The Sheksna Uprising was part of a wave of peasant uprisings that swept over Central Russia between November and December 1918. At that time, uprisings occurred at 138 of 268 counties under Bolshevik control. The primary reason for the uprisings was the peasants' discontent with the War Communist system's management of villages. The peasants in the rural districts involved in the Sheksna Uprising were dissatisfied with the excesses of local food detachments, and the deterioration of the economic situation in the villages.