At the heart of the policy of military communism is an idea. war communism

War communism is a policy that was carried out on the territory of the Soviet state in the context of a civil war. The peak of war communism came in 1919-1921. The conduct of communist politics was aimed at creating a communist society by the so-called left communists.

There are several reasons for the transition of the Bolsheviks to such a policy. Some of the historians believe that this was an attempt to introduce communism by command. However, later it turned out that the attempt was not successful. Other historians believe that War Communism was only a temporary measure, and the government did not consider such a policy for its implementation in practice and in the future after the end of the civil war.

The period of war communism did not last long. War communism was ended on March 14, 1921. At this time, the Soviet state set a course for the NEP.

The basis of war communism

The policy of war communism was characterized by one hallmark- nationalization of all possible branches of the economy. The coming of the Bolsheviks to power became the starting point for the policy of nationalization. "lands, bowels, waters and forests" was announced on the day of the Petrograd coup.

Nationalization of banks

During the October revolution one of the first actions taken by the Bolsheviks was the armed seizure of the State Bank. This was the beginning of the economic policy of war communism under the leadership of the Bolsheviks.

After some time, banking began to be considered a state monopoly. Of the banks subjected to the monopoly, were confiscated cash local population. Confiscation was subjected to funds that were acquired by "dishonest unearned means." As for the confiscated funds, these were not only banknotes, but also poured gold and silver. was carried out if the contribution was more than 5,000 rubles per person. Subsequently, the account holder of monopoly banks could receive no more than 500 rubles a month from their account. However, the balance that was not confiscated was quickly absorbed - it was considered almost impossible to get their owners from bank accounts.

Capital flight and nationalization of industry

The "flight of capital" from Russia intensified in the summer of 1917. Foreign entrepreneurs were the first to flee Russia. They were looking for cheaper labor here than in their homeland. However, after February Revolution it was almost impossible to cash in on cheap power. The labor day was clearly established, while there was a struggle for promotion wages, which would not be entirely beneficial for foreign entrepreneurs.

Domestic industrialists also had to resort to flight, because the situation in the country was unstable, and they fled so that they could fully engage in their work activities.

The nationalization of enterprises had not only political reasons. The Minister of Trade and Industry believed that the constant conflicts with the labor force, which in turn held rallies and strikes on a regular basis, needed some kind of adequate resolution. After the October coup the Bolsheviks were overtaken by the same labor problems as before. Naturally, there was no talk of any transfer of factories to workers.

The Likinskaya manufactory of A. V. Smirnov became one of the first factories that was nationalized by the Bolsheviks. In less than half a year (from November to March 1917-1918) more than 836 industrial enterprises were nationalized. From May 2, 1918, the nationalization of the sugar industry began to be actively carried out. On June 20 of the same year, the nationalization of the oil industry began. In the autumn of 1918, the Soviet state managed to nationalize 9542 enterprises.

Capitalist property was nationalized quite simply - through gratuitous confiscations. Already in April of the following year, there was practically not a single enterprise left that was not nationalized. Gradually, nationalization also reached medium-sized enterprises. Production management was subjected to brutal nationalization by the government. The Supreme Council of the National Economy became the dominant body in the management of centralized enterprises. The economic policy of war communism, undertaken in relation to the nationalization of enterprises, practically did not bring a positive effect, since most of workers stopped working for the good of the Soviet state and went abroad.

Control of trade and industry

Control over trade and industry came in December 1917. Less than six months after War Communism became the main mode of politics in the Soviet state, trade and industry were declared a state monopoly. The merchant fleet was nationalized. At the same time, shipping enterprises, trading houses and other property of private entrepreneurs in the merchant fleet were declared the property of the state.

Introduction of forced labor service

For the "non-working classes" it was decided to introduce compulsory labor service. According to the adopted code of labor laws in 1918, forced labor service was established for all citizens of the RSFSR. Starting next year, unauthorized transition from one workplace to another was prohibited for citizens, while absenteeism was strictly punished. Strict discipline was established at all enterprises, over which managers constantly kept control. On weekends and holidays, work ceased to be paid, which in turn led to mass discontent among the working strata.

In 1920, the law "On the procedure for universal labor service" was adopted, according to which the able-bodied population was involved in various works for the benefit of the country. The presence of a permanent workplace did not matter in this case. Everyone had to do the duty.

Introduction of rations and food dictatorship

The Bolsheviks decided to continue to adhere to the grain monopoly, which was adopted by the Provisional Government. Private trade in grain products was officially banned by the issued Decree on the state monopoly of bread. In May 1918, local people's commissars had to independently fight the citizens who hid grain supplies. To conduct a full-fledged fight against shelter and speculation in grain reserves, people's commissars were endowed with additional powers from the government.

The food dictatorship had its own goal - to centralize the procurement and distribution of food among the population. Another goal of the food dictatorship was to combat the fraud of the kulaks.

The People's Commissariat for Food had unlimited powers in the methods and methods of food procurement, which was carried out during the existence of such a thing as the policy of war communism. According to the decree of May 13, 1918, the consumption rate for each person of food per year was established. The decree was based on food consumption norms introduced by the Provisional Government in 1917.

If the amount of bread per person exceeded the norms specified in the decree, he had to hand it over to the state. The transfer was carried out at state-appointed prices. After that, the government could dispose of grain products at its discretion.

