After the
October Revolution the new Bolshevik
government abolished
private ownership of land and began distributing it among the peasants.
Banks and large companies such as the Putilov Metal Works, were nationalized
and workers control of factory production was introduced.
During
the Civil War the government decided
to introduce what became known as War Communism. All companies were
now nationalized and the government now decided what should be produced.
The government also had the power to force men and women to work in
certain industries.
Soldiers
were also sent into rural areas to requisition grain and vegetables.
The peasants responded to this by cutting
down the sown area. There were also peasant risings in 1920-1 in the
Volga basin and Siberia.
War
Communism took away a lot of the freedoms that Russians had gained
as a result of the October Revolution.
Vladimir Lenin justified this policy by
claiming that these measures were necessary in order to defeat the
White Army.
The policy
created social distress and led to riots, strikes and demonstrations.
The Kronstadt Uprising reinforced the
idea that the government was unpopular and in March, 1921, Vladimir
Lenin announced details of his New Economic
Policy (NEP). Farmers were now allowed to sell food on the open
market and could now employ people to work for them. Those farmers
who expanded the size of their farms became known as kulaks.
The New
Economic Policy also allowed some freedom of internal trade, permitted
some private commerce and reestablished state banks. Factories employing
less than twenty people were denationalized and could be claimed back
by former owners. The NEP did improve the efficiency of food distribution
and especially benefited the peasants.
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