Culture and society Flashcards
Difference between Stalin and Lenin’s approach to religion?
Lenin had allowed freedom of worship while destroying much of the ‘earthy’ power of the Russian Orthodox Church (e.g. Church lands seized, births, marriages and deaths were secularised, priests were persecuted etc..)
Under Stalin, the Church found itself under a more direct attack
How did Stalin attack religion when he came to power?
Religious schools were closed down and the teaching of religious creeds forbidden. Many churches were physically destroyed or deconsecrated
What was abolished between 1929 and 1940?
The holy day of Sunday - instead workers were employed for six of seven days of the week, with a sixth of workers having each day off
How was religion attacked in the Stalin’s 1936 Constitution?
Criminalised the publication or organisation of religious propaganda (but priests regained the vote to vote, which they had lost in 1918)
How did the purges attack religious leaders?
Many priests were accused of political involvement and sent to the gulags in the late 1930s
How were Soviet Muslims attacked under Stalin?
Their property and institutions (mosques, schools etc…) were seized and their Sharia courts (courts of divine Islamic law) were abolished
Pilgrimages to Mecca were forbidden from 1935 and the wearing of hijab was banned
How did some Muslims respond to the persecution under Stalin?
Some Muslims split off to the ‘New Mosque’, an Islamic movement taking a pro-Soviet stance
In some Central Asian communities, traditionalists murdered those who obeyed Soviet injunctions
What other religious institutions were shut down?
Jewish schools and synagogues
How many churches and mosques had been closed by 1941?
40,000 churches and 25,000 mosques - these were converted into schools, cinemas, clubs, museums and grain stores
Were Stalin’s attacks on religion successful?
In the 1937 census, only half a million Soviet citizens described themselves as religious (but the real number of believers was certainty much higher - the regime failed to kill off religious belief and observance)
How were women treated under Lenin?
There was a ‘liberation’ of women, where sex discrimination was outlawed, divorce and abortions made easier and family was regarded as a relic of bourgeois society.
Why did attitudes towards women change under Stalin?
In the 1930s, a fall in population growth, combined with disruption caused by family break-ups (by the 1930s, there were several million orphans in the USSR), led Stalin to revert to traditional policies
What was the ‘Great Retreat’?
A conscious rejection of the social experiments of the post-revolutionary period, in which the ‘family’ became a focus.
Explain propaganda during the Great Retreat?
Stalin was presented as a father figure and family man
Divorce and abortion were attacked
How was the importance of marriage re-emphasised?
Wedding rings were reintroduced and new-style wedding certificates were issued
How were women portrayed in film and art during the Great Retreat?
Portrayed as the feminine family woman with adoring children
When was the ‘family code’ made law?
June 1936
Details of the family code?
Abortion became illegal
It was made more difficult to get a divorce (large fees were introduced and both parties had to attend the proceedings)
Contraception was banned and only permitted on medical grounds
Mothers with 6 or more children received tax exemptions and bonus payments
Child support payments by fathers were fixed at 60% of income
Adultery was criminalised (and the names of male offenders published)
New decrees were to be enforced against prostitution and homosexuality
How did women’s employment change during/after the Great Retreat?
The numbers of women working in factories increased. For example, in 1928 only 3 million women were employed in Russian industry but this increased to 13 million by 1940.
Did Stalin’s attack on divorce work?
Not really - the divorce rate remained high (37 percent in Moscow in 1937)
Did Stalin’s attack on abortion work?
Not really - there were over 150,000 abortions to every 57,000 live births during this period
Did Stalin’s emphasis on traditional marriage work?
Somewhat - by 1937, 91% of men and 82% of women in their thirties were married, but there was still a falling rate of population growth in the years 1929-1940
How did women fare worse from the new emphasis on traditional marriage?
Single and divorced women were more likely than men to be left unemployed and without compensation. This meant that they were often forced to the fringes of society, which can be seen from the fact that number of prostitutes in cities rose
Women in the Asian Islamic republics had even lower status
What was the state of education in the 1920s?
Emphasis on acquiring knowledge was despised, with ideology and ‘socially useful’ work taking precedent
High dropout rate in schools
Examinations and traditional teaching had been abandoned in favour of the ‘metod proektov’ (project method)
Very few universities, meaning skilled workers were scarce
Why did Stalin need to change the old educational system?
The post-revolution education system was failing to produce the skilled workers, scientists and technicians the country needed
How had Lenin tried to promote the position of women within the Party?
the Zhenotdel (the women’s branch of the Central Committee) was set up, led by Aleksandra Kollontai and Inessa Armand
However, this was closed down in 1930, within women remaining hugely underrepresented in the party (only 15% of women were members by 1930)
What did the Central Committee set up in the 1930s to introduce an organised school structure?
Narkompros (the People’s Commissariat for Education) which provided nursery schools for children at 3 years, infant schools until 7 years and secondary schools until at least 15 years
Many adult education institutions were also established
What were universities put under the control of?
The economic planning agency, Veshenkha
What education system was abandoned in 1935?
The quota system, whereby a high proportion of working-class children were given places at secondary school
This change was positive as it meant that able children were able to receive a strong education
What were the core subjects in Soviet schools in the 1930s?
Reading, writing and science
How much did literacy increase in the 1930s?
Before the revolution, only about 65% of the population were literate.
By 1941, 94% of those in towns and 86% of those in the countryside were literate (this was desirable as literate people could absorb propaganda)
How was education geared towards economic success?
Emphasis was put on the higher training of specialists, and courses in mathematics, science and technology were promoted
For those less able, ‘practical’ work was encouraged
How did the Party control education?
