In the view of the classics of orthodox Marxism, socialism as a social system presupposes the complete destruction of all commodity-money relations, since these relations are the breeding ground for the revival of capitalism. However, these relations may disappear no sooner than the complete disappearance of the institution of private ownership of all means of production and instruments of labor, but an entire historical era is needed to realize this most important task.

This fundamental position of Marxism found its visible embodiment in the economic policy of the Bolsheviks, which they began to pursue in December 1917, almost immediately after the capture of state power in the country. But, having quickly failed on the economic front, in March-April 1918 the leadership of the Bolshevik Party tried to return to Lenin’s “ April Theses"and establish state capitalism in a country devastated by war and revolution. A large-scale Civil War and foreign intervention put an end to these utopian illusions of the Bolsheviks, forcing the top leadership of the party to return to the previous economic policy, which then received the very capacious and accurate name of the policy of “war communism.”

For quite a long time, many Soviet historians were confident that the very concept of military communism was first developed by V.I. Lenin in 1918. However, this statement is not entirely true, since he first used the very concept of “war communism” only in April 1921 in his famous article “On the Food Tax.” Moreover, as established by “late” Soviet historians (V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov, V. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov), this term was first introduced into scientific circulation by the famous Marxist theorist Alexander Bogdanov (Malinovsky) back in 1917.

In January 1918, returning to the study of this problem in his famous work “Questions of Socialism,” A.A. Bogdanov, having examined the historical experience of a number of bourgeois states during the First World War, equated the concepts of “war communism” and “military state capitalism.” In his opinion, there was a whole historical abyss between socialism and war communism, since “war communism” was a consequence of the regression of productive forces and epistemologically was a product of capitalism and a complete negation of socialism, and not its initial phase, as it seemed to the Bolsheviks themselves, first of all, “ left communists" during the Civil War.

The same opinion is now shared by many other scientists, in particular, Professor S.G. Kara-Murza, who argue convincingly that “war communism” as a special economic structure has nothing in common either with communist teaching, much less with Marxism. The very concept of “war communism” simply means that during a period of total devastation, society (society) is forced to transform into a community or commune, and nothing more. In modern historical science, there are still several key problems associated with the study of the history of war communism.

I. From what time should the policy of war communism begin?

A number of Russian and foreign historians (N. Sukhanov) believe that the policy of military communism was proclaimed almost immediately after the victory of the February Revolution, when the bourgeois Provisional Government, at the instigation of the first Minister of Agriculture, cadet A.I. Shingarev, having issued the law “On the transfer of grain to the disposal of the state” (March 25, 1917), introduced a state monopoly on bread throughout the country and established fixed prices for grain.

Other historians (R. Danels, V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov) connect the approval of “war communism” with the famous decree of the Council of People’s Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR “On the nationalization of large industry and railway transport enterprises,” which was issued on June 28, 1918. According to V. .IN. Kabanova and V.P. Buldakov, the policy of military communism itself went through three main phases in its development: “nationalizing” (June 1918), “Kombedovsky” (July - December 1918) and “militaristic” (January 1920 - February 1921) .

Still others (E. Gimpelson) believe that the beginning of the policy of war communism should be considered May - June 1918, when the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted two important decrees that marked the beginning of the food dictatorship in the country: “On the emergency powers of the People's Commissar for Food” ( May 13, 1918) and “On the Committees of the Village Poor” (June 11, 1918).

The fourth group of historians (G. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov) is confident that after a “year-long period of trial and error,” the Bolsheviks, having issued the decree “On food distribution of grain grain and fodder” (January 11, 1919), made their final the choice in favor of surplus appropriation, which became the backbone of the entire policy of war communism in the country.

Finally, the fifth group of historians (S. Pavlyuchenkov) prefers not to name the specific date of the beginning of the policy of war communism and, referring to the well-known dialectical position of F. Engels, says that “absolutely sharp dividing lines are not compatible with the theory of development as such.” Although S.A. himself Pavlyuchenkov is inclined to begin the countdown of the policy of war communism with the beginning of the “Red Guard attack on capital,” that is, from December 1917.

II. Reasons for the policy of “war communism”.

In Soviet and partly Russian historiography (I. Berkhin, E. Gimpelson, G. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov, I. Ratkovsky), the policy of military communism has traditionally been reduced to a series of exclusively forced, purely economic measures caused by foreign intervention and the Civil War. Most Soviet historians strongly emphasized the smooth and gradual nature of the implementation of this economic policy.

In European historiography (L. Samueli) it has traditionally been argued that “war communism” was not so much determined by the hardships and deprivations of the Civil War and foreign intervention, but had a powerful ideological basis, going back to the ideas and works of K. Marx, F. Engels and K. Kautsky.

According to a number of modern historians (V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov), subjectively “war communism” was caused by the desire of the Bolsheviks to hold out until the start of the world proletarian revolution, and objectively this policy was supposed to solve the most important modernization task - to eliminate the gigantic gap between the economic structures of the industrial city and patriarchal village. Moreover, the policy of war communism was a direct continuation of the “Red Guard attack on capital”, since both of these political courses were related by the frantic pace of major economic events: the complete nationalization of banks, industrial and commercial enterprises, the displacement of state cooperation and the organization of a new system of public distribution through productive-consumer communes, an obvious tendency towards the naturalization of all economic relations within the country, etc.

Many authors are convinced that all the leaders and major theoreticians of the Bolshevik Party, including V.I. Lenin, L.D. Trotsky and N.I. Bukharin, viewed the policy of war communism as a high road leading directly to socialism. This concept of “Bolshevik utopianism” was presented especially clearly in the famous theoretical works of the “left communists,” who imposed on the party the model of “war communism” that it implemented in 1919–1920. In this case we are talking about two famous works by N.I. Bukharin “Program of the Bolshevik Communists” (1918) and “Economy of the Transition Period” (1920), as well as about the popular opus N.I. Bukharin and E.A. Preobrazhensky’s “The ABCs of Communism” (1920), which are now rightly called “literary monuments of the collective recklessness of the Bolsheviks.”

According to a number of modern scientists (Yu. Emelyanov), it was N.I. Bukharin, in his famous work “Economics of the Transition Period” (1920), derived from the practice of “war communism” an entire theory of revolutionary transformations, based on the universal law of the complete collapse of the bourgeois economy, industrial anarchy and concentrated violence, which will completely change the economic system of bourgeois society and build on its ruins is socialism. Moreover, according to the firm conviction of this "the favorite of the whole party" And "the largest party theorist" as V.I. wrote about him Lenin, “proletarian coercion in all its forms, from executions to labor conscription, is, strange as it may seem, a method for developing communist humanity from the human material of the capitalist era.”

Finally, according to other modern scientists (S. Kara-Murza), “war communism” became an inevitable consequence of the catastrophic situation in the country’s national economy, and in this situation it played an extremely important role in saving the lives of millions of people from inevitable starvation. Moreover, all attempts to prove that the policy of war communism had doctrinal roots in Marxism are absolutely groundless, since only a handful of Bolshevik maximalists in the person of N.I. Bukharin and Co.

III. The problem of the results and consequences of the policy of “war communism”.

Almost all Soviet historians (I. Mints, V. Drobizhev, I. Brekhin, E. Gimpelson) not only idealized “war communism” in every possible way, but actually avoided any objective assessments of the main results and consequences of this destructive economic policy of the Bolsheviks during the Civil War . According to the majority of modern authors (V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov), this idealization of “war communism” was largely due to the fact that this political course had a huge impact on the development of the entire Soviet society, and also modeled and laid the foundations of that command- administrative system in the country, which finally took shape in the second half of the 1930s.

In Western historiography, there are still two main assessments of the results and consequences of the policy of war communism. One part of Sovietologists (G. Yaney, S. Malle) traditionally speaks of the unconditional collapse of the economic policy of war communism, which led to complete anarchy and the total collapse of the country's industrial and agricultural economy. Other Sovietologists (M. Levin), on the contrary, argue that the main results of the policy of war communism were etatization (a gigantic strengthening of the role of the state) and archaization of socio-economic relations.

As for the first conclusion of Professor M. Levin and his colleagues, there is indeed hardly any doubt that during the years of “war communism” there was a gigantic strengthening of the entire party-state apparatus of power in the center and locally. But what concerns the economic results of “war communism”, then the situation here was much more complicated, because:

On the one hand, “war communism” swept away all the previous remnants of the medieval system in the agricultural economy of the Russian village;

On the other hand, it is absolutely obvious that during the period of “war communism” there was a significant strengthening of the patriarchal peasant community, which allows us to talk about the real archaization of the country’s national economy.

According to a number of modern authors (V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov, S. Pavlyuchenkov), it would be a mistake to try to statistically determine the negative consequences of “war communism” for the country’s national economy. And the point is not only that these consequences cannot be separated from the consequences of the Civil War itself, but that the results of “war communism” have not a quantitative, but a qualitative expression, the essence of which lies in the very change in the socio-cultural stereotype of the country and its citizens.

According to other modern authors (S. Kara-Murza), “war communism” became a way of life and a way of thinking for the vast majority of Soviet people. And since it occurred at the initial stage of the formation of the Soviet state, at its “infancy,” it could not but have a huge impact on its entirety and became the main part of the very matrix on the basis of which the Soviet social system was reproduced.

IV. The problem of determining the main features of “war communism”.

a) total destruction of private ownership of the means and instruments of production and the dominance of a single state form of ownership throughout the country;

b) total liquidation of commodity-money relations, the monetary circulation system and the creation of an extremely rigid planned economic system in the country.

