Tsarism's inability to act in this manner when faced with a similar situation in WWI eventually led to its loss of control of the army, and subsequently, its loss of political power in February 1917.
In October 1917 the Bolsheviks inherited an economy on the brink of collapse. Four years of devastating war had paralysed Russian industry, and the outbreak of widespread civil war, plus the subsequent loss of important agricultural land (i.e. the Volga region, Ukraine) further compounded the problem. .
As Fitzpatrick asserts, the Bolsheviks "first and overwhelming problem [with the economy] was to keep it running". They did so through a vast policy of nationalisation, whereby all banks, wholesale trade and large enterprises (and later, small enterprises) were brought under state control. Free retail trade was prohibited, and the government began a fierce and determined campaign of grain requisitioning. All of these responses aimed to keep the army supplied, and as can be gauged by the Red Army's victory, they succeeded in their job.
The Bolshevik's constantly justified War Communism on ideological terms, with Lenin declaring it an attempt "to construct the Socialist order". Modern historians do not agree; Figes believes that it was not an example of established Bolshevik ideology, and that "much of it was in fact improvised". Nonetheless, this ill-fated attempt to create a socialist system did succeed in supplying the army, and subsequently, contributed significantly to the Bolsheviks winning the war. And again, these responses are an example of how the new regime was able to adjust its policies and ideas as the situation demanded. In contrast, the Tsarist regime - with its stubborn opposition to the duma and its inability to deal with similar economic crises - showed itself to be wholly unable to act in this way, a fact that sealed its fate to be overthrown by a more flexible regime.