To control the food dictatorship, the Food and Requisition Army of the People's Commissariat for Food of the RSFSR was created. In 1918, a resolution was adopted on the introduction of food rations for four classes of the population. Initially, only residents of Petrograd could use rations. A month later - residents of Moscow. Subsequently, the opportunity to receive food rations extended to the entire state. After food ration cards were introduced, all other ways and systems to obtain food were abolished. In parallel with this, a ban on private was introduced.

Due to the fact that all the worlds to maintain the food dictatorship were adopted during the civil war in the country, in fact they were not supported as strictly as indicated in the documents confirming the introduction of various decrees. Not all regions were under the control of the Bolsheviks. Accordingly, there could be no question of any implementation of their decrees in this territory.

At the same time, far from all the regions that were subordinate to the Bolsheviks also had the opportunity to carry out government decrees, since the local authorities did not know about the existence of various decrees and decrees. Due to the fact that communication between the regions was practically not supported, the local authorities could not receive instructions on the conduct of food or any other policy. They had to act on their own.

Until now, not all historians can explain the essence of war communism. Whether it was really an economic policy is impossible to say. It is possible that these were just measures taken by the Bolsheviks in order to win the country.

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The policy of war communism was carried out by the Soviet government in the period from 1918 to 1920. Introduced and developed by the commander of the Council of People's and Peasant Defense V.I. Lenin and his associates. It was aimed at uniting the country and preparing the people for life in a new communist state, where there is no division into rich and poor. Such a modernization of society (the transition from the traditional system to the modern one) caused discontent among the most numerous strata - peasants and workers. Lenin himself called it a necessary measure to achieve the goals set by the Bolsheviks. As a result, from saving tactics, this system grew into a terrorist dictatorship of the proletariat.

What is called the policy of war communism

This process took place in three directions: economic, ideological and social. The characteristics of each of them are presented in the table.

This policy involved a large-scale restructuring not only in the public administration system, but also in the minds of citizens. The authorities saw a way out of this situation only in the forced unification of the people in an aggravated military situation, which was called “war communism”.

What was the policy of war communism

The main features of historians include:

• centralization of the economy and nationalization of industry (full state control);
• prohibition of private trade and other types of individual entrepreneurship;
• the introduction of surplus appropriation (forced withdrawal of part of the bread and other products by the state);
• forced labor of all citizens from 16 to 60 years;
• monopolization in the field of agriculture;
• equalization of all citizens in rights and building a just state.

Characteristics and features

The new political program had a pronounced totalitarian character. Called to improve the economy and raise the spirit of the war-weary people, on the contrary, it destroyed both the first and the second.

In the country at that time there was a post-revolutionary situation, which developed into a military one. All resources provided by industry and agriculture were taken away by the front. The essence of the communist policy was to defend the workers' and peasants' power by any means, personally plunging the country into a "half-starved and worse than half-starved" state, in his words.

A distinctive feature of war communism was the fierce struggle between capitalism and socialism that flared up against the background of the civil war. The first system was supported by the bourgeoisie, who actively advocated the preservation of private property and the free trade sector. Socialism was supported by adherents of communist views, speaking with directly opposite speeches. Lenin believed that the revival of the policy of capitalism, which existed in tsarist Russia for half a century, will lead the country to destruction and death. According to the leader of the proletariat, such economic system ruins the working people, enriches the capitalists and gives rise to speculation.

The new political program was introduced by the Soviet government in September 1918. It included activities such as:

• introduction of surplus appropriation (seizure of food products from working citizens for the needs of the front)
• general labor service of citizens from 16 to 60 years
• cancellation of payment for transport and utilities
• government provision of free housing
• centralization of the economy
• prohibition of private trade
• establishing a direct exchange of goods between the countryside and the city

Causes of War Communism

The reasons for the introduction of such emergency measures were provoked by:

• the weakening of the state's economy after World War I and the 1917 revolution;
• the desire of the Bolsheviks to centralize power and take the country under their total control;
• the need to supply the front with food and weapons against the backdrop of the unfolding Civil War;
• the desire of the new authorities to give peasants and workers the right to legal labor activity, fully controlled by the state

War Communism Politics and Agriculture

Agriculture was hit hard. Especially from the new policy, the inhabitants of the villages, where the "food terror" was carried out, suffered. In support of the military-communist ideas, on March 26, 1918, a decree "On the organization of commodity exchange" was issued. He implied bilateral cooperation: the supply of everything necessary for both the city and the village. In fact, it turned out that the entire agrarian industry and agriculture worked only for the purpose of restoring heavy industry. For the sake of this, a redistribution of land was carried out, as a result of which the peasants more than doubled their land plots.

Comparative table based on the results of the policy of war communism and the NEP:

Surplus appraisal.

Artist I.A. Vladimirov (1869-1947)

war communism - This is the policy pursued by the Bolsheviks during the civil war in 1918-1921, which includes a set of emergency political and economic measures to win the civil war and protect Soviet power. This policy is no coincidence received such a name: "communism" - the equalization of all rights, "military" -Policy was carried out by forceful coercion.