In the firm opinion of these scholars, the main elements of the policy of war communism were the Bolsheviks borrowed from the practical experience of the Kaiser’s Germany, where, starting from January 1915, the following actually existed:

a) state monopoly on essential food products and consumer goods;

b) their normalized distribution;

c) universal labor conscription;

d) fixed prices for main types of goods, products and services;

e) the allotment method of removing grain and other agricultural products from the agricultural sector of the country's economy.

Thus, the leaders of “Russian Jacobinism” made full use of the forms and methods of governing the country, which they borrowed from capitalism, which was in an extreme situation during the war.

The most visible evidence of this conclusion is the famous “Draft Party Program” written by V.I. Lenin in March 1918, which contained main features of the future policy of war communism:

a) the destruction of parliamentarism and the unification of the legislative and executive branches of government in Councils of all levels;

b) socialist organization of production on a national scale;

c) management of the production process through trade unions and factory committees, which are under the control of Soviet authorities;

d) state monopoly of trade, and then its complete replacement by systematically organized distribution, which will be carried out by unions of commercial and industrial employees;

e) forced unification of the entire population of the country into consumer-production communes;

f) organizing competition between these communes for a steady increase in labor productivity, organization, discipline, etc.

The fact that the leadership of the Bolshevik Party turned the organizational forms of the German bourgeois economy into the main instrument for establishing the proletarian dictatorship was directly written by the Bolsheviks themselves, in particular by Yuri Zalmanovich Larin (Lurie), who in 1928 published his work “Wartime State Capitalism in Germany” (1914―1918)". Moreover, a number of modern historians (S. Pavlyuchenkov) argue that “war communism” was a Russian model of German military socialism or state capitalism. Therefore, in a certain sense, “war communism” was a pure analogue of the “Westernism” traditional in the Russian political environment, only with the significant difference that the Bolsheviks managed to tightly envelop this political course in the veil of communist phraseology.

In Soviet historiography (V. Vinogradov, I. Brekhin, E. Gimpelson, V. Dmitrenko), the entire essence of the policy of war communism was traditionally reduced only to the main economic measures carried out by the Bolshevik Party in 1918–1920.

A number of modern authors (V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov, V. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov, S. Pavlyuchenkov, E. Gimpelson) pay special attention to the fact that a radical change in economic and social relations was accompanied by radical political reform and the establishment of a one-party dictatorship in the country.

Other modern scientists (S. Kara-Murza) believe that the main feature of “war communism” was the shift of the center of gravity of economic policy from the production of goods and services to their equal distribution. It is no coincidence that L.D. Trotsky, speaking about the policy of war communism, frankly wrote that “We nationalized the disorganized economy of the bourgeoisie and established a regime of “consumer communism” in the most acute period of the struggle against the class enemy.” All other signs of “war communism”, such as: the famous surplus appropriation system, the state monopoly in the field of industrial production and banking services, the elimination of commodity-money relations, universal labor conscription and the militarization of the country’s national economy - were structural features of the military-communist system, which in specific historical conditions, it was characteristic of the Great French Revolution (1789–1799), and of the Kaiser’s Germany (1915–1918), and of Russia during the Civil War (1918–1920).

2. Main features of the policy of “war communism”

According to the overwhelming majority of historians, the main features of the policy of war communism, which were finally formulated in March 1919 at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b), were:

a) The policy of “food dictatorship” and surplus appropriation

According to a number of modern authors (V. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov), the Bolsheviks did not immediately come to the idea of ​​surplus appropriation, and initially intended to create a state grain procurement system based on traditional market mechanisms, in particular, by significantly increasing prices for grain and other agricultural products . In April 1918, in his report “On the Immediate Tasks of Soviet Power,” V.I. Lenin directly stated that the Soviet government would pursue the previous food policy in accordance with the economic course, the contours of which were determined in March 1918. In other words, it was about preserving the grain monopoly, fixed grain prices and the traditional system of commodity exchange that had long existed between the city and the village. However, already in May 1918, due to a sharp aggravation of the military-political situation in the main grain-producing regions of the country (Kuban, Don, Little Russia), the position of the country's top political leadership changed radically.

At the beginning of May 1918, according to the report of the People's Commissar of Food A.D. Tsyurupa, members of the Soviet government for the first time discussed a draft decree introducing a food dictatorship in the country. And although a number of members of the Central Committee and the leadership of the Supreme Economic Council, in particular L.B. Kamenev, A.I. Rykov and Yu.Z. Larin, opposed this decree, on May 13 it was approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR and was formalized in the form of a special decree “On granting the People's Commissar of Food emergency powers to combat the rural bourgeoisie.” In mid-May 1918, a new decree of the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “On the organization of food detachments” was adopted, which, together with the committees of the poor, were to become the main instrument for knocking out scarce food resources from tens of millions of peasant farms in the country.

At the same time, in furtherance of this decree, the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopt Decree “On the reorganization of the People’s Commissariat of Food of the RSFSR and local food authorities”, in accordance with which a complete structural restructuring of this department of the country was carried out in the center and locally. In particular, this decree, which was quite rightly dubbed “the bankruptcy of the idea of ​​local Soviets”:

a) established the direct subordination of all provincial and district food structures not to local Soviet authorities, but to the People’s Commissariat of Food of the RSFSR;

b) determined that within the framework of this People's Commissariat a special Food Army Directorate would be created, which would be responsible for the implementation of the state grain procurement plan throughout the country.

Contrary to traditional opinion, the very idea of ​​​​food detachments was not an invention of the Bolsheviks and the palm here should still be given to the Februaryists, so “dear to the hearts” of our liberals (A. Yakovlev, E. Gaidar). Back on March 25, 1917, the Provisional Government, having issued the law “On the transfer of grain to the disposal of the state,” introduced a state monopoly on bread throughout the country. But since the plan for state grain procurements was carried out very poorly, in August 1917, in order to carry out forced requisitions of food and fodder from the marching units of the active army and rear garrisons, special military detachments began to be formed, which became the prototype of those very Bolshevik food detachments that arose during the Civil War.

The activities of food brigades still evoke absolutely polar opinions.

Some historians (V. Kabanov, V. Brovkin) believe that, in fulfilling grain procurement plans, the majority of food detachments were engaged in the wholesale plunder of all peasant farms, regardless of their social affiliation.

Other historians (G. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov, S. Kara-Murza) argue that, contrary to popular speculation and legends, food detachments, having declared a crusade to the village for bread, did not plunder peasant farms, but achieved tangible results precisely where They obtained bread through traditional barter.

After the start of the frontal Civil War and foreign intervention, the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted on June 11, 1918 the famous decree “On the organization and supply of committees of the rural poor,” or kombedahs, which a number of modern authors (N. Dementyev, I. Dolutsky) called the trigger mechanism of the Civil War war.

For the first time, the idea of ​​​​organizing the Committee of Poor People was heard at a meeting of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee in May 1918 from the mouth of its chairman Ya.M. Sverdlov, who motivated the need to create them to incite "second social war" in the countryside and a merciless struggle against the class enemy in the person of the rural bourgeois - the village “bloodsucker and world-eater” - kulak. Therefore, the process of organizing committees of poor people, which V.I. Lenin regarded it as the greatest step of the socialist revolution in the countryside, it went at a rapid pace, and by September 1918, more than 30 thousand committees of poor people had been created throughout the country, the backbone of which was the village poor.

The main task of the poor committees was not only the fight for bread, but also the crushing of the volost and district bodies of Soviet power, which consisted of the wealthy strata of the Russian peasantry and could not be bodies of the proletarian dictatorship on the ground. Thus, their creation not only became the trigger for the Civil War, but also led to the virtual destruction of Soviet power in the countryside. In addition, as a number of authors (V. Kabanov) noted, the Pobedy Committees, having failed to fulfill their historical mission, gave a powerful impetus to chaos, devastation and impoverishment of the Russian countryside.

In August 1918, the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted a package of new regulations, which marked the creation of a whole system of emergency measures to confiscate grain in favor of the state, including the decrees “On the involvement of workers’ organizations in the procurement of grain”, “On the organization of harvesting and -requisition detachments”, “Regulations on barrage requisition food detachments”, etc.

In October 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a new decree “On imposing a tax in kind on rural owners in the form of deductions of part of agricultural products.” Some scientists (V. Danilov) without sufficient grounds expressed the idea of genetic connection this decree with the tax in kind in 1921, which marked the beginning of the NEP. However, most historians (G. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov) rightly argue that this decree marked the abandonment of the “normal” taxation system and the transition to a system of “emergency” taxation, built on a class principle. In addition, according to the same historians, it was from the end of 1918 that there was a clear turn of the entire Soviet state machine from a disorderly “emergency” to organized and centralized forms of “economic and food dictatorship” in the country.

The crusade against the kulak and the village world-eater, announced by this decree, was greeted with delight not only by the rural poor, but also by the overwhelming mass of the average Russian peasantry, whose number made up more than 65% of the country’s total rural population. The mutual attraction between the Bolsheviks and the middle peasantry, which arose at the turn of 1918–1919, predetermined the fate of the poor committees. Already in November 1918, at the VI All-Russian Congress of Soviets, under pressure from the communist faction itself, which was then headed by L.B. Kamenev, a decision was made to restore a uniform system of Soviet government bodies at all levels, which, in essence, meant the liquidation of the Pobedy Committees.

