop the "retreat" towards capitalism and it was necessary to move on to building socialism.
45. The formation and essence of the power of the Soviets. Education of the USSR.
In 1922, a new state was formed - the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The unification of individual states was dictated by necessity - the strengthening of the economic potential and the appearance of a united front in the fight against the invaders. Common historical roots, the long stay of peoples in one state, the friendliness of peoples towards each other, the commonality and interdependence of the economy, politics and culture made such an association possible. There was no consensus on the ways of unification of the republics. Thus, Lenin advocated a federal association, Stalin - for autonomy, Skripnik (Ukraine) - for a federation.
In 1922, at the first All-Union Congress of Soviets, which was attended by delegates from the RSFSR, Belarus, Ukraine and some Transcaucasian republics, the Declaration and Treaty on the Formation of the Union were adopted. Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) on a federal basis. In 1924, the Constitution of the new state was adopted. The All-Union Congress of Lights was declared the supreme body of power. In the intervals between congresses, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee worked, and the SNK (Council of People's Commissars) became the executive authority. Nepmans, clergy and kulaks were deprived of voting rights. After the emergence of the USSR, further expansion proceeded mainly by violent measures or by crushing the republics. During the Great Patriotic War, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia became socialist. Later, the Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijan SSRs were separated from the ZSFSR.
According to the Constitution of 1936, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was established as the highest all-Union legislative body, consisting of two equal chambers of the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities. Between sessions of the Supreme Council, the Presidium became the highest legislative and executive body.
Thus, the creation of the Soviet Union had contradictory consequences for the peoples. The development of the center and individual republics proceeded unevenly. Most often, the republics could not achieve full development due to strict specialization (Central Asia - a supplier of raw materials for light industry, Ukraine - a supplier of food, etc.). Between the republics, not market relations were built, but economic relations prescribed by the government. Russification and cultivation of Russian culture partly continued the imperial policy in the national question. However, in many republics, thanks to the entry into the Federation, steps were taken that made it possible to get rid of the feudal; remnants, raise the level of literacy and culture, establish the development of industry and agriculture, modernize transport, etc. Thus, the unification of economic resources and the dialogue of cultures undoubtedly had positive results for all republics
46. Economic development of the USSR during the first five-year plans.
At the XV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in 1927, it was decided to draw up the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy (1928/29-1932/33). The growth of industrial output was supposed to increase up to 150%, labor productivity - up to 110%, reduce the cost of products by 35%, More than 70% of the budget was to go to the development of industry. The industrialization plan also provided for a change in production in the direction of the development of advanced industries (energy, engineering, metallurgy, chemical industry) capable of raising the entire industry and agriculture. It was a progress that had no analogues in world history.
In the summer of 1929, a call was made: "Five-year plan - in 4 years!" Stalin declared that in a number of sectors the plan for the first five-year plan would be fulfilled in three years. At the same time, planned targets were revised in the direction of their increase. The need was put forward to organize and inspire the masses with lofty ideas for a practically gratuitous pile and the implementation of lofty ideals.
1930-1931 became a time of storming the economy with the help of military-communist methods. The sources of industrialization were the unprecedented enthusiasm of the working people, the austerity regime, compulsory loans from the population, the issuance (issue) of money, and price increases. However, overvoltage led to the breakdown of the entire control system, production failures, and mass arrests of specialists and an influx of untrained workers led to an increase in accidents. They tried to stop the decline in the pace of development with new repressions, the search for spies and saboteurs, and the involvement of the labor of prisoners and forced migrants. However, all the successes achieved did not correspond to the set plans, the tasks of the first five-year plan were actually frustrated. In the early 30s. the pace of development fell from 23 to 5%, the program for the development of metallurgy was failed. The marriage rate has increased. Increased inflation caused a rise in prices and a fall in the value of gold coins. Growing social tension in the village. The failure of the first five-year plan forced the country's leadership to announce its early implementation and make adjustments to planning.
In January-February 1939, the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b) approved the second five-year plan (1933-1937). The focus continued to be on the development of heavy industry. Were reduced, compared with the first plan, the expected performance. The development of light industry was envisaged - its transfer to sources of raw materials. Most of the textile enterprises were located in Central Asia, Siberia, Transcaucasia. The policy of egalitarian distribution has been partially revised - piecework wages have been temporarily introduced, wage rates have changed, and bonuses have been introduced. A serious role in improving the situation in the national economy was played by the movements of labor enthusiasts and shock workers.
