this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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Party like it's 1922 (media.piefed.social)
submitted 6 days ago by PugJesus@piefed.social to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The famine in question (early ‘20s, not the later famine that resulted from de-kulakization) was made much worse because Lenin kept exporting food during it. The Bolsheviks did this because it was their only source of the foreign credit they needed to buy the machine tools and whatnot they needed to ramp up their industrial sector.

I really think you're mixing up the famines. Export of food to acquire industrial capital was a major motivation during the Holodomor. During the Russian Civil War, the motivation was to keep the Red Army fed and in the field without having to make concessions to the peasants, independent regions, or demobilizing any troops.

I wouldn’t call that “war communism”, just straight “communism” as per Marx they felt industrialization was everything.

War Communism is a reference to a specific set of policies adopted during the Russian Civil War.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 0 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

I really think you’re mixing up the famines.

I'm not mixing up the famines. During both famines the USSR was using agricultural products (their only significant export) to acquire industrial capital. The reason I'm talking about the first famine is that we're talking about Lenin here, who was long dead by the second famine.

[–] PugJesus@piefed.social 3 points 5 days ago

To my knowledge, grain export was not a major contributor to the first famine, especially since the Allied blockade wasn't even lifted until the famine was already underway. Even as late as 1923 Soviet imports of food was considerable (and much of the remainder being consumer goods and raw materials, not industrial machinery) with industrialization not being emphasized until the 14th Party Congress in late 1925.