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Advantages
- Under War Communism and the resulting June 1918 Decree of Nationalisation, the state took control over all industry, instructing factories on what to produce and imposing strict discipline upon the workers in order to ensure the Red Army was well-equipped to fight in the Civil War. The Supreme Council of National Economy (Vesenkha) was set up by Lenin to create a planned economy. Trade unions were banned, and conditions became bleak for the workers, with one reporting that 'one might have thought that these were...the forced labour prisons of Tsarist times'. However, many workers were in support of nationalisation in order to keep their factories open and retain their jobs, and the shift in production to war goods as a result of government control meant that the Red Army was always adequately equipped.
- Additionally under the policy, Cheka detachments, known as requisition squads, were sent into the countryside to take peasant grain by force under the Food Supplies Dictatorship set up in May 1918. This ensured that the Red Army was adequately fed to ensure they were fit for battle. Therefore, it is clear that War Communism was a great political success for the Bolsheviks, contributing towards their victory in the civil war and thus ensuring their retention of power.
- In order to determine whether or not War Communism was the most successful economic policy pursued by the Bolsheviks, it is also important to consider the success and failures of the other two policies established from 1917-1924. State Capitalism, while initially popular with the people, was a great economic failure, causing absolute chaos. Both the workers and the peasants proved inefficient and ineffective in running their enterprises, so production of both food and industrial products fell considerably. The scarcity and price of goods increased. The value of the rouble collapsed and paper money became virtually worthless. Food rations in Petrograd, for instance, fell to 50 grams per person per day.
- The NEP was also greatly unsuccessful in terms of what it meant for the integrity and values of the Bolshevik Party. While described by Bukharin as a 'temporary deviation' and a 'tactical retreat', it still fundamentally opposed the values of socialism by relaxing central economic control and allowing peasants to profit from their produce. Some peasants, who became known as Kulaks, became wealthy by selling surplus produce and began to employ poorer peasants to work for them, hence creating a new class of capitalist farmers that went against everything the party had fought for in 1917. While War Communism was not a great success, at least it did not compromise communist ideals.
- Another class that was created were the "Nepmen", who made money by buying food and goods cheaply and selling them more dearly, again going against the fundamental idea of communism. Nepmen controlled 75% of all trade by 1924, a startling progression for the party in terms of their aim of establishing a socialist economy in Russia.
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Disadvantages
- However, it cannot go without saying that War Communism was also a deeply flawed system. Economically, it failed to improve economic productivity: industry ground to a standstill and production of heavy industry fell drastically. For instance, coal production fell from 29 tonnes in 1913 to just 9 tonnes in 1921.
- The policy also faced opposition from a wide range of groups within society. Within even the Bokshevik party itself, a group called the Workers' Opposition was formed and led by Alexandra Kollontai to press for changes to the policy, calling for 'Soviets without Communists'. Additionally, the Kronstadt Mutiny of 1921, which saw sailors in Petrograd who had supported the October Revolution call for more economic freedom. This was savagely put down, but the fact that some of the Bolsheviks' previously most loyal supporters were left with no choice but to revolt said a lot about the country's attitude towards the policy.
- Additionally, peasants resented grain requisitioning and resisted it by returning to subsistence farming, leading to low grain harvests. This, combined with a severe drought, caused a famine which killed an estimated 5 to 7 million people. A massive international aid operation was mounted, in which the USA played a major role through the American Relief Association, which spent over 60 million dollars in relief work. This was politically incredibly damaging to the Bolsheviks, whose opponents in the Civil War were being supported by the US at this time. In Tambov, there was a peasants' revolt in 1920 and 1921. As with the Kronstadt Mutiny, it was suppressed when the area was flooded with Red Army units, but also goes to show that while they had the forced compliance of the people, the policy was severely resented.
- State Capitalism's policies were mainly pragmatic, simply giving recognition to what was already happening in both the towns and the countryside. The Land Decree abolished private ownership and redistributed land to the peasants via Land Committees, despite the fact that peasants were already doing this themselves by force. The same thing can be said of the decision to establish worker control in the factories. Before the policy descended into economic chaos, these decisions were wholly welcomed by workers and peasants alike.
- It is testament enough to the level of success of War Communism that the New Economic Policy had to be introduced in the first place at such a great sacrifice to socialist ideals; however, the improvement it brought to Russia's economy is even more so. After 1922, the retail price of industrial goods began to fall. Industry continued to recover and an abundant harvest guaranteed the maintenance of food supplies.
- Additionally, production increased, and by 1926-27 it had returned to pre-1914 levels.
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Evaluation
War Communism was the econmic policy pursued by the Bolsheviks in the years 1918-1921, established to ensure their victory in the Civil War. Following the policy of State Capitalism from 1917-1918 and proceeding the New Economic Policy that came to dominate the 1920s, it is arguably the most successful economic policy pursued by the Bolsheviks. In this answer, I will explore the extent to which this is the case. In conclusion, while War Communism was successful politically in that it supplied the Red Army with food and enabled their victory over the Whites, the policy failed to create the utopian communist state Lenin had hoped for.
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