In December 1918, the First All-Russian Congress of Land Departments, Communes and Poor Committees adopted a resolution “On the collectivization of agriculture”, which clearly outlined new course for the socialization of individual peasant farms and their transfer to the rails of large-scale agricultural production, built on socialist principles. This resolution, as suggested by V.I. Lenin and People's Commissar of Agriculture S.P. Sereda was met with hostility by the overwhelming mass of the multi-million Russian peasantry. This situation forced the Bolsheviks to again change the principles of food policy and, on January 11, 1919, issue the famous decree “On food distribution of grain grain and fodder.”

Contrary to traditional public opinion, surplus appropriation in Russia was introduced not by the Bolsheviks, but by the tsarist government of A.F. Trepov, which in November 1916, at the suggestion of the then Minister of Agriculture A.A. Rittich issued a special resolution on this issue. Although, of course, the surplus appropriation system of 1919 differed significantly from the surplus appropriation system of 1916.

According to a number of modern authors (S. Pavlyuchenkov, V. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov), contrary to the prevailing stereotype, surplus appropriation was not a tightening of the food dictatorship in the country, but its formal weakening, since it contained a very important element: the initially specified amount of state needs for bread and fodder In addition, as shown by Professor S.G. Kara-Murza, the scale of the Bolshevik allocation was approximately 260 million poods, while the tsarist allocation was more than 300 million poods of grain per year.

At the same time, the surplus appropriation plan itself proceeded not from the real capabilities of peasant farms, but from state needs, since, in accordance with this decree:

The entire amount of grain, fodder and other agricultural products that the state needed to supply the Red Army and cities was distributed among all grain-producing provinces of the country;

In all peasant farms that fell under the surplus appropriation molokh, a minimum amount of food, fodder and seed grain and other agricultural products remained, and all other surpluses were subject to complete requisition in favor of the state.

On February 14, 1919, the regulation of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR “On socialist land management and on measures for the transition to socialist agriculture” was published, but this decree no longer had fundamental significance, since the bulk of the Russian peasantry, having rejected the collective “commune”, compromised with the Bolsheviks, agreeing with temporary food appropriation, which was considered the lesser evil. Thus, by the spring of 1919, from the list of all Bolshevik decrees on the agrarian issue, only the decree “On surplus appropriation” was preserved, which became the supporting frame for the entire policy of war communism in the country.

Continuing the search for mechanisms capable of forcing a significant part of the Russian peasantry to voluntarily hand over agricultural and handicraft products to the state, the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR issued new decrees “On benefits for collecting tax in kind” (April 1919) and “On compulsory exchange of goods” (August 1919). .). They did not have much success with the peasants, and already in November 1919, by decision of the government, new allocations were introduced throughout the country - potato, wood, fuel and horse-drawn.

According to a number of authoritative scientists (L. Lee, S. Kara-Murza), only the Bolsheviks were able to create a workable food requisitioning and supply apparatus, which saved tens of millions of people in the country from starvation.

b) Policy of total nationalization

To implement this historical task, which was a direct continuation of the “Red Guard attack on capital,” the Council of People’s Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR issued a number of important decrees, including “On the nationalization of foreign trade” (April 1918), “On the nationalization of large industry and enterprises railway transport" (June 1918) and "On establishing a state monopoly on domestic trade" (November 1918). In August 1918, a decree was adopted that created unprecedented benefits for all state industrial enterprises, since they were exempt from the so-called “indemnity” - emergency state taxes and all municipal fees.

In January 1919, the Central Committee of the RCP (b), in its “Circular Letter” addressed to all party committees, directly stated that at the moment the main source of income of the Soviet state should be "nationalized industry and state agriculture." In February 1919, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee called on the Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR to accelerate the further restructuring of the country’s economic life on a socialist basis, which actually launched a new stage of the proletarian state’s offensive against “medium-sized private business” enterprises that had retained their independence, the authorized capital of which did not exceed 500 thousand rubles. In April 1919, a new decree of the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR “On the Handicraft and Craft Industry” was issued, according to which these enterprises were not subject to total confiscation, nationalization and municipalization, with the exception of special cases according to a special resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR.

However, already in the fall of 1920, a new wave of nationalization began, which mercilessly hit small industrial production, that is, all handicrafts and handicrafts, into whose orbit millions of Soviet citizens were drawn. In particular, in November 1920, the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council, headed by A.I. Rykov adopted a decree “On the nationalization of small industry”, under which 20 thousand handicraft and craft enterprises in the country fell. According to historians (G. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov, I. Ratkovsky, M. Khodyakov), by the end of 1920 the state concentrated in its hands 38 thousand industrial enterprises, of which more than 65% were handicraft and craft workshops.

c) Liquidation of commodity-money relations

Initially, the country's top political leadership tried to establish normal trade exchange in the country, issuing in March 1918 a special decree of the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR "On the organization of trade exchange between city and countryside." However, already in May 1918, a similar special instruction from the People's Commissariat of Food of the RSFSR (A.D. Tsyurupa) to this decree de facto abolished it.

In August 1918, at the height of a new procurement campaign, having issued a whole package of decrees and tripling fixed prices for grain, the Soviet government again tried to organize normal commodity exchange. The volost committees of poor people and councils of deputies, having monopolized in their hands the distribution of industrial goods in the countryside, almost immediately buried this good idea, causing general anger among the multi-million Russian peasantry against the Bolsheviks.

Under these conditions, the country's top political leadership authorized the transition to barter trade, or direct product exchange. Moreover, on November 21, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted the famous decree “On organizing the supply of the population with all products and items of personal consumption and household“, according to which the entire population of the country was assigned to the “Unified Consumer Societies”, through which they began to receive all food and industrial rations. According to a number of historians (S. Pavlyuchenkov), this decree, in fact, completed the legislative formalization of the entire military-communist system, the building of which would be brought to barracks perfection until the beginning of 1921. Thus, policy of "war communism" with the adoption of this decree it became system of "war communism".

In December 1918, the Second All-Russian Congress of Economic Councils called on the People's Commissar of Finance N.N. Krestinsky to take immediate measures to curtail monetary circulation throughout the country, but the leadership of the country’s financial department and the People’s Bank of the RSFSR (G.L. Pyatakov, Ya.S. Ganetsky) avoided making this decision.

Until the end of 1918 - beginning of 1919. The Soviet political leadership was still trying to restrain itself from a complete turn towards the total socialization of the entire economic life of the country and the replacement of commodity-money relations with the naturalization of exchange. In particular, the communist faction of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, which was headed by the leader of the moderate Bolsheviks L.B. Kamenev, playing the role of informal opposition to the government, created a special commission, which at the beginning of 1919 prepared a draft decree “On the restoration of free trade.” This project met with stiff resistance from all members of the Council of People's Commissars, including V.I. Lenin and L.D. Trotsky.

In March 1919, a new decree of the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR “On Consumer Communes” was issued, according to which the entire system of consumer cooperation with one stroke of the pen turned into a purely state institution, and the ideas of free trade were finally put to death. And at the beginning of May 1919, a “Circular Letter” was issued by the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR, in which all government departments of the country were asked to switch to new system settlements among themselves, that is, traditional cash payments are recorded only in the “accounting books,” avoiding, if possible, cash transactions among themselves.

For the time being, V.I. Lenin still remained a realist on the issue of the abolition of money and monetary circulation within the country, so in December 1919 he suspended the introduction of a draft resolution on the destruction of banknotes throughout the country, which the delegates of the VII All-Russian Congress of Soviets were supposed to adopt. However, already in January 1920, by decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the country's only credit and emission center, the People's Bank of the RSFSR, was abolished.

According to the majority of Russian historians (G. Bordyugov, V. Buldakov, M. Gorinov, V. Kabanov, V. Kozlov, S. Pavlyuchenkov), a new major and final stage in the development of the military-communist system was the IX Congress of the RCP(b), held in March - April 1920. At this party congress, the entire top political leadership of the country quite consciously decided to continue the policy of war communism and as soon as possible build socialism in the country.

In the spirit of these decisions, in May - June 1920, almost complete naturalization of wages of the overwhelming majority of the country's workers and employees took place, which N.I. Bukharin (“Program of the Communist-Bolsheviks”) and E.A. Shefler (“Naturalization of wages”) was considered the most important condition back in 1918 “building a communist cashless economy in the country.” As a result, by the end of 1920, the natural part of the average monthly wage in the country amounted to almost 93%, and cash payments for housing, all utilities, public transport, medicines and consumer goods were completely abolished. In December 1920, the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted a number of important decrees in this regard - “On the free supply of food products to the population”, “On the free supply of consumer goods to the population”, “On the abolition of monetary payments for the use of mail, telegraph, telephone and radiotelegraph”, “On the abolition of fees for medicines dispensed from pharmacies”, etc.

Then V.I. Lenin drew up a draft resolution for the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR “On the abolition of cash taxes and the transformation of surplus appropriation into a tax in kind,” in which he directly wrote that “The transition from money to non-monetary product exchange is indisputable and is only a matter of time.”

d) Militarization of the country's national economy and the creation of labor armies

Their opponents (V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov) deny this fact and believe that the entire top political leadership, including V.I. himself, were supporters of the militarization of the country’s national economy. Lenin, as clearly evidenced by the theses of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) “On the mobilization of the industrial proletariat, labor conscription, militarization of the economy and the use of military units for economic needs,” which were published in Pravda on January 22, 1920.

These ideas contained in the theses of the Central Committee, L.D. Trotsky not only supported, but also creatively developed in his famous speech at the IX Congress of the RCP (b), held in March - April 1920. The overwhelming majority of the delegates of this party forum, despite the sharp criticism of the Trotskyist economic platform from A.I. Rykova, D.B. Ryazanova, V.P. Milyutin and V.P. Nogina, they supported her. This was not at all about temporary measures caused by the Civil War and foreign intervention, but about a long-term political course that would lead to socialism. This was clearly evidenced by all the decisions made at the congress, including its resolution “On the transition to a police system in the country.”

