History - Russia - War Communism & NEP

War Communism

• name for the Bolsheviks economic policies during the civil war.

It involved:

• rationing food in cities
• private trading banned
• factories with ten workers plus were mationalised. This meant that the state owned the factories - Vesenkha.
• rapid inflation - ledt money valueless.

Aims:

• Lenin wanted to control the supply of food for the towns.
• prices had risen quickly and there was inflation.
• it followed the Communist idea of central control and direction of the economy.
• the Bolsheviks had to guarantee supplies for the huge Red Amry during the Civil War.

Impact:

• supplies the Red Army with food and enabled the victory over the whites.
• workers and peasants objected to it - productivity fell.
• famine in 1921 - 7 million people died.
• industrial and agricultural output decreas in 1913 and 1921, eg: Coal wnet from 29 to 9 million tones (output).
• iron wnet from 4.2 to 0.1 million of tonnes.
• peasants didn't respond…