WAR COMMUNISM: CHARACTERISTICS, OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS - HISTORY - 2024

The war communism in Russia was a political and economic system that existed during the Civil War of the Tsarist country, which occurred between 1918 and 1921. This was a means used by the army Bolshevik to have means with which subsist during the war conflict and thus defeat both the tsarist faction and the counterrevolutionaries. War communism had policies that were reluctant to accumulate capital and therefore to capitalism.

The evolution of war communism barely lasted more than a decade, but it was long enough for the philosophical theories expounded by Karl Marx in the 19th century to be put into practice.

The ideals of socialism, in this way, were brought to their last consequences in the middle of a series of struggles in which not only the political control of the new Russia was disputed, but also the sovereignty of the nation and its economic stability.

In their entirety, the financial policies of war communism were isolationist and were governed by something that according to critics of his time was classified as "state capitalism."

In addition, its disastrous results gave rise to the implementation of reforms in which credence was given to the assertion that the revolution had been betrayed, since it had operated against the interests of the people, who were composed of the peasant class and the class. worker.

Russia and the Bolshevik Revolution

One of the most difficult periods in Russian history was the end of Tsarism, but not so much because of the extinction of the old regime but because of how the new one was imposed.

By the end of the 1920s, Russia was going through a serious crisis in all its aspects as the empire had not been able to handle the terrible situation in the country that it experienced after the First World War (1914-1918).

Faced with this atmosphere of political friction, the Russian Empire fell and therefore the Russian Revolution triumphed in 1917. But this victory meant little to calm heated spirits, so a civil war broke out that ended in 1923.

At that time, the Soviet state was born faced with strong resistance, which it had to fight with a political and economic plan that would give it the upper hand and, therefore, help it to destroy its enemies.

The economics of Russian communism

The economic situation in Russia was delicate after the 1917 Revolution. Tsarism had ceased to exist, but not the problems inherent in the uprisings that took the Kremlin. Therefore, it was urgent that a way be sought to reactivate production, paying special attention to the demands of two excluded social classes: the peasantry and the proletariat. The bourgeoisie had to be suppressed, as well as the mechanisms with which it obtained its wealth.

Therefore, the communist economy, or at least that was the case with the Leninist interpretation of classical Marxism, had to be built through institutional changes that gave rise to political, financial and social changes.

In these transformations of revolutionary Russia, private property should no longer be tolerated and even less so in rural areas, where large estates were common.

In the urban sector, it is also necessary to end the exploitation of workers, especially in industries.

Policies implemented

Based on this context of struggles faced by the Russian Revolution, war communism appeared as a way to deal with the difficult situation it had during the war.

This was costing many human lives and was also accompanied by material damage with its subsequent erosion of the national budget.

In this way, the Soviet State established that the policies to be applied in the nation should be the following:

1- Union between the State and the Bolshevik Party

The State and the Party had to form a single political entity that did not admit factions or division of thought. Mensheviks and Communists who have a different opinion were automatically excluded from the movement.

2- Suppression of the autonomous socialist republics

These were dissolved to join the Soviet Union with a capital, which is Moscow, where the authority resided. It should be noted that the USSR was centralist and did not admit local autonomy.

3- Centralized, planned and nationalized economy

Finances were borne by the Kremlin, which controlled economic activities. Therefore, the economy was in the hands of the State and not of the companies. Private property was abolished and collective farms were installed, in which crops were requisitioned to feed the army.

4- Labor reforms

Workers' self-management without employers was encouraged. Protests about working conditions were also prohibited, which was mandatory and carried out under strict police surveillance that imposed strict discipline.

5- Military reforms

There was, to begin with, a militarization both in society and in public office, declaring Martial Law. Purges were carried out that eliminated potential enemies or their sympathizers, which became more cruel during the era of Stalinism.

goals

There has been much debate about what was to be achieved with war communism. The authors and scholars on the subject converge that the main engine of this system was the warlike conflict that came with the Russian Revolution, which should triumph at any time.

For this, it was necessary to win the support of the people, which had to be integrated into political and economic management through state programs in which the proletariat was included.

In addition, it is clear that the policies implemented by the Soviet state served as a foundation to take a further step in the struggle for socialism, which according to the Bolsheviks was in a transitional stage between the capitalism of the tsars and communism. to which they had aspired so much.

The war, therefore, was nothing but a necessary circumstance that the Russians had to go through, so that a communism could be born that would break through the counterrevolutionary forces.

Results obtained

Military and political results

The military victory over the counterrevolutionaries was the only objective that was successfully achieved on the agenda of war communism.

To this is added that, during the postwar period, the Red Army was able to dismantle the centers of resistance, as well as to keep the Russian borders safe from possible posthumous territorial claims to the Bolshevik Revolution. It would be necessary to include, of course, the level of internal order that was obtained within the country.

However, the laurels won by the revolutionaries were not free, as they left behind considerable human and material losses that were difficult to repair.

What served as compensation for the Bolsheviks was the rise of a new political system that came to power.

The Lenin era came to an end and opened the way for other leaders who strengthened communism to enter. Or they radicalized, as in the case of Stalin.

Social outcomes

Paradoxically, the victory of the Russian Revolution in the Civil War meant a drastic demographic reduction.

This was produced not only by the casualties in combat, but also by the numbers of citizens who moved from the cities to the countryside due to the precarious economic conditions of the postwar period.

The urban population, therefore, declined considerably and in favor of a rural population that was increasing rapidly but that could not find means of supplying itself on the collective farms.

What increased the temperature of these confrontations was that there were several internal rebellions within the same communist bosom.

The Bolshevik Party realized that dissent was increasing, which could only be silenced with military force. The civil uprisings demanded better conditions in the economy that would allow them to survive, since this generated a social inequality in which the uniformed men formed a kind of privileged caste.

Economic results

They are the most disastrous left by the politics of war communism. The inflexibility of the Soviet state awakened a parallel market that served to alleviate the cuts implemented by the Kremlin bureaucracy, which was full of restrictions.

Consequently, illicit trade, smuggling and corruption increased. It was not until 1921 when these rigid norms were relaxed with the New Economic Policy, in which an attempt was made to remedy the situation.

The self-management of the state companies, carried out by the peasantry and the proletariat, caused them to end up in bankruptcy or to produce less than when they were in private hands.

Production was drastically reduced, with an industrial capacity that by 1921 was only 20% and with wages that were mostly not even paid with money but with goods.

To make matters worse, the collapse of the Soviet economy was greater when war communism experienced raw famines in which millions of people perished.

The requisitions and the rationing of the state to the collective farms gave more food to the army than to the civil population, which went hungry.

On more than one occasion this was the reason for internal uprisings in Russia, in which centralist policies were rejected and more just measures were demanded for the people.

References

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