Start The policy of war communism was set in the summer of 1918, when two government documents appeared on the requisition (seizure) of grain and the nationalization of industry. In September 1918, the All-Russian Central Executive Committee adopted a resolution on the transformation of the republic into a single military camp, the slogan - Everything for the front! Everything for the victory!

Reasons for adopting the policy of war communism

The need to protect the country from internal and external enemies

Protection and final assertion of the power of the Soviets

The country's way out of the economic crisis

Goals:

The ultimate concentration of labor and material resources to repulse external and internal enemies.

Building Communism by Violent Methods ("Cavalry Attack on Capitalism")

Features of war communism

Centralization management of the economy, the system of the Supreme Council of National Economy (Supreme Council of the National Economy), Glavkov.

Nationalization industry, banks and land, the elimination of private property. The process of nationalization of property during the civil war was called "expropriation".

Ban wage labor and land lease

food dictatorship. Introduction surplus appropriations(Decree of the Council of People's Commissars January 1919) - food apportionment. These are state measures for the fulfillment of plans for agricultural procurement: the obligatory delivery to the state of the established ("deployed") norm of products (bread, etc.) at state prices. Peasants could leave only a minimum of products for consumption and household needs.

Creation in the countryside "committees of the poor" (kombedov), who were engaged in surplus appropriation. In the cities, workers were created armed food orders to seize grain from the peasants.

An attempt to introduce collective farms (collective farms, communes).

Prohibition of private trade

The curtailment of commodity-money relations, the supply of products was carried out by the People's Commissariat for Food, the abolition of payment for housing, heating, etc., that is, free utilities. Cancellation of money.

Leveling principle in the distribution of material wealth (rations were given out), naturalization of salary, card system.

Militarization of labor (that is, its focus on military purposes, the defense of the country). General labor service(since 1920) Slogan: "Who does not work shall not eat!". Mobilization of the population to carry out work of national importance: logging, road, construction and other work. Labor mobilization was carried out from 15 to 50 years of age and was equated to military mobilization.

Decision on ending the policy of war communism taken on 10th Congress of the RCP(B) in March 1921 year, in which the course was proclaimed for the transition to NEP.

The results of the policy of war communism

Mobilization of all resources in the fight against anti-Bolshevik forces, which made it possible to win the civil war.

Nationalization of the oil, large and small industries, railway transport, banks,

Mass discontent of the population

Peasant performances

Increasing economic disruption

Abstract plan:

1. The situation that has developed in Russia, which was a prerequisite for creating conditions for the emergence of the policy of "war communism".

2. The policy of "war communism". Its distinctive features, essence and influence on the social and public life of the country.

· Nationalization of the economy.

· Prodrazverstka.

The dictatorship of the Bolshevik Party.

Destruction of the market.

3. Consequences and fruits of the policy of "war communism".

4. The concept and meaning of "war communism".

Introduction.

"Who does not know the oppressive melancholy that oppresses everyone traveling around Russia? The January snow has not yet had time to cover the autumn mud, and has already turned black from the locomotive soot. Black masses of forests, gray endless expanses of fields crawled out of the morning twilight. Deserted railway stations ..."

Russia, 1918.

The First World War died down, the revolution took place, there was a change of government. The country, exhausted by endless social upheavals, was on the verge of a new civil war. How to save what the Bolsheviks managed to achieve. As with the decline of production, both agricultural and industrial, to ensure not only the protection of the newly established system, but also its strengthening and development.

What was our long-suffering homeland at the dawn of the formation of Soviet power?

Back in the spring of 1917, one of the delegates to the 1st Congress of Trade and Industry sadly remarked: "... We had cattle of 18-20 pounds, and now this cattle has turned into skeletons." The requisitions proclaimed by the Provisional Government, the grain monopoly, which implied a ban on private trade in bread, its accounting and procurement by the state at fixed prices, led to the fact that by the end of 1917 the daily norm of bread in Moscow was 100 grams per person. In the villages, the confiscation of landed estates is in full swing, and its division among the peasants. Divided, in most cases, by eaters. Nothing good could come of this egalitarianism. By 1918, 35 percent of peasant households did not have horses, and almost a fifth did not have livestock. By the spring of 1918, not only the landlords' land was already being divided - the populists, who dreamed of black lawlessness, the Bolsheviks, the Social Revolutionaries, who created the law on socialization, the rural poor - everyone dreamed of dividing the land for the sake of general equalization. Millions of embittered and feral armed soldiers are returning to the villages. From the Kharkov newspaper "Land and Freedom" about the confiscation of landowners' estates:

"Who was most involved in the defeat? ... Not those peasants who have almost nothing, but those who have several horses, two or three pairs of bulls, also have a lot of land. So they acted the most, took away what was suitable for them was loaded onto bulls and taken away. And the poor could hardly use anything.

And here is an excerpt from a letter from the chairman of the Novgorod district land department:

“First of all, we tried to allocate the landless and land-poor ... from the lands of the landowners, state, appanage, church and monastery, but in many volosts these lands are completely absent or are available in small quantities. here we ran into the petty-bourgeois class of the peasantry. All these elements ... opposed the implementation of the Law on Socialization ... There were cases when it was necessary to resort to armed force. "

In the spring of 1918, the peasant war begins. Only in the Voronezh, Tambov, Kursk provinces, where the poor increased their allotments three times, there were more than 50 major peasant uprisings. The Volga region, Belarus, Novgorod province rose ...

