A message on the policy of war communism. The main measures of the policy of "war communism

University: VZFEI

Year and city: Vladimir 2007

1. Reasons for the transition to War Communism

war communism- the name of the internal policy of the Soviet state in the conditions of the Civil War. Its characteristic features were the extreme centralization of economic management (Glavkism), the nationalization of large, medium, and partially small industry, the state monopoly on bread and many other agricultural products, surplus appropriation, the prohibition of private trade, the curtailment of commodity-money relations, the introduction of the distribution of material goods on the basis of equalization, militarization of labor. These features of economic policy corresponded to the principles on the basis of which, according to the Marxists, a communist society should have arisen. All these "communist" beginnings during the years of the civil war were implanted by the Soviet government by administrative and command methods. Hence the name of this period, which appeared after the end of the civil war, was “war communism”.

The policy of "war communism" was aimed at overcoming the economic crisis and was based on theoretical ideas about the possibility of the direct introduction of communism.

In historiography, there are different opinions on the need for a transition to this policy. Some authors evaluate this transition as an attempt to “introduce” communism immediately and directly, others explain the need for “war communism” by the circumstances of the civil war, which forced Russia to be turned into a military camp and to resolve all economic issues from the point of view of the demands of the front.

These conflicting assessments were originally given by the leaders of the ruling party themselves, who led the country during the years of the civil war - V.I. Lenin and L.D. Trotsky, and then were accepted by historians.

Explaining the need for "war communism", Lenin said in 1921: "we then had the only calculation - to defeat the enemy." Trotsky in the early 1920s also stated that all the components of "war communism" were determined by the need to defend Soviet power, but did not bypass the question of the illusions that existed related to the prospects of "war communism". In 1923, answering the question whether the Bolsheviks hoped to pass from “war communism” to socialism “without major economic upheavals, upheavals and retreats, i.e. on a more or less ascending line,” Trotsky asserted: “yes, at that period we really firmly counted that the revolutionary development in Western Europe would proceed at a faster pace. And this gives us the opportunity, by correcting and changing the methods of our "war communism", to arrive at a truly socialist economy."

2. Essence and basic elements of War Communism

During the years of “war communism”, the apparatus of the communist party merged with the state Soviet bodies. The "dictatorship of the proletariat" proclaimed by the Bolsheviks was realized in the form of party power: from its highest body, the Politburo, to the lower ones - local party committees. These bodies exercised dictatorship in the name of the proletariat, which in reality was separated from power and property, which, as a result of the nationalization of large, medium, and, to some extent, small industry, turned into a state monopoly. This direction of the process of formation of the Soviet military-communist political system was determined by the ideological postulates of the Bolsheviks about the construction of socialism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, monopoly state ownership, and the leading role of the party. The well-established mechanism of control and coercion, merciless in achieving their goals, helped the Bolsheviks win the civil war

Centralization of management of the nationalized industry. Private property was abolished altogether, and a state monopoly of foreign trade was established. A strict sectoral system of industrial management was introduced,

Violent cooperation. At the direction of the party, individual peasant farms were united into collective farms, and state farms were created. The Decree on Land was actually cancelled. The land fund was transferred not to the working people, but to communes, state farms, and labor artels. The individual peasant could only use the remnants of the land fund.

Equal distribution

Naturalization of wages. The Bolsheviks viewed socialism as a commodityless and moneyless society. This led to the abolition of the market and commodity-money relations. Any non-state trade was prohibited. The policy of "war communism" led to the destruction of commodity-money relations. Products and manufactured goods were distributed by the state in the form of a natural ration, which was different for different categories of the population. Equal wages were introduced among workers (an illusion of social equality). As a result, speculation and the "black market" flourished. The depreciation of money led to the fact that the population received free housing, utilities, transport, postal and other services.

Militarization of labor

Prodrazverstka is an orderly confiscation of bread. The state determined the norms for the supply of agricultural products by the countryside without taking into account the possibilities of the countryside. From the beginning of 1919, the surplus appraisal was introduced for bread, in 1920 - for potatoes, vegetables, etc. The surplus appraisal was implemented by violent methods with the help of food detachments.

3. Creation of the Red Army.

The problem of armed protection of power required an immediate solution, and at the beginning of 1918, the Bolsheviks created armed detachments from

volunteer soldiers and selected commanders. But with the growth of opposition and the beginning of foreign intervention, the government was forced on June 9, 1918 to announce compulsory military service. In connection with the large desertion, the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, Trotsky, established strict discipline and introduced a system of hostages, when members of his family were responsible for the deserter.

In addition to desertion, there were acute problems of equipment and command of the new

army. The emergency commissioner for supply was responsible for the equipment

Rykov of the Red Army and Fleet, he also headed the Industrial Military Council, which managed all military facilities, and where a third of all industrial workers worked. Half of all clothes, shoes, tobacco, sugar produced in the country went to the needs of the army.

To solve the problem of command, they turned to specialists and officers of the tsarist army. Many of them were forced to work under pain of death of their own or relatives who were in concentration camps.

In the army, first of all, they taught millions of peasants to read, they also taught them to “think right,” to assimilate the foundations of the new ideology. Service in the Red Army was one of the main ways to move up the social ladder, it made it possible to join the Komsomol, the party. Most of the army party members then filled up the cadres of the Soviet administration, where they immediately imposed the army style of leadership on their subordinates.

4. Nationalization and mobilization of the economy

During three and a half years of war and eight months of revolution, the country's economy was destroyed. The richest regions left the control of the Bolsheviks: Ukraine, the Baltic states, the Volga region, and Western Siberia. Economic ties between town and country have long since been broken. Strikes and lockouts of entrepreneurs completed the decay of the economy. Having finally abandoned the experience of workers' self-government, doomed to failure in the conditions of an economic catastrophe, the Bolsheviks took a number of emergency measures. They demonstrated an authoritarian, centralist state approach to the economy. In October 1921, Lenin wrote: "At the beginning of 1918 ... we made the mistake of deciding to make a direct transition to communist production and distribution." That “communism”, which, according to Marx, was supposed to quickly lead to the disappearance of the state, on the contrary, surprisingly hypertrophied state control over all spheres of the economy.

