War Communism

• From 1918-1921
• Was necessary to continue war
• It introduced state ownership, compulsory labour (September 1918), abolished trade and introduced grain requisitioning
• The grain requisitioning along with a bad harvest lead to 5 million deaths in 1921
• Number of factory workers fell by 25%
• People returned to the country side
• Led to economic collapse
• Not enough money to industrialise
• Bolsheviks become less popular as a result
• There were few incentives to work hard
• Lenin compared the communist state to a man 'beaten to within an inch of his life'.