One of the Simbirsk Bolsheviks wrote:

“It was as if the middle peasants had been replaced. In January, they enthusiastically met words in favor of the power of the Soviets. Now the middle peasantry wavered between revolution and counter-revolution ...”

As a result, in the spring of 1918, as a result of another innovation of the Bolsheviks - commodity exchange, the supply of food to the city practically came to naught. For example, the commodity exchange of bread amounted to only 7 percent of the planned. The city was choking with hunger.

Given the complexity of the situation, the Bolsheviks in as soon as possible form an army and create a special method of managing the economy, establish a political dictatorship.

The essence of "War Communism".

What is "war communism", what is its essence? Here are some of the main distinguishing features of the implementation of the policy of "war communism". It must be said that each of the following aspects are an integral part of the essence of "war communism", complement each other, are intertwined in certain issues, therefore the causes that give rise to them, as well as their influence on society and the consequences are closely interconnected.

1. One side is the widespread nationalization of the economy (that is, the legislative registration of the transfer of enterprises and industries to the ownership of the state, which does not mean turning it into the property of the whole society). The civil war demanded the same.

According to V. I. Lenin, "communism requires and presupposes the greatest centralization large-scale production in the whole country". In addition to "communism", the military situation in the country also requires the same. And so, by decree of the Council of People's Commissars of June 28, 1918, mining, metallurgical, textile and other leading industries are nationalized. By the end of 1918, out of 9 thousand enterprises European Russia 3.5 thousand were nationalized, by the summer of 1919 - 4 thousand, and a year later already about 80 percent, which employed 2 million people - this is about 70 percent of the employed. In 1920 the state was practically the undivided owner of the industrial means of production. At first glance, it would seem that nationalization does not carry anything bad, but in the fall of 1920, A.I. war), proposes to decentralize the management of industry, because, according to him:

"the whole system is built on the distrust of higher authorities to lower levels, which hinders the development of the country".

2. The next side, which determines the essence of the policy of "war communism" - measures designed to save Soviet power from starvation (which I mentioned above) included:

a. Prodrazverstka. In simple words"Prodrazverstka" is a forced imposition of the obligation to surrender "surplus" production on food producers. Naturally, this mainly fell on the village - the main producer of food. Of course, there were no surpluses, but there was only the forcible seizure of food. And the forms of surplus appropriation left much to be desired: instead of placing the burden of requisitions on wealthy peasants, the authorities followed the usual policy of leveling, which affected the mass of the middle peasants - who constitute the main backbone of food producers, the most numerous stratum of the village of European Russia. This could not but cause general discontent: riots broke out in many areas, ambushes were set up on the food army. appeared the unity of the entire peasantry in opposition to the city as the outside world.

The situation was aggravated by the so-called committees of the poor, created on June 11, 1918, designed to become a "second power" and seize surplus products. It was assumed that part of the withdrawn products would go to the members of these committees. Their actions were to be supported by parts of the "food army". The creation of kombeds testified to the complete ignorance of the peasant psychology by the Bolsheviks, in which the communal principle played the main role.

As a result of all this, the surplus appraisal campaign failed in the summer of 1918: instead of 144 million poods of grain, only 13 were collected. Nevertheless, this did not prevent the authorities from continuing the surplus appraisal policy for several more years.

From January 1, 1919, the indiscriminate search for surpluses was replaced by a centralized and planned system of surplus appropriations. On January 11, 1919, the decree "On the allocation of bread and fodder" was promulgated. According to this decree, the state announced in advance the exact figure in its needs for products. That is, each region, county, parish had to hand over to the state a predetermined amount of grain and other products, depending on the expected harvest (determined very approximately, according to pre-war years). The implementation of the plan was mandatory. Each peasant community was responsible for its own supplies. Only after the community fully met all the requirements of the state for the delivery of agricultural products, the peasants were issued receipts for the purchase of industrial goods, albeit in an amount much smaller than required (10-15%%). And the assortment was limited only to essential goods: fabrics, matches, kerosene, salt, sugar, and occasionally tools. Peasants reacted to the surplus appropriation and the shortage of goods by reducing the sown area - up to 60%, depending on the region, and returning to subsistence farming. Subsequently, for example, in 1919, out of the planned 260 million poods of grain, only 100 were harvested, and even then, with great difficulty. And in 1920 the plan was fulfilled by only 3-4%.

Then, having restored the peasantry against itself, the surplus appraisal did not satisfy the townspeople either. It was impossible to live on the daily ration provided. The intellectuals and the "former" were supplied with food last, and often received nothing at all. In addition to the unfairness of the food supply system, it was also very confusing: in Petrograd there were at least 33 types of food cards with a shelf life of no more than a month.

b. Duties. Along with the surplus appropriation, the Soviet government introduces a number of duties: wood, underwater and horse-drawn, as well as labor.

