Leninist/Stalinist Society

Question 1

Who were the Burzhui

Answer 1

Bloodsuckers-anyone who didnt comply with the communsit ethos e.g. remnants of the tsarist regime, clerics etc

Question 2

What happened to the former houses of the bourgoursie and nobility

Answer 2

Requisitioned and turned into Kommunalka(communal dwelling for the proletariat)

Question 3

What did not cease with the creation of the NEP in 1921

Answer 3

The attacks on the former elite and middle class. And neither did it when collectivisation began.

Question 4

What was Proletarianisation

Answer 4

The aim to turn the majority of Russian society into workers, ridding russia of capitalist attitudes and eventually creating communism

Question 5

What were, uncommunistly, introduced in 1931, to increase productivity

Answer 5

Wage differentials, bonuses, payments by piece produced

Question 6

What is the most famous example of Worker propaganda from pre-war USSR

Answer 6

Stakhanovite movement 1935- Stakhanov was a miner who, in under 6 hours, extracted as much coal as someone was expected to in 14x as long(102 tonnes)
Promoted ‘socialist competition’ and a series of contest and promotiong of overproduction and quotas, many fabricated

Question 7

Had average wages changed since 1913 in pre-war USSR

Answer 7

No, although they did increase somewhat during the 2nd 5 year plan

Question 8

What reforms for women were established in the 1917 revolution

Answer 8

Only civil marriage recognized(reduce church influence)
Abortion legalised 1920
free contraceptive advice made available

Question 9

How did Stalinist attitudes to women change

Answer 9

He realised he needed to raise the birth rate
Family became focus of a new propaganda wave
Divorce and abortion attacked
1936-Fees added for divorce, Adultery was criminalised, contraception was banned
however, only worked to some degree, by 1940 43% of the industrial workforce was female, some 13 million

Question 10

What was the soviet gender pay gap during stalinist era

Answer 10

0.6:1

Question 11

What did the Commisariat of the Enlightened do

Answer 11

free education at all levels in coed schools

Question 12

Why were textbooks at school not used

Answer 12

because not enough were printed within a communist framework

Question 13

What were univserities placed under the control of during the Stalin era, speaking to his view on education

Answer 13

Veshenka-Council of the National economy
higher education was mainly for worker education
Stakhanovite movement extended to schools

Question 14

By 1941, how many of the age 9-49 were literate

Answer 14

94% in towns and 86% in rural areas

Question 15

What was the RKSM and what was it renamed to

Answer 15

The young communist league-a youth organisation that taught marxist leninist principles
Renamed Komsomol in 1926, though at this point only 6% of the youth belonged to it

Question 16

What did Lenin allow, despite marx’s criticisms of it

Answer 16

Freedom of religion, possibly out of necessity due the vast numbers of orthodox christians(70% of society)

Question 17

When was the patriarch of the orthodox church arrested for opposition to the state, and why was he released

Answer 17

1922. He chose not to have a show trial and accept the changes. When he died in 1925, was given a full state funeral

Question 18

What did the 1936 consititution do for religion

Answer 18

Banned distribution of religious ‘propaganda’
Restored priests right to vote

Question 19

When were muslim pilgriamges to mecca forbidden

Answer 19

1935

Question 20

Despite the repression of ethnic minorities, what were they afforded in

Answer 20

Seperate representation in the Soviet

Question 21

In 1926, what were Jews granted

Answer 21

A special autonomous region in the east

Question 22

What was most of the deportations of ethnic groups under Stalin motivated by

Answer 22

Political, rather than racial prejudice

Question 23

What was a ‘red corner’

Answer 23

A corner of someones house devoted to the Communist party, specifically stalin, similar to orthodox saints

Question 24

What was art like in the 30s

Answer 24

Conformist, Art for arts sake was banned; it had to glorify communism

Question 25

What was the style of architecture lauded in the ussr

Answer 25

Socialist realism