WAR COMMUNISM
“Their irresponsibility was nowhere more evident than in their obstinate attempts to introduce a money-less economy” (on induced hyper-inflation during War Communism).
Richard Pipes
“…War Communism was not just a response to the civil war; it was also a means of making civil war…”
Orlando Figes
“Dogma deprived the Bolsheviks of common sense”.
Dimitri Volkogonov
“Lenin apparently never asked himself why, before 1921, the Bolsheviks were incapable of giving the people anything but chaos, civil war, hunger and terror. The fact is, the Bolsheviks had achieved their goal: the Party had power”.
Dimitri Volkogonov
“War Communism had been an attempt to take the fortress of the capitalist elements in town and countryside by assault, by a frontal attack. In this offensive the Party had gone too far ahead, and ran the risk of being cut off from its base. Now Lenin proposed to retire a little, to retreat for a while nearer to the base, to change from an assault of the fortress to the slower method of siege, so as to gather strength and resume the offensive”.
History of the CPSU
“It seem unlikely that the Bolsheviks gave any thought to the fact that giving promise while in opposition is a different thing from fulfilling it in government. On every point - peace, land, liberty, Constituent Assembly, freedom of the press and all the rest – their promises rapidly changed into coercion, limitation, alteration, a different ‘reading’ or an outright denial. Even the land, which they did give, they made undesirable by confiscating everything it produced”.
Dimitri Volkogonov
“Their irresponsibility was nowhere more evident than in their obstinate attempts to introduce a money-less economy” (on induced hyper-inflation during War Communism).
Richard Pipes
“…War Communism was not just a response to the civil war; it was also a means of making civil war…”
Orlando Figes
“Dogma deprived the Bolsheviks of common sense”.
Dimitri Volkogonov
“Lenin apparently never asked himself why, before 1921, the Bolsheviks were incapable of giving the people anything but chaos, civil war, hunger and terror. The fact is, the Bolsheviks had achieved their goal: the Party had power”.
Dimitri Volkogonov
“War Communism had been an attempt to take the fortress of the capitalist elements in town and countryside by assault, by a frontal attack. In this offensive the Party had gone too far ahead, and ran the risk of being cut off from its base. Now Lenin proposed to retire a little, to retreat for a while nearer to the base, to change from an assault of the fortress to the slower method of siege, so as to gather strength and resume the offensive”.
History of the CPSU
“It seem unlikely that the Bolsheviks gave any thought to the fact that giving promise while in opposition is a different thing from fulfilling it in government. On every point - peace, land, liberty, Constituent Assembly, freedom of the press and all the rest – their promises rapidly changed into coercion, limitation, alteration, a different ‘reading’ or an outright denial. Even the land, which they did give, they made undesirable by confiscating everything it produced”.
Dimitri Volkogonov