War communism

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ru:Военный коммунизм

War communism or wartime communism was the harsh economic policy adopted by Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War. There were two main aims: To put Communist theories into practice by redistributing (giving out) wealth to the Russian people, and to win the Civil War by keeping towns and the Red Army supplied with weapons and food. They include the following policies:

1. All large factories to be controlled by the government.
2. Production planned and organised by the government.
3. Discipline for workers was strict, and strikers could be shot.
4. Obligatory labor duty was imposed onto "non-working classes".
5. Prodrazvyorstka -- requisition of agricultural surpluses from peasants in excess of absolute minimum for centralized distribution among the remaining population.
6. Food and most commodities were rationed and distributed in a centralized way.
7. Private enterprise became illegal.
8. Military-like control of railroads was introduced.

Although this achieved the aim of winning the war, it caused terrible hardship. Peasants refused to co-operate in producing food, as the government took away far too much of it. This led to food shortages and, along with the bad weather and the effects of the war, to famine. Several million people died, and there were even reports of cannibalism. This sparked the Kronstadt rebellion at the naval base on February, 1921. The rebellion had a startling effect on Lenin, even though it was eventually crushed by the Red Army, because the Kronstadt sailors had been among the strongest supporters of communism. After the rebellion, Lenin put a stop to War Communism right away and replaced it with the New Economic Policy.

The term wartime communism was also reportedly in use in Serbia during the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s.