Lenin - Social Policies

Question 1

EDUCATION - What were Lenin’s views on education and literacy when he came to power?

Answer 1

Lenin believed that a high level of education was an essential part of building socialism, as it would require an educated workforce to understand the complex industrial processed involved in Industrialisation. Education helped lay the foundation for industrialisation.

Question 2

EDUCATION - What was the level of education like in Russia pre-revolution.

Answer 2

Very poor. Russia was an agricultural nation with a mainly peasant population. In 1914, only 33% of the population were literate.
There were also major inequalities in education: Russians were far better educated than non-Russians and urban education was far better than rural education.

Question 3

EDUCATION - What reforms took place in October 1918?

Answer 3

• Creation of Unified Labour Schools: supposed to give free education to all between 8 and 17 and prepare students for a role in the economy.
• Abolished corporal punishment, exams and homework.
• Intended to provide free breakfasts to school children and free medical examinations.
• End of gender segregation
• Education made compulsory.

Question 4

EDUCATION - Who was initially put in charge of education?

Answer 4

Lunacharsky and Lenin’s wife, Nadezhda.

Question 5

EDUCATION - What were Lunacharksky’s beliefs/ methods regarding education?

Answer 5

He focused on creative, expressive educational styles alongside vocational education that gave students practical skills to become a part of the work force.

Question 6

EDUCATION - When was the Decree on Illiteracy? Was it successful?

Answer 6

1919 - stated that all illiterates from 8 to 50 must learn how to read.
It was not successful due to the civil war - outside the Red Army literacy rates fell.

Question 7

EDUCATION - What were some problems that faced the literacy campaign during the civil war?

Answer 7

• Teachers did not support the regime or the Red Army.
• Government prioritised military victory.
• Insufficient funds for schools and learning materials.
• War economy did not produce education products (1920s - 1 pencil for every 60 students).
• Schools were requisitioned by the Red Army as part of the war effort.

Question 8

EDUCATION - What was literacy like in the Red Army during the civil war?

Answer 8

Trotsky shared Lenin’s beliefs and so introduced education for soldiers.
Literacy increased from 50% in 1918 to 86% in 1921.
By 1925 100% of the Red Army were literate.

Question 9

EDUCATION - What did Lunacharsky attempt to do during the civil to increase literacy rates?

Answer 9

He introduced a network of reading rooms across Russia where people could go and learn to read and the government published 6.5 million textbooks teaching the alphabet.

Question 10

EDUCATION - What happened to education in the initial 18 months of the NEP?

Answer 10

There was a decline in education due to economic instability.
The number of children in education halved, as did the number of schools.

Question 11

EDUCATION - What cuts to education did the government make in 1921? (Due to economic issues with the NEP).

Answer 11

• Forced schools to close to save money
• introduced fees to primary and secondary education except for the very poorest children.
• Scraped plans to build homes for kids orphaned in the civil war.

Question 12

EDUCATION - What happened to education once the NEP economy has stabilised?

Answer 12

• Education expanded so more kids went into education.
• By 1928, 60% of those at primary school age were attending school.
• However, still significant inequalities in the system: rural education still much better; education was locally planned rather than centrally so 97% of students paid fees, education dominated by the wealthy.
• Teachers still continued to teach in traditional Tsarist ways.

Question 13

EDUCATION - What were the successes of the NEP literacy campaigns?

Answer 13

Had good increase in literacy in urban areas.
Metal Workers Union reported increased in literate members from 86% in 1925 to 96% in 1936.
Overall literacy rates in Russia went up by 55%.

Question 14

SOCIAL SECURITY - What were Lenin’s views about work and the relationship between the state and the people?

Answer 14

During his time, Lenin tried to create economic systems that rewarded work and made sure that working people would receive benefits such as health care . His views were obviously very similar to those of Marx: ‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their needs’.
Lenin wanted work to be the key to gaining economic resources, not simply owning property as in a capitalist.