After the nationalization of the merchant fleet (January 23) and foreign trade (April 22), on June 22, 1918, the government began the general nationalization of all enterprises with a capital of over 500,000 rubles. In November 1920, a decree was issued extending the nationalization to all "enterprises with more than ten or more than five workers, but using a mechanical engine." A decree of November 21, 1918 established a state monopoly on domestic trade.

food commissioner. In it, the state proclaimed itself the main distributor. In an economy where distribution links were undermined, securing the supply and distribution of products, especially grain, became a vital problem. Of the two options - the restoration of some semblance of a market or coercive measures - the Bolsheviks chose the second, as they assumed that the intensification of the class struggle in the countryside would solve the problem of supplying food to the cities and the army. On June 11, 1918, committees of the poor were created, which, during the period of the gap between the Bolsheviks and the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries (who still controlled a significant number of rural Soviets), should become a “second power” and withdraw surplus products from wealthy peasants. In order to "stimulate" the poor peasants, it was assumed that part of the confiscated products would go to the members of these committees. Their actions must be supported by parts of the "food army". The number of the prodarmia increased from 12 thousand in 1918 to 80 thousand people. Of these, a good half were workers of stationary Petrograd factories, who were “lured” by payment in kind in proportion to the amount of confiscated products.

The creation of kombeds testified to the complete ignorance of the Bolsheviks

peasant psychology, in which the main role was played by the communal and leveling principle. The surplus appropriation campaign ended in failure in the summer of 1918. However, the surplus policy continued until the spring of 1921. From January 1, 1919, the indiscriminate search for surpluses was replaced by a centralized and planned system of surplus appropriations. Each peasant community was responsible for its own supplies of grain, potatoes, honey, eggs, butter, oilseeds, meat, sour cream, and milk. And only after the deliveries were completed, the authorities issued receipts giving the right to purchase industrial goods, and in a limited quantity and assortment, mainly essential goods. The lack of agricultural equipment was especially felt. As a result, the peasants reduced their sown areas and returned to subsistence farming.

The state encouraged the creation of collective farms by the poor with the help of a government fund, however, due to the small amount of land and the lack of equipment, the effectiveness of collective farms was low.

Due to the lack of food, the rationing system of food distribution did not satisfy the townspeople. Even the richest received only a quarter of the required ration. In addition to being unfair, the distribution system was also confusing. Under such conditions, the “black market” flourished. The government tried in vain to fight the swindlers by law. Industrial discipline fell: workers returned to the countryside as far as possible. The government introduced the famous subbotniks, work books, universal labor duty, and labor armies were created in the areas of hostilities.

5. Establishment of a political dictatorship

The years of “war communism” became the period of the establishment of a political dictatorship that completed a two-pronged process that had stretched over many years: the destruction or subjugation to the Bolsheviks of the independent institutions created during 1917 (Soviets, factory committees, trade unions), and the destruction of non-Bolshevik parties.

Publishing activities were curtailed, non-Bolshevik newspapers were banned, the leaders of the opposition parties were arrested, who were then outlawed, independent institutions were constantly monitored and gradually destroyed, the terror of the Cheka intensified, the “recalcitrant” Soviets were forcibly dissolved (in Luga and Kronstadt). “Power from below”, that is, “the power of the Soviets, which was gaining strength from February to October 1917, through various decentralized institutions created as a potential “opposition to power”, began to turn into “power from above”, appropriating all possible powers, using bureaucratic measures and resorting to violence. (Thus, power passed from society to the state, and in the state to the Bolshevik Party, which monopolized executive and legislative power.) The autonomy and powers of the factory committees fell under the tutelage of the trade unions. The trade unions, in turn, a large part of which did not submit to the Bolsheviks, were either dissolved on charges of "counter-revolution" or tamed to play the role of "transmission belt". At the first congress of trade unions in January 1918, there was a loss of independence of the factory committees. Since the new regime "expressed the interests of the working class", the trade unions should become an integral part of state power, subordinate to the Soviets. The same congress rejected the proposal of the Mensheviks, who insisted on the right to strike. A little later, in order to strengthen the dependence of the trade unions, the Bolsheviks put them under direct control: inside the trade unions, the communists were to unite in cells directly subordinate to the party.

Non-Bolshevik political parties were consistently destroyed in various ways.

The Left SRs, who supported the Bolsheviks until March 1918, disagreed with them on two points: terror, elevated to the rank of official policy, and the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which they did not recognize. After the attempted coup d'état on July 6-7, 1918, which ended in failure, the Bolsheviks removed the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries from those bodies (for example, from the village Soviets), where the latter were still very strong. The rest of the Socialist-Revolutionaries declared themselves irreconcilable enemies of the Bolsheviks back in October.

The Mensheviks, led by Dan and Martov, tried to organize themselves into a legal opposition within the framework of legality. If in October 1917 the influence of the Mensheviks was insignificant, then by the middle of 1918 it had grown incredibly among the workers, and at the beginning of 1921 - in the trade unions, thanks to the propaganda of measures to liberalize the economy, which Lenin later reworked into the principles of the NEP. Since the summer of 1918, the Mensheviks were gradually removed from the Soviets, and in February - March 1921, the Bolsheviks made 2,000 arrests, including all members of the Central Committee. The anarchists, former "fellow travelers" of the Bolsheviks, were treated like ordinary criminals. As a result of the operation, the Cheka shot 40 anarchists in Moscow and arrested 500 anarchists. Ukrainian anarchists led by Makhno resisted until 1921.

Created on December 7, 1917, the Cheka was conceived as an investigative body, but the local Cheka quickly appropriated after a short trial to shoot those arrested. After the assassination attempt on Lenin and Uritsky on August 30, 1918, the “Red Terror” began, the Cheka introduced two punitive measures: hostage-taking and labor camps. The Cheka gained independence in its actions, that is, searches, arrests and executions.

As a result of the scattered and poorly coordinated actions of the anti-Bolshevik forces, their incessant political mistakes, the Bolsheviks managed to organize a reliable and constantly growing army, which defeated their opponents one by one. The Bolsheviks mastered the art of propaganda in the most varied forms with extraordinary dexterity. Foreign intervention allowed the Bolsheviks to present themselves as the defenders of the Motherland.

Results

On the eve of October, Lenin said that, having taken power, the Bolsheviks would not let it go. The very concept of the party did not allow for the separation of power: this new type of organization was no longer a political party in the traditional sense, since its competence extended to all areas - the economy, culture, family, society.

Under these conditions, any attempt to prevent party control over social and political development was regarded as sabotage. Destroying parties, independent trade unions, subjugating the authorities, the Bolsheviks always chose violence, no alternative solutions. In the political field, the Bolsheviks achieved success by monopolizing power and ideology.

An army was created that expelled the interventionists, opponents of the regime, at the cost of great sacrifice and violence.

The struggle for survival laid a heavy burden on the peasantry, terror caused protest and discontent among the simple masses. Even the vanguard of the October Revolution - the sailors and workers of Kronstadt - and they raised an uprising in 1921. The experiment of "war communism" led to an unprecedented decline in production.

Nationalized enterprises were not subject to any state control.

The "roughening" of the economy, command methods did not give any effect.

