HIST 106 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: The Great Terror, Gulang County, War Communism

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: History
• Course: HIST 106
• Professor: Ilya Vinkovetsky

Document Summary

Bolsheviks signed a separate peace treaty with germany (brest-litovsk) People who opposed the treaty (called whites) were mobilized to remove the reds from power. Mensheviks, social revolutionaries and greens (anarchist peasants) opposed central state power. 1 mil died from combat, another few mil from diseases and hunger. 300,000 executions due to red and white terror. Wanted -> a state capitalist system that resembled successful european wartime economies. Got -> war communism: grain was demanded from peasants, outlawed private trade, militarized production facilities, abolished money. Populations left major cities -> industrial output fell. Because of grain requisition and ban on private trading, famine was wide spread: people couldn"t get the supplies they needed. Strikes and protests broke out but government subdued them to show public opposition would not be tolerated. War communism abandoned in favour for the new economic policy. Reverted to state capitalism: peasants could own property, trade freely and farm their own land, fixed taxes replaced requisition (of grain)