3: Society Under Stalin

Question 1

How many were still religious?

Answer 1

1937 57%

Question 2

How many churches were closed?

Answer 2

1941
40,000

Question 3

When did Russian become compulsory in schools?

Answer 3

1938

Question 4

Literacy rates in 1941

Answer 4

94% in towns
86% in countryside

Question 5

What was forbidden in 1935? (Religion)

Answer 5

Pilgrimages to Mecca and wearing veils (Muslims)

Question 6

What were the Jews given in 1926?

Answer 6

‘National homeland’ in the Far East
Became an autonomous Republic with 25% Jewish population by 1941

Question 7

Deportations of non Russians

Answer 7

Began in 1929 with Finns
Followed by Poles, Ukrainians, and other European Russians

Question 8

Stalin’s approach to new Jewish citizens from aquiring Poland

Answer 8

Many rabbis sent to gulags

Question 9

How was propaganda seen in peasants’ homes?

Answer 9

‘Red corner’ dedicated to Stalin

Question 10

What was Petrograd changed to?

Answer 10

Leningrad

Question 11

All writers had to belong to…

Answer 11

The union of soviet writers in 1932

Question 12

When did Stalin begin promoting his Cult of Personality?

Answer 12

1929

Question 13

Wages in 1937

Answer 13

Lower than in 1928

Question 14

How were family values encouraged?

Answer 14

Adultery criminalised 1936
Contraception+ abortion banned
Divorce more expensive
1936 financial incentives for large families (tax exemptions)

Question 15

How was folk culture used?

Answer 15

Much was invented to be used as a tool by the authorities

Question 16

What did Lenin oppose that Stalin encouraged?

Answer 16

A cult of personality

Question 17

When was High Stalinism?

Answer 17

1945-1953

Question 18

When did Stalin suffer a stroke?

Answer 18

1946

Question 19

Describe the 1936 Constitution

Answer 19

‘The most democratic nation in the world’
Propaganda for the rest of the world
Claimed to have freedom of speech, autonomy for ethnic groups, and elections every 4 years with universal adult suffrage

Question 20

How did terror and repression continue?

Answer 20

1949 purge of Leningrad party
Anti-semitism
1951 purge in Georgia (likely anti-semitic)
1952 Doctors’ Plot (anti-semitic)

Question 21

Who was Zhdanov?

Answer 21

“Propagandist in chief”

Question 22

Zhdanovschina

Answer 22

Cultural purge launched after war
Targetted threat posed by Westernisation of Soviet culture

Question 23

Which author was expelled from the Union of Soviet Writers for writing a book about an anti-Soviet monkey?

Answer 23

Mikhail Zoshchenko
“The Adventures of the Monkey”

Question 24

Which composer was targetted in the Zhdanovschina?

Answer 24

Shostakovich

Question 25

The role of ____ diminished under High Stalinism

Answer 25

The party

Question 26

Diminishing role of the party during High Stalinism

Answer 26

No Party Congress between 1939 - 1952

Question 27

What did Stalin attempt to cover up (anti semitism)?

Answer 27

The Holocaust

Question 28

There was a growing ____ in the party

Answer 28

Elitism

Question 29

Youth movements

Answer 29

Komsomol
Young Pioneers

Question 30

When was the devaluation of the rouble?

Answer 30

1947

Question 31

How did workers fare after the war?

Answer 31

Working week remained at war time levels of 12 hours a day
No improvements in working or living conditions