THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION - WAR COMMUNISM

Question 1

WAR COMMUNISM: BRIEF INFORMATION

• British historian Peter Oxley: 95 percent of deaths during the Civil War were from famine an disease = political, economic and human disaster
• A series of…
• Attempt to maintain firm…
• Ultimate aim…
• Forced… RA or to the I….
• Forced… GR

Answer 1

• A series of economic policies instituted between 1918 and 1920 in order to mobilize the nation to fight the Civil War
• Attempt to maintain firm government control over the economy and trade (Combat the economic problems)
• Aim: to WIN the war at all cost
• Forced Conscription into the red army or to the industry
• Forced grain and food requisitioning

Question 2

WAR COMMUNISM: ECONIMIC CRISIS
* STARVATION

• GR 1919-1920….
• Humans….

Answer 2

• Grain requisitioning 1919-1920
• Exceeded the harvest surplus (30 percent)
• Forced to give up 118 kilograms of food, fodder and seed
• Cannibalism

Question 3

WAR COMMUNISM: ECONIMIC CRISIS

• INTERNATIONAL AID PROVIDED
• Humanitarian….
• British actively…
• American Relief…. saved another…

Answer 3

• Russian famine: Humanitarian disaster
• British actively supported the famine victims by establishing an appeal called: ‘Save the Children Fund in Russia’
• American Relief Administration: (distributing food and seed) = saved another 14 million peasants from starvation

Question 4

WAR COMMUNISM: ECONIMIC CRISIS
* KULAKS ATTACKED

• Richer peasants
• blamed for the…
• Secretly…
• Enough to feed…

Answer 4

• Richer peasants = kulaks
• Blamed for the higher prices from the critical food shortage
• Secretly hoarding grain rather than handing it over (to the nation). Lenin resorted to sending CHEKA members to coerce the kulaks to give up the grain
• Peasants only produced enough grain to feed their families = food supplies fell

Question 5

WAR COMMUNISM: ECONIMIC CRISIS

• DROP IN INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION
• Decrease in Industrial…
• Coal production…
• Industrial output…
• Agricultural output…

Answer 5

• Decrease in industrial workers: From 1917 (3,024,000) to 1921 (1,480,000)
• Since 1913: Coal production had fallen to 30% of its output
• Industrial output: Fallen to as low as 15% of pre-war levels
• Agricultural output: fallen to as low as 60%

Question 6

WAR COMMUNISM: ECONOMIC POLICIES (SOME)

• Private…
• Abolition of …. $
• … farms on…
• Rationing…
• Subbotniki
• Militarisation of…

Answer 6

• Banning of private trade (resulted in the growth f the black market - illegal trade of products)
• Abolition of money as a means of exchange
• Establishment of Soviet farms on large estates
• Rationing of food
• Communist Sundays (Subbotniki) - loyal communists were expected to ‘volunteer’ to aid the war effort
• Militarisation of labour