WAR Communism: definition and characteristics

The situation of Russia During the great revolution that took place in the region at the beginning of the 20th century, it introduced into the world a series of movements and policies that are worth knowing and studying to understand their great relevance. To talk about one of the most interesting elements during the Russian civil war, in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we must talk about the war communism: definition and characteristics.

After the February Revolution and the beginning of the russian civil war, the Bolshevik government was in a difficult situation due to the lack of enough food to keep up the demand. Shortly before the start of the war the situation was already serious because the peasants had decided to stop sending supplies to the cities, in order end the free market system characteristic of the time.

The peasants were in a difficult situation, as they refused to feed the governments that had treated them so badly, but also they opposed a communism which they considered too strange. To this was added that many peasants had fled into hiding so as not to have to join the army during the First World War, many being killed for it and creating even more

tension between the government and the peasantry.

What is war communism: definition

The regions where the counterrevolutionary forces were located were the ones that generated the greatest amount of food, so the communists had to create a system known as war communism to be able to stock up on food.

The nationalization of the agricultural and industrial sector On the part of the provisional government, it led to a large-scale reaction that started what we know as war communism, and therefore all these problems are the antecedents.

To understand the relevance of war communism in Russia we must talk about the main policies carried out at this stage, in order to understand what it covered and why it was so important for the epoch. Here are the most outstanding characteristics of war communism.

State Union and Bolshevik Party

The party led by Lenin and Stalin he had been the clear winner of the war and therefore was in charge of ruling the new nation that had emerged after the Russian revolution. One of the policies of war communism was unite the concept of the state and the party, there being no possibility of thinking different from the party. The idea is that the existence of a single party was capable of making the population understand that its ideology was the only one possible.

Centralism

The USSR had to rely on centralism to control all politics from Moscow and ending with it with autonomous republics and other regions that sought autonomy. The idea was that the economy was controlled by the government and the companies had little real importance, thus achieving that all the nation's decisions were born from the center of the country.

Creation of the Prodazvyorstka

This being a campaign of food requisition to be able to supply the entire population and that no one could go hungry in any way. Not wanting to give the grain to the government was seen as a crime and the peasants could suffer serious consequences for it, causing numerous cases of executions for not obeying orders.

Labor reforms

An attempt is made to end the figure of the boss or boss and to place all companies as led by the workers themselves, ending with the bosses. People were forced to work, strikes were prohibited, illegal, and companies were run by the government.

Greater importance of the military

There was militarization of both society and politics, considering that it was a very important value to maintain the new state and especially to stop citizen complaints. Some of these measures were the establishment of a Martial Law, the murder of enemies or a great vigilance of the military.

To conclude this lesson on war communism, we must talk about the most salient consequences that occurred after the use of this policy and how they affected the new Soviet nation and history world. The main consequences to which war communism gave rise are the following:

• Thanks to the use of war communism, the revolutionaries were able to defeat the counterrevolutionaries, giving for the end of the russian civil war and beginning the new process that would be the USSR.
• War communism achieved create order within the nation that had not existed for years, focused largely on fear and the use of the army.
• War communism caused numerous casualties that caused serious demographic problems, which would necessitate numerous social reforms.
• The flight from the city made the number of peasants will increase moving to a rural society, although little by little people returned to the city.
• A black market with a lot of corruption and smuggling in response to the little flexibility of the Russian government, bringing a new hidden business that brought serious problems to the Russian government.
• The management of the companies through the labor force made many go bankrupt or they would produce much less.
• The situation brought serious crisis that caused numerous demonstrations, although over the years these were reduced thanks to the new policies.