The fragmentation of large estates, leveling, the destruction of communications, food requisition - all this led to the isolation of the peasantry.

A crisis has matured in the national economy, the need for a quick solution to which was shown by the growing uprisings.

The policy of "war communism" caused mass dissatisfaction among broad sections of the population, especially the peasantry (mass uprisings in late 1920 and early 1921 in the Tambov region, in Western Siberia, Kronstadt, etc.); everyone demanded the abolition of "war communism".

By the end of the period of "war communism", Soviet Russia found itself in a severe economic, social and political crisis. The economy was in a catastrophic state: industrial production in 1920 was reduced by 7 times compared to 1913, only 30% of coal was mined, the volume of rail transport fell to the level of the 1890s, and the country's productive forces were undermined. "War Communism" deprived the bourgeois-landlord classes of power and economic role, but the working class was also bled white and declassed. A significant part of it, having abandoned the stopped enterprises, went to the villages, fleeing from hunger. Dissatisfaction with "war communism" seized the working class and the peasantry, who felt deceived by the Soviet regime. Having received additional allotments of land after the October Revolution, the peasants during the years of "war communism" were forced to give the state the grain they had grown almost without remuneration. In 1921, the failure of "war communism" was recognized by the country's leadership. The search for a way out of the impasse in which the country found itself led it to a new economic policy - the NEP.

List of used literature

1. History of the Soviet state. 1900-1991.

Wert N. 2nd ed. - M.: Progress-Academy, All world, 1996.

2. Russian history

Moscow 1995

3. Encyclopedia Cyril and Methodius.

CJSC "New Disc", 2003

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Federal State Budgetary Educational Institution

higher professional education

Volgograd State Technical University

Department of History, Cultural Studies and Sociology

on the subject: "Patriotic history"

on the topic: "POLICY OF "WAR COMMUNISM"

Completed:

Student group EM - 155

Galstyan Albert Robertovich

Checked:

Sitnikova Olga Ivanovna

Volgograd 2013

THE POLICY OF "WAR COMMUNISM" (1918 - 1920)

The Civil War set before the Bolsheviks the task of creating a huge army, the maximum mobilization of all resources, and hence the maximum centralization of power and subordinating it to the control of all spheres of state life. At the same time, the tasks of the wartime coincided with the ideas of the Bolsheviks about socialism as a non-commodity, market-free centralized society. As a result, politics war communism , carried out by the Bolsheviks in 1918-1920, was built, on the one hand, on the experience of state regulation of economic relations during the First World War (in Russia, Germany), on the other hand, on utopian ideas about the possibility of a direct transition to market-free socialism in the conditions of expecting a world revolution, which ultimately led to the acceleration of the pace of socio-economic transformations in the country during the years of the Civil War.

Main policy elements war communism . In November 1918, the prodarmia was dissolved and by a decree of January 11, 1919. surplus was carried out. The Decree on Land was practically cancelled. The land fund was transferred not to all workers, but, first of all, to state farms and communes, and secondly, to labor artels and partnerships for joint cultivation of the land (TOZs). On the basis of the decree of July 28, 1918, by the summer of 1920, up to 80% of large and medium-sized enterprises were nationalized. Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of July 22, 1918 About speculation all non-state trade was prohibited. By the beginning of 1919, private trading enterprises were completely nationalized or closed. After the end of the Civil War, the transition to the full naturalization of economic relations was completed. During the Civil War, a centralized state and party structure was created. The peak of centralization was glaucism . In 1920, there were 50 central offices subordinate to the Supreme Economic Council, coordinating related industries and distributing finished products - Glavtorf, Glavkozha, Glavkrakhmal, etc. Consumer cooperation was also centralized and subordinated to the People's Commissariat of Food. During war communism general labor conscription was introduced, the militarization of labor.

Policy Outcomes war communism . As a result of the policy war communism social and economic conditions were created for the victory of the Soviet Republic over the interventionists and the White Guards. At the same time, for the country's economy, war and politics war communism had dire consequences. By 1920, the national income fell from 11 to 4 billion rubles compared to 1913. The production of large-scale industry was 13% of the pre-war level, incl. heavy industry - 2-5%. The food requisition led to a reduction in sowing and gross harvest of major agricultural crops. Agricultural output in 1920 amounted to two-thirds of the pre-war level. In 1920-1921. famine broke out in the country. The unwillingness to endure the surplus led to the creation of insurgent centers in the Middle Volga region, on the Don, Kuban. Basmachi became more active in Turkestan. In February - March 1921, the West Siberian rebels created armed formations of several thousand people. On March 1, 1921, a rebellion broke out in Kronstadt, during which political slogans were put forward ( Power to the Soviets, not to the parties! , Soviets without Bolsheviks! ). The acute political and economic crisis prompted the leaders of the party to revise whole point of view on socialism . After a broad discussion in late 1920 - early 1921 with the X Congress of the RCP (b) (March 1921), a gradual abolition of the policy war communism.

I consider the topic "The policy of "war communism" and the NEP in the USSR" relevant.

There were many tragic events in the history of Russia in the 20th century. One of the most difficult trials for the country, for its people, was the period of the policy of "war communism".

The history of the policy of "war communism" is the history of hunger and suffering of the people, the history of the tragedy of many Russian families, the history of the collapse of hopes, the history of the destruction of the country's economy.

The New Economic Policy is one of the problems that constantly attracts the attention of researchers and people studying the history of Russia.

The relevance of the considered topic lies in the ambiguity of the attitude of historians, economists to the content and lessons of the NEP. Much attention is paid to the study of this topic both in our country and abroad. Some researchers pay tribute to the activities that were carried out within the framework of the NEP, another group of researchers is trying to belittle the importance of the NEP for the rise of the economy after World War I, the revolution and the civil war. But this issue is no less relevant against the backdrop of the events taking place now in our country.

These pages of history should not be forgotten. At the present stage of development of our state, it is necessary to take into account the mistakes and lessons of the NEP. Such historical events should be studied especially carefully by modern politicians and statesmen so that they can learn from the mistakes of past generations.

The purpose of this work is to study the features of the socio-economic development of Russia in this period and a comparative analysis of the policy of "war communism" and the new economic policy.

Features of the socio-economic development of Russia in 1918-1920. and in 1921-1927.

In the autumn of 1917, a nationwide crisis brewed in the country. On November 7, 1917, an armed uprising took place in Petrograd, and one of the radical parties, the RSDLP (b), came to power with its program to bring the country out of the deepest crisis. The economic tasks were in the nature of social and state intervention in the field of production, distribution of finances and regulation of the labor force on the basis of the introduction of universal labor service.

For the practical implementation of state control, the task of nationalization was put forward.