The discovered huge shortage of goods, including essential goods, creates fertile ground for the formation and development of a "black market" in Russia. The government tried in vain to fight the "pouchers". Law enforcement has been ordered to arrest anyone with a suspicious bag. In response, the workers of many Petrograd factories went on strike. They demanded permission for the free transportation of bags weighing up to one and a half pounds, which indicated that not only the peasants were selling their "surplus" secretly. The people were busy looking for food. What are the thoughts about the revolution. Workers abandoned factories and, as far as possible, fleeing from hunger, returned to the villages. The need of the state to take into account and consolidate the workforce in one place makes the government enter "work books", and the Labor Code distributes labor service for the entire population aged 16 to 50 years. At the same time, the state has the right to conduct labor mobilization for any work, in addition to the main one.

But the most "interesting" method of recruiting workers was the decision to turn the Red Army into a "labor army" and militarize the railways. The militarization of labor turns workers into labor front fighters who can be deployed anywhere, who can be commanded and who are subject to criminal liability for violation of labor discipline.

Trotsky, at that time a preacher of ideas and the personification of the militarization of the national economy, believed that the workers and peasants should be placed in the position of mobilized soldiers. Considering that "who does not work, he does not eat, but since everyone should eat, everyone should work," by 1920 in Ukraine, an area under the direct control of Trotsky, railways were militarized, and any strike was regarded as betrayal. On January 15, 1920, the First Revolutionary Labor Army was formed, which arose from the 3rd Ural Army, and in April the Second Revolutionary Labor Army was created in Kazan. However, Lenin is given time called out:

"The war is not over, it continues on the bloodless front... It is necessary that the entire four million proletarian masses prepare for new victims, new hardships and disasters no less than in the war..."

The results were depressing: the peasant soldiers were unskilled labor, they hurried home and were not at all eager to work.

3. Another aspect of politics, which is probably the main one, and which has the right to be in the first place, if not for its last role in the development of all life Russian society in the post-revolutionary period until the 80s, "war communism" - the establishment of a political dictatorship - the dictatorship of the Bolshevik Party. During the civil war, V.I. Lenin repeatedly emphasized that: "dictatorship is power based directly on violence...". Here is what the leaders of Bolshevism said about violence:

V. I. Lenin: “Dictatorship and one-man rule do not contradict socialist democracy... Not only the experience that we have gone through in two years of stubborn civil war leads us to such a solution to these issues... when we first raised them in 1918, we did not have any civil war... We need more discipline, more unity, more dictatorship."

L. D. Trotsky: “A planned economy is unthinkable without labor service… The path to socialism lies through the highest tension of the state. state organization working class... That is why we are talking about the militarization of labor."

N. I. Bukharin: "Coercion ... is not limited to the formerly ruling classes and groupings close to them. In the transitional period - in other forms - it is transferred both to the working people themselves and to ruling class... proletarian coercion in all its forms, from execution to labor service, is ... a method of developing communist humanity from the human material of the capitalist era.

Political opponents, opponents and competitors of the Bolsheviks fell under the pressure of comprehensive violence. A one-party dictatorship is emerging in the country.

Publishing activities are curtailed, non-Bolshevik newspapers are banned, and leaders of opposition parties are arrested, who are subsequently declared illegal. Within the framework of the dictatorship, independent institutions of society are controlled and gradually destroyed, the terror of the Cheka is intensified, and the "recalcitrant" Soviets in Luga and Kronstadt are forcibly dissolved. Created in 1917, the Cheka was originally conceived as an investigative body, but the local Cheka quickly appropriated after a short trial to shoot those arrested. After the assassination of the chairman of the Petrograd Cheka, M. S. Uritsky, and the attempt on the life of V. I. Lenin, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR adopted a resolution that "in this situation, providing rear services through terror is a direct necessity", that "it is necessary to release Soviet Republic from class enemies by isolating them in concentration camps" that "all persons connected with the White Guard organizations, conspiracies and rebellions are to be shot." the name "Red Terror".

"Power from below", that is, "power of the Soviets", which had been gaining strength since February 1917 through various decentralized institutions created as a potential opposition to power, began to turn into "power from above", appropriating all possible powers, using bureaucratic measures and resorting to violence.

It is necessary to say more about bureaucracy. On the eve of 1917, there were about 500 thousand officials in Russia, and during the years of the civil war the bureaucratic apparatus doubled. In 1919, Lenin only brushed off those who persistently spoke to him about the bureaucracy that had gripped the party. V. P. Nogin, Deputy Commissar of Labour, at the VIII Party Congress, in March 1919, said:

"We have received such an infinite number of horrific facts about ... bribery and reckless actions of many workers, that just the hair stood on end ... If we do not take the most decisive decisions, then the further existence of the party will be unthinkable.

But only in 1922 did Lenin agree with this:

"Communists have become bureaucrats. If anything will destroy us, it will be"; "All of us drowned in a lousy bureaucratic swamp ..."

Here are a few more statements by Bolshevik leaders about the spread of bureaucracy in the country:

V. I. Lenin: "... we have a working state with a bureaucratic perversion ... What is missing? ... there is not enough culture for that layer of communists who governs ... I ... doubt that it could be said that the communists are leading this (bureaucratic) heap. To tell the truth, they are not lead, and they are led."

V. Vinnichenko: "Where is equality, if in socialist Russia ... inequality prevails, if one has a "Kremlin" ration, and the other is hungry ... What is ... communism? In good words? ... There is no Soviet power. There is a power of bureaucrats ... The revolution is dying, petrifying, bureaucratizing ... Everywhere a speechless official, uncritical, dry, cowardly, formalist bureaucrat reigned.