Question 15

SOCIAL SECURITY - What was the Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited people and when was it?

Answer 15

• It was in 1918
• The declaration introduced two new working principles:
• Abolished private ownership of land
• Introduced universal labour duty -everyone has to contribute to society.

Question 16

SOCIAL SECURITY - Describe the level of employment in the aftermath of the revolution.

Answer 16

• By Oct 1918, unemployment has risen to 100,000 due to chaos created by the revolution.
• March 1918, 75% of chemical and metal workers in Petrograd were unemployed.

Question 17

SOCIAL SECURITY - Give the time span of War Communism.

Answer 17

1918 - 1921

Question 18

SOCIAL SECURITY- What was War Communism?

Answer 18

War Communism was introduced by Lenin to combat the economic problems brought on by the civil war in Russia. It was a combination of emergency measures and socialist dogma.

Question 19

SOCIAL SECURITY - What were the results of War Communism in terms of employment?

Answer 19

1918, widespread unemployment comes to an end due to the introduction of compulsory labour. Anyone able bodied has lost the right to refuse work.

Question 20

SOCIAL SECURITY - Describe the changes that took place under War Communism.

Answer 20

• Introduction of compulsory labour.
• Introduction of food rations, those who worked were given a ration card (22m given ration cards).
• Resources were allocated according to the value of work the person did.
• Communal dinning rooms for workers and free public transport for those with ration cards (-gov claims to regularly feed 93% of Moscow).
• Creches and laundries provided.
  (Party members still has special privileges and access to scarce goods!)

Question 21

SOCIAL SECURITY - What went wrong with War Communism?

Answer 21

• By July 1920, fuel shortages forced factories to close.

- War Communism never provides the population with more than 50% of the fuel and food needed to live on.

Question 22

SOCIAL SECURITY - Give the time span of the NEP.

Answer 22

1921 - 1924

Question 23

SOCIAL SECURITY - What was the NEP?

Answer 23

A return to state capitalism with the goal of promoting economic growth.

Question 24

SOCIAL SECURITY - What were the results of the NEP in terms of employment? Why was was this?

Answer 24

• Wide spread unemployment returned.
• Unemployment rates: 1921, 5.5%; 1923, 16.6%; 1924, 18%.
• Unemployment surged because the Red Army was partly demobilised so there were soldiers looking for work.
• The gov sacked the 225,000 administrators who had been running war communism.
• Retraction of compulsory labour
• Lenin tried to lower labour costs by reducing workers in factories.

Question 25

SOCIAL SECURITY - Who was the worst affected by unemployment under the NEP and why?

Answer 25

• Of those unemployed in the USSR, 62.2% were women.

- This was because funding for creches ended for and former Red Army soldiers were given priority over the jobs.

Question 26

SOCIAL SECURITY - Describe the system of social insurance that was developed in the early 20s.

Answer 26

• The most comprehensive social insurance system for the urban working classes in the world.
• 1922 labour law: Trade Unions given the right to negotiate pay and working conditions.
• Network of benefits: disability, maternity, unemployment & medical benefits all provided for workers in the city.
• Investment in education for urban workers.
• Peasants living in rural areas were almost entirely excluded from these benefits!

Question 27

SOCIAL SECURITY - In general, what was social security like under the NEP?

Answer 27

• There were high unemployment rates but urban workers were clearly better off in 1926 than they had been before the revolution in 1913.
• Their wages were 10% higher and they ate more meat and fish.

Question 28

HOUSING - Why was there a shortage of housing in the early years of the revolution?

Answer 28

• Mostly because of the civil war.
• A lot of housing was destroyed as collateral damage.
• As workers fled the cities in search of food the gov authorised the destruction of houses for timber to be used as fuel.

Question 29

HOUSING - What was the redistribution policy and when was it made official?

Answer 29

• In August 1918 Lenin issued a decree to get the redistribution process under control.
• Housing was forcibly taken from the middle classes and aristocrats and redistributed to the poor.
• Any who didn’t comply risked being killed.

