Dmytro Ostapenko

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Dmytro Ostapenko d.ostapenko_at_latrobe.edu.au
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War Communism
Section Objective
The economic and social development of the Russian Empire prior to 1917 To specify what kind of economy the Bolsheviks would have to run in 1917-1921
Bolsheviks s ideas on a road to socialism To identify their plans of how to run socialist economy
Economic policy in October 1917-June 1918 To define the initial approaches to running economy
Slide into War Communism and situations in the country June 1918-February 1921 To assess the effectiveness of War Communism
The general analysis of War Communism To characterise this policy
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Industrial development of Russia in
1861-1900 Red circles metal processing
industry Blue textile industry Yellow
food-processing industry
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Index of total output in the manufacturing and
mining industries in Russia in 1860 -1913. 1900
100
A Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, Penguin
Press, London, 1969, p. 12.
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Millions of calories produced by average male
agricultural worker
1860 1910
Germany 10.5 25.0
USA 22.5 42.0
France 14.5 17.0
UK 20.0 23.5
Russia 7.5 11.0
A Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, Penguin
Press, London, 1969, p. 24.
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1913 Industry output
Russia USA UK
Electricity (milliard Kwhs) 2.0 25.8 4.7
Coal (million tons) 29.2 517.8 292.0
Oil (million tons) 10.3 34.0 -
Steel (million tons) 4.3 31.8 7.8
Cotton textiles (milliard meters) 1.9 5.7 4.4
A Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, Penguin
Press, London, 1969, p. 14.
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Make profits of the capitalists public, arrest
fifty or a hundred of the biggest millionaires.
Just keep them in custody for a few weeks ... for
the simple purpose of making them reveal the
hidden springs, the fraudulent practices, the
filth and green which even under the new
government are costing our country thousands and
millions every day. That is the chief cause of
our anarchy and ruin! Lenin June 1917 Speech
to the First Congress of Soviets
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• Centralisation or nationalisation of banking
  system
• Nationalisations of syndicates, - main capitalist
  associations for sugar, oil, iron
• Abolition of commercial secrecy
• Compulsory syndication of industry
  independent firms should form part of syndicates
• Compulsory membership of consumer cooperatives -
  simplify rationing
• Lenin,
• September 1917
• The impending catastrophe and how to combat it

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Early measures (late 1917 June 1918)

• Land decree of 8 November 1917
• Decree of workers control of 27 November 1917
• VSNKh (Supreme Council of National Economy, ) 15
  December 1917
• Slow nationalisation (mostly by local authorities
  ) around 487 enterprises
• Mixed economy collaboration with capitalists

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Slide into War Communism

• Agriculture
• Decline of productivity, Prodrazverstka
  (confiscation of food surpluses), Narkomprod
  (Peoples Commissariat for Supplies)
• Political and military situation
• Shortages of agricultural and industrial goods.
  Needs of tougher state control over economy and
  nationalisation. Impossible to compel the factory
  owner and individual peasant to produce, while
  simultaneously ruining him by requisitions and
  restricting his links with the market. September
  1919 3300 nationalised enterprises only1375
  were functioning. VSNVK tried to cope up with an
  impossible job. Industrial census taken in August
  1920 - 37,000 nationalized enterprises.
• Black market
• Lack of goods to sell and problem of effective
  distribution. Decline of urban population. 60
  illegal bread in cities.
• Monetary policy
• . Printing press - machine gun which
  attacked the bourgeois regime in the rear
  (Eugene Preobrazhensky). Naturalisation of
  economy and virtual abolition of money. Wages in
  kind. Moneyless budget
• Militarisation of labour
• Abolishment of workers control, system of
  rationing according to classes

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Civil War in Russia, 1918-1920
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1913 1921
Gross output of all industry (index) 100 31
Large-scale industry (index) 100 21
Coal (million tons) 29 9
Steel (million tons) 4.3 0.2
Agricultural production (index) 100 60
Source A Nove, An Economic History of the USSR,
Penguin Press, London, 1969, p. 68.
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• Necessity over ideology
• Anarchy and chaos. Orders couldnt be obeyed.
  Weak administration.
• Impact of war and civil war. Dispirited supplies.
  Losses of agricultural regions. Moving frontiers.
  
• Necessity it is naturally good in this situation
  to ban private trade in foodstuffs.

• End of War Communism
• Early 1920 most territories returned.
  Resources available.
• The key problem remained the relationship with
  peasants and related problems of freedom of trade
  and of private small scale-industry. The state
  couldnt cope up with running the all sectors of
  economy.
• February 1921 - rising in Kronstand.
• NEP

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Nicolay Bukharins The Politics and Economics of
the Transitional Period, 1920

• Marx expanded reproduction intensive
  development of capitalist relation
• Bukharin negative expanded reproduction -
  economic disruption. The centralised apparatus of
  capitalism disintegrated and cannot be used as a
  basis for social order. Need of a long
  transitional period.

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Key characteristics of War Communism

• An attempt to ban private manufacture,
  nationalisation of all industry, allocation of
  all output by the state
• A ban on private trade, not completely effective
  but actively imposed
• Seizure of peasant surpluses
• The partial elimination of money
• Terror and arbitrariness, expropriation
• Effort to establish strict discipline