The process of militarization of the country's national economy, which began at the end of 1918, proceeded quite quickly, but gradually and reached its apogee only in 1920, when War Communism entered its final, “militaristic” phase.

In December 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR approved the “Code of Labor Laws,” according to which universal labor conscription was introduced throughout the country for citizens over 16 years of age.

In April 1919 they published two resolutions of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR, according to which:

a) universal labor conscription was introduced for all able-bodied citizens aged 16 to 58 years;

b) special forced labor camps were created for those workers and government employees who voluntarily switched to another job.

The strictest control over compliance with labor conscription was initially entrusted to the bodies of the Cheka (F.E. Dzerzhinsky), and then to the Main Committee for General Labor Conscription (L.D. Trotsky). In June 1919, the previously existing labor market department of the People's Commissariat of Labor was transformed into a department for accounting and distribution of labor, which eloquently spoke for itself: now a whole system of forced labor was created in the country, which became the prototype of the notorious labor armies.

In November 1919, the Council of People's Commissars and the STO of the RSFSR adopted the provisions "On Workers' Disciplinary Courts" and "On the Militarization of State Institutions and Enterprises", according to which the administration and trade union committees of factories, factories and institutions were given full right not only to dismiss workers from enterprises , but also send them to concentration labor camps. In January 1920, the Council of People's Commissars and the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopted a decree “On the procedure for universal labor service,” which provided for the involvement of all able-bodied citizens in performing various public works necessary to maintain the country's municipal and road infrastructure in proper order.

Finally, in February - March 1920, by decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) and the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR, the creation of the notorious labor armies began, the main ideologist of which was L.D. Trotsky. In his note “Immediate tasks of economic development” (February 1920), he came up with the idea of ​​​​creating provincial, district and volost labor armies, built according to the type of Arakcheevsky military settlements. Moreover, in February 1920, by the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR L.D. Trotsky was appointed chairman of the interdepartmental commission on issues of labor conscription, which included almost all the heads of the central people's commissariats and departments of the country: A.I. Rykov, M.P. Tomsky, F.E. Dzerzhinsky, V.V. Schmidt, A.D. Tsyurupa, S.P. Sereda and L.B. Krasin. A special place in the work of this commission was occupied by the issues of recruiting labor armies, which were to become the main instrument for building socialism in the country.

e) Total centralization of management of the country's national economy

In April 1918, Alexey Ivanovich Rykov became the head of the Supreme Council of the National Economy, under whose leadership its structure was finally created, which lasted throughout the entire period of war communism. Initially, the structure of the Supreme Economic Council included: the Supreme Council of Workers' Control, industry departments, a commission of economic people's commissariats and a group of economic experts, consisting mainly of bourgeois specialists. The leading element of this body was the Bureau of the Supreme Economic Council, which included all the heads of departments and the expert group, as well as representatives of the four economic people's commissariats - finance, industry and trade, agriculture and labor.

From now on The Supreme Economic Council of the RSFSR, as the main economic department of the country, coordinated and directed the work:

1) all economic people's commissariats - industry and trade (L.B. Krasin), finance (N.N. Krestinsky), agriculture (S.P. Sereda) and food (A.D. Tsyurupa);

2) special meetings on fuel and metallurgy;

3) workers' control bodies and trade unions.

Within the competence of the Supreme Economic Council and its local bodies, that is, regional, provincial and district economic councils, included:

Confiscation (free seizure), requisition (seizure at fixed prices) and sequestration (deprivation of the right to dispose) of industrial enterprises, institutions and individuals;

Carrying out forced syndication of industrial production and trade sectors that have retained their economic independence.

By the end of 1918, when the third stage of nationalization was completed, an extremely rigid system of economic management had developed in the country, which received a very capacious and precise name - “Glavkizm”. According to a number of historians (V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov), it was this “Glavkism”, which was based on the idea of ​​​​transforming state capitalism into a real mechanism for the planned management of the country’s national economy under the conditions of the state dictatorship of the proletariat, that became the apotheosis of “war communism”.

By the beginning of 1919, all industry departments, transformed into the Main Directorates of the Supreme Economic Council, endowed with economic and administrative functions, completely covered the entire range of issues related to the organization of planning, supply, distribution of orders and sales of finished products of the majority of industrial, commercial and cooperative enterprises in the country . By the summer of 1920, within the framework of the Supreme Economic Council, 49 branch departments had been created - Glavtorf, Glavtop, Glavkozha, Glavzerno, Glavstarch, Glavtrud, Glavkustprom, Tsentrokhladoboynya and others, in the depths of which there were hundreds of production and functional departments. These headquarters and their sectoral departments exercised direct control over all state-owned enterprises in the country, regulated relations with small-scale, handicraft and cooperative industries, coordinated the activities of related branches of industrial production and supply, and distributed orders and finished products. It became quite obvious that a whole series of vertical economic associations (monopolies) isolated from each other had arisen, the relationship between which depended solely on the will of the Presidium of the Supreme Economic Council and its leader. In addition, within the framework of the Supreme Economic Council itself there were many functional bodies, in particular the financial-economic, financial-accounting and scientific-technical departments, the Central Production Commission and the Bureau for the Accounting of Technical Forces, which completed the entire framework of the system of total bureaucracy that struck the country towards the end Civil War.

During the Civil War, a number of the most important functions previously belonging to the Supreme Economic Council were transferred to various emergency commissions, in particular the Extraordinary Commission for Supply of the Red Army (Chrezkomsnab), the Extraordinary Authorized Defense Council for Supply of the Red Army (Chusosnabarm), the Central Council for Military Procurement (Tsentrovoenzag), Council for the Military Industry (Promvoensovet), etc.

f) Creation of a one-party political system

According to many modern historians (W. Rosenberg, A. Rabinovich, V. Buldakov, V. Kabanov, S. Pavlyuchenkov), the term “Soviet power”, which came into historical science from the field of party propaganda, in no case can claim to adequately reflect that structure political power, which was established in the country during the Civil War era.

According to the same historians, the actual abandonment of the Soviet system of government of the country occurred in the spring of 1918, and from that time the process of creating an alternative apparatus of state power through party channels began. This process, first of all, was expressed in the widespread creation of Bolshevik party committees in all volosts, districts and provinces of the country, which, together with the committees and bodies of the Cheka, completely disorganized the activities of Soviets at all levels, turning them into appendages of party administrative authorities.

In November 1918, a timid attempt was made to restore the role of Soviet authorities in the center and locally. In particular, at the VI All-Russian Congress of Soviets, decisions were made to restore a unified system of Soviet authorities at all levels, to strictly observe and strictly implement all decrees issued by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR, which in March 1919, after the death of Ya.M. Sverdlov was headed by Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, but these good wishes remained on paper.

In connection with the assumption of the functions of the highest state administration of the country, the Central Committee of the RCP (b) itself is being transformed. In March 1919, by decision of the VIII Congress of the RCP (b) and in pursuance of its resolution “On the organizational issue,” several permanent working bodies were created within the Central Committee, which V.I. Lenin in his famous work “The Infantile Disease of “Leftism” in Communism” called the real party oligarchy - the Political Bureau, the Organizational Bureau and the Secretariat of the Central Committee. At the organizational Plenum of the Central Committee, which took place on March 25, 1919, the personal composition of these highest party bodies was approved for the first time. Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee, which was charged with the right “make decisions on all urgent matters” included five members - V.I. Lenin, L.D. Trotsky, I.V. Stalin, L.B. Kamenev and N.N. Krestinsky and three candidate members - G.E. Zinoviev, N.I. Bukharin and M.I. Kalinin. Member of the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee, which was supposed to “to direct all organizational work of the party”, five members also included - I.V. Stalin, N.N. Krestinsky, L.P. Serebryakov, A.G. Beloborodov and E.D. Stasova and one candidate member - M.K. Muranov. The Secretariat of the Central Committee, which at that time was responsible for all the technical preparation of the meetings of the Politburo and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee, included one executive secretary of the Central Committee, E.D. Stasov and five technical secretaries from among experienced party workers.

After the appointment of I.V. Stalin as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), it is these party bodies, especially the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee, that will become the real bodies of the highest state power in the country, which will retain their enormous powers until the XIX Party Conference (1988) and the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU (1990).

At the end of 1919, broad opposition to administrative centralism also arose within the party itself, led by the “decists” led by T.V. Sapronov. At the VIII Conference of the RCP(b), held in December 1919, he spoke with the so-called platform of “democratic centralism” against the official party platform, which was represented by M.F. Vladimirsky and N.N. Krestinsky. The “decists” platform, which was actively supported by the majority of delegates at the party conference, provided for a partial return to the Soviet government agencies real power at the local level and limiting arbitrariness on the part of party committees at all levels and central government agencies and departments of the country. This platform was also supported at the VII All-Russian Congress of Soviets (December 1919), where the main struggle unfolded against supporters of “bureaucratic centralism.” In accordance with the decisions of the congress, the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee tried to become a real body of state power in the country and at the end of December 1919 created a number of working commissions to develop the foundations of a new economic policy, one of which was headed by N.I. Bukharin. However, already in mid-January 1920, at his suggestion, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) proposed to the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to abolish this commission and henceforth not to show unnecessary independence in these matters, but to coordinate them with the Central Committee. Thus, the course of the VII All-Russian Congress of Soviets to revive the organs of Soviet power in the center and locally was a complete fiasco.

