Employment

Question 1

Lenin: What benefits did workers receive when the Bolsheviks took power?

Answer 1

• The declaration of rights of toiling people abolished the private ownership of land.
• Introduced universal labour duty, everyone had to work.

Question 2

Lenin: What were the limitations for workers when the Bolsheviks took power?

Answer 2

• Ensuring stable employment was extremely difficult during 1917-18 as the revolution caused economic chaos.
• Unemployment increased.

Question 3

Lenin: What problems did workers face during War Communism?

Answer 3

Factory closures and food scarcity

Question 4

Lenin: How did things improve under the NEP?

Answer 4

• In 1920 a system of benefits were created for urban workers
• A work card entitled workers to travel on public transport.
• Communal dining halls set up in factories to feed workers.

Question 5

Stalin: How did Stalin achieve full employment?

Answer 5

• Well paid jobs in the cities attracted peasants fleeing from poverty.
• Rapid industrialisation led to full employment
• To reach high production targets, factories had to hire lots of workers.

Question 6

Stalin: How did Stalin enforce labour discipline?

Answer 6

• Internal passports introduced to prevent workers moving factories without permission.
• Benefits were given to factories rather than trade unions or local Soviet, increasing incentives.

Question 7

Stalin:How did workers benefit under Stalin?

Answer 7

• Increase in healthcare provisions.

- Factory and farm canteens provided for workers.

Question 8

Stalin: What changes were introduced in employment after the war?

Answer 8

• Planned economy was established
• Struggled to produce simple things like soap, warm clothing and shoes.
• This increased health problems.

Question 9

Khrushchev: How did he improve Social Benefits?

Answer 9

• Healthcare budget more than doubled in Khrushchev’s first 5 years: 21.4 billion roubles in 1950 to 44 billion roubles in 1959.
• Major reforms in 1961 improved social benefits.
• Free lunch in factories and offices
• Free public transport
• Full pension and healthcare rights for farmers
• Increased production in consumer goods via the Virgin Land Scheme.

Question 10

Brezhnev: What benefit did the ‘Social Contract’ offer the Soviet workers?

Answer 10

• Job security through guaranteed full employment.
• Social benefits such as free healthcare
• Social mobility
• Low prices for essential goods

Question 11

Brezhnev: What did the 1977 Soviet constitution promise?

Answer 11

• Rights to freedom of speech, press and freedom of assembly and the right to religious belief and worship.
• Freedom of artistic work, protection of the family, inviolability of the person and home, and the right to privacy.

Question 12

Brezhnev: What is “developed socialism”?

Answer 12

• An ideological catchphrase popularized during the Brezhnev era in the Eastern Bloc countries and the Soviet Union.
• Referred to the Soviet-type economic planning enforced by the ruling communist parties at that particular time.

Question 13

Khrushchev: How did Khrushchev promote a Stable Society?

Answer 13

• Encouraged the view that the population standard of living should be priorities.
• Radically changed the aims and methods used in order to produce consumer goods.
• Improved healthcare and housing

Question 14

Brezhnev: How did Brezhnev promote a Stable Society?

Answer 14

• Creating a stable society through developed socialism.
• Improved the standard of living.
• Full employment and an improving standard of living was used to create a stable society.