Eventhough the "reds" had achieved military success when wining the civil war, the political support from peasants and workers was low due to Lenin's `War Communism' and the decree in living standards that followed the reforms.

In agriculture, the peasants did not show any interest to grow their crops as their produce was confiscated arbitrarily to feed the town workers and the soldiers. Some rich landowners (Kulaks) refused to hand in their crops to the soldiers. By 1921 the annual grain yield was about one half of the pre-war production. The drought in the same year immediately brought famine to most of Russia. From 1918 to 1920, about 6 million died of starvation, hunger and cold.

In industry, the workers low interest to work due to the fact that they received no cash wages, led to a drastic decline in industrial...