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Unlock This CourseBy the summer of 1918 the Bolsheviks were fighting a Civil War. The Red Army needed food, uniforms and weapons, and the cities that made them were short of bread. Peasants did not want to sell grain for money that was losing its value, because there was little to buy with it. Some Bolsheviks also believed that a communist state should run the economy itself and not leave it to private traders.
The answer was War Communism, a set of emergency policies lasting from 1918 to 1921. Its first aim was to win the war, by getting every scrap of food and industrial output to the Reds.
Key terms:
Armed squads were sent into the villages to seize any grain beyond what a family needed to live on. In June 1918 the government also set up committees of poor peasants to help find hidden grain. Peasants often hid their grain or killed their animals rather than hand them over.
In June 1918 all large factories were nationalised, and later even many small workshops. A central body ran industry and told factories what to make. Workers had to obey strict discipline and could be sent where they were needed.
Other parts of the policy supported these two. Private trade was banned. Food was rationed, with the biggest portions for soldiers and heavy workers. Money lost almost all its value, so many workers were paid in food and goods instead. Anyone selling food on the black market could be punished by the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police.
Kronstadt was a naval base on an island in the Gulf of Finland, near Petrograd. Its sailors had been strong supporters of the Bolsheviks in 1917. Trotsky had called them the 'pride and glory' of the revolution, so a rising there was a serious shock.
In February 1921 workers in Petrograd went on strike over cut rations and the lack of fuel, and the government declared martial law in the city. Many Kronstadt sailors had relatives in the villages, who were suffering under requisitioning. The crew of the battleship Petropavlovsk drew up a resolution, and on 1 March a mass meeting of sailors backed it. The rebels, who became known as the Kronstadt mutineers, demanded:
Their slogan was 'soviets without Communists': they wanted the soviets to rule, not the Communist Party. The Bolsheviks called the sailors counter-revolutionaries. After negotiations failed, the Red Army, led by Mikhail Tukhachevsky, began attacking on 7 March. The first assault failed, but a second attack across the frozen sea took the base on 18 March, with thousands killed or captured. Many prisoners were later shot or sent to prison camps.
The Kronstadt Mutiny showed Lenin that even loyal supporters had turned against War Communism. He decided to change course, and the next lesson, The New Economic Policy and Its Critics, shows how.
This is a Paper 2 Section A (a) question. Choose ONE of the two options and give two features, each with supporting detail.
Describe TWO features of EITHER War Communism OR the Kronstadt Mutiny. [6 marks]
I have chosen War Communism. One feature was grain requisitioning. Armed squads were sent into the villages to seize any grain beyond what a family needed to live on, and in June 1918 committees of poor peasants were set up to help find hidden grain. This was meant to feed the Red Army and the cities, but peasants hid grain or sowed less.
A second feature was state control of industry. In June 1918 all large factories were nationalised, and later many small workshops too. Workers were under strict discipline and private trade was banned, so that factories made what the war needed. Despite this, by 1920 output was only about a fifth of its 1913 level.
What lifts this to the top level: each feature is clearly named, then supported with a specific fact (squads, the June 1918 committees, the 1920 output figure), and the answer stays on describing features.
Give two features only, and put a date, name or number in each. One feature alone scores no more than 3 of the 6 marks, however good it is.