Six Weeks in Russia,

[system3]

Arthur Ransome tells the story of a former factory owner, known as Uncle. Following the revolution he the idea of common ownership, and put plenty of effort into keeping the factory production going in difficult times — this was a time of great shortages. The communist rulers would have none of this, they arrested him (thus halting production) until they got a large amount of money from the business. Ransome thought this was funny.