Dmytro Ostapenko
d.ostapenko@latrobe.edu.au
War Communism
Section
Objective
The economic and social
development of the Russian
Empire prior to 1917
Bolsheviks ‘s ideas on a road to
socialism
To specify what kind of economy
the Bolsheviks would have to run
in 1917-1921
To identify their plans of how to run
socialist economy
Economic policy in October 1917June 1918
To define the initial approaches to
running economy
Slide into War Communism and
situations in the country June
1918-February 1921
The general analysis of War
Communism
To assess the effectiveness of War
Communism
To characterise this policy
Industrial
development of
Russia in 1861-1900
Red circles – metal
processing industry
Blue – textile industry
Yellow – foodprocessing industry
Index of total output in the manufacturing and
mining industries in Russia in 1860 -1913. 1900
= 100%
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1860
1870
1880
1890
1900
1910
1913
A Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, Penguin Press, London, 1969,
p. 12.
Millions of calories produced by average male agricultural
worker
1860
1910
Germany
10.5
25.0
USA
22.5
42.0
France
14.5
17.0
UK
20.0
23.5
Russia
7.5
11.0
A Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, Penguin Press, London, 1969, p. 24.
1913 Industry output
Russia
USA
UK
Electricity (milliard
Kwhs)
Coal (million tons)
2.0
25.8
4.7
29.2
517.8
292.0
Oil (million tons)
10.3
34.0
-
Steel (million tons)
4.3
31.8
7.8
Cotton textiles
(milliard meters)
1.9
5.7
4.4
A Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, Penguin Press, London, 1969, p. 14.
Make profits of the capitalists public, arrest fifty or a
hundred of the biggest millionaires. Just keep them in
custody for a few weeks ... for the simple purpose of
making them reveal the hidden springs, the fraudulent
practices, the filth and green which even under the
new government are costing our country thousands
and millions every day. That is the chief cause of our
anarchy and ruin!
Lenin
June 1917
Speech to the First Congress of Soviets
 Centralisation or nationalisation of banking system
 Nationalisations of syndicates, - main capitalist associations for
sugar, oil, iron
 Abolition of commercial secrecy
 Compulsory ‘syndication’ of industry – independent firms
should form part of syndicates
 Compulsory membership of consumer cooperatives - simplify
rationing
 Lenin,
 September 1917
 The impending catastrophe and how to combat it
Early measures (late 1917 – June 1918)
 Land decree of 8 November 1917
 Decree of workers’ control of 27 November 1917
 VSNKh (Supreme Council of National Economy, ) 15 December
1917
 Slow nationalisation (mostly by local authorities ) around 487
enterprises
 Mixed economy – collaboration with capitalists
Slide into War Communism
 Agriculture
Decline of productivity, Prodrazverstka (confiscation of food surpluses), Narkomprod
(People’s Commissariat for Supplies)
 Political and military situation
Shortages of agricultural and industrial goods. Needs of tougher state control over
economy and nationalisation. Impossible to compel the factory owner and individual
peasant to produce, while simultaneously ruining him by requisitions and restricting his
links with the market. September 1919 – 3300 nationalised enterprises – only1375
were functioning. VSNVK tried to cope up with an impossible job. Industrial census
taken in August 1920 - 37,000 nationalized enterprises.
Black market
Lack of goods to sell and problem of effective distribution. Decline of urban
population. 60% illegal bread in cities.
 Monetary policy
. Printing press - ‘machine gun which attacked the bourgeois regime in the rear’
(Eugene Preobrazhensky). Naturalisation of economy and virtual abolition of money.
Wages in kind. Moneyless budget
 Militarisation of labour
 Abolishment of workers’ control, system of rationing according to classes
Civil War in Russia, 19181920
1913
1921
Gross output of all
industry (index)
100
31
Large-scale industry
(index)
Coal (million tons)
100
21
29
9
Steel (million tons)
4.3
0.2
Agricultural production
(index)
100
60
Source: A Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, Penguin
Press, London, 1969, p. 68.
Necessity over ideology
 Anarchy and chaos. Orders couldn’t be obeyed. Weak administration.
 Impact of war and civil war. Dispirited supplies. Losses of agricultural
regions. Moving frontiers.
 Necessity it is naturally good in this situation to ban private trade in
foodstuffs.
End of War Communism
• Early 1920 – most territories returned. Resources available.
•The key problem remained the relationship with peasants and
related problems of freedom of trade and of private small scaleindustry. The state couldn’t cope up with running the all sectors
of economy.
•February 1921 - rising in Kronstand.
•NEP
Nicolay Bukharin’s The Politics and Economics of the Transitional
Period, 1920
 Marx – “expanded reproduction” – intensive development of capitalist
relation
 Bukharin – “negative expanded reproduction’ - economic disruption. The
centralised apparatus of capitalism disintegrated and cannot be used as a
basis for social order. Need of a long transitional period.
Key characteristics of War Communism
 An attempt to ban private manufacture, nationalisation of all industry,
allocation of all output by the state
 A ban on private trade, not completely effective but actively imposed
 Seizure of peasant surpluses
 The partial elimination of money
 Terror and arbitrariness, expropriation
 Effort to establish strict discipline