War Communism In Russia Essay

The December of 1991 marked the end of the Soviet Union—and with it, an entire era. Like the February Revolution of 1917 that ended tsardom, the events leading up to August 1991 took place in rapid succession, with both spontaneity and, to some degree, retrospective inevitability. To understand the demise of Soviet Union is to understand the communist party-state system itself. Although the particular happenings of the Gorbachev years undoubtedly accelerated its ruin, there existed fundamental flaws within the Soviet system that would be had been proven ultimately fatal. The USSR became a past chapter of history because it was impossible to significantly reform the administrative

Why are people against Communist? J. Edgar Hoover, Sidney Hook, and William O. Douglas have written articles about their opinion relating to Communist expanding throughout our Nation. Communism is a social organization based on the ownership controlled all economic and social activities. J. Edgar Hoover, Sidney Hook, and William O. Douglas have numerous points of view on Communism. Their voices and minds reveals that Communist is not who they say they are.

Russia struggled to provide food for its populations. Citizens took control into their own hands, Ludovic Naudeau wrote in October 1917, “One morning recently I was awakened by the cries of my neighbor in the next room. His boots had been stolen. The same day the manager of a newspaper office told me that he had been robbed six of pairs of pantaloons, … “Four hundred thefts every night!” he cried; that is the average for the last two weeks,”(One Aspect of Bolshevist Liberty). Russia could not even uphold itself because the economy was not successful compared to other countries. This led people to desire a change in the government; therefore this led to the Russian Revolution. People went to different maters to get what they wanted such as stealing since they were not getting the aid that they needed and they needed financial support. This caused them to protest against their government because many people from the lower class could not take care of their families. This cause led to a greater impact compared to Tsarist weak authority.

The Civil war was vital to the consolidation of power however it was only possible through the execution of War communism. War communism was an economic policy the Bolsheviks had created to meet the demands of war from 1918-1921. It forced manpower to either be directed to the Red Army or to the industry. It also confiscated all grain and food and allocated it to where it would be most productivity towards the war effort. The implementation of War Communism enabled the Red Army to be supplied with both food and weaponry and industrial workers to be fed. This was effective in allowing the Bolsheviks to maintain and effectively fight the civil war without the lack raw materials. David Christian believes that War Communism was essential as it ‘supplied towns and armies with enough food and supplies to keep providing war material to keep fighting’. Although War communism was effective towards the war effort it also significantly damaged the economy. The economy of Russia was shattered, there was a food shortage, fuel shortage and money had absolutely no value. The rouble was only worth 1% of its value in 1918, 10million died of starvation and agricultural output was 60% of pre war levels. War Communism enabled the logistics of war to be met which enabled the victory however

Poor Living and Working Conditions as the Reason for Bolsheviks' Seizure of Power in 1917

These effects however were more severe under Lenin and Stalin as they sought to increase grain production by coercion. While Lenin under War communism used grain requisitioning to forcefully collect peasant surpluses from them Stalin used collectivisation to force peasants to collaborate to produce as much food as possible. Similarly in both cases the peasants refused to conform; knowing that any surplus would be confiscated the peasant produced the barest minimum to feed themselves and their family and even less food was available for Russia. One of the greatest impacts were the famines that occurred in 1921 under Lenin where the grain harvest produced less than half the amount gathered in 1931 and Russia had international help from countries such as the USA. However these impacts were the greatest under Stalin. The amount of bread produced fell from 250.4 (kilograms per head) in 1928 to 214.6 in 1932. The impacts of collectivisation were at its worst in 1932-32 when occurred what many people describe as a self-made national famine. Stalin’s ‘’official silence’’ of the situation meant it wasn’t addressed and thus collectivisation killed between 10-15 million peasants and failed to increase agricultural output. Though a similar devastating famine occurred under

