Lenin sought to implement socialist policies as soon as the Bolsheviks seized power. All land was nationalised, most had been owned by the aristocracy and the Church, and handed over to the village soviets, all large industrial enterprises were nationalised as were all banks. There were even debates about whether or not to abolish cash, to ban marriage and to disband the secret police and normal police and to replace them with citizens’ militias. However, the emerging civil war saw a dramatic change, War Communism was brought in to feed the cities and the Red Army. This was legalised theft of grain coupled with the mass conscription of young men into the Red Army. Alongside this were concerted efforts to educate the people about exactly what the new communist government would mean for them.
By 1921 the civil war was more or less over, and War Communism needed to be replaced, as the economy was failing. The New Economic Policy was a retreat from socialism, as small businesses were allowed to operate and both they and small farmers were allowed to buy and sell on the (free) open market.
See:
The Soviet Union 1917 – 1991 by Martin McCauley
Soviet Politics in Perspective by Richard Sakwa