that meant that agrarian peasants' cash crops (and sometimes foodstuffs, Lenin admits) were appropriated by the state (for cash, says Lenin) to "meet the requirements of the army and sustain workers" (quoted in Fischer and Marek, 1972, p. 146). Fischer and Marek (1972, p. 146) quote Lenin's description of War Communism as a "makeshift" response to "the war and the ruin," a necessary exercise in proletariat leadership of all society from bourgeoisie to peasantry, to guarantee the ultimate socialist victory.
Unfortunately for the program, world-historical events did not comply. Volkogonov (1994, p. 334) cites the "chaos created by the revolution" as Lenin's reason for "harsh regulations, coercion and control, policies presented as a new structure called 'War Communism,'" but rejects Lenin's assertion that it was a temporary response
...