Nationalization was supposed to unite capitalist economic ties on a national scale, to become a form of capital functioning under the control of workers involved in state activities.

The main task of the Soviet government was to concentrate the commanding heights in the economy in the hands of the organs of the dictatorship of the proletariat and, at the same time, to create socialist administrative organs. The politics of this period were based on coercion and violence.

During this period, the following measures were taken: the nationalization of banks, the implementation of the Decree on Land, the nationalization of industry, the introduction of a monopoly of foreign trade, the organization of workers' control. The State Bank was occupied by the Red Guard on the very first day of the October Revolution. The former apparatus refused to issue money on orders, tried to arbitrarily dispose of the resources of the treasury and the bank, and provided money to the counter-revolution. Therefore, the new apparatus was formed mainly from small employees and recruited personnel from workers, soldiers and sailors who did not have experience in financial affairs.

Even more difficult was the acquisition of private banks. The actual liquidation of the affairs of private banks and their merger with the State Bank continued until 1920.

The nationalization of the banks, as well as the nationalization of industrial enterprises, was preceded by the establishment of workers' control, which throughout the country met with the active resistance of the bourgeoisie.

Bodies of workers' control arose during the February Revolution in the form of factory committees. The new leadership of the country considered them as one of the transitional steps towards socialism, saw in practical control and accounting not only control and accounting for the results of production, but also a form of organization, the establishment of production by the masses of workers, since the task was to “distribute labor correctly”.

November 1917, the "Regulations on Workers' Control" are adopted. Its elected bodies were planned to be created at all enterprises where hired labor was used: in industry, transport, banks, trade, and agriculture. Production, supply of raw materials, sale and storage of goods, financial transactions were subject to control. the legal responsibility of the owners of enterprises for failure to comply with the orders of work supervisors was established.

Workers' control greatly accelerated the implementation of nationalization. Future business executives mastered command, coercive methods of work, which were based not on knowledge of the economy, but on slogans.

The Bolsheviks realized the need for gradual nationalization. Therefore, at first, separate enterprises of great importance for the state, as well as enterprises whose owners did not obey the decisions of state bodies, passed into the hands of the Soviet government. First, large military factories were nationalized. But immediately, on the initiative of the workers, local enterprises were nationalized, for example, the Likinskaya manufactory.

The concept of nationalization was gradually reduced to confiscation. This had a bad effect on the work of industry, as economic ties were broken, and it was difficult to establish control on a national scale.

Subsequently, the nationalization of local industry assumed the character of a mass and spontaneously growing movement. Sometimes enterprises were socialized, for the management of which the workers were not actually ready, as well as low-capacity enterprises. The economic situation in the country was deteriorating. Coal production in December 1917 was halved compared to the beginning of the year. Production of pig iron and steel has decreased by 24% this year. the situation with bread also became more difficult.

This forced the Council of People's Commissars to go for the centralization of "economic life on a national scale." And in the spring and summer of 1918, entire branches of production were already transferred to the state. The sugar industry was nationalized in May, and the oil industry in the summer; completed the nationalization of metallurgy and engineering.

By July 1, 513 large industrial enterprises had passed into state ownership. The Council of People's Commissars adopted a Decree on the general nationalization of the country's large-scale industry "with a view to resolutely combating economic and industrial disruption and strengthening the dictatorship of the working class and the rural poor." In December 1918, the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets of the National Economy stated that "the nationalization of industry is basically complete."

In 1918, the 5th Congress of Soviets adopted the first Soviet constitution. The Constitution of the RSFSR of 1918 proclaimed and secured the rights of workers, the rights of the vast majority of the population.

In the sphere of agrarian relations, the Bolsheviks adhered to the idea of ​​confiscation of landowners' lands and their nationalization. The Decree on Land, adopted the day after the victory of the revolution, combined radical measures to abolish private ownership of land and transfer landlord estates to the disposal of volost land committees and county Soviets of peasant deputies with recognition of the equality of all forms of land use and the right to divide confiscated land according to labor or consumer norm.

The nationalization and division of land were carried out on the basis of the law on the socialization of land, adopted by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee on February 9, 1918. In 1917-1919. the section was made in 22 provinces. About 3 million peasants received the land. At the same time, military measures were taken: a monopoly on bread was established, food authorities received emergency powers to purchase bread; food detachments were created, the task of which was to seize surplus grain at fixed prices. There were fewer and fewer goods. In the autumn of 1918, industry was practically paralyzed.

September, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee declared the Republic a single military camp. A regime was established, the purpose of which was to concentrate all available resources from the state. The policy of “war communism” began to be carried out, which acquired a completed shape by the spring of 1919 and consisted of three main groups of events:

) to solve the food problem, a centralized supply of the population was organized. By decrees of November 21 and 28, trade was nationalized and replaced by compulsory state-organized distribution; In order to create stocks of products, on January 11, 1919, a food allocation was introduced: the free trade in bread was declared a state crime. The bread received under apportionment was distributed in a centralized manner according to the class norm;

) all industrial enterprises were nationalized;

) universal labor service was introduced.

The process of maturation of the idea of ​​the immediate building of commodity-free socialism by replacing trade with a planned distribution of products organized on a national scale is accelerating. The culmination of the "military-communist" measures was the end of 1920 - the beginning of 1921, when the decrees of the Council of People's Commissars "On the free sale of food products to the population", "On the free sale of consumer goods to the population", "On the abolition of payment for all kinds of fuel" were issued. . Projects for the abolition of money were envisaged. But the crisis state of the economy testified to the ineffectiveness of the measures taken.

The centralization of control is sharply increasing. Enterprises were deprived of independence in order to identify and maximize the use of available resources. The Council of Workers' and Peasants' Defense, established on November 30, 1918, chaired by V. I. Lenin, became the supreme body.

Despite the difficult situation in the country, the ruling party began to determine the prospects for the development of the country, which was reflected in the GOELRO plan (State Commission for the Electrification of Russia) - the first long-term national economic plan, approved in December 1920.

GOELRO was a plan for the development of not just one energy sector, but the entire economy. It provided for the construction of enterprises providing these construction sites with everything necessary, as well as the advanced development of the electric power industry. And all this was tied to the plans for the development of territories. Among them is the Stalingrad Tractor Plant founded in 1927. As part of the plan, the development of the Kuznetsk coal basin also began, around which a new industrial area arose. The Soviet government encouraged the initiative of private traders in the implementation of GOELRO. Those who were engaged in electrification could count on tax incentives and loans from the state.

