What policies did Lenin and Stalin pursue in their efforts to make the Soviet Union a Marxist country?
The first economic policy was War Communism.
At this time, the leader of the Bolsheviks, who were the ruling party, was Vladimir Lenin. The Bolsheviks implemented this policy during the Russian Civil War (1918-1921). The main features of this policy were:
- The Government took away private business properties.
- The nationalisation of industries in Soviet Russia.
- The Government seizing surplus grains from peasants.
The policy of War Communism eventually failed due to the following effects:
- Since there was no incentive to grow surplus crops, hunger spread.
- Industrial production dropped since the First World War.
- The worth of the currency fell, leading to an uncontrollable inflation.
The net result was that public discontent and disillusionment grew. Strikes and protests ended up in the Kronshtadt Rebellion.
Thereby, War Communism was scrapped and Lenin introduced a series of new policies called the New Economic Policy.
The policies of this new system were:
- The state gave back most of the private enterprises and properties it had seized.
- It retained control of heavy industries, banking, foreign trade, and transport.
- The peasants were allowed to own lands while paying a certain amount as tax to the government.
The New Economic Policy seemed to be working well, but there was a lot of criticism about the government over it by Lenin’s contemporaries. Even though some freedom was given to private groups, the state still held more power than them, thus upholding the principles of Marxism.
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