Question 30

HOUSING - How did housing change under the NEP?

Answer 30

• 60 to 80% of housing was denationalised and redistribution was eventually outlawed.
• rent-free housing experiment between 1918-1921 came to an end.
• House building restarted in 1923, with 89% of the house building undertaken by private companies.

Question 31

WOMEN AND FAMILY - Broadly, what was the status/ depiction of women between 1917 - 1940?

Answer 31

• In Soviet propaganda and art between 1917 and 1940 women were depicted as peasants and men depicted as industrial workers. Industrial workers were believed to play the decisive role in the destruction of capitalism, and peasants a supporting role. By depicting women as peasants the soviet government showed they believed men played the primary role in society.
• Women were generally less visible in Soviet iconography, when they were featured they often played maternal or supportive roles.
• This indicates that attitudes towards women did not change much in the first few decades of the revolution.

Question 32

WOMEN AND FAMILY - How did Lenin view the role of women in society?

Answer 32

• Lenin considered traditional bourgeoisie marriage to be like slavery.
• He wanted women to be free from their domestic role in order to encourage gender equality.

Question 33

WOMEN AND FAMILY - Policy on divorce.

Answer 33

• In the 1920s laws were passed to make divorce easier but divorced women were unable to support themselves financially.
• 1917 - 1928, 75% of divorces were initiated by men.

Question 34

WOMEN AND FAMILY - What child care policies did the government try to implement? What was the consequence?

Answer 34

• They tried to provide creches and public canteens but could not due to the economic fall out from the civil war.
• They scrapped plans to build care homes for children orphaned in the civil war.
• Child gangs, left without care or supervision, resorted to criminal activity.
• Women given two months guaranteed paid maternity leave, made them undesirable employees.

Question 35

WOMEN AND FAMILY - How many children had been orphaned by the end of the civil war (1921)?

Answer 35

• 79 million

Question 36

WOMEN AND FAMILY - How did Lenin try to bring women into the workforce?

Answer 36

• In 1919 he passed a decree on equal rights to work, but men continued to dominate the work sector and women were paid less for the same job because they were considered expensive employees due to maternity leave.

Question 37

WOMEN AND FAMILY - What happened to women’s employment during world war 1?

Answer 37

• During ww1 the urban workforce doubled to 47% women.

Question 38

WOMEN AND FAMILY - What was women’s employment like under the NEP?

Answer 38

• There few job opportunities due to widespread unemployment so many women had very unskilled jobs.
• At the end of the civil war lots of women were sacked from their factory jobs because former Red Army soldiers were given job priority.
• During 1920s 39% of proletariat men used prostitution.

Question 39

WOMEN AND FAMILY - In what sense did Soviet women have a double burden?

Answer 39

• Proletariat women worked 8 hour days in industrial jobs + 5 hours domestic work with which the man did not help.
• Practically, their lives were much harder (despite having a greater degree of equality).

Question 40

WOMEN AND FAMILY - What was women’s participation in politics like in the early years of the revolution?

Answer 40

1918 - 5% of voting delegates were women and this figure went down.
1928 - Only 12.8% of party members were women.
Political sector heavily male dominated.
- There were reports of women being beaten by their husbands for participating in politics.

Question 41

WOMEN AND FAMILY - What was the Zhenotdel and when was it established?

Answer 41

• Established in 1919
• Zhenotdel was an organisation that recruited women to fill the gaps in health and food distribution and also help them to have a greater participation in politics.
• It was abolished in 1930 despite having not achieved its goals.

Question 42

WOMEN AND FAMILY - How was Alexandra Kollontai and what were her beliefs on sexuality and abortion?

Answer 42

• Alexandra Kollontai was appointed as Russian ambassador to Norway in 1923. The first woman to be in such a post, a big feminist.
• She believed that women should not be constrained by marriage and should be free to have sexual relationships as they saw fit.