According to the majority of modern historians (G. Bordyugov, V. Kozlov, A. Sokolov, N. Simonov), by the end of the Civil War, the bodies of Soviet power were not only affected by the diseases of bureaucracy, but actually ceased to exist as a system of state power in the country. The documents of the VIII All-Russian Congress of Soviets (December 1920) directly stated that the Soviet system is degrading into a purely bureaucratic, apparatus structure, when the real bodies of local power are not the Soviets, but their executive committees and presidiums of executive committees, in which the main role is played by party secretaries, who have fully assumed the functions of local bodies of Soviet power. It is no coincidence that already in the summer of 1921, in his famous work “On the Political Strategy and Tactics of Russian Communists,” I.V. Stalin wrote extremely frankly that the Bolshevik Party is the very “Order of the Sword Bearers” that “inspires and directs the activities of all bodies of the Soviet state in the center and locally.”

3. Anti-Bolshevik uprisings of 1920–1921.

The policy of war communism became the cause of a huge number of peasant uprisings and rebellions, among which the following were particularly widespread:

An uprising of the peasants of the Tambov and Voronezh provinces, which was led by the former chief of the Kirsanov district police, Alexander Sergeevich Antonov. In November 1920, under his leadership, the Tambov partisan army was created, the number of which amounted to more than 50 thousand people. In November 1920 - April 1921, units of the regular army, police and the Cheka were unable to destroy this powerful center of popular resistance. Then, at the end of April 1921, by decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee, the “Plenipotentiary Commission of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to combat banditry in the Tambov province” was created, headed by V.A. Antonov-Ovseenko and the new commander of the Tambov Military District, M.N. Tukhachevsky, who particularly distinguished himself during the suppression of the Kronstadt rebellion. In May - July 1921, units and formations of the Red Army, using all means, including mass terror, the institution of hostages and poisonous gases, literally drowned the Tambov popular uprising in blood, destroying several tens of thousands of Voronezh and Tambov peasants.

An uprising of the peasants of the Southern and Left Bank of New Russia, which was led by the ideological anarchist Nestor Ivanovich Makhno. In February 1921, by decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b)U, the “Permanent Conference on Combating Banditry” was created, headed by the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR Kh.G. Rakovsky, who entrusted the defeat of the troops of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army to N.I. Makhno on the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Soviet troops M.V. Frunze. In May - August 1921 units and formations Soviet army in the most difficult bloody battles they crushed the peasant uprising in Ukraine and destroyed one of the most dangerous centers of the new Civil War in the country.

But, of course, the most dangerous and significant signal for the Bolsheviks was the famous Kronstadt rebellion. The background to these dramatic events was as follows: at the beginning of February 1921, in the northern capital, where mass protests by workers of the largest St. Petersburg enterprises (Putilovsky, Nevsky and Sestroretsky factories) closed by decision of the Soviet government took place, martial law was introduced and a city Defense Committee was created, which was headed by the leader of St. Petersburg communists G.E. Zinoviev. In response to this government decision, on February 28, 1921, sailors of two battleships The Baltic Fleet "Petropavlovsk" and "Sevastopol" adopted a tough petition in which they opposed the Bolshevik omnipotence in the Soviets and for the revival of the bright ideals of October, desecrated by the Bolsheviks.

On March 1, 1921, during a meeting of thousands of soldiers and sailors of the Kronstadt naval garrison, it was decided to create a Provisional Revolutionary Committee, headed by Sergei Mikhailovich Petrichenko and the former tsarist general Arseniy Romanovich Kozlovsky. All attempts by the head of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee to reason with the rebellious sailors were unsuccessful, and the All-Russian headman M.I. Kalinin went home “without a sip.”

In this situation, units of the 7th Army of the Red Army, led by the favorite L.D., were urgently transferred to Petrograd. Trotsky and the future Soviet Marshal M.N. Tukhachevsky. On March 8 and 17, 1921, during two bloody assaults, the Kronstadt Fortress was taken: some of the participants in this rebellion managed to retreat to the territory of Finland, but a significant part of the rebels were arrested. Most of them met a tragic fate: 6,500 sailors were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, and more than 2,000 rebels were executed by verdicts of the revolutionary tribunals.

In Soviet historiography (O. Leonidov, S. Semanov, Yu. Shchetinov), the Kronstadt rebellion was traditionally regarded as an “anti-Soviet conspiracy”, which was inspired by “the undead White Guard and agents of foreign intelligence services.”

At the moment, such assessments of the Kronstadt events are a thing of the past, and most modern authors (A. Novikov, P. Evrich) say that the uprising of the combat units of the Red Army was caused by purely objective reasons for the economic state of the country in which it found itself after the end of the Civil War and foreign intervention.

Prodrazvyorstka
Diplomatic isolation of the Soviet government
Russian Civil War
The collapse of the Russian Empire and the formation of the USSR
War communism Institutions and organizations Armed formations Events February - October 1917:

After October 1917:

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War communism- the name of the internal policy of the Soviet state, carried out in 1918 - 1921. in conditions of the Civil War. Its characteristic features were extreme centralization of economic management, nationalization of large, medium and even small industry (partially), state monopoly on many agricultural products, surplus appropriation, prohibition of private trade, curtailment of commodity-money relations, equalization in the distribution of material goods, militarization of labor. This policy was consistent with the principles on which Marxists believed a communist society would emerge. In historiography there are different opinions on the question of the reasons for the transition to such a policy - some historians believed that it was an attempt to “introduce communism” using a command method, others explained it by the reaction of the Bolshevik leadership to the realities of the Civil War. The same contradictory assessments were given to this policy by the leaders of the Bolshevik Party themselves, who led the country during the Civil War. The decision to end war communism and transition to the NEP was made on March 15, 1921 at the X Congress of the RCP(b).

Basic elements of "war communism"

Liquidation of private banks and confiscation of deposits

One of the first actions of the Bolsheviks during the October Revolution was the armed seizure of the State Bank. The buildings of private banks were also seized. On December 8, 1917, the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On the abolition of the Noble Land Bank and the Peasant Land Bank" was adopted. By the decree “on the nationalization of banks” of December 14 (27), 1917, banking was declared a state monopoly. The nationalization of banks in December 1917 was reinforced by the confiscation of public funds. All gold and silver in coins and bars, and paper money were confiscated if they exceeded the amount of 5,000 rubles and were acquired “unearnedly.” For small deposits that remained unconfiscated, the norm for receiving money from accounts was set at no more than 500 rubles per month, so that the non-confiscated balance was quickly eaten up by inflation.

Nationalization of industry

Already in June-July 1917, “capital flight” began from Russia. The first to flee were foreign entrepreneurs who were looking for cheap labor in Russia: after the February Revolution, the establishment of an 8-hour working day, the struggle for higher wages, and legalized strikes deprived entrepreneurs of their excess profits. The constantly unstable situation prompted many domestic industrialists to flee. But thoughts about the nationalization of a number of enterprises visited the completely left-wing Minister of Trade and Industry A.I. Konovalov even earlier, in May, and for other reasons: constant conflicts between industrialists and workers, which caused strikes on the one hand and lockouts on the other, disorganized the already economy damaged by the war.

The Bolsheviks faced the same problems after the October Revolution. The first decrees of the Soviet government did not envisage any transfer of “factories to workers,” as eloquently evidenced by the Regulations on Workers’ Control approved by the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars on November 14 (27), 1917, which specifically stipulated the rights of entrepreneurs. However, the new government also faced questions: what to do with abandoned enterprises and how to prevent lockouts and other forms of sabotage?

What began as the adoption of ownerless enterprises, nationalization later turned into a measure to combat counter-revolution. Later, at the XI Congress of the RCP(b), L. D. Trotsky recalled:

...In Petrograd, and then in Moscow, where this wave of nationalization rushed, delegations from Ural factories came to us. My heart ached: “What will we do? “We’ll take it, but what will we do?” But from conversations with these delegations it became clear that military measures are absolutely necessary. After all, the director of a factory with all his apparatus, connections, office and correspondence is a real cell at this or that Ural, or St. Petersburg, or Moscow plant - a cell of that very counter-revolution - an economic cell, strong, solid, which is armed in hand is fighting against us. Therefore, this measure was a politically necessary measure of self-preservation. We could move on to a more correct account of what we can organize and begin economic struggle only after we had secured for ourselves not an absolute, but at least a relative possibility of this economic work. From an abstract economic point of view, we can say that our policy was wrong. But if you put it in the world situation and in the situation of our situation, then it was, from the political and military point of view in the broad sense of the word, absolutely necessary.

The first to be nationalized on November 17 (30), 1917 was the factory of the Likinsky Manufactory Partnership of A. V. Smirnov (Vladimir Province). In total, from November 1917 to March 1918, according to the 1918 industrial and professional census, 836 industrial enterprises were nationalized. On May 2, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars adopted a decree on the Nationalization of the sugar industry, and on June 20 - the oil industry. By the fall of 1918, 9,542 enterprises were concentrated in the hands of the Soviet state. All large capitalist property in the means of production was nationalized by the method of gratuitous confiscation. By April 1919, almost all large enterprises (with more than 30 employees) were nationalized. By the beginning of 1920, medium-sized industry was also largely nationalized. Strict centralized production management was introduced. It was created to manage the nationalized industry.

Monopoly of foreign trade

At the end of December 1917, foreign trade was brought under the control of the People's Commissariat of Trade and Industry, and in April 1918 it was declared a state monopoly. The merchant fleet was nationalized. The decree on the nationalization of the fleet declared shipping enterprises belonging to joint stock companies, mutual partnerships, trading houses and individual large entrepreneurs owning sea and river vessels of all types.

