This paper studies
economic policies of the belligerent governments during the Russian Civil War,
the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the Red, and the Russian
State in Siberia, the White. This paper compares policies targeted at land
question, monetary system, and government finance, with an analysis of the
ideological basis for policy making on each side. Policies of the Red, though
termed war communism, were not exclusively driven by war exigency but were
based upon ideological guidance for the installation of socialist order.
Policies of the White lacked a firm ideological foundation, attempted at a
pro-liberal market system, and were constantly subject to modifications forced
by war exigency. Non-predetermination rendered policies of the White lack of a
long-term plan. Impacts of the rule of the Red and the White are viewed through
the lens of agricultural produce. It is found that the losing side of the civil
war, the White, enjoyed better agricultural yields between 1918 and 1920, and
areas under constant military conflict yielded less agricultural produce than
areas in relatively stable control of either the Red or the White.