I. Stalin: “Comrades, the country is not actually run by those who elect their delegates to parliaments… or to the congresses of Soviets… No. The country is actually run by those who have in fact mastered the executive apparatuses of the state, who direct these apparatuses.”

V. M. Chernov: "Bureaucratism was already embryonic in the very Leninist idea of ​​socialism as a system of state-capitalist monopoly headed by the Bolshevik dictatorship ... bureaucracy was historically a derivative of the primitive bureaucracy of the Bolshevik concept of socialism."

So bureaucracy became an integral part of the new system.

But back to dictatorship.

The Bolsheviks completely monopolize the executive and legislative power, and at the same time the non-Bolshevik parties are being destroyed. The Bolsheviks cannot allow criticism of the ruling party, cannot give the voter the freedom to choose between several parties, cannot accept the possibility of the ruling party being removed from power by peaceful means as a result of free elections. Already in 1917 cadets declared "enemies of the people". This party tried to implement its program with the help of white governments, in which the Cadets not only entered, but also headed them. Their party turned out to be one of the weakest, which received in the elections in constituent Assembly only 6% of the vote.

Also Left SRs who recognized Soviet power as a fact of reality, and not as a principle and who supported the Bolsheviks until March 1918, did not fit into political system built by the Bolsheviks. At first, the Left SRs did not agree with the Bolsheviks on two points: terror, elevated to the rank of official policy, and the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, which they did not recognize. According to the Socialist-Revolutionaries, the following are necessary: ​​freedom of speech, press, assembly, the liquidation of the Cheka, the abolition of death penalty, immediate free elections to the Soviets by secret ballot. The Left SRs in the fall of 1918 announced Lenin in a new autocracy and the establishment of a gendarmerie regime. BUT right SRs declared themselves enemies of the Bolsheviks in November 1917. After the attempted coup d'état in July 1918, the Bolsheviks removed representatives of the Left Socialist-Revolutionary Party from those bodies where they were strong. In the summer of 1919, the Socialist-Revolutionaries cease armed operations against the Bolsheviks and replace them with the usual " political struggle"But since the spring of 1920 they have been putting forward the idea of ​​the "Union of the working peasantry", implementing it in many regions of Russia, receiving the support of the peasantry and themselves participating in all its speeches. In response, the Bolsheviks bring down repressions on their parties. adopted a resolution: "The question of the revolutionary overthrow of the dictatorship communist party with all the strength of iron necessity, it is put on the order of the day, it becomes a matter of the entire existence of Russian labor democracy. "The Bolsheviks, in 1922, without delay, begin a process over the Socialist-Revolutionary Party, although many of its leaders are already in exile. As an organized force, their party ceases to exist.

Mensheviks under the leadership of Dan and Martov, they tried to organize themselves into a legal opposition within the framework of legality. If in October 1917 the influence of the Mensheviks was insignificant, then by the middle of 1918 it had increased incredibly among the workers, and at the beginning of 1921 - in the trade unions, thanks to the promotion of measures to liberalize the economy. Therefore, from the summer of 1920, the Mensheviks began to be gradually removed from the Soviets, and in February-March 1921, the Bolsheviks made over 2,000 arrests, including all members of the Central Committee.

Perhaps there was another party that could count on success in the struggle for the masses - anarchists. But the attempt to create a powerless society - the experiment of Father Makhno - in fact turned into a dictatorship of his army in the liberated areas. The Old Man appointed his commandants in the settlements, endowed with unlimited power, created a special punitive body that cracked down on competitors. Denying the regular army, he was forced to mobilize. As a result, the attempt to create a "free state" failed.

In September 1919, anarchists blew up a powerful bomb in Moscow, in Leontievsky Lane. 12 people died, more than 50 were injured, including N. I. Bukharin, who was going to make a proposal to abolish the death penalty.

After some time, the Underground Anarchists were liquidated by the Cheka, like most local anarchist groups.

When P. A. Kropotkin (the father of Russian anarchism) died in February 1921, the anarchists who were in Moscow prisons asked to be released for the funeral. Just for a day - by the evening they promised to return. They did just that. Even those on death row.

So, by 1922, a one-party system had developed in Russia.

4. Another important aspect of the policy of "war communism" is the destruction of the market and commodity-money relations.

The market, the main engine of the country's development, is economic ties between individual commodity producers, branches of production, and various regions of the country.

First, the war disrupted all ties, severed them. Along with the irreversible fall in the exchange rate of the ruble, in 1919 it was equal to 1 kopeck of the pre-war ruble, there was a decline in the role of money in general, inevitably drawn by the war.

Secondly, the nationalization of the economy, the undivided dominance of the state mode of production, the over-centralization of economic bodies, the general approach of the Bolsheviks to the new society, as to a moneyless society, ultimately led to the abolition of the market and commodity-money relations.

On July 22, 1918, a decree of the Council of People's Commissars "On Speculation" was adopted, which prohibited any non-state trade. By autumn, in half of the provinces not captured by the Whites, private wholesale trade was liquidated, and in a third, retail trade. To provide the population with food and personal consumption items, the Council of People's Commissars decreed the creation of a state supply network. Such a policy required the creation of special super-centralized economic bodies in charge of accounting and distribution of all available products. The head offices (or centers) created under the Supreme Council of National Economy managed the activities of certain industries, were in charge of their financing, material and technical supply, and the distribution of manufactured products.