Forced labor service

Compulsory labor conscription was introduced, initially for the "non-labor classes". The Labor Code (LC) adopted on December 10, 1918 established labor service for all citizens of the RSFSR. Decrees adopted by the Council of People's Commissars on April 12, 1919 and April 27, 1920 prohibited unauthorized transfers to new jobs and absenteeism, and established strict labor discipline at enterprises. The system of unpaid voluntary-forced labor on weekends and holidays in the form of “subbotniks” and “resurrections” has also become widespread.

However, Trotsky’s proposal to the Central Committee received only 4 votes against 11, the majority led by Lenin was not ready for a change in policy, and the IX Congress of the RCP (b) adopted a course towards “militarization of the economy.”

Food dictatorship

The Bolsheviks continued the grain monopoly proposed by the Provisional Government and the surplus appropriation system introduced by the Tsarist Government. On May 9, 1918, a Decree was issued confirming the state monopoly of grain trade (introduced by the provisional government) and prohibiting private trade in bread. On May 13, 1918, the decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars “On granting the People's Commissar of Food emergency powers to combat the rural bourgeoisie harboring and speculating on grain reserves” established the basic provisions of the food dictatorship. The goal of the food dictatorship was to centralize the procurement and distribution of food, suppress the resistance of the kulaks and combat baggage. The People's Commissariat for Food received unlimited powers in the procurement of food products. Based on the decree of May 13, 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee established per capita consumption standards for peasants - 12 poods of grain, 1 pood of cereals, etc. - similar to the standards introduced by the Provisional Government in 1917. All grain exceeding these standards was to be transferred to the disposal of the state at prices set by it. In connection with the introduction of the food dictatorship in May-June 1918, the Food Requisition Army of the People's Commissariat of Food of the RSFSR (Prodarmiya) was created, consisting of armed food detachments. To manage the Food Army, on May 20, 1918, the Office of the Chief Commissar and Military Leader of all food detachments was created under the People's Commissariat of Food. To accomplish this task, armed food detachments were created, endowed with emergency powers.

V.I. Lenin explained the existence of surplus appropriation and the reasons for abandoning it:

Tax in kind is one of the forms of transition from a kind of “war communism”, forced by extreme poverty, ruin and war, to correct socialist product exchange. And this latter, in turn, is one of the forms of transition from socialism with features caused by the predominance of the small peasantry in the population to communism.

A kind of “war communism” consisted in the fact that we actually took from the peasants all the surplus, and sometimes not even the surplus, but part of the food necessary for the peasant, and took it to cover the costs of the army and the maintenance of the workers. They mostly took it on credit, using paper money. Otherwise, we could not defeat the landowners and capitalists in a ruined small-peasant country... But it is no less necessary to know the real measure of this merit. “War communism” was forced by war and ruin. It was not and could not be a policy that corresponded to the economic tasks of the proletariat. It was a temporary measure. The correct policy of the proletariat, exercising its dictatorship in a small-peasant country, is the exchange of grain for industrial products needed by the peasant. Only such a food policy meets the tasks of the proletariat, only it is capable of strengthening the foundations of socialism and leading to its complete victory.

Tax in kind is a transition to it. We are still so ruined, so oppressed by the oppression of the war (which happened yesterday and could break out thanks to the greed and malice of the capitalists tomorrow) that we cannot give the peasants industrial products for all the grain we need. Knowing this, we introduce a tax in kind, i.e. the minimum necessary (for the army and for workers).

On July 27, 1918, the People's Commissariat for Food adopted a special resolution on the introduction of a universal class food ration, divided into four categories, providing for measures to account for stocks and distribute food. At first, the class ration was valid only in Petrograd, from September 1, 1918 - in Moscow - and then it was extended to the provinces.

Those supplied were divided into 4 categories (later into 3): 1) all workers working in particularly difficult conditions; breastfeeding mothers up to the 1st year of the child and wet nurses; pregnant women from the 5th month 2) all those working in heavy work, but in normal (not harmful) conditions; women - housewives with a family of at least 4 people and children from 3 to 14 years old; disabled people of the 1st category - dependents 3) all workers engaged in light work; women housewives with a family of up to 3 people; children under 3 years old and adolescents 14-17 years old; all students over 14 years of age; unemployed people registered at the labor exchange; pensioners, war and labor invalids and other disabled people of the 1st and 2nd categories as dependents 4) all male and female persons receiving income from the hired labor of others; persons of liberal professions and their families who are not in public service; persons of unspecified occupation and all other population not named above.

The volume of dispensed was correlated across groups as 4:3:2:1. In the first place, products in the first two categories were simultaneously issued, in the second - in the third. The 4th was issued as the demand of the first 3 was met. With the introduction of class cards, any others were abolished (the card system was in effect from mid-1915).

• Prohibition of private entrepreneurship.

• Elimination of commodity-money relations and transition to direct commodity exchange regulated by the state. The death of money.

• Paramilitary management of railways.

Since all these measures were taken during the Civil War, in practice they were much less coordinated and coordinated than planned on paper. Large areas of Russia were beyond the control of the Bolsheviks, and the lack of communications meant that even regions formally subordinate to the Soviet government often had to act independently, in the absence of centralized control from Moscow. The question still remains whether War Communism was an economic policy in the full sense of the word, or just a set of disparate measures taken to win the civil war at any cost.

Results and assessment of war communism

The key economic body of War Communism was the Supreme Council of the National Economy, created according to the project of Yuri Larin, as the central administrative planning body of the economy. According to his own recollections, Larin designed the main directorates (headquarters) of the Supreme Economic Council on the model of the German “Kriegsgesellschaften” (centers for regulating industry in wartime).

The Bolsheviks declared “workers’ control” to be the alpha and omega of the new economic order: “the proletariat itself takes matters into its own hands.” "Workers' control" very soon revealed its true nature. These words always sounded like the beginning of the death of the enterprise. All discipline was immediately destroyed. Power in factories and factories passed to rapidly changing committees, virtually responsible to no one for anything. Knowledgeable, honest workers were expelled and even killed. Labor productivity decreased in inverse proportion to the increase in wages. The attitude was often expressed in dizzying numbers: fees increased, but productivity dropped by 500-800 percent. Enterprises continued to exist only because either the state, which owned the printing press, took in workers to support it, or the workers sold and ate up the fixed assets of the enterprises. According to Marxist teaching, the socialist revolution will be caused by the fact that the productive forces will outgrow the forms of production and, under new socialist forms, will have the opportunity for further progressive development, etc., etc. Experience has revealed the falsity of these stories. Under “socialist” orders there was an extreme decline in labor productivity. Our productive forces under “socialism” regressed to the times of Peter’s serf factories. Democratic self-government has completely destroyed our railways. With an income of 1½ billion rubles, the railways had to pay about 8 billion for the maintenance of workers and employees alone. Wanting to seize the financial power of “bourgeois society” into their own hands, the Bolsheviks “nationalized” all banks in a Red Guard raid. In reality, they only acquired those few measly millions that they managed to seize in the safes. But they destroyed credit and deprived industrial enterprises of all funds. To ensure that hundreds of thousands of workers were not left without income, the Bolsheviks had to open for them the cash desk of the State Bank, which was intensively replenished by the unrestrained printing of paper money.

Instead of the unprecedented growth in labor productivity expected by the architects of war communism, the result was not an increase, but, on the contrary, a sharp decline: in 1920, labor productivity decreased, including due to mass 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 dropped to 2680, which was no longer enough for hard physical labor.

By 1921, industrial output had decreased threefold, and the number of industrial workers had halved. At the same time, the staff of the Supreme Council of National Economy increased approximately a hundredfold, from 318 people to 30 thousand; 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 to manage only one plant with 150 workers.

The situation in Petrograd became especially difficult, whose population decreased from 2 million 347 thousand people during the Civil War. to 799 thousand, the number of workers decreased five times.

The decline in agriculture was just as sharp. Due to the complete disinterest of peasants in increasing crops under the conditions of “war communism,” grain production in 1920 fell by half compared to pre-war. According to Richard Pipes,

In such a situation, it was enough for the weather to deteriorate for famine to occur in the country. Under communist rule, there was no surplus in agriculture, so if there was a crop failure, there would be nothing to deal with its consequences.

To organize the food appropriation system, the Bolsheviks organized another greatly expanded body - the People's Commissariat for Food, headed by A. D. Tsyuryupa. Despite the state's efforts to establish food supply, a massive famine began in 1921-1922, during which up to 5 million people died. The policy of “war communism” (especially the surplus appropriation system) caused discontent among broad sections of the population, especially the peasantry (uprising in the Tambov region, Western Siberia, Kronstadt and others). By the end of 1920, an almost continuous belt of peasant uprisings (“green flood”) appeared in Russia, aggravated by huge masses of deserters and the beginning of mass demobilization of the Red Army.

The difficult situation in industry and agriculture was aggravated by the final collapse of transport. The share of so-called “sick” steam locomotives went from pre-war 13% to 61% in 1921; transport was approaching the threshold, after which there would only be enough capacity to service its own needs. In addition, firewood was used as fuel for steam locomotives, which was extremely reluctantly collected by peasants as part of their labor service.

The experiment to organize labor armies in 1920-1921 also completely failed. The First Labor Army demonstrated, in the words of the chairman of its council (President of the Labor Army - 1) Trotsky L.D., “monstrous” (monstrously low) labor productivity. Only 10 - 25% of its personnel were engaged in labor activity as such, and 14% did not leave the barracks at all due to torn clothes and lack of shoes. Mass desertion from the labor armies was widespread, which in the spring of 1921 was completely out of control.