The GOELRO plan, designed for 10-15 years, provided for the construction of 30 district power plants (20 TPPs and 10 HPPs) with a total capacity of 1.75 million kW. Among others, it was planned to build Shterovskaya, Kashirskaya, Nizhny Novgorod, Shaturskaya and Chelyabinsk regional thermal power plants, as well as hydroelectric power stations - Nizhegorodskaya, Volkhovskaya (1926), Dneprovskaya, two stations on the Svir River, etc. Within the framework of the project, economic zoning was carried out, transport and energy framework of the country. The project covered eight main economic regions (Northern, Central Industrial, Southern, Volga, Ural, West Siberian, Caucasian and Turkestan). In parallel, the development of the country's transport system was carried out (the mainline of old and the construction of new railway lines, the construction of the Volga-Don Canal). The GOELRO project laid the foundation for industrialization in Russia. The plan was largely overfulfilled by 1931. Electricity generation in 1932 compared with 1913 increased not 4.5 times as planned, but almost 7 times: from 2 to 13.5 billion kWh.

With the end of the Civil War at the end of 1920, the tasks of restoring the national economy came to the fore. At the same time, it was necessary to change the methods of governing the country. The paramilitary management system, the bureaucratization of the apparatus, dissatisfaction with the surplus appraisal caused an internal political crisis in the spring of 1921.

In March 1921, the X Congress of the RCP (b) considered and approved the main measures that formed the basis of the policy, which later became known as the New Economic Policy (NEP).

Comparative analysis of the reasons for the introduction and results of the implementation of the policy of "war communism" and the new economic policy

war communism economic nationalization

The term "war communism" was proposed by the famous Bolshevik A.A. Bogdanov back in 1916. In his book Questions of Socialism, he wrote that during the war years, the internal life of any country is subject to a special logic of development: most of the able-bodied population leaves the sphere of production, producing nothing, and consumes a lot. There is a so-called "consumer communism". A significant part of the national budget is spent on military needs. The war also leads to the curtailment of democratic institutions in the country, so it can be said that war communism was driven by the needs of wartime.

Another reason for the formation of this policy can be considered the Marxist views of the Bolsheviks, who came to power in Russia in 1917. Marx and Engels did not work out the features of the communist formation in detail. They believed that there would be no place for private property and commodity-money relations in it, but there would be an equalizing principle of distribution. However, it was about the industrialized countries and the world socialist revolution as a one-time act. Ignoring the immaturity of the objective prerequisites for a socialist revolution in Russia, a significant part of the Bolsheviks after the October Revolution insisted on the immediate implementation of socialist transformations in all spheres of society.

The policy of "war communism" was also largely conditioned by the hopes for the speedy implementation of the world revolution. In the first months after October in Soviet Russia, if someone was punished for a minor offense (petty theft, hooliganism), they wrote "to imprison until the victory of the world revolution", so there was a belief that compromises with the bourgeois counter-revolution were unacceptable, that the country would be turned into a single military camp.

The unfavorable development of events on numerous fronts, the capture by the White armies and interventionist troops (USA, England, France, Japan, etc.) of three-quarters of Russia's territory accelerated the application of military-communist methods of managing the economy. After the central provinces were cut off from Siberian and Ukrainian bread (Ukraine was occupied by German troops), the supply of bread from the North Caucasus and the Kuban became more difficult, famine began in the cities. May 13, 1918 The All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a decree "On granting the People's Commissar of Food Extraordinary Powers to Combat the Rural Bourgeoisie, Hiding Grain Stocks and Speculating on them." The decree provided for prompt, tough measures, up to "the use of armed force in the event of counteraction to the taking away of bread and other food products." To implement the food dictatorship, armed food detachments of workers were created.

The main task in these conditions was the mobilization of all remaining resources for defense needs. This became the main goal of the policy of war communism.

Despite the efforts of the state to establish food security, the massive famine of 1921-1922 began, during which up to 5 million people died. The policy of "war communism" (especially the surplus appropriation) caused discontent among the general population, especially the peasantry (the uprising in the Tambov region, in Western Siberia, Kronstadt, etc.).

In March 1921, at the Tenth Congress of the RCP(b), the tasks of the policy of "war communism" were recognized by the country's leadership as fulfilled and a new economic policy was introduced. IN AND. Lenin wrote: "War Communism" was forced by war and ruin. It was not and could not be a policy meeting the economic tasks of the proletariat. It was a temporary measure."

But by the end of the period of "war communism" Soviet Russia found itself in a severe economic, social and political crisis. Instead of the unprecedented growth in labor productivity expected by the architects of war communism, its result was not an increase, but, on the contrary, a sharp drop: in 1920, labor productivity decreased, including due to massive malnutrition, to 18% of the pre-war level. If before the revolution the average worker consumed 3820 calories per day, already in 1919 this figure fell to 2680, which was no longer enough for hard physical labor.

By 1921, industrial output had halved, and the number of industrial workers had halved. At the same time, the staff of the Supreme Economic Council grew about a hundred times, from 318 people to 30,000; a glaring example was the Gasoline Trust, which was part of this body, which grew to 50 people, despite the fact that this trust had only one plant with 150 workers to manage.

Particularly difficult was the situation of Petrograd, whose population during the Civil War decreased from 2 million 347 thousand people. to 799 thousand, the number of workers decreased by five times.

The decline in agriculture was just as sharp. Due to the complete lack of interest of the peasants to increase crops under the conditions of "war communism", grain production in 1920 fell by half compared to the pre-war level.

Coal was mined only 30%, the volume of rail transport fell to the level of the 1890s, the country's productive forces were undermined. "War Communism" deprived the bourgeois-landlord classes of power and economic role, but the working class was also bled white and declassed. A significant part of it, having abandoned the stopped enterprises, went to the villages, fleeing from hunger. Dissatisfaction with "war communism" swept the working class and the peasantry, they felt deceived by the Soviet government. Having received additional allotments of land after the October Revolution, the peasants during the years of "war communism" were forced to give the state the grain they had grown almost without remuneration. The indignation of the peasants resulted in mass uprisings in late 1920 and early 1921; everyone demanded the abolition of "war communism".

The consequences of "war communism" cannot be separated from the consequences of the civil war. At the cost of enormous efforts, the Bolsheviks managed to turn the republic into a "military camp" by methods of agitation, rigid centralization, coercion and terror and win. But the policy of "war communism" did not and could not lead to socialism. Instead of creating a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat, a dictatorship of one party arose in the country, to maintain which revolutionary terror and violence were widely used.

Life forced the Bolsheviks to reconsider the foundations of "war communism", therefore, at the Tenth Party Congress, the military-communist methods of management, based on coercion, were declared obsolete. The search for a way out of the impasse in which the country found itself led it to a new economic policy - the NEP.

Its essence is the assumption of market relations. The NEP was seen as a temporary policy aimed at creating the conditions for socialism.

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 ties, at overcoming international isolation.