In 1939, the third five-year plan (1938-1942) was approved. The development of the country's economy in the Third Five-Year Plan was characterized by special attention to increasing industrial output, creating large state reserves, and building up the capacity of the defense industry. Repressions, the restoration of command and directive methods of management and the militarization of labor, the outbreak of the Patriotic War, affected the pace of industrialization. However, despite the difficulties and miscalculations in policy, industrialization has become a reality.
During the years of the first five-year plans, advanced industrial technologies were introduced. A number of new industries emerged in heavy engineering, the production of new machine tools and tools, the automotive, factor industry, tank building, aircraft building, electric power industry, etc. were established. The chemical and petrochemical industries, metallurgy, energy, and transport underwent a complete technical reconstruction. National income increased 5 times, industrial output - 6 times. The number of the working class, including highly professional personnel, increased significantly. The level of education has risen. Thanks to industrialization, it was possible to strengthen the country on the eve of the Great Patriotic War.
”is the implementation by the Bolsheviks of emergency measures in the field of the economy, the violent destruction of the existing economic system in Russia, based on commodity-money relations.
The reasons for the introduction of the policy of "war communism":
- Huge difficulties generated by the civil war.
- The policy of the Bolsheviks to mobilize all the resources of the country.
- The need to introduce terror against all those who were not satisfied with the new Bolshevik regime.
The essence of the policy of "war communism":
- Introduction of food distribution. Peasants were obliged to hand over all surplus agricultural products to the state. With the use of force (food detachments, they referred to the village, committees of the poor, which were created in the village and were a support), food resources were withdrawn from the village. The norms of personal consumption were determined by the state.
- Cancellation of free trade. All private shops and warehouses were nationalized. Trade was replaced by organized government distribution.
- Naturalization in wages, equalizing its distribution. The workers were paid wages in food rations. There was a wage equalization.
- Nationalization of all industry, transport, finance, communication systems. In 1920 the Soviet state had 4,500 factories and plants, employing nearly 1 million people.
- The introduction, instead of commodity-money relations, of direct commodity exchange between the city and the countryside, the implementation of which was entrusted to state officials.
- Militarization of labor:
- compulsory labor service was introduced;
- evasion of labor service was regarded as desertion and was prosecuted under the laws of war;
- martial law was introduced at industrial enterprises and entire industries. The workers of these enterprises were forbidden to leave the enterprises on their own, to change their place of work, to refuse the work that was offered to them.
- A state monopoly was declared on the most important food products - bread, sugar, tea, salt. All products were disposed of only by state bodies.
- Creation of communes, artels, TSZ, state farms.
- "Revolutionary violence" against the bourgeoisie, in practice. entered forms of terror against all those who did not suit
- new mode.
- Complete centralism.
The main method of implementing the policy of "war communism" is "red" terror.
Read the reasons for the defeat of the anti-Bolshevik forces in the civil war in Russia.
The main concepts of "war communism":
- Nationalization- forcible (compulsory) alienation of private property (land, its subsoil, banks, enterprises) of individuals in industry and other sectors of the economy into state ownership.
- TSOS- partnership for joint cultivation of the land; only crops were collectivized.
- Artel is a form of collective farming for joint work based on the socialization of the means of production. Crops and property were collectivized, the peasants were left with a personal plot and the inventory necessary for processing.
- Commune- a form of agricultural cooperation in which all the means of production are uspilnyuyutsya. Agriculture was completely dissolved into collective farms.
- state farm- a state agricultural enterprise in which all means of production and manufactured products are state property.
The policy of war communism was based on the task of destroying market and commodity-money relations (that is, private property), replacing them with centralized production and distribution.
To carry out this plan, a system was needed that could bring the will of the center to the most remote corners of a huge power. In this system, everything must be taken into account and put under control (flows of raw materials and resources, finished products). Lenin believed that "war communism" would be the last step before socialism.
On September 2, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee announced the introduction of martial law, the leadership of the country passed to the Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense, headed by V.I. Lenin. The fronts were commanded by the Revolutionary Military Council, headed by L.D. Trotsky.
The difficult situation on the fronts and in the country's economy prompted the authorities to introduce a series of emergency measures, defined as war communism.
In the Soviet version, it included a surplus appropriation (private trade in grain was prohibited, surpluses and stocks were forcibly seized), the beginning of the creation of collective farms and state farms, the nationalization of industry, the prohibition of private trade, the introduction of universal labor service, and the centralization of management.