In March 1921, at the X Congress of the RCP(b), the objectives of the policy of “war communism” were recognized by the country’s leadership as completed and a new economic policy was introduced. V.I. Lenin wrote: “War communism was forced by war and ruin. It was not and could not be a policy that corresponded to the economic tasks of the proletariat. It was a temporary measure." (Complete collected works, 5th ed., vol. 43, p. 220). Lenin also argued that “war communism” should be given to the Bolsheviks not as a fault, but as a merit, but at the same time it is necessary to know the extent of this merit.

In culture

• Life in Petrograd during the war communism is described in Ayn Rand's novel We Are the Living.

Notes

1. Terra, 2008. - T. 1. - P. 301. - 560 p. - (Big Encyclopedia). - 100,000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-273-00561-7
2. See, for example: V. Chernov. The Great Russian Revolution. M., 2007
3. V. Chernov. The Great Russian Revolution. pp. 203-207
4. Regulations of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Council of People's Commissars on workers' control.
5. Eleventh Congress of the RCP(b). M., 1961. P. 129
6. Labor Code of 1918 // Appendix from the textbook by I. Ya. Kiselev “Labor Law of Russia. Historical and legal research" (Moscow, 2001)
7. The Memo Order for the 3rd Red Army - 1st Revolutionary Army of Labor, in particular, said: “1. The 3rd Army completed its combat mission. But the enemy has not yet been completely broken on all fronts. Predatory imperialists also threaten Siberia from the Far East. The Entente's mercenary troops also threaten Soviet Russia from the west. There are still White Guard gangs in Arkhangelsk. The Caucasus has not yet been liberated. Therefore, the 3rd revolutionary army remains under the bayonet, maintaining its organization, its internal cohesion, its fighting spirit - in case the socialist fatherland calls it to new combat missions. 2. But, imbued with a sense of duty, the 3rd revolutionary army does not want to waste time. During those weeks and months of respite that fell to her lot, she would use her strength and means for the economic upliftment of the country. While remaining a fighting force threatening the enemies of the working class, it at the same time turns into a revolutionary army of labor. 3. The Revolutionary Military Council of the 3rd Army is part of the Council of the Labor Army. There, along with members of the revolutionary military council, there will be representatives of the main economic institutions of the Soviet Republic. They will provide the necessary leadership in various fields of economic activity.” For the full text of the Order, see: Order-memo for the 3rd Red Army - 1st Revolutionary Army of Labor
8. In January 1920, in the pre-congress discussion, “Theses of the Central Committee of the RCP on the mobilization of the industrial proletariat, labor conscription, militarization of the economy and the use of military units for economic needs” were published, paragraph 28 of which stated: “As one of the transitional forms to the implementation of a general labor conscription and the widest use of socialized labor, military units released from combat missions, up to large army formations, should be used for labor purposes. This is the meaning of turning the Third Army into the First Army of Labor and transferring this experience to other armies" (see IX Congress of the RCP (b). Verbatim report. Moscow, 1934. P. 529)
9. L. D. Trotsky Basic issues of food and land policy: “In the same February 1920, L. D. Trotsky submitted to the Central Committee of the RCP (b) proposals to replace surplus appropriation with a tax in kind, which actually led to the abandonment of the policy of “war communism” “. These proposals were the results of practical acquaintance with the situation and mood of the village in the Urals, where in January - February Trotsky found himself as chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic."
10. V. Danilov, S. Esikov, V. Kanishchev, L. Protasov. Introduction // Peasant uprising of the Tambov province in 1919-1921 “Antonovshchina”: Documents and materials / Responsible. Ed. V. Danilov and T. Shanin. - Tambov, 1994: It was proposed to overcome the process of “economic degradation”: 1) “by replacing the withdrawal of surpluses with a known percentage deduction (a kind of income tax in kind), so that larger plowing or better processing was still beneficial,” and 2) “establishing greater correspondence between the distribution of industrial products to peasants and the amount of grain they poured not only into volosts and villages, but also into peasant households.” As you know, this is where the New Economic Policy began in the spring of 1921.”
11. See X Congress of the RCP(b). Verbatim report. Moscow, 1963. P. 350; XI Congress of the RCP(b). Verbatim report. Moscow, 1961. P. 270
12. See X Congress of the RCP(b). Verbatim report. Moscow, 1963. P. 350; V. Danilov, S. Esikov, V. Kanishchev, L. Protasov. Introduction // Peasant uprising of the Tambov province in 1919-1921 “Antonovshchina”: Documents and materials / Responsible. Ed. V. Danilov and T. Shanin. - Tambov, 1994: “After the defeat of the main forces of counter-revolution in the East and South of Russia, after the liberation of almost the entire territory of the country, a change in food policy became possible, and due to the nature of relations with the peasantry, necessary. Unfortunately, L. D. Trotsky’s proposals to the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) were rejected. The delay in canceling the surplus appropriation system for a whole year had tragic consequences; Antonovism as a massive social explosion might not have happened.”
13. See IX Congress of the RCP(b). Verbatim report. Moscow, 1934. Based on the report of the Central Committee on economic construction (p. 98), the congress adopted a resolution “On the immediate tasks of economic construction” (p. 424), paragraph 1.1 of which, in particular, said: “Approving the theses of the Central Committee of the RCP on the mobilization of industrial proletariat, labor conscription, militarization of the economy and the use of military units for economic needs, the congress decides...” (p. 427)
14. Kondratyev N.D. The grain market and its regulation during the war and revolution. - M.: Nauka, 1991. - 487 pp.: 1 l. portrait, ill., table
15. A.S. Outcasts. SOCIALISM, CULTURE AND BOLSHEVISM

Literature

• Revolution and civil war in Russia: 1917-1923. Encyclopedia in 4 volumes. - Moscow:

The policy of war communism was based on the task of destroying market and commodity-money relations (i.e. private property), replacing them with centralized production and distribution.

To carry out this plan, a system was needed that was capable of bringing the will of the center to the most remote corners of the huge power. In this system, everything must be registered 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; 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 number of emergency measures, defined as war communism.

In the Soviet version, it included surplus appropriation (private trade in grain was prohibited, surpluses and reserves were forcibly confiscated), the beginning of the creation of collective 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 became state property. Subsequently, a chaotic nationalization of small industrial enterprises and then entire industries was carried out.

Although in tsarist Russia the share of state (state) property was always traditionally large, the centralization of production and distribution was quite 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 protests.

The Bolsheviks had to create a political-economic system that could give workers minimal opportunities for living and at the same time would 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. Subsequently, communism was identified with centralization.

Despite the “Decree on Land” (the land was transferred to the peasants), the land received by the peasants during the Stolypin reform was nationalized.

The actual nationalization of land and the introduction of equalized land use, the ban on renting and buying land and expanding arable land led to a terrifying drop in the level of agricultural production. The result was a famine that 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 to a one-party system was carried out.

The Bolsheviks' scientific justification 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 party leaders.

Its essence lay in consistent destruction according to the principle “those who are not with us are against us.” The list included the intelligentsia, officers, nobles, priests, and wealthy peasants.

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 and destroy opponents and those who showed dissatisfaction.

The policy of war communism aggravated economic devastation and led to the unjustified death of a huge number of innocent people.

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 during the Civil War. Its characteristic features were extreme centralization of economic management (Glavkism), nationalization of large, medium, and partly small industry, state monopoly on bread and many other agricultural products, surplus appropriation, prohibition of private trade, curtailment of commodity-money relations, introduction of distribution of material goods based on equalization, militarization of labor. These features of economic policy corresponded to the principles on the basis of which, according to Marxists, a communist society should arise. During the civil war, all these “communist” principles were instilled by the Soviet government using administrative and order methods. Hence the name of this period, which appeared after the end of the civil war - “war communism”.

The policy of “war communism” was aimed at overcoming the economic crisis and was based on theoretical ideas about the possibility of directly introducing communism.

In historiography there are different opinions on the issue of the need to transition to this policy. Some authors assess this transition as an attempt to immediately and directly “introduce” communism, 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 all economic issues to be resolved from the point of view of the requirements of the front.

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

Explaining the need for “war communism,” Lenin said in 1921: “we then had only one calculation - to defeat the enemy.” Trotsky in the early 20s also stated that all the components of “war communism” were determined by the need to defend Soviet power, but he did not ignore the question of the existing illusions associated with the prospects of “war communism”. In 1923, answering the question whether the Bolsheviks hoped to move from “war communism” to socialism “without major economic changes, shocks and retreats, i.e. along a more or less ascending line,” Trotsky argued: “yes, at that period we really firmly believed that 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. The essence and main elements of War Communism

During the years of “war communism,” the apparatus of the Communist Party merged with 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 on behalf of the proletariat, which in reality was separated from power and property, which, as a result of the nationalization of large, medium and partly small industry, became 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 created well-functioning mechanism of control and coercion, merciless in achieving its goals, helped the Bolsheviks win the civil war

Centralization of management of nationalized industry. Private property was eliminated altogether, and a state monopoly of foreign trade was established. A strict sectoral industrial management system 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 workers, but to communes, state farms, and labor artels. An individual peasant could only use the remnants of the land fund.

Equalization distribution

Naturalization of wages. The Bolsheviks viewed socialism as a commodity-free and moneyless society. This led to the abolition of the market and commodity-money relations. All non-state trade was prohibited. The policy of “war communism” led to the destruction of commodity-money relations. Food and manufactured goods were distributed by the state in the form of natural rations, which varied among different categories of the population. Equal wages among workers were introduced (the 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 the orderly confiscation of grain. The state determined the norms for the supply of agricultural products to the village without taking into account the capabilities of the village. From the beginning of 1919, the surplus appropriation system was introduced for bread, in 1920 - for potatoes, vegetables, etc. The surplus appropriation system was implemented by violent methods with the help of food detachments.

