Employment, Housing & Welfare (Lenin & Stalin)

Question 1

5 year plans & employment

Answer 1

• weren’t launched to create full employment but this was achieved as a side effect of the push to industrialise
• number of hired workers rose from 11.6 mil (1928) to 27 mil (1937)
• excessive targets forced factories to use every labour source available

Question 2

what was work like (stalin)?

Answer 2

• hard, repetitive & challenging
• lack of modern tech meant mostly manual work, putting serious pressure on the labour force
• restrictions placed on trade unions = no longer allowed to negotiate with managers to improve working conditions meant they were poor & little attention to basic health & safety

Question 3

unemployment benefit (stalin)?

Answer 3

• oct 1930 = cancelled due to full employment
• trade unions were left to provide social insurance like compensation for injury out of their own funds

Question 4

productivity in 5 yr plans

Answer 4

• low = in 1927, the average soviet worker produced 1/2 of a british worker
• it increased during the plans with machinery but still lagged behind the west

Question 5

shifts during 5 yr plans

Answer 5

• managers used uninterrupted shifts so that machines were used 24 hrs to meet production targets

Question 6

labour shortages under 5 yr plans

Answer 6

• workers constantly moved jobs to find better employment
• government issued internal passports in 1932 to keep workers where needed
• even by 1937 = 30% urban workers changed jobs every 1/4

Question 7

wage differences with 5 yr plans

Answer 7

• 1931 = increased between skilled & unskilled workers to try & reward workers & stop them from moving jobs
• 1934 = use of piecework rates expanded

Question 8

rations & stuff (5 yr plans)

Answer 8

1932 = better rations & bonuses introduced

Question 9

motivation for the workforce (5 yr plans)

Answer 9

• honours & medals
• example = alexei stakhanovite
• new flats & bigger rations for model workers

Question 10

what was there an increase of in 5 yr plans?

Answer 10

absenteeism

Question 11

what had to be used to meet the need (5 yr plans)?

Answer 11

slave labour

Question 12

work = collectivisation (stalin)

Answer 12

• brought large numbers of peasants to towns & cities
• still by 1932 there were labour shortages
• division in the workplace due to the swamping of old industrial workers by new peasant recruits

Question 13

lenin housing

Answer 13

• 1917 = began programme of confiscating large houses from the rich & partitioning them & renting to working families
• in reality = not enough housing for all

Question 14

stalin housing - strain

Answer 14

• enormous growth of towns & industrial centres but strain on housing
• received few resources & was low priority

Question 15

population stats - stalin

Answer 15

• moscow = nearly doubled from 1929-36
• magnitogorsk = 25 people in 1929 to 250,000 in 1932

Question 16

housing resources issue - stalin

Answer 16

• often non-existent due to the rush to industrialise
• workers slept in tents, makeshift huts or in the factories
• conditions improved to drab barracks in the 30s

Question 17

apartments under stalin

Answer 17

• built where resources allowed
• built to promote communism = kitchens often communal
• allocation of a modern apartment with running water, electricity & central heating was only a realistic hope for workers who showed good commitment to the plan

Question 18

welfare under stalin - can- clo-

Answer 18

• by the 30s = canteens provided cheap food
• during difficult years they were instructed to keep rabbits for a reliable meat source
• work clothes free of charge

Question 19

by 1953…

Answer 19

• average worker likely to be employed, housed & have basic social services
• life was harsh & services remained primitive in rural areas
• socialist utopia had not been achieved yet

Question 20

trade unions

Answer 20

• provided social benefits = sports facilities, meetings & film shows
• workers’ 2 week paid leave often spent on subsidised hols to state resorts
• organised sick pay

Question 21

general healthcare under lenin

Answer 21

• good at containing epidemics despite resource shortages
• 1921 = compulsory vax programme for cholera epidemic implemented
• 1918-20 = lice-spread typhus caused 6 mil deaths
• patients had no choice in healthcare & had to pay for all medicines (though heavily subsidised)

Question 22

doctor issue

Answer 22

• many fled after revolution
• gov forced to increase number of training places on offer
• increased from 70,000 (1928) to 155,000 (1940)
• beds = 247,000 to 800,000 in 1939
• sanitation taken seriously = inspectors given status of doctors

Question 23

work under lenin’s initial reforms

Answer 23

• 1918-21 collapse of industrial production = workers returning to the country for reliable food supply
• factories found themselves without sufficient workers

Question 24

work under war communism

Answer 24

• 1918 = labour conscription - forced to take next job offered if unemployed - ensured the red army was supplied
• labour exchanges established to supervise hiring workers but not used as people were scared of having to do a difficult job

Question 25

arteli

Answer 25

• groups of workers in the same trade were used in recruitment labour
• pooled their tools together to meet seasonal activities & work on construction projects
• considered backwards by gov but use of shock brigades later shows they took inspo

Question 26

why did unemployment skyrocket before NEP?

Answer 26

• end of civil war = pressure to labour market
• red army demobilised - millions returned to cities for work
• food shortages in the country = peasants moved to cities

Question 27

unemployment stat under lenin

Answer 27

1 mil by 1926

Question 28

wages under NEP

Answer 28

• differentials grow = skilled workers begin demanding more than unskilled
• encouraged by shortage of skilled after CW