By February 1918, enterprises belonging to the royal family, the Russian treasury and private owners had passed into state ownership. Subsequently, a chaotic nationalization of small industrial enterprises was carried out, and then entire industries.
Although in tsarist Russia the share of state (state) property was always traditionally large, the centralization of production and distribution was rather painful.
The peasants and a significant part of the workers were opposed to the Bolsheviks. And from 1917 to 1921. they adopted anti-Bolshevik resolutions and actively participated in armed anti-government demonstrations.
The Bolsheviks had to create such a political and economic system that could give the workers minimal opportunities for living and at the same time make them strictly dependent on the authorities and administration. It was for this purpose that the policy of over-centralization of the economy was pursued. In the future, communism was identified with centralization.
Despite the "Decree on Land" (the land was transferred to the peasants), there was a nationalization of the land received by the peasants during the Stolypin reform.
The actual nationalization of the land and the introduction of egalitarian land use, the ban on renting and buying land and expanding plowing led to a horrific drop in the level of agricultural production. As a result, a famine began, which caused the death of thousands of people.
During the period of "war communism", after the suppression of the anti-Bolshevik speech of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, a transition was made to a one-party system.
The scientific justification by the Bolsheviks of the historical process as an irreconcilable class struggle led to the policy of "red Teppopa", the reason for the introduction of which was a series of assassination attempts on the leaders of the party.
Its essence lay in consistent destruction according to the principle "who is not with us is against us." The list includes the intelligentsia, officers, nobles, priests, wealthy peasantry.
The main method of the "Red Terror" was extrajudicial executions, authorized and carried out by the Cheka. The policy of "Red Terror" allowed the Bolsheviks to strengthen their power, destroy opponents and those who showed discontent.
The policy of war communism aggravated the economic ruin and led to the unjustified death of a huge number of innocent people.
Surplus appraisal.
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 set of emergency political and economic measures to win the civil war and protect Soviet power. This policy is no coincidence received such a name: "communism" - the equalization of all rights, "military" -Policy was carried out by forceful coercion.
Start The policy of war communism was set 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
Protection and final assertion of the power of the Soviets
The country's way out of the economic crisis
Goals:
The ultimate concentration of labor and material resources to repulse 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 National Economy (Supreme Council of the National Economy), Glavkov.
Nationalization industry, banks and land, the elimination 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 appropriations(Decree of the Council of People's Commissars January 1919) - food apportionment. These are state measures for the fulfillment of plans for agricultural procurement: the obligatory delivery to the state of the established ("deployed") norm of products (bread, etc.) at state prices. Peasants could leave only a minimum of products for consumption and household needs.
Creation in the countryside "committees of the poor" (kombedov), who were engaged in surplus appropriation. In the cities, workers were created armed food orders to seize grain from the peasants.
An attempt to introduce collective farms (collective farms, communes).
Prohibition of private trade
The curtailment of commodity-money relations, the supply of products was carried out by the People's Commissariat for Food, the abolition of payment for housing, heating, etc., that is, free utilities. Cancellation of money.
Leveling principle in the distribution of material wealth (rations were given out), naturalization of salary, 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 work. Labor mobilization was carried out from 15 to 50 years of age and was equated to military mobilization.
Decision on ending the policy of war communism taken on 10th Congress of the RCP(B) in March 1921 year, in which the course was proclaimed for the transition to NEP.
The 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 industry, railway transport, banks,
Mass discontent of the population
Peasant performances
Increasing economic disruption
WAR COMMUNISM WAR 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 food dictatorship, surplus appropriation (cm. SURVEY), direct product exchange between the city and the countryside; state distribution of products on a class basis (card system); naturalization of economic relations; universal labor service; egalitarian principle in wages.
Goals and tasks 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 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 an unprecedented growth of bureaucracy 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 state 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 the industry was destroyed, the main resource was agricultural products, food. It was necessary to feed the army, the workers, the bureaucracy. To prevent food from being distributed outside the state, the Bolsheviks banned trade. Buying food from peasants would benefit wealthier people.