By the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of March 21, 1921, adopted on the basis of decisions of the X Congress of the RCP (b), the surplus appropriation was abolished and replaced by a tax in kind, which was approximately half as much. Such a significant indulgence gave a certain incentive to the development of production to the war-weary peasantry.

In July 1921, a permissive procedure for opening trade establishments was established. Gradually, state monopolies on various types of products and goods were abolished. For small industrial enterprises, a simplified registration procedure was established, and the allowable amount of hired labor was revised (from ten workers in 1920 to twenty workers per enterprise according to the July decree of 1921). Denationalization of small and handicraft enterprises was carried out.

In connection with the introduction of the NEP, certain legal guarantees were introduced for private property. By the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of November 11, 22, from January 1, 1923, the Civil Code of the RSFSR was put into effect, which, in particular, provided that every citizen has the right to organize industrial and commercial enterprises.

Back in November 1920, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree "On Concessions", but only in 1923 did the practice of concluding concession agreements begin, according to which foreign companies were granted the right to use state-owned enterprises.

The task of the first stage of the monetary reform, implemented within the framework of one of the directions of the economic policy of the state, was the stabilization of the monetary and credit relations of the USSR with other countries. After two denominations, as a result of which 1 million rubles. former banknotes was equated to 1 p. new state marks, a parallel circulation of depreciating state marks was introduced to serve small trade and hard gold coins backed by precious metals, stable foreign currency and easily sold goods. Chervonets was equal to the old 10-ruble gold coin.

A skillful combination of planned and market instruments for regulating the economy, which ensured the growth of the national economy, a sharp reduction in the budget deficit, an increase in gold and foreign currency reserves, as well as an active foreign trade balance, made it possible during 1924 to carry out the second stage of the monetary reform in the transition to one stable currency. Canceled Soviet signs were subject to redemption with treasury notes at a fixed ratio within a month and a half. A fixed ratio was established between the treasury ruble and bank chervonets, equating 1 chervonets to 10 rubles.

In the 20s. commercial credit was widely used, serving approximately 85% of the volume of transactions for the sale of goods. Banks controlled mutual lending to economic organizations and, with the help of accounting and collateral operations, regulated the size of a commercial loan, its direction, terms and interest rate.

Financing of capital investments and long-term lending developed. After the Civil War, capital investments were financed irrevocably or in the form of long-term loans.

The Supreme Council of National Economy, having lost the right to interfere in the current activities of enterprises and trusts, turned into a coordinating center. His apparatus was drastically reduced. It was at that time that economic accounting appeared, in which the enterprise (after mandatory fixed contributions to the state budget) has the right to manage the income from the sale of products, is itself responsible for the results of its economic activity, independently uses profits and covers losses.

Syndicates began to emerge - voluntary associations of trusts on the basis of cooperation, engaged in marketing, supply, lending, and foreign trade operations. By the beginning of 1928, there were 23 syndicates operating in almost all branches of industry, concentrating the bulk of the wholesale trade in their hands. The board of syndicates was elected at a meeting of representatives of the trusts, and each trust could, at its own discretion, transfer a greater or lesser part of its supply and sales to the syndicate.

The sale of finished products, the purchase of raw materials, materials, equipment was carried out on a full-fledged market, through wholesale trade channels. There was a wide network of commodity exchanges, fairs, trade enterprises.

In industry and other sectors, wages in cash were restored, tariffs and wages were introduced that excluded equalization, and restrictions were lifted to increase wages with an increase in output. Labor armies were liquidated, compulsory labor service and basic restrictions on changing jobs were abolished.

A private sector emerged in industry and commerce: some state-owned enterprises were denationalized, others were leased out; private individuals with no more than 20 employees were allowed to create their own industrial enterprises (later this “ceiling” was raised).

A number of enterprises have been leased to foreign firms in the form of concessions. In 1926-27. there were 117 existing agreements of this kind. Cooperation of all forms and types developed rapidly.

The credit system has revived. In 1921, the State Bank of the RSFSR was created (transformed in 1923 into the State Bank of the USSR), which began lending to industry and trade on a commercial basis. In 1922-1925. created a number of specialized banks.

In just 5 years, from 1921 to 1926, the index of industrial production more than tripled; agricultural production doubled and exceeded the level of 1913 by 18%. But even after the end of the recovery period, economic growth continued at a rapid pace: the increase in industrial production amounted to 13 and 19%, respectively. In general, for the period 1921-1928. the average annual growth rate of national income was 18%.

The most important result of the NEP was that impressive economic successes were achieved on the basis of fundamentally new, hitherto unknown to the history of social relations. In industry, key positions were occupied by state trusts, in the credit and financial sphere - by state and cooperative banks, in agriculture - by small peasant farms covered by the simplest types of cooperation. In the conditions of NEP, the economic functions of the state turned out to be completely new; the goals, principles and methods of government economic policy have changed radically. If earlier the center directly established natural, technological proportions of reproduction by order, now it has switched to price regulation, trying to ensure balanced growth by indirect, economic methods.

In the second half of the 1920s, the first attempts to curtail the NEP began. Syndicates in industry were liquidated, from which private capital was administratively ousted, and a rigid centralized system of economic management (economic people's commissariats) was created. In October 1928, the implementation of the first five-year plan for the development of the national economy began, the country's leadership set a course for accelerated industrialization and collectivization. Although no one officially canceled the NEP, by that time it had already been actually curtailed. Legally, the NEP was terminated only on October 11, 1931, when a resolution was adopted on the complete ban on private trade in the USSR. The undoubted success of the NEP was the restoration of the destroyed economy, and, given that after the revolution, Russia lost highly qualified personnel (economists, managers, production workers), then the success of the new government becomes a "victory over devastation." At the same time, the lack of those same highly qualified personnel has become the cause of miscalculations and errors.

Conclusion

Thus, the topic under study allowed me to draw the following conclusions:

The experiment of "war communism" led to an unprecedented decline in production. Nationalized enterprises were not subject to any state control. The "roughening" of the economy, command methods did not give any effect. The fragmentation of large estates, leveling, the destruction of communications, food requisition - all this led to the isolation of the peasantry. A crisis has matured in the national economy, the need for a quick solution to which was shown by the growing uprisings.

The NEP brought beneficial changes surprisingly quickly. Since 1921 there has been a timid growth of industry at the beginning. Its reconstruction began: the construction of the first power plants was launched according to the GOERLO plan. The following year, hunger was defeated, the consumption of bread began to grow. In 1923-1924. it exceeded the pre-war level

Despite significant difficulties, by the mid-1920s, using the economic and political levers of the NEP, the country managed to basically restore the economy, switch to expanded reproduction, and feed the population.

