War communism or military communism (Russian: Военный коммунизм, 1918–1921) was the economic and political system that existed in Soviet Russia during the Russian Civil War, from 1918 to 1921. According to Soviet historiography, this policy was adopted by the Bolsheviks with the aim of keeping towns and the Red Army supplied with weapons and food, in conditions in which all normal economic mechanisms and relations were being destroyed by the war. "War communism", which began in June 1918, was enforced by the Supreme Economic Council, known as the Vesenkha. It ended on March 21, 1921 with the beginning of the New Economic Policy (NEP), which lasted until 1928.
Other articles related to "war communism, war":
... combined with the effects of 7 years of war and a severe drought, contributed to a famine that caused between 3 and 10 million deaths ...
... During the Civil War (1917–1921), the Bolsheviks adopted War Communism, which entailed the breakup of the landed estates and the forcible seizure of agricultural surpluses ... At the Tenth Party Congress it was decided to end War Communism and institute the New Economic Policy (NEP), in which the state allowed a limited market to exist ... surpluses in order to feed the urban population (the hallmark of War Communism), the NEP allowed peasants to sell their surplus yields on the open market ...
... Based on his experiences, he proposed abandoning the policies of War Communism, which included confiscating grain from peasants, and partially restoring the grain market ... Still committed to War Communism, Lenin rejected his proposal ... which he directed should be militarized in the spirit of War Communism ...
... had persuaded the 10th Party Congress to approve the NEP as a replacement for the War Communism that had been set up during the Russian Civil War ... In War Communism, the state had assumed control of all means of production, exchange and communication ... took over from the failed attempts of War Communism, during this time, the state had controlled all large enterprises (i.e ...
... of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 until 1921 is known as the period of war communism ... and resented having to surrender their surplus grain to the government as a part of its civil war policies ... with peasant opposition, Lenin began a strategic retreat from war communism known as the New Economic Policy (NEP) ...
Famous quotes containing the words communism and/or war:
“Today’s Communism can survive only if it abandons the myth of an infallible party, if it continues to think, and if it becomes democratic.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)
“We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in so doing lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)