The Bolsheviks tried to rely on the most disadvantaged sections of the population, as well as on the mass of Red Army soldiers, party activists and new officials. It was they who were to receive 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 a food dictatorship - the forcible and practically free seizure of bread 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 policies of the Bolshevik regime was carried out with the help of the "Red Terror". In fact, the All-Russian Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counter-Revolution and Sabotage received virtually unlimited powers to carry out repressions. (cm. STATE SECURITY BODIES)(VChK), emergency commissions were created on other issues, including food, education, etc. In the socio-political and economic spheres, the desire for total control over society on the part of the ruling group and the struggle for destruction with political and economic entities not controlled by the regime have reached proportions that allow assessing war communism as a form of 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 appeared as early as 1917. The decisive step in the formation of the system largely predetermined the start of a large-scale civil war. On May 13, 1918, a decree was adopted on the emergency powers of the People's Commissar for Food, known as the Decree on Food Dictatorship. Now food was forcibly alienated from the peasants. Food detachments (food detachments) were created, mainly from workers (the proletariat), who were supposed to seize food from the peasants by force. The marginalized sections of the countryside became the backbone of the proletariat (in fact, the urban declassed strata). Having united in June 1918 in committees of the poor (combeds), the poor turned into an exploiting stratum, receiving half of the grain confiscated from the peasants. The purges of the Soviets from non-Bolshevik deputies intensified, their dispersal began. The society was losing legal ways to resist the actions of the government. 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. Council of People's Commissars), the Council of Labor and Defense, the Revolutionary Military Council, which in turn were 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)(since March 1919). The bodies of the Soviets were deprived of power in favor of the appointed revolutionary committees and bodies of the Council of People's Commissars. The attempt of 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 Chechens".
However, the totalitarian institutions during the period of the large-scale Civil War were unstable and were assessed by the leaders of the regime as emergency, temporary. The war was the main motive for mobilizing significant social forces around the Bolsheviks. But its continuation also threatened the regime, as it aggravated the economic ruin. The industry has almost come to a standstill. Worked military production and handicraft industry. Totalitarian structures were deprived of an industrial base, without which they also could not be stable. Society began to become primitive, to acquire the features of pre-industrial eras based on non-economic coercion to work.
The new ruling elite was formed from the most active and radical part of the social lower classes, 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.
Consequences of War Communism
The destruction and social cataclysms that accompanied the Bolshevik revolution, the despair and unprecedented opportunities for social mobility gave rise to irrational hopes for an early victory of communism. The radical slogans of Bolshevism disorientated other revolutionary forces, who did not immediately determine that the RCP(b) was pursuing goals that were the opposite of those of the anti-authoritarian wing of the Russian revolution. Similarly, many national movements were 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.
Totalitarian methods allowed the RCP(b), despite the extreme inefficiency of the bureaucracy and the associated losses, to concentrate the resources necessary to create the massive Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) needed to win the civil war. In January 1919, a colossal food tax, the surplus appropriation, was introduced. With his 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% fish and meat, 40% bread, 100% tobacco. But due to bureaucratic confusion, a significant part of the food simply rotted away. The workers and peasants were starving. Where the peasants still managed to keep part of the food, they tried to exchange bread for some manufactured goods from the townspeople. Such "pouchers" who flooded the railways were pursued by barrage detachments, designed to stop the exchange beyond the control of the state.
Lenin considered the fight against uncontrolled commodity exchange to be the most important direction in the creation of communist relations. Bread was not to go to the cities apart from the state, apart from the lion's share belonging to the army and the bureaucracy. Nevertheless, under the pressure of workers' and peasants' actions, temporary decisions were made to soften the regime of product exchange, allowing the transport of a small amount of private food (for example, "one and a half a day"). 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 mass discontent among the workers, peasants and intellectuals. Strikes and peasant unrest did not stop. Dissatisfied 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 made the state of a single military camp meaningless, but the rejection of war communism did not follow in 1920 - this policy was seen as a direct path to communism as such. At the same time, a peasant war flared up on the territory of Russia and Ukraine, in which hundreds of thousands of people were involved (Antonov uprising (cm. ANTONOV Alexander Stepanovich), West Siberian uprising, hundreds of smaller performances). Labor unrest intensified. Broad social strata put forward demands for freedom of trade, the cessation of food requisitioning, 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 context of widespread popular uprisings against the Bolshevik government, the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b) decided to abolish the food distribution 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 "WAR 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 the face of a decline in production, shortages ... ... Financial vocabulary
See MILITARY COMMUNISM. Antinazi. Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2009 ... Encyclopedia of Sociology
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 of a direct introduction ... Modern Encyclopedia
The internal policy of the Soviet state in the context 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 of direct introduction ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
The internal policy of the Soviet state in the conditions of the Civil War. It was an attempt to overcome the economic crisis by dictatorial methods, based on a theoretical idea of the possibility of direct introduction of communism. Os ... Russian history
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; provided for the introduction of a food dictatorship, ... ... Political science. Dictionary.
"War Communism"- “WAR 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
