4.1 Social Security

Question 1

When were labour exchanges (job centres) set up?

Answer 1

1918

Question 2

When was minimum wage introduced and pension provision expanded?

Answer 2

1956

Question 3

When did the expansion of the housing programme happen?

Answer 3

1956-1965

Question 4

When did the government reduce the working week?

Answer 4

1957

Question 5

Working hours in 1956 vs 1958

Answer 5

1956: 48 hours per week
1958: 41 hours per week

Question 6

When were regular wages introduced for collective farms?

Answer 6

1966

Question 7

When was the work passport system extended to the rural population?

Answer 7

1974

Question 8

What problems were caused by Stalin’s push to industrialise (employment)?

Answer 8

• Created full employment - no incentives for workers since they have a guaranteed job
• Technology was old - everything had to be done by hand
• There was a labour shortage

Question 9

Outline the effects of civil war on workers

Answer 9

• Collapse of industrial production - meant that there was a drift of workers out of the countryside and into factory work where income was more reliable
• Food shortages
• People fighting in the civil war resulted in a shortage of workers
• Many factories closed down

Question 10

How did the government deal with a shortage of workers during the civil war?

Answer 10

• forced people without employment to take any work offered to them (decree)
• 1918 - war communism - labour conscription
• Labour exchanges set up to supervise the hiring of workers

Question 11

What were some issues with the labour exchanges?

Answer 11

Many workers did not register for fear of being forced into a job they did not like