War communism policy: marxist doctrine and peasant reality (1918–1921)

Relevance. In a context where the peasantry constituted the absolute majority of the population, the attempt to forcefully build communism through total nationalization and the violent confiscation of products led to a systemic crisis, culminating in mass uprisings and famine. Studying this historical experience allows us to understand the underlying causes of the failure of this social experiment and its catastrophic consequences.

The purpose of the article − based on the analysis of the doctrinal principles of Bolshevism and the practical measures of the policy of “war communism”, is to identify the key contradictions between the ideological utopia and the peasant reality that predetermined the collapse of this policy.

Objectives: analyzing the theoretical foundations of "War Communism" in the works of V.I. Lenin, N.I. Bukharin, and L.D. Trotsky; studying key policy instruments (food dictatorship, food tax collection, poor peasant committees, and labor service); and assessing the peasantry's response and the consequences of this policy for the agricultural sector and the country as a whole.

Methodology. This article utilizes historiographical, comparative historical, and problem-chronological methods to analyze the policy of "War Communism" and its consequences.

Results. The study established that the policy of "war communism" was not only a necessary measure during the Civil War, but also a deliberate attempt to implement the Marxist doctrine of an immediate transition to a communist social structure based on the complete rejection of market relations. It was revealed that its key instrumentswere aimed at breaking the peasantry as a class of smallholders. Historical analysis revealed that the peasantry's reaction (reduced crop yields, passive sabotage, and armed uprisings) was a rational response to the dismantling of economic incentives. The policy of "war communism" led to the collapse of agricultural production, mass famine, and brought the Soviet regime to the brink of disaster.

Conclusions. the policy of "war communism" represented a failed attempt to mechanically transfer a speculative Marxist doctrine to Russian agrarian soil. The Bolshevik leadership's inability to reconcile its ideology with the fundamental interests of the peasantry led to a profound socioeconomic crisis and provoked a large-scale peasant war, forcing the architects of the experiment to radically change course and transition to the New Economic Policy (NEP).

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