War Communism
What War Communism means in History A-Level, as defined for AQA, Pearson Edexcel.
Definitions of War Communism
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Reference: Pearson Edexcel
A set of emergency measures including grain requisitioning, nationalisation of industry and labour conscription, designed to supply the Red Army and manage the civil war economy.
A policy from 1918–21 that extended state control through grain requisitioning, nationalisation and labour discipline, but caused economic collapse and peasant resistance.
A shift forced by the Civil War, featuring grain requisitioning and nationalisation, which caused drastic social change and dire conditions.
Wartime government control enforced through this and the Red Terror, centralising economic and political power.
Topics that use War Communism
- 2N Revolution and dictatorship: Russia, 1917–1953 – Bolshevik consolidation, 1918–1924 (AQA A-Level)
- Defending the Bolshevik revolution, October 1917–24 (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
- Industrial and agricultural change, 1917–85 (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
Related terms
- New Economic Policy
- Red Terror
- state capitalism
- Agricultural investment and the Virgin Lands Scheme
- ban on factions
- Cheka
- Collectivisation
- Constituent Assembly
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