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War Communism And The Russian Civil War

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After the Tsar regime was overthrown in 1917, Russia experienced further discontent as its people carried out revolution and civil war (Modern World History: Russia 1905-41). From these occurrences, Russia then became the first communist state in the world. The Bolsheviks had become the ruling party after taking over the Provisional Government in the revolution of November 1917. Vladimir Lenin had been the leader of this party. There was a bitter civil war between the Communists who were the Reds and the opposition being the Whites. As a final point the Bolsheviks defeated their enemies in the Russian Civil War that lasted for 3 years and ended in 1920.
When the Bolsheviks took over after winning the Civil War they had complete control …show more content…

The Russians had given them peace terms that they found them difficult to comply to and too severe.
War Communism had been implemented by Lenin in 1918 because of the needs of the Civil War. The Russian economy was now aimed at providing the supplies it needed for the army (Modern World History: War Communism and Red Terror). The Bolsheviks party decided to move away from state capitalism because they felt the need to intensify authority, through communism (Reaction and Revolution: Russia 1894-1924 Third Edition: War Communism). Lenin introduced harsh restrictive policies to create the new communist rule. All aspects of life in Russia were controlled by the Bolsheviks as they implemented severe terms upon its people. Social, political and economic areas of life had to become subordinate to the aim of winning the Civil War (Reaction and Revolution: Russia 1894-1924 Third Edition: War Communism).
The aim of War Communism was to bring industry and agriculture under central control. Thus the policy of centralization was put into play. This concentrated mainly on the political and economic center of Russia. In addition this created a great increase of Bolshevik influence. There was development within the factories through Bolsheviks influence. Lenin then put a Decree on Nationalism. In less than two years Russia’s enterprises were all under the central government control

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