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
