changes to living and working conditions of rural and urban people

Question 1

what percentage of the russian population lived in tows/cities by 1900?

Answer 1

15%

Question 2

urban housing: tsars

Answer 2

• houses erected quickly and cheaply - led to overcrowding and disease e.g crop failure
  1891
• by the beginning of WW1 - only 74 towns had access to electricity

Question 3

rural housing: tsars and communists

Answer 3

• ibza huts
• animals in hut
• overcrowded and added to health problems
• Kh tried to start ‘agro-towns’ but they were bad

Question 4

what were the main causes of famine across the period?

Answer 4

• monoculture
• restrictive practice of the mir
• weather
• gov policies e.g grain req under Vyshnegradsky and Stalin exacerbated food shortages and contributed to famines

Question 5

what were the main famines of the period

Answer 5

A3 - 1891
N2 - 1914 famine
BOL - 1921
STAL - 1932-34

Question 6

famine alexander iii

Answer 6

• 1891
• ‘we shall not eat, but we shall export’
• 300k die of starvation, grain req meant people were starving and couldn’t’ afford goods
• famine relief created but zemstvo act limited

Question 7

food shortages under Nicolas ii

Answer 7

• disruption of transport due to WW1
• bread queues 8hrs long
• Population boom 28mil by 1916 led to hoarding and a lack of incentive to buy or sell
• led to fall of Tsar

Question 8

food shortages under the Bolsheviks (2)

Answer 8

• 1918
• Treaty of Brest-Litovsk - lost ‘bread basket’ Ukraine - responded to this with grain requisitioning and Cheka siezing grain

1921 famine

• (June 1918) due to war communism and disruption of food transport
• forceful grain req continued through Red Army, Cheka and req squads 1919-20 - led to a refusal to grow crops
• death toll over 5mil
• reluctant to accept aid from American Relief Admin

Question 9

famine under stalin

Answer 9

1932-34

• kulaks often used as scapegoats for shortages
• man-made famine - due to forced grain req and impossibly high grain procurement set by Gosplan
• repression - death penalty for those who kept grain and those caught eating their own grain - no talking about it either so Stalin could deny it - 8mil died
• by late 1930s - meat and fish consumption had fallen by 80%

Question 10

food shortages under Khrushchev

Answer 10

• though virgin land schemes had been successful previously (e.g by 1956 over 35mil acres cultivated), not sustainable - 1963 disastrous grain harvest and 1/3 drop in output
• had to often import grain because prices were so unpredictable

Question 11

urban housing: communists

Answer 11

• Stalin’s rule - housing conditions deteriorated - 25% lived in communal dormitories, by the beginning of WW2 over 25mil homeless
• low priority given to living standards - ‘sacrifices’ had to be made and focus on achieving 5YP
• Kh - housing stock doubled and communal living was abandoned - but many lacked running water

Question 12

working conditions: the tsars

Answer 12

• factories usually poor conditions - factory inspectorate 1882
• inspectors largely ineffectual as they were limited in numbers and had limited powers of enforcement
• 9-10 hr working dats the norm 1914

Question 13

working conditions: stalin

Answer 13

• railcards
• fines and risk of being purged
• even small wrongdoings were dealt with harshly
• 1932 - up to 12 hr working day to meet demands of 5YPs - this was reduced in 1939 as a reward
• pay differentials

Question 14

working conditions: khrushchev

Answer 14

• 1956 minimum wage

Question 15

working conditions: the bolsheviks

Answer 15

• ‘New Work Discipline’ - poor conditions and this was enforced harshly - sacrifice for ‘the better’
• bonus schemes 1917
• Decree on workers

Question 16

working conditions: PG

Answer 16

• 8 point programme - 8hr working day to show they were the people’s party