4- Family (updated)

Question 1

Intro

Question 2

It could be argue that government attitudes changed because each leader either introduced new reforms or reversed the policies of the leader before. For example, Lenin

Answer 2

Govt attitudes moved away from supporting the nuclear family (Family Code made divorce easier- post card divorces, youth groups encouraged to attack the capitalist tyranny of parents, more contraception, abortion legalised) and subordinating women e.g. Party sections set up to educate women members to become more assertive and independent and wives encouraged to refuse obedience to their husbands. A marriage could be dissolved at the request of either husband or wife.
- Completely reformed what was seen as acceptable in terms of marriage and the family unit

Question 3

Stalin P 1

Answer 3

Soviet family policy became much more conservative. He wanted to create stable families to serve the goal of economic development. So Lenin’s progress reversed with the ‘Great Retreat’ 1936- divorce made more expensive, increasing from 4 roubles to 50. Abortion outlawed, contraception banned.
- 1944, further strengthening of the family. Awards for ‘mother-heroines’ who had 10 or more children, pronatalist policies offering financial incentives for women to have children (5000 roubles for 11 children), tax on single people to encourage marriage.

Question 4

Views towards women and babies

Answer 4

Under lenin the government aspired to destroy the family group, while under Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev, traditional families were not only seen as the ideal, but bigger families were encouraged. While Lenin believed that the family unit was a contradiction to the collective outlook of comm, Stalin saw it as essential to the running of the union

Question 5

Khrushchev brought many changes to Stalin’s policy: P1

Answer 5

• Legalised abortion 1955 and divorce
• Lessened the strain placed on the family by increasing provision of social benefits like housing, healthcare and childcare.
• Women’s rights were re-emphasised in the years following Stalin’s death.
• Khrushchev focused on women’s rights in the context of traditional families, therefore returning to Leninist views
• Women’s rights were re-emphasised in the years following Stalin’s death.
• Khrushchev focused on women’s rights in the context of traditional families.

Question 6

Brezhnev P1

Answer 6

Brezhnev continued to stress the centrality of the family to Soviet life.

• Family Code 1968 reinforced traditional views towards family as a social unit
• Growing awareness of social problems that weakened the family and subsequent attempts to address them.
• Legalised divorce tho, by 1979, 1/3 of Soviet marriages ended in divorce.

Question 7

P2- Consistent because ✨women✨ lenin

Answer 7

Attitudes towards women and the family consistent
Head of Zhenotdel, the women’s department of the Communist Party, Kollontai, believed there were innate differences between men and women so during Civil War, the Zhenotdel recruited women to work in creches and orphanages where they could fulfil their ‘natural nurturing role’. Lenin

Question 8

P2- Stalin

Answer 8

Stalin- wanted to control women- promitiung a stable society which would produce many children for his workforce and army. Double burden when needed workers or plans. Whilst 50-60% of doctors in the USSR were female by late 1930s, only 4 female senior doctors in the whole of Leningrad.

Question 9

P2- Khrushchev

Answer 9

Encouraged women to take up the role of supporting the family and looking after the household.
Generally Khrushchev wanted women to continue to perform their traditional roles as wives and mothers.
Wanted to make these roles easier.
Brez The lack of women in the most senior jobs in industry, agriculture and government was explained by the women’s natural desire to focus on family.
Government banned information about women’s campaigns in the West being reported in the Soviet press to suppress debates about women’s roles and sexual dominance.

Question 10

P2- BREZHNEV

Answer 10

Brezhnev thought of women as unskilled workers whose main goal was to have kids. Pronatal campaign emphasised ‘natural differences’ between the sexes, stressing women’s natural ability to nurture and need for a strong man. By 1970 coupled with official criticism of women who ‘neglected’ their children by going to work. According to Brezhnev’s propaganda, working women were responsible for juvenile delinquency, rising crime, drug taking, alcoholism and family break-up.
Male homosexuality was a crime, lesbianism was still a mental disorder, and sex was for reproduction not pleasure.

Question 11

P3? Changes to housing

Answer 11

Lenin’s promotion of communal living reflects desire to break up the traditional family; he confiscated large houses of the bourgeois and divided them up for the proletariat.
Stalin saw industrialisation as more important so it was almost back-benched- 5 plans 25% of people in Moscow lived in dormitorie
Khrushchev- significant changes to housing, which reflected the government returning to the attitude that the traditional family is important. Housing programme 1960s, thousands of apartment blocks were built, adequate housing and provisions to reduce strain on families which reduced divorce.
Brezhnev improved provision of housing. Continuation under Brezhnev and Khrush shows little change in govt attitudes towards the family.