Communist Government Faced Severe Economic And Political Challenges

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How far do you agree that the communist government faced severe economic & political challenges in the years 1917-28?
The Communist Government faced some political and economic challenges in the years 1917-28, with the Civil War leading to economic collapse, mass poverty and political crisis. The Communist Government tried to introduce measures to solve these problems, but with every solution there was more political and economic challenges.
The first sight of economic and political challenges were during the Civil War, as the country was falling apart and the Government needed to keep them together therefore the country became more centralised and authoritarian, to gain more control of the people. Lenin brought in War Communism to deal with the effects of the Civil War.
This legislation consisted of many measures this included food dictatorship to make sure food reached the soldiers and workers. This included grain requisitioning and rationing. This enabled the CHEKA to seize grain and other forms of food from peasants without payment. The Supply Commissariat rationed the seized food to make sure the workers and soldiers got the majority of the food and the smallest amount went to the bourgeoisie. This was one solution to the challenges the communist government faced.
Another measure was labour discipline this meant that all able bodies aged 16-50 it was compulsory, this was so the country was never short of labour and could reach its maximum output. The working day was also extended to 11 hours in 1918. Labour discipline meant that Russia could get the maximum recourses out of Russia to help deal with the crisis they were facing.
As part of War Communism meant that industries were nationalised meaning that all industry was n...

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...ap between farmer’s income and industrial prices, as now farmers could not afford industrial equipment, so they therefore had fewer incentives to reproduce grain. The government’s response to this was to subsidise, so the peasant could now afford the machinery, but this then left an economic crisis has this meant they had less money to improve the economy. This indicated to Trotsky that the NEP solved some issue like famine, protests but the New Economic Policy was not capable of industrialising the economy.
In conclusion, the Communist Government faced many economic and political challenges in the years 1917-28 because of the civil war and government policy which tried to rebuild Russia. However later on they tried to fix some problems, but not all, as the Russian government could not industrialise the economy due to solving over political and economic challenges.

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