In 1917, Russia was crumbling into pieces. The World War I was draining all of Russia’s resources. There was shortage of food throughout the country, which left people starving. At the battlefront, millions of Russian soldiers were dying, they did not possess many of the powerful weapons that their opponents had. The government under Czar Nicholas II was disintegrating, and a provisional government had been set up. In November of 1917, Lenin and his communist followers known as the Bolsheviks overthrew the provisional government and set a communist government in Russia. However, in 1924, Lenin died and Josef Stalin assumed leadership of the Soviet Union, which was the name for the communist Russia. Stalin was a ruthless leader who brought

The first feature “Basic feature of Post-War Soviet outlook” in which Kennan believed that the Soviet Union has international intentions he describes as “capitalist encirclement”. Kennan mentions that socialist centers will draw countries that are in favor of socialism and capitalist centers will draw countries that are in favor of capitalism. Kennan says “Battle between these two centers for command of world economy will decide fate of capitalism and of communism in entire world" (Kennan 1946). He believes the USSR is using any opportunity to gain strength and did not want to co-exist with a capitalist world. Capitalism and Communism are opposed to one another to the Soviet Union.

The Russian Civil War (1917-1923) saw millions of deaths and millions further starved. The Bolsheviks saw the importance of maintaining their power in the cities in order to maintain power over the country itself. To keep the people happy thus, they realised they needed to keep the people fed. This led top the eventual inception of War Communism. An economic/agricultural policy incorporated by War Communism was known as Prodrazvyorstka – requisition of agricultural surpluses from peasants in excess of absolute minimum for centralized distribution among the remaining population. This meant that the Bolsheviks could seize whatever food they needed from the countryside towns and villages and distribute it amongst the urban population in cities such as Petrograd and Moscow.

1947 through 1991 was the time period of the Cold War; the Cold War was a result caused by the tension of the after math of what had happened with world war 2 .The tension that was there wasn 't just any kind of tension it was military tension between the power of the eastern bloc and the power of the western bloc. The Cold War wasn 't only one war but it was decades of "little"wars and intimidation. Germany was busy after the war, there where so much tension between the Soviet Union and the western allies because they had feared each other because they had thought a new war could arise. Minister Churchill then decided that he would put what would be an iron curtain across Europe. The Cold War had so many little conflicts within it like the Chinese revolution, the Palestine liberation organisation, and so many more hundreds if you would that happened in the Cold War time.

The introduction of War Communism during the Russian Civil War, is evidence of Russian moving towards a Totalitarian State. Many aspects of War communism were totalitarian in nature. For instance the creation of a Supreme Economic Council, formed to take complete control over the Russian highlights the central control over the most vital aspect of the state, that the Bolsheviks enforced. Other measures include the requisitioning of excess grain from the Peasants. Many of these policies were met with opposition, particularly among the agricultural peasants. This opposition was in turn met with brutal force, which was another example of the nature of complete state authority. War communism continued on until the end of the Civil war, by which time the Bolshevik forces had succeeded in crushing all opposition. The success of the red forces meant that Russia was a step closer in becoming a Totalitarian state, as they were now the most powerful party in Russia, with complete control over all its territory.

Communist rule was confined to the Soviet Union until the end of World War II.

He had been, but he was one of many who were greatly angered by the

Communism in the USSR was doomed from the onset. Communism was condemned due to lack of support from other nations, condemned due to corruption within its leadership, condemned due to the moral weakness of humanity, making what is perfect on paper, ineffective in the real world. The end of this system was very violent. It left one of the two most powerful nations in the world fearful of what was to come. <br><br>Communism can either be called a concept or system of society. In a society that follows the communist beliefs groups own the major resources and means of production, rather than a certain individual. In theory, Communism is to provide equal work, and benefits to all in a specific society. Communism is derived from many ancient

The command system, which is also described as Marxism, socialism, or communism, is both a political and economic philosophy. In a communist economy, the government owns most of the firms, subsequently controlling production and allocation of resources. One of the most well-known and well-documented cases of a communist government took place in the Soviet Union, beginning in 1917 and eventually falling in 1992. Idealistically, communism eliminates social classism and provides equal work for all in a particular society. The government appoints a central planning board to “determine production goals for each enterprise and to specify the amount of resources to be allocated to each enterprise so that it can reach its production goals.”