War communism in the context of "Typhus"

The Russian famine of 1921–1922, also known as the Povolzhye famine (Russian: Голод в Поволжье 'Volga region famine'), was a severe famine in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic that began early in the spring of 1921 and lasted until 1922. The famine resulted from the combined effects of severe drought, the continued effects of World War I, economic disturbance from the Russian Revolution, the Russian Civil War, and failures in the government policy of war communism (especially prodrazvyorstka). It was exacerbated by rail systems that could not distribute food efficiently.

The famine killed an estimated five million people and primarily affected the Volga and Ural River regions. Many of the starving resorted to cannibalism. The outbreaks of diseases such as cholera and typhus were also contributing factors to famine casualties.

Autarky is the characteristic of self-sufficiency, usually applied to societies, communities, states, and their economic systems.

Autarky as an ideology or economic approach has been attempted by a range of political ideologies and movements, particularly leftist ones like African socialism, mutualism, war communism, communalism, swadeshi, syndicalism (especially anarcho-syndicalism), and left-wing populism, generally in an effort to build alternative economic structures or to control resources against structures a particular movement views as hostile. However, some right-wing ones, like nationalism, conservatism, and anti-globalism, along with even some centrist movements, have also adopted autarky, generally on a more limited scale, to develop a particular industry, to gain independence from other national entities or to preserve part of an existing social order.

Prodrazverstka, also transliterated prodrazvyorstka (Russian: продразвёрстка [prədrɐˈzvʲɵrstkə], short for продовольственная развёрстка, lit. 'food apportionment'), alternatively referred to in English as grain requisitioning, was a policy and campaign of confiscation of grain and other agricultural products from peasants at nominal fixed prices according to specified quotas (the noun razverstka, Russian: развёрстка, and the verb razverstat, refer to the partition of the requested total amount as obligations from the suppliers).

The term is commonly associated with war communism during the Russian Civil War when it was introduced by the Bolshevik government. However, the Bolsheviks borrowed the idea from the grain razverstka introduced in the Russian Empire in 1916 during World War I.

The New Economic Policy (NEP) (Russian: новая экономическая политика (НЭП), romanized: novaya ekonomicheskaya politika) was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, both subject to state control", while socialized state enterprises would operate on "a profit basis". Nouveau riche people who took an advantage of the NEP were called NEPmen (нэпманы).

The NEP represented an early form of market socialism to foster economic growth for the country, which had suffered severely since World War I and the Russian Civil War. The Soviet authorities partially revoked the complete nationalization of industry (established during the period of war communism of 1918 to 1921) and introduced a mixed economy which allowed private individuals to own small and medium-sized enterprises, while the state continued to control large industries, banks and foreign trade. The Bolshevik government adopted the NEP in the course of the 10th Congress of the All-Russian Communist Party (March 1921). The decree on 21 March 1921: "On the Replacement of Prodrazvyorstka by Prodnalog" abolished forced grain-requisition (prodrazvyorstka) and introduced a tax on farmers, payable in the form of raw agricultural product (prodnalog). Further decrees refined the policy. Other policies included monetary reform (1922–1924) and the attraction of foreign capital.