Successes in the restoration of the national economy of the country were significant. However, the economy of the USSR as a whole remained backward.

It was by the mid-1920s that the necessary economic (success in the restoration of the national economy, the development of trade and the state sector in the economy) and political (Bolshevik dictatorship, a certain strengthening of relations between the working class and the peasantry based on the NEP) prerequisites for the transition to politics expanded industrialization.

Bibliography

1. Gimpelson E.G. War communism. - M., 1973.

Civil war in the USSR. T. 1-2. - M., 1986.

History of the Fatherland: people, ideas, solutions. Essays on the history of the Soviet state. - M., 1991.

History of the Fatherland in documents. Part 1. 1917-1920. - M., 1994.

Kabanov V.V. Peasant economy in the conditions of war communism. - M., 1988.

Pavlyuchenkov S.A. War Communism in Russia: Power and the Masses. - M., 1997

History of the national economy: Dictionary-reference book, M. VZFEI, 1995.

History of the world economy. Economic reforms 1920-1990: educational

Manual (Edited by A.N. Markova, M. Unity - DANA, 1998, 2nd edition).

History of Economics: textbook (I.I. Agapova, M., 2007)

Internet resource http://ru.wikipedia.org.

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The policy of war communism was based on the task of destroying market and commodity-money relations (private property) in order to replace 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). 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 of 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. From 1917 to 1921 they adopted anti-Bolshevik resolutions and actively participated in armed anti-government protests.

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 Social Revolutionaries, a transition was made to a one-party system.

The scientific substantiation of the historical process by the Bolsheviks as an irreconcilable class struggle led to the policy of "red terpopa", the reason for the introduction of which was a series of assassination attempts on the leaders of the party.

Its essence was the consistent destruction of the dissatisfied according to the principle "He who is not with us is against us." The list included nobles, intelligentsia, officers, priests, and prosperous 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.

War communism exacerbated the economic ruin, led to the unjustified death of a huge number of innocent people.

Have a good day everyone! In this post, we will focus on such an important topic as the policy of war communism - we will briefly analyze its key provisions. This topic is very difficult, but it is constantly checked during exams. Ignorance of concepts, terms related to this topic will inevitably lead to a low score with all the ensuing consequences.

The essence of the policy of war communism

The policy of war communism is a system of socio-economic measures that the Soviet leadership implemented and which was based on the key tenets of the Marxist-Leninist ideology.

This policy consisted of three components: the Red Guard attack on capital, nationalization and the seizure of bread from the peasants.

One of these postulates says that it is a necessary evil for the development of society and the state. It gives rise, firstly, to social inequality, and, secondly, to the exploitation of some classes by others. For example, if you own a lot of land, you will hire hired workers to cultivate it, and this is exploitation.

Another postulate of Marxist-Leninist theory says that money is evil. Money makes people be greedy and selfish. Therefore, money was simply eliminated, trade was prohibited, even simple barter - the exchange of goods for goods.

Red Guard attack on capital and nationalization

Therefore, the first component of the Red Guard attack on capital was the nationalization of private banks and their subordination to the State Bank. The entire infrastructure was also nationalized: communication lines, railways, and so on. The control of workers was also approved at the factories. In addition, the decree on land abolished private ownership of land in the countryside and transferred it to the peasantry.

All foreign trade was monopolized so that citizens could not enrich themselves. Also, the entire river fleet passed into state ownership.

The second component of the policy under consideration was nationalization. On June 28, 1918, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars was issued on the transfer of all industries into the hands of the state. What did all these measures mean for the owners of banks and factories?

Well, imagine - you are a foreign businessman. You have assets in Russia: a couple of steel plants. October 1917 comes, and after a while the local Soviet government announces that your factories are state-owned. And you won't get a penny. She cannot buy these enterprises from you, because there is no money. But to assign - easily. Well, how? Do you like this? No! And your government won't like it. Therefore, the response to such measures was the intervention of England, France, Japan in Russia during the civil war.

Of course, some countries, such as Germany, began to buy shares of companies from their businessmen that the Soviet government decided to appropriate. This could somehow lead to the intervention of this country in the course of nationalization. Therefore, the above-mentioned Decree of the Council of People's Commissars was adopted so hastily.

Food dictatorship

In order to supply the cities and the army with food, the Soviet government introduced yet another measure of war communism—a food dictatorship. Its essence was that now the state voluntarily-compulsorily confiscated bread from the peasants.

It is clear that the latter will not hurt to donate bread for free in the amount necessary for the state. Therefore, the country's leadership continued the tsarist measure - surplus appropriation. Prodrazverstka is when the right amount of bread was distributed to the regions. And it doesn't matter if you have this bread or not - it will be confiscated anyway.

It is clear that the wealthy peasants, the kulaks, had the lion's share of the bread. They certainly will not voluntarily hand over anything. Therefore, the Bolsheviks acted very cunningly: they created committees of the poor (kombeds), which were charged with the duty to seize bread.

Well, look. Who is more on the tree: the poor or the rich? Obviously, the poor. Are they jealous of wealthy neighbors? Naturally! So let them seize their bread! The food detachments (food detachments) helped the commanders seize bread. So, in fact, the policy of war communism took place.

To organize the material, use the table:

Post Scriptum: Dear high school graduates and applicants! Of course, within the framework of one post it is not possible to fully cover this topic. Therefore, I recommend that you purchase my video course