Loyalty to the Party and the State was fostered at all levels
If teachers failed to live up to the expected standards, they could be arrested and if students failed to do well, the teachers could be blamed and purged
When was the Komsomol set up?
1926 (became directly affiliated with the Party in 1939)
What did the Komsomol do?
Catered for those aged 10-28 and taught communist values. Volunteer social work, sports, political and drama clubs were organised to inspire socialist values
They also helped carry out party campaigns and assisted the Red Army and police
Many members of the Komsomol became enthusiastic about industrialisation, volunteering on projects such as the building of Magnitogorsk
What was organised to incentivise young people to join the Komsomol?
Free summer and winter holiday camps
What was the younger group of the Komsomol called?
the ‘Young Pioneers’ for 10 to 15 year olds
What did members of the Komsomol swear when they joined?
Took an oath to live, study and fight for the Fatherland
What message was sent through the Komsomolskaia Pravda?
Encouraged young people to respect their parents
Why did many young people join Komsomol?
The opportunity for social advancement. Young people who had been active in the Komsomol were favoured within the Soviet system
Did many young people oppose the youth organisations?
Private discontent was probably common (e.g. some young people were more interested in Western culture or joined small secret opposition movements) but direct challenges were rare. The vast majority of young people chose to toe the line
e.g. of opposition groups include the Communist Youth Party in Voronezh (western Russia) and the ‘True Communists’ in the Kyrgyz Republic
Which demographic tended to be most enthusiastic about Stalin’s policy of rapid industrialisation?
Urban working men, who hoped it would bring about more jobs and a higher standard of living
How did loyal skilled workers benefit under Stalin?
Wage differentials introduced in 1931
There was a spread of technical education to train skilled workers
Did living standards improve for the working man under Stalin?
Yes, but then as war approached at the start of the 1940s, their income fell back when resources were diverted to preparations for war
Problems for the working man under Stalin?
Many found it difficult to work if they had ‘bourgeois’ elements in their family history as it created suspicion
Unskilled working men had poor living conditions (e.g. living in overcrowded accommodation).
Petty crime and hard drinking escalated
Which type of worker generally coped better with the changes of the 1930s?
Urban workers rather than peasants in the countryside
How did the countryside change in the 1930s?
Collectivisation brought strong central control and brought about the enforcement of compulsory schooling for the first time
The rise in literacy provided more opportunities for propagandists to try to influence rural minds
Religion and tradition were dislocated and the old attitude of openness and cooperation was strained
Was collectivisation accepted in the countryside during the 1930s?
Begrudgingly accepted - some peasants benefitted from having access to machinery like tractors, and villages often had schools and clinics for the first time
(however, the disparity between life in the cities and countryside never went away)
What were the problems with housing in the cities?
Workers lived in kommunalka (housing blocs) where there was practically no privacy
There was also a housing crisis caused by mass migration to the cities
What were living standards like in the cities?
Many were without sewage systems, street lighting and public transport. Water was rationed. There was lots of urban violence
Statistic to show drop in living standards in the cities?
By 1933, overall food consumption was lower than in 1900 and meat consumption was only a third of what it had been in 1928
When was there an increase in living standards in the cities?
From 1935
It became legal for some small trades, like shoe repair, hairdressing or plumbing, to operate privately
(however, conditions got worse again after 1937 due to food shortages and mass migration to the cities)
What was socialist man and woman?
A person who was dedicated to the party and lived and worked for their community (this was the ideal Soviet citizen that the regime wanted to create)
They would be urban (not an ill-educated peasant who might be distracted by religion) and willingly accepted what the State ordered
What was built to nurture the concept of socialist man and woman?
New industrial city-complexes, in which socialist man could flourish and be held up to standards by the scrutiny of his neighbours.
Who was Trofim Lysenko and what did he believe?
He was a scientist who believed that the ideal citizen could be groomed by passing down the right characteristics to the next generation
Who led the charge against ‘bourgeois’ art?
The Komsomol, who sometimes vandalised non-socialist books and artworks, heckled actors or mocked religion
What was the state of the Christian Church in 1941?
By 1940, only 1 church in 40 was still working as a church and 152 of the 168 bishops in place in 1930 had been killed or incarcerated
Example of a cultural figure toeing the party line?
The author Maxim Gorky, who declared that under Stalin, Russian writers had ‘lost nothing but the right to be bad writers’
Examples of cultural figures silenced by the regime?
The novelist Boris Pasternak and the poet Anna Akhmatova
Example of an attack on the avant-garde?
In 1936, Pravda published a damning critique of Shoshtakovich’s opera ‘Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District’ under the headline ‘Chaos instead of Music’.
Although Shoshtakovich himself avoided arrest, a theatre director who spoke in his defence was seized by the NKVD, tortured and shot
Similarities between Lenin and Stalin’s USSR?
Lenin’s was a one party state with limited party membership, Stalin’s was a one party state with a large membership
In Lenin’s USSR, policy was debated in the Politburo, whereas Stalin directed policymaking himself
In Lenin’s USSR, the old Bolsheviks carried authority, but these were gone by 1941
Both were highly centralised states with a large bureaucracy
Lenin had a mixed economy, Stalin had nationalised industry
Lenin’s USSR was predominantly agricultural, whereas in Stalin’s agriculture was collectivised
Both Lenin and Stalin used the secret police (but Stalin’s had more powers)
Both used terror, but Stalin’s was far more widespread
Lenin’s USSR had censorship and control, but some opportunity to experiment in arts, freedom in schools and limited Party influence in rural areas. Stalin’s USSR was far more totalitarian
