Full Employment and Social Benefits, 17-53

Question 1

When did Lenin publish the Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited People?

Answer 1

1918

Question 2

What were the two principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited People?

Answer 2

• Private ownership of land abolished so that money couldn’t be made just by owning something
• Universal labour duty to ensure that capitalists had to work rather than depend on the work of others

Question 3

How many people were unemployed in Russia in October 1918? Why?

Answer 3

100,000. This was because nearly 600 industrial enterprises had had to close due to the revolutions and Russia’s withdrawal from the First World War.

Question 4

Who were “bourgeois specialists”?

Answer 4

Former factory owners who ran the factories and organised production. They were paid not for owning the factory but for the work they did there.

Question 5

What government measure brought widespread unemployment to an end?

Answer 5

In September 1918, compulsory labour was introduced for all able bodied men aged between 16 and 50

Question 6

What were workers during War Communism given in return for their work?

Answer 6

Work cards which entitled them to rations

Question 7

How were rations distributed under War Communism?

Answer 7

The population was split into 6 class according to occupation and then food was distributed according to how low the class was.

Question 8

Who were “the former people”?

Answer 8

The class who received the least rations in the War Communism rationing system, comprised of aristocrats and former factory owners. They only received 25% of what workers got.

Question 9

Who organised rationing?

Answer 9

Prodraspred

Question 10

What additional benefits did work cards bring to people in Moscow and Petrograd?

Answer 10

• Public transport
• Access to dining halls which allegedly fed 90% of Moscow’s population
• Access to laundry services
• Creche places

Question 11

What special privilege did Party members enjoy during War Communism?

Answer 11

Special member-only shops were opened up supplying food and goods that were otherwise scarce.

Question 12

How did compulsory labour during War Communism prove unsuccessful?

Answer 12

There weren’t enough jobs to go around, especially as factories started to close in July 1920 due to fuel shortages. As a result, the government forced people to go and scavenge for food and fuel so they were doing something.

Question 13

How did government provision during War Communism prove unsuccessful?

Answer 13

It never provided more than 50% of the food and fuel people needed to be able to survive. This meant people fled the city to find work and food in the countryside - the population of Petrograd halved.

Question 14

How much did the industrial workforce decline by during the Civil War?

Answer 14

25%

Question 15

Why did unemployment surge again after the Civil War?

Answer 15

• The Red Army were demobilise meaning soldiers had to try and find work again
• Urban workers came home but found it difficult to get jobs
• The NEP led to redundancies in an effort to “rationalise” government industry
• Around 225,000 administrators were fired by the government

Question 16

What proportion of the unemployed in 1922 were women?

Answer 16

60%

Question 17

What was the 1922 Labour Law?

Answer 17

It gave unions the right to negotiate binding agreements with employers on pay and working conditions

Question 18

What benefits were introduced for workers in the 1920s?

Answer 18

• Social insurance for 9 million

- Government funded education

Question 19

What caused full employment?

Answer 19

Stalin’s rapid industrialisation

Question 20

How did Stalin’s economic policies affect working conditions?

Answer 20

They deteriorated as the focus was put on speedy construction rather than clean and safe workspaces.

Question 21

What labour discipline reforms did Stalin instate?

Answer 21

• Lateness was criminalised
• 1922 Labour Law was repealed
• Damaging factory property was criminalised
• Strikes were banned

Question 22

What was Stalin’s “continuous working week”?

Answer 22

The weekend was abolished and instead workers were given a different day off every week to allow factories and mines to operate 7 days a week.

Question 23

How did Stalin stop workers moving around to find better pay?

Answer 23

In 1940 it was made illegal to change jobs and internal passports were introduced to inhibit free movement

Question 24

How did the Five Year Plans impact benefits?

Answer 24

• By 1933 most Soviet citizens had electricity
• Passenger traffic on railways went up 400%
• The Moscow Metro opened in 1935
• Mass vaccination campaigns against smallpox, malaria set up
• Canteens ensured the workforce were fed

Question 25

How was Stalin’s system of distributing benefits unfair?

Answer 25

• Farmers weren’t entitled to rations and had most of their crops requisitioned
• Healthcare adopted a “Party first” system
• Senior Party members hosted lavish banquets while others were starving

Question 26

How much did the industrial workforce increase following the end of the GPW?

Answer 26

It went from 8 million to 12 million

Question 27

Why was there a decline in communal eating after the war?

Answer 27

Eating in communal canteens cost 50% of the average worker’s wage meaning many workers decided not to go

Question 28

How did healthcare improve after the end of the GPW?

Answer 28

• Infant mortality halved
• The number of medical doctors went up by 2/3
• Vaccines for common diseases were made universally available from 1947

Question 29

Why did the improvements to healthcare prove ineffective?

Answer 29

• The planned economy was struggling to produce essentials like soap
• Food shortages led people to eat rotten crops or animal feed
• Sanitation in farms and factories wasn’t tackled
• Hygiene education was poor. Only in 1947 did it start to be advertised to wash your hands after you want to the loo