name economic politics of the Soviets. state-va during the years of the civil war and foreign military intervention in the USSR 1918-20. The policy of V. to. was dictated by the exclusion. difficulties created by civil war, owner devastation; was a response to the military. capitalist resistance. elements of the socialist transformation of the country's economy. "War communism," wrote V. I. Lenin, "was forced by war and ruin. It was not and could not be a policy meeting the economic tasks of the proletariat. It was a temporary measure" (Soch., vol. 32, p. 321 ). Main features of V. to .: assault method of overcoming the capitalist. elements and their almost complete displacement in the city's economy; surplus appraisal as the main a means of supplying the army, workers and mountains. the population with food; direct product exchange between town and countryside; closure of trade and its replacement by organized state. distribution of the main prod. and prom. products by class. sign; naturalization of the household relationships; universal labor conscription and labor mobilization as forms of attraction to work, equalization in the wage system; Max. centralization of leadership. The most difficult host. the problem at the time was prod. question. By decrees of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of May 9 and 27, a food dictatorship was established in the country, which granted the People's Commissariat for Food emergency powers to combat the kulaks, who hid grain stocks and speculated on them. These measures increased the flow of grain, but could not solve the problem of providing it to the Red Army and the working class. Entered 5 Aug. 1918 required. commodity exchange in grain villages. areas also did not give noticeable results. Oct 30 In 1918, a decree was issued "On the taxation of rural farmers in kind in the form of a deduction of a part of agricultural products," which was to bear all its weight on the kulak and prosperous elements of the village. But the tax in kind did not solve the problem. Extremely heavy prod. the state of the country forced the Sov. state-in enter 11 Jan. 1919 surplus appraisal. Trade in bread and essential foodstuffs was banned. The introduction of surplus appropriation was undoubtedly difficult, extraordinary, but vital. To ensure the implementation of the layout, food detachments of workers were sent to the village. In the field of industry, the policy of industrial capitalism was expressed in the nationalization (except for the large factories and factories nationalized in the summer of 1918) of medium and small enterprises. Decree of the Supreme Council of National Economy of November 29. 1920 were declared nationalized all prom. enterprises owned by private individuals or companies, having a number of workers St. 5 with mechanical engine or 10 - without mechanical. engine. Owls. the state carried out the strictest centralization of industrial management. For the implementation of state orders were brought into obligatory. handicraft order. and preserved in insignificant. number of private capitalist enterprises. The state took over the distribution of prom. and prod. goods. This was also dictated by the task of undermining the economy. positions of the bourgeoisie and in the field of distribution. Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of November 21. 1918 provided for: in order to replace the private trade. apparatus and for the systematic supply of the population with all products from owls. and cooperative distributions. points to assign to the People's Commissariat for Food and its bodies the whole matter of procurement and distribution of prom. and prod. goods. Consumer cooperation was involved as an auxiliary. organ of the People's Commissariat of Food. Membership in the cooperative was declared mandatory for the entire population. The decree provided for the requisition and confiscation of private wholesale trades. warehouses, the nationalization of trading. firms, the municipalization of private retailing. Trade in basic products and prom. goods was banned. The state carried out organizations. distribution of products among the population according to the card system by class. sign: workers received more than other categories of the population, non-working elements were supplied only on condition that they fulfilled their labor service. The principle was implemented: "who does not work, he does not eat." Leveling dominated the tariff policy. The difference in pay for qualifications. and unqualified. labor was very small. This was due to the acute shortage of food and industrial. goods, which forced them to give the workers the bare minimum necessary to sustain their lives. This was, as V. I. Lenin pointed out, a completely justified desire "... to supply everyone as equally as possible, to feed, support, until it was impossible to undertake the restoration of production" (Leninsky collection, XX, 1932, p. 103). Wages took on an increasingly natural character: workers and employees were given food. rations, the state provided free apartments, utilities, transport, etc. There was a continuous process of naturalization of households. relations. Money is almost completely depreciated. The urban bourgeoisie and the kulaks were taxed at the same time. extraordinary revolution. tax in the amount of 10 billion rubles. for the needs of the Red Army (Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of October 30, 1918). The bourgeoisie was brought to duty. labor (decree of the Council of People's Commissars of October 5, 1918). These events meant that in the area of ​​​​replacing the bourgeois. productions. socialist relations. Owls. the state has switched to tactics to decide. assault on the capitalist elements, "... to an immeasurably greater breakdown of the old relations than we expected" (V. I. Lenin, Soch., vol. 33, p. 67). Intervention and civil. The war forced a continuous increase in the size of the Red Army, which reached 5.5 million by the end of the war. An increasing number of workers went to the front. In this regard, industry and transport experienced an acute shortage of labor. Owls. the government was forced to introduce universal labor service; to the military the situation with the abandonment of work were announced by the railway workers, workers of the river and sea. fleet, fuel industry, labor mobilization of workers and specialists from various branches of industry and transport, etc. was carried out. V. I. Lenin repeatedly emphasized that the policy of V. to. was forced. She was called upon to solve the most important wars. and political tasks: to ensure victory in civil. war, to preserve and consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat, to preserve the working class from extinction. Politician V. k. solved the set tasks. This is her ist. meaning. However, as this policy developed and its advantages were discovered. results, the idea began to take shape that with the help of this policy it is possible to carry out an accelerated transition to communist. production and distribution. “... We made the mistake,” V. I. Lenin said in October 1921, “that we decided to make a direct transition to communist production and distribution. We decided that the peasants would give us the amount of grain we needed, and we would distribute it plants and factories, and we will have communist production and distribution" (ibid., p. 40). This found its expression in the fact that the policy of V. to. continued and even intensified for some time after the end of the Civil War. war: a decree on the nationalization of the entire industry was adopted on November 29. 1920, when the civil war; Dec 4 1920 was adopted by the decree of the Council of People's Commissars on free leave to the population prod. Products, 17 Dec. - on the free supply of consumer goods to the population, 23 Dec. - on the abolition of payment for any type of fuel provided to workers and employees, January 27. 1921 - on the abolition of the collection of fees for living quarters from workers and employees, for the use of water supply, sewerage, gas, electricity from workers and employees, disabled labor and war and persons dependent on them, etc. 8th All-Russian. Congress of Soviets (December 22-29, 1920) in its decisions on p. x-woo proceeded from the preservation of the surplus appropriation and the strengthening of the state. will force began in the restoration of peasant farms, etc. “We expected,” wrote V.I. distribution of products in a communist way in a small-peasant country. Life has shown our mistake" (ibid., pp. 35-36). V. to. in the conditions of civil. war was necessary and justified itself. But after the end of the war, when the task of peaceful farming came to the fore. construction, revealed the inconsistency of the policy of V. to. as a method of socialist. construction, the unacceptability of this policy in the new conditions for the peasantry and the working class was revealed. This policy did not provide economic. union between town and countryside, between industry and Stu. x-th. Therefore, on March 15, 1921, the 10th Congress of the RCP (b), on the initiative of V. I. Lenin, adopted a decision to replace the surplus appropriation with a tax in kind, which put an end to the policy of the V. to. and marked the beginning of the transition to the New Economic Policy (NEP). Lit .: V. I. Lenin, Report on the replacement of the apportionment with a tax in kind on March 15 (X Congress of the RCP (b.). March 8-16, 1921), Soch., 4th ed., Vol. 32; his, On the food tax, ibid.; his, New Economic Policy and the Tasks of Political Education, ibid., vol. 33; his, On the New Economic Policy, ibid.; his, On the Significance of Gold Now and After the Complete Victory of Socialism, ibid.; his own, On the Fourth Anniversary of the October Revolution, ibid. (See also Reference Volume to the 4th ed. Works of V. I. Lenin, vol. 1, pp. 74-76); Decrees of Soviet power, vol. 1-3, M., 1959-60; Lyashchenko P.I., History of people. x-va USSR. v. 3, Moscow, 1956; Gladkov I. A., Essays on the Soviet Economy 1917-20, M., 1956. I. B. Berkhin. Moscow.