Lenin's economic policies

Lenin's economic policies: War Communism 

War Communism 1918-21: 

Change to the economy in order to win the civil war, every aspect of life in Bolshevik society had to be subordinated to winning the Civil War. 

- The decree on Nationalisation in 1918 gave the government complete control over Russian industry, this was helped by the infiltration of workers' committees by political commissars. 

- Military needs were given priority and so resources were denied to those industries not considered essential. This situation was made worse by a lack of manpower due to conscription into the Red Army and people just fleeing the cities in general. The populations of Petrograd and Moscow dropped by half between 1918-21.   

- These industry problems were deepened by hyper-inflation, which effectively destroyed the value of money. By 1920 the rouble had fallen to 1% of its worth in 1917.

Impact on agriculture:

- Lenin's main purpose of War communism was to tighten government control over agriculture and force the peasants to provide more food.

- Lenin blamed the resistance to this on the kulaks who Lenin claimed were hoarding their grain stocks to keep prices high.

Grain requisitioning:

Lenin became exasperated by the peasant's refusal to cooperate and so began to resort to coercion.

- 1918 Cheka requisition units were sent to the countryside to take grain by force.

- This, however, did not have the desired effect as the peasants began to produce only the bare minimum to feed themselves and their families, knowing that any surplus would be confiscated. 

Famine: 

By 1921…