3. Creation of the Red Army.

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

volunteer soldiers and chosen commanders. But with the growth of opposition and the beginning of foreign intervention, the government was forced on June 9, 1918 to announce mandatory military service. In connection with large desertions, the chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council, Trotsky, established strict discipline and introduced a hostage system, 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 supply commissioner was responsible for the equipment

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

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

In the army, first of all, millions of peasants were taught to read, they were also taught to “think correctly” and to assimilate the foundations of a new ideology. Service in the Red Army was one of the main ways to move up the social ladder and provided the opportunity to join the Komsomol and the party. Most of the army party members then joined 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 withdrew from the control of the Bolsheviks: Ukraine, the Baltic states, the Volga region, and Western Siberia. Economic ties between city and countryside have long been severed. Strikes and lockouts of entrepreneurs completed the decomposition of the economy. Having finally abandoned the experience of workers' self-government, which was doomed to failure in the conditions of 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 that we decided to make a direct transition to communist production and distribution.” That “communism,” which, according to Marx, should have quickly led to the disappearance of the state, on the contrary, amazingly hypertrophied state control over all spheres of the economy.

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

commissariat for food. In it, the state proclaimed itself the main distributor. In an economy where distribution links have been undermined, it is vital important issue became the provision of supplies and distribution of products, primarily grain. The Bolsheviks chose the second of two options - restoring some semblance of a market or coercive measures - because they assumed that strengthening the class struggle in the countryside would solve the problem of supplying food to 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 confiscate surplus production from wealthy peasants. In order to “stimulate” poor peasants, it was assumed that part of the confiscated products would go to members of these committees. Their actions must be supported by units of the “food army.” The number of prodarmiya increased from 12 thousand in 1918 to 80 thousand people. Of these, a good half were workers from standing Petrograd factories, who were “lured” by payment in kind in proportion to the amount of confiscated products.

The creation of the Pobedy Committees testified to the complete ignorance of the Bolsheviks

peasant psychology, in which the main role was played by the communal and egalitarian principle. The food appropriation campaign in the summer of 1918 ended in failure. However, the surplus appropriation policy continued until the spring of 1921. On January 1, 1919, the chaotic search for surpluses was replaced by a centralized and planned system of surplus appropriation. 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 did the authorities issue receipts giving the right to purchase industrial goods, in limited quantities and assortments, mainly essential goods. There was a particularly significant shortage of agricultural equipment. As a result, peasants reduced their acreage 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 lack of equipment, the effectiveness of collective farms was low.

Due to a lack of food, the rationing food distribution system did not satisfy the townspeople. Even the wealthiest received only a quarter of the required ration. In addition to being unfair, the distribution system was also confusing. In such conditions, the “black market” flourished. The government tried in vain to legislatively combat bag smugglers. Production discipline fell: workers returned to the village whenever possible. The government introduced the famous subbotniks, work books, and universal labor obligations; labor armies were created in areas of military operations.

5. Establishment of a political dictatorship

The years of “war communism” became a period of establishment of a political dictatorship, which completed a two-pronged process that lasted for many years: the destruction or subordination 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, leaders of opposition parties were arrested, who were then outlawed, independent institutions were constantly monitored and gradually destroyed, the terror of the Cheka intensified, and the “rebellious” Soviets were forcibly dissolved (in Luga and Kronstadt). “Power from below,” that is, “the power of the Soviets, which gained strength from February to October 1917, through various decentralized institutions created as a potential “opposition to power,” began to turn into “power from above,” arrogating to itself all possible powers using bureaucratic measures and resorting to violence. (Thus, power transferred from society to the state, and in the state to the Bolshevik Party, which monopolized the executive and legislative powers.) The autonomy and powers of factory committees came under the tutelage of trade unions. The trade unions, in turn, a significant part of which did not submit to the Bolsheviks, were either dissolved on charges of “counter-revolution”, or tamed to play the role of a “drive belt”. At the first trade union congress in January 1918, the independence of the factory committees was lost. Since the new regime “expressed the interests of the working class,” 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 placed them under direct control: within the trade unions, the Communists were to unite into cells reporting directly to the party.

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

The Left Socialist Revolutionaries, 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 coup attempt on July 6-7, 1918, which ended in failure, the Bolsheviks removed the left Socialist Revolutionaries from those bodies (for example, from the rural 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, under the leadership of Dan and Martov, tried to organize themselves into a legal opposition within the framework of the rule of law. If in October 1917 the influence of the Mensheviks was insignificant, then by mid-1918 it increased incredibly among the workers, and at the beginning of 1921 - in the trade unions, thanks to the propaganda of measures to liberalize the economy, later reworked by Lenin into the principles of the NEP. Since the summer of 1918, the Mensheviks began to be gradually removed from the Soviets, and in February - March 1921, the Bolsheviks made 2 thousand 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 under Makhno's leadership resisted until 1921.

Created on December 7, 1917, the Cheka was conceived as an investigative body, but local Chekas quickly took it upon themselves 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 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 a wide variety of forms with extraordinary dexterity. Foreign intervention allowed the Bolsheviks to present themselves as defenders of the Motherland.

Results

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

Under these conditions, any attempt to impede party control over social and political development was regarded as sabotage. Destroying parties, independent trade unions, subjugating government bodies, the Bolsheviks always chose violence and 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 big casualties and violence.

The struggle for survival placed a heavy burden on the peasantry, and the terror caused protest and discontent among the common masses. Even the avant-garde October revolution- sailors and workers of Kronstadt, - and they rebelled in 1921. The experiment of “war communism” led to an unprecedented decline in production.

Nationalized enterprises were not subject to any government control.

The “coarsening” of the economy and command methods had no effect.

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

A crisis was brewing in the national economy, the need for a quick solution to which was demonstrated by growing uprisings.

The policy of “war communism” caused mass discontent among broad sections of the population, especially the peasantry (mass uprisings in late 1920 - early 1921 in the Tambov region, 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 decreased by 7 times compared to 1913, only 30% of coal was mined, the volume of railway transportation 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 deprived of blood and declassed. A significant part of it, abandoning shutdown enterprises, went to the villages to escape hunger. Discontent with “war communism” gripped the working class and peasantry, who felt deceived by the Soviet regime. Having received additional plots of land after the October Revolution, during the years of “war communism”, peasants were forced to give the state the grain they grew almost without compensation. 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 - NEP.

List of used literature

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

Vert N. 2nd ed. - M.: Progress Academy, Whole World, 1996.

2. Russian history

Moscow 1995

3. Encyclopedia Cyril and Methodius.

JSC "New Disk", 2003

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How the policy of war communism was carried out: briefly about the reasons, goals and results. Many people know about this only in general terms.

But what exactly were the first transformations of the Bolsheviks?

The essence of the policy of war communism

The policy of war communism is measures taken in the period 1918-1920 and aimed at restructuring in politics, economics and the social sphere.

What was the essence of this policy:

1. Providing the army and population with food.
2. General strict labor conscription.
3. Issuance of goods by cards.
4. Food procurement.
5. Curtailment of commodity-money relations. Introduction of natural exchange.

The Bolsheviks also pursued the goal of making power as centralized as possible and managing the national economy.

Reasons for the introduction of War Communism

The main reason was the state of emergency during the war and popular unrest. The military situation in the country is always characterized by special development.

Production decreases and consumption increases, a significant part of the budget goes to military needs. Similar situation requires taking decisive action.

Other reasons:

• non-acceptance of Soviet power by part of the country, requiring punitive measures;
• based on the previous point, the need to consolidate power;
• the need to overcome the economic crisis.

One of the main reasons was the desire of the Bolsheviks to create a communist state in which the principle of distribution would be used and there would be no place for commodity-money relations and private property.

The methods used for this were quite harsh. The changes took place quickly and decisively. Many Bolsheviks wanted immediate change.

Key provisions and activities

The policy of war communism was carried out in the following provisions:

1. On June 28, 1918, decrees on nationalization in the industrial sector were adopted.
2. Distribution of products took place at the state level. All surpluses were confiscated and distributed equally between regions.
3. Trade in any goods was strictly prohibited.
4. For peasants, the minimum necessary only to maintain life and work capacity was determined.
5. It was assumed that all citizens from 18 to 60 years old must work in industry or agriculture.
6. Since November 1918, mobility in the country was significantly reduced. This refers to the introduction of martial law on transport.
7. Cancellation of payments for transport, utilities; introduction of other free services.

In general, the events were aimed at transferring the economy to a war footing.

Results, consequences and significance of war communism

The policy of war communism created all the conditions for the victory of the Reds in the civil war. The main element was supplying the Red Army with the necessary products, transport, and ammunition.

But the Bolsheviks were unable to solve the economic problem of overcoming the crisis. The country's economy fell into complete decline.

National income fell by more than half. In agriculture, crop sowing and harvesting have significantly decreased. Industrial production was on the verge of collapse.

As for power, the policy of war communism laid the foundations for the further state structure of Soviet Russia.

Pros and cons of war communism

The policy pursued had both advantages and disadvantages.

Reasons for abandoning War Communism

As a result, the measures introduced were not only ineffective in overcoming the economic crisis, but also provoked a new, even deeper one. Industrial and agriculture fell into complete decline, and famine set in.

It was necessary to take new measures in the economy. War communism was replaced by.