At the same time, the nationalization of banking takes place. By the beginning of 1919, private trade was also completely nationalized, except for the bazaar (from stalls).

So, the public sector already makes up almost 100% of the economy, so there was no need for either the market or money. But if natural economic ties are absent or ignored, then their place is taken by administrative ties established by the state, organized by its decrees, orders, implemented by state agents - officials, commissioners.

“+” War Communism.

What, in the end, did "war communism" bring to the country, did it achieve its goal?

Socio-economic conditions have been created for the victory over the interventionists and the White Guards. It was possible to mobilize those insignificant forces that the Bolsheviks had at their disposal, to subordinate the economy to one goal - to provide the Red Army with the necessary weapons, uniforms, and food. The Bolsheviks had at their disposal no more than a third of the military enterprises of Russia, controlled areas that produced no more than 10% of coal, iron and steel, and had almost no oil. Despite this, during the war the army received 4 thousand guns, 8 million shells, 2.5 million rifles. In 1919-1920. she was given 6 million overcoats, 10 million pairs of shoes. But at what cost was this achieved?

“ - ” War Communism.

What are effects policies of "war communism"?

The result of "war communism" was an unprecedented decline in production. In 1921, the volume of industrial production amounted to only 12% of the pre-war level, the volume of products for sale decreased by 92%, the state treasury was replenished by 80% due to surplus appropriation. For clarity - indicators of nationalized production - the pride of the Bolsheviks:

Indicators

Number of employed (million people)

Gross production (billion rubles)

Gross production per worker (thousand rubles)

In spring and summer, a terrible famine broke out in the Volga region - after the confiscation, there was no grain left. "War communism" also failed to provide food for the urban population: the death rate among workers increased. With the departure of workers to the villages, the social base of the Bolsheviks narrowed. AT agriculture a severe crisis broke out. Svidersky, a member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat for Food, formulated the reasons for the catastrophe that was approaching the country:

“The reasons for the noted crisis in agriculture lie in the entire accursed past of Russia and in the imperialist and revolutionary wars. But, undoubtedly, at the same time, at the same time, the monopoly with the appropriation made it extremely difficult to combat ... the crisis and even interfered with it, strengthening, in turn, agricultural disorder.

Only half of the bread came through state distribution, the rest through the black market, at speculative prices. Social dependency grew. Pooh bureaucracy, interested in maintaining the status quo, since it also meant the presence of privileges.

General dissatisfaction with "war communism" reached its limit by the winter of 1921. This could not but affect the authority of the Bolsheviks. Data on the number of non-partisan delegates (in % of total number) at district congresses of Soviets:

March 1919

October 1919

Conclusion.

What is "war communism"? There are several opinions on this matter. AT Soviet encyclopedia written like this:

""War Communism" is a system of temporary, emergency measures forced by civil war and military intervention, which together determined the originality of economic policy Soviet state in 1918-1920. ... Forced to implement "military-communist" measures, the Soviet state carried out a frontal attack on all the positions of capitalism in the country ... If there were no military intervention and the economic devastation it caused, there would be no "war communism"".

The concept itself "war communism" is a combination of definitions: "military" - because his policy was subordinated to one goal - to concentrate all forces for military victory over political opponents, "communism" - because the measures taken by the Bolsheviks surprisingly coincided with the Marxist forecast of some socio-economic features of the future communist society. The new government strove for the immediate implementation of ideas strictly according to Marx. Subjectively, "war communism" was brought to life by the desire of the new government to hold out until the advent of the world revolution. His goal was not at all to build a new society, but to destroy any capitalist and petty-bourgeois elements in all spheres of society's life. In 1922-1923, assessing the past, Lenin wrote:

"We assumed, without sufficient calculation, by the direct orders of the proletarian state, to organize state production and state distribution of products in a communist way in a petty-bourgeois country."

"We decided that the peasants would give us the amount of grain we needed, and we would distribute it among the plants and factories - and we would achieve communist production and distribution."

V. I. Lenin

Full composition of writings

Conclusion.

I believe that the emergence of the policy of "war communism" was due only to the thirst for power of the Bolshevik leaders and the fear of losing this power. For all the instability and fragility of the newly established system in Russia, the introduction of measures aimed specifically at the destruction of political opponents, at curbing any discontent of society, while the majority political currents countries offered programs to improve the living conditions of the people, and were initially more humane, speaks only of the most severe fear that declared the ideological leaders of the ruling party to have done enough things before losing this power. Yes, in some way they achieved their goal, because their main goal is not to take care of the people (although there were such leaders who sincerely wish better share for the people), but - the preservation of power, only at what cost ...

Compare with the diagram on p. 30 and list the most important differences. What, in your opinion, are the pros and cons of such an economic system?

Main differences:

In the center of the system, instead of the free market, there were state statements and the "black market";

Private property almost disappeared (partially remained only in the countryside), the basis of the economy began to be state and collective;

At industrial enterprises they began to work not for free hire, but by virtue of labor service;

For work at industrial enterprises, they began to receive not wages, but rations, and not from the enterprises themselves, but from the state;

In agriculture, the estates of landowners and farms of individual farmers disappeared, but state farms and collective farms appeared.

