The notion that War Communism was “dictated” by circumstances, however, does violence to the historical record, as shown by the etymology of the term. The earliest official use of “War Communism” dates to the spring of 1921—that is, to the time when the policies so labeled were being abandoned in favor of the more liberal New Economic Policy. It was then that the Communist authorities, in order to justify their sudden turnabout, sought to blame the disasters of the immediate past on circumstances beyond their control. Thus, Lenin in April 1921 wrote: “ ‘War Communism’ was imposed by war and ruin. It was not and could not be a policy that corresponded to the economic tasks of the proletariat. It was a temporary measure.”2 But this was hindsight. While some of its measures were indeed taken to meet emergencies, War Communism as a whole was not a “temporary measure” but an ambitious and, as it turned out, premature attempt to introduce full-blown communism.3
That Bolshevik economic policies in the first years of the regime were neither improvisations nor reactions is confirmed by no less an authority than Trotsky. Allowing that War Communism entailed “systematic regimentation of consumption in a besieged fortress,” he goes on to say that
in its original conception it pursued broader aims. The Soviet Government hoped and strove to develop these methods of regimentation directly into a system of planned economy in distribution as well as production. In other words, from [War Communism] it hoped gradually, but without destroying the system, to arrive at genuine communism.4
This view is corroborated by another Communist authority. War Communism, he says,
was not only a product of war conditions and of other, spontaneously acting forces. It was also the product of a definite ideology, the realization of a sociopolitical design to construct the country’s economic life on entirely new principles.*
Nothing attests more convincingly to the long-range Communist goals of the policies which the Bolsheviks pursued during the Civil War than the systematic assault on the institution of private property. The laws and decrees to this end, passed at a time when the Bolshevik regime was fighting for its life and which contributed nothing to its survivability, were inspired by an ideological belief in the need to deprive the citizens of ownership of disposable assets because they were a source of political independence. The process of expropriation began with real estate. The so-called Land Decree of October 26, 1917, deprived non-peasant owners of landed property. This was followed by decrees concerning urban real estate, which was first (December 14, 1917) withdrawn from commerce and later (August 24, 1918) expropriated on behalf of the state.5 In January 1918 all state debts were repudiated. A decree of April 20, 1918, forbade the purchase, sale, and leasing of commercial and industrial enterprises. Another decree on that day required securities and bonds in private possession to be registered.6 A major step in the abolition of private property was taken on May 1, 1918, with a decree outlawing inheritance.7 None of these fell into the category of “emergency measures”: each was intended to deprive private persons and associations of title to productive wealth and other assets.
In its mature form, which it attained only in the winter of 1920–21, War Communism involved a number of sweeping measures designed to place the entire economy of Russia—its labor force as well as its productive capacity and distribution mechanism—under the exclusive management of the state, or, more precisely, the Communist Party. It was intended both to undercut the economic base of the opposition to the Communist regime and to enable that regime to reorganize the national economy in a thoroughly “rational” manner. These measures were:
1. The nationalization of (a) the means of production, with the important (albeit temporary) exception of agriculture, (b) transport, and (c) all but the smallest enterprises.
2. The liquidation of private commerce through the nationalization of the retail and wholesale trade, and its replacement by a government-controlled distribution system.
3. The elimination of money as a unit of exchange and accounting in favor of a system of state-regulated barter.
4. The imposition on the entire national economy of a single plan.
5. The introduction of compulsory labor for all able-bodied male adults, but on occasion also for women, children, and elders.
