DOCUMENT B3: Journal of Libertarian Studies, Volume V, 1981

In one fell swoop the market was declared illegal. Private trade, the hiring of labor, leasing of land, and all private enterprise and ownership were abolished, at least in theory, and subject to punishment by the state. Property was confiscated from the upper classes. Businesses and factories were nationalized. Surplus crops produced by the peasants were taken by the government to support the Bolshevik civil-war forces and workers in the towns. Labor was conscripted and organized militarily. Consumer goods were rationed at artificially low prices and later at no price at all. Unsurprisingly, special treatment was accorded those with power and influence.

The results were catastrophic. Industrial production by 1920 was 20 percent of the pre-war volume. Gross agricultural output fell from more than 69 million tons in the period 1909-1913 to less than 31 million in 1921. Sown area dropped from over 224 million acres in the period 1909-1913 to less than 158 million in 1921. From 1917 to 1922 the population declined by 16 million, not counting war deaths and emigration. Eight million persons left the towns for the villages from 1918 to 1920. In Moscow and Petrograd, the population declined 58.2 percent.