System advantages:

It made it possible to establish an unequal exchange between the state and society, to give more resources to the war.

Cons of the system:

For the system to work, coercion and violence were required - war communism is inseparable from the red terror;

Industry, trade and the system as a whole were run by bureaucrats who were not interested in the efficiency of their work, but in impeccable accountability for it, which is not always the same thing;

The people and peasants mobilized by labor service, from whom all the surpluses are taken, no matter how much they grow, are not interested in the efficiency of their labor;

Under such a system, despite all the severity of punishments, the “black market” flourished;

The omnipotence of the bureaucracy also led to abuses by this bureaucracy, corruption and elementary theft of state resources.

1. Highlight the main activities of "war communism" in industry, agriculture, and trade. Do they correspond to the theory of communist society? Determine the causes and consequences of the policy of "war communism". To what extent do they correspond to the theory of communist society?

The policy of "war communism" contradicts the theory of communist society, because such a society should appear as a result of the development of productive forces and relations, its forcible introduction by orders of the authorities is not correct. Moreover, the theorists of communism have written about the possibility of such a phenomenon. They called it "barracks communism" and condemned it.

War communism was introduced out of necessity in order to keep the Bolsheviks in power, which was threatened by the following:

The supply of food and basic necessities to the urban population was deteriorating, which threatened with popular indignation;

The supply of manufactured goods for the countryside was reduced, which eliminated the incentive for the peasants to sell the products of their labor;

The supply of food, uniforms, etc. to the Red Army was deteriorating.

The supply of the Red Army with weapons and ammunition was deteriorating;

People fled from cities to villages, because of which there was no one to work at industrial enterprises.

In this regard, the following activities were carried out:

in industry

Private property was practically eliminated, enterprises were subordinated to government departments by areas of activity, they were managed by directive;

Compulsory general labor service was introduced;

in agriculture

The land was declared state property, and the peasants - only its tenants;

A surplus appropriation was introduced, that is, formally, what was necessary to supply the city and the army was withdrawn from the peasants (this norm was “deployed by provinces, districts, etc.), but in fact it turned out that everything was taken away, sometimes even the very last, but collected still was only 33-34% of the planned;

in trade:

Trade in manufactured goods was banned.

The policy of "war communism" led to the following consequences:

The collapse of the economy continued and worsened, but the state found the means to supply the Red Army;

Many enterprises stopped working, their equipment fell into disrepair;

Many means of communication fell into disrepair, which was supplemented by their destruction during the hostilities;

The number of urban population has significantly decreased, in particular the number of workers - by 3/4;

The surplus development led to numerous human dramas, often to hunger;

The ban on trade led to the flourishing of the "black market".

2. In your opinion, was the principle of communist theory - "to each according to his needs" realized during the years of "war communism"? Explain your opinion with facts. If you are a citizen modern Russia- ended up in Soviet Russia in the 1919-1920s, who would you support: the authorities who took away bread for the soldiers of the Red Army, forbade the "sack trade", or the peasants who did not want to hand over the bread, and the workers who went to the villages for groceries? Explain your opinion.

This principle was tried to be realized with the help of distribution, which replaced trade. Some Bolsheviks even dreamed of abolishing money as such. But the resources in the Soviet part of Russia were not enough to meet the needs of all its inhabitants. In the course of the surplus, sometimes even seed grain was taken away.

It is impossible to support those who shoot simply for what class a person belonged to before the revolution, who takes away the last products, although he sees that the peasant family itself has nothing left. It is impossible to approve a regime where everything is done under duress, according to duty. Therefore, of course, I would be dissatisfied with the policy of “war communism”. But there would be no talk of active support for his opponents, since the anti-Bolshevik forces in Soviet Russia were not organized, they did not represent a single social force. This, by the way, was a huge omission of the white movement, because the opponents of the whites in their rear often, although not always, had a certain organization and coordination of actions. Not wanting to speak out against “war communism,” I would simply try to survive in the prevailing conditions, which the vast majority of the population did.

3. In your opinion, why during the years of “war communism” the principle of the communist theory “on the withering away of state violence and its replacement by public self-government” was not implemented?

Firstly, because people had to be forced to give their last for the sake of winning the war. Self-government will not do this, state coercion is required. Russia could not withstand the severity of the First World War, its industry and transport system could not cope with the supply of both the front and the city. The collapse of the economy as a result of the anarchy of 1917 and the often mediocre leadership of the new bosses, who took over local management after October 1917, only aggravated the situation. Therefore, it was inevitable that all forces had to be strained, to give the last for the sake of victory in the Civil War. People are usually not ready to give the latter voluntarily.

Secondly, at public self-government the Bolsheviks could not remain in power. Already in the first half of 1918, their opponents began to gain popularity in the Soviets, the anti-Bolshevik Kronstadt uprising was held under the slogan "Power to the Soviets, not to parties." Self-government implied a potential change in the ruling party, which was not part of the plans of the Bolsheviks. However, this was not only a lust for power. Lenin's comrades-in-arms sincerely believed that only they could lead Russia, and then the rest of the world, to the real, and not war communism, to the happiness of all mankind. Therefore, people need to be led to happiness, even if sometimes against their will.