Chapter 2.3 - Changes to living and working conditions of rural and urban people Flashcards
Chapter 2.3
chapter 2.3
Urban Housing: Nicholas II
What % of Russians lived in towns and cities by the 20th century?
15%
What % of people in Britain and America lived in towns and cities at this time?
Britain - 80%
USA - 40%
How many cities had more than 100,000 inhabitants?
19 cities
When was the first census carried out?
1897
What cities’ populations doubled from 1897 to 1914?
Riga and Kiev
By the start of WW1, how many towns had access to electricity, gas, piped water and a sewage system respectively?
Electricity - 74
Gas - 35
Piped water - 200
Sewage system - 38
How many people were killed in a cholera outbreak in St Petersburg in 1910?
100,000
In a survey of 12,000 St Petersburg in 1910, what % of them drank heavily?
93%
When was a sewerage system introduced in St Petersburg?
1911
Urban Housing: Lenin
What did the Decree on Peace in 1917 do in regards to land and property?
The Decree on Peace banned private property and gave control to the Soviets over land distribution
Urban Housing: Stalin
What of the Moscow population in the mid-1930s live in one room shared by two or more households?
25%
What % of people in Moscow lived in communal dormitories?
25%
What % of people in Moscow lived in a bathroom, kitchen, corridor or hallway?
5%
What was the average living space in 1905 and 1935?
1905 - 8.5m^2
1935 - 5.8m^2
What was the Stalinist policy on urban housing?
To allocate space rather than rooms to individuals and families
Why were most social projects put on hold?
To focus on achieving the aims of the Five-Year plans
How many Russians became homeless as a result of WW2?
25 million
Khrushchev: Urban housing
What did Khrushchev launch?
A huge housing programme
How much did the housing stock increase from 1955 to 1964?
The housing stock doubled
What housing principle was abandoned under Khrushchev?
Communal living
How many people moved to new apartments?
108 million
What did Khrushchev increase the average apartment size to?
30 metres squared
Food and Famine: Alexander II
What was Alexander II worried about?
That there would be widespread social unrest if food shortages continued
Who was placed in charge of drawing up emergency measures to deal with famines in 1864?
The Zemstva
Food and Famine: Alexander III
How many people died in the 1891 famine?
350,000
Who was A3’s finance minister at the time of the famine?
Vyshnergradsky
What had finance minister Vyshnergradsky done which helped cause the famine?
He had raised tax on consumer goods - led to people selling off surpluses of grain to cope with inflated prices
What did Alexander III do to deal with the famine?
He banned exports of grain and set up a Special Committee on Famine Relief
What did the government ban the 1891 famine on?
Poor farming techniques
What was the actual cause of the 1891 famine?
The Mendeleev tariff
Food and Famine: Nicholas II
Why did good harvests in the first three years of WW1 not help many towns and cities?
Logistical problems
How long were bread queues during WW1?
8 hours
Food and Famine: Lenin
When was there a food crisis?
1918
What had been lost a part of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk?
Valuable agricultural land
How did the Bolsheviks respond to the food crisis of 1918?
They introduced grain requisitioning
Who were blamed for food shortages?
Kulaks
Who were instructed in 1920 to seize all food supplies for redistribution?
The Cheka and the Red Army
How much did Ukrainian food production fall during the winter of 1920-21?
20%
Why was the Russian railway system shut down, making it extremely difficult to transport produce?
The Russian Civil War
How many people died in the 1921 famine?
5 million
Why was Lenin partly blamed for the famine?
His slow reaction to the situation and his reluctance to accept aid from the American Relief Administration
Food and Famine: Stalin
When did food shortages start to reappear?
1928
Who were blamed for hoarding grain?
Kulaks
What was reintroduced in 1928?
Grain requisitioning
What was the Urals-Siberian method?
Villagers were encouraged to reveal grain hoarders and those who showed bourgeois tendencies in exchange for rewards
What was the main reason for the 1932-34 famine?
Collectivisation
What was introduced for people who stole grain?
The death penalty
What was banned?
Discussion of the grain crisis
How many people died in the famine of 1932-34?
7 million
How much had the consumption of meat and fish fallen by the late 1930s?
80%
What was relaxed during WW2?
Collectivisation policy - food production rose
When was there another famine?
1947
Food and Famine: Khrushchev
What increased the amount of land used for wheat production?
The Virgin Land Campaign
What was improved under Khrushchev?
The state pricing mechanism
Urban Work: Alexander III
What was introduced in 1882 to make improve safety?
A factory inspectorate
Why was the factory inspectorate largely ineffective?
There were too few inspectors and had limited powers of enforcement
What did factory legislation in 1882 ban?
The employment of children under the age of 12
Urban Work: Nicholas II
How long was the average working day?
9-10 hours
What was set up in 1912?
A workers insurance scheme
Urban Work: Provisional Government
How long was the working day under the provisional government?
8 hours
Urban Work: Lenin
What was introduced in February 1920?
The Rabkrin (The Workers’ and Peasants’ Inspectorate)
Why was the Rabkrin a step backwards?
This body was a talking shop rather than one that enforced industrial law
What was enforced upon workers?
The ‘New Work Discipline’
How much were workers often fined for mistakes?
10%
What were workers shot for being?
‘Anti-revolutionary’
Urban Work: Stalin
What was the average working day in 1932?
10-12 hours
What was the average working day in 1939?
7 hours
How much did real wages fall in the first 5-year plan?
50%
When did wages start to reach the levels of the early 1920s?
1954
What was introduced to pay workers for what they produced?
Piece-rate payments
Urban Work: Khrushchev
What was the average working day in 1958?
7 hours
