Leninist/Stalinist Society

Question 1

What does Marxism teach about class struggles?

Answer 1

Society will evolve through class struggles

Question 2

What name was given to the Bolshevik ‘class enemies?’

Answer 2

Burzhui

Question 3

When was the official abolition of the ‘class hierarchy?’

Answer 3

November 1917

Question 4

What did the abolition of the ‘class hierarchy’ mean for society?

Answer 4

official titles and privileges were removed.

Question 5

How were the former bourgeoisie affected by the removal of class hierarchy?

Answer 5

They could no longer work, they were made to do tasks such as cleaning streets and their homes were requisitioned and turned into a communal living space for workers.

Question 6

What was a Komunalki?

Answer 6

A communal living space for the working class.

Question 7

How did the NEP affect the Buzhui?

Answer 7

It was a political acknowledgement that society needed bourgeois specialists.

Question 8

Explain the communist idea of the ‘socialist man.’

Answer 8

The type of personal who was publicly engaged and committed to the community.

Question 9

What was ‘Proletarianisation?’

Answer 9

To turn the mass of the population into urban workers.

Question 10

What harsh working conditions were evident during Lenin’s time?

Answer 10

Workers could be imprisoned/shot if they failed to meet targets and internal passports were blocked to stop people leaving their working positions.

Question 11

How had the labour force grown by 1932?

Answer 11

It had doubled.

Question 12

How did the working conditions become more severe under Stalin?

Answer 12

7 Day working weeks, longer hours and dismissal and eviction for missing work. Strikes were illegal.

Question 13

What changes to working conditions were made in 1931?

Answer 13

Intorduction of wage differentials, bonuses and payment by the piece.
Better housing.

Question 14

When was the Stakhanovite Movement?

Answer 14

1935

Question 15

What was the Stakhanovite Movement?

Answer 15

Stakhanov extracted an immense amount of coal and was hailed as an example of what should be achieved.
It became a way of forcing management to support their workers to increase production.

Question 16

During the Stakhanovite Movement, what happened to managers who failed to fulfil targets?

Answer 16

They were removed and branded as saboteurs.

Question 17

When was rationing phased out?

Answer 17

1935

Question 18

What rights were given to women after 1917?

Answer 18

The right against sex discrimination and the right to own property.

Question 19

How was the church affected after 1917?

Answer 19

It’s influence was removed by the recognition of only civil marriage.

Question 20

What changes were made to divorce after 1917?

Answer 20

it was made easier and less expensive

Question 21

When was abortion legalised and why?

Answer 21

1920.

High levels of mortality rates due to illegal abortions.

Question 22

How was the common family unit affected after 1917?

Answer 22

Contraceptive advice provided for free,

1926 introduced a new family code & 1928 wedding rings were banned.

Question 23

What changes were made under the 1926 Family Code?

Answer 23

It gave women in ‘common law’ marriages the same rights as those in civil marriages.

Question 24

When did family become a particular focus for Stalin?

Answer 24

1930.

Question 25

Why did Family become a focus for Stalin?

Answer 25

A fall in population growth after the purges and the living conditions in Komunalki.

Question 26

What changes to family code were enforced from 1936?

Answer 26

Large fees introduced to deter divorce,
adultery was criminalised,
contraception was banned,
bonuses for families with large numbers of children

Question 27

What was the ratio of abortions to live births by 1940?

Answer 27

150,000 abortions to 57,000 live births.

Question 28

What was enforced by the Commissariat of the Enlightenment? (under Lenin)

Answer 28

provided free education at all levels in coeducational schools.

Question 29

What changes were made to education under Stalin?

Answer 29

Education became the responsibility of the collective farms.
Secondary education & University education was selective and high targets were set for teachers.
If pupils failed to achieve, teachers could be purged.

Question 30

What was the Komsomol?

Answer 30

A youth organisation connected to the communist party.

Question 31

When were the church lands seized?

Answer 31

1917

Question 32

When did the church and the state officially separate?

Answer 32

1918

Question 33

Why did hundreds of priests loose their lived during War Communism?

Answer 33

They were deprived of rations.

Question 34

What year was religious worship restricted to ‘registered congregations?’

Answer 34

1929

Question 35

How did the working conditions affect religion?

Answer 35

There was no religious resting day allowed within the working week.

Question 36

How many churches had been shut down by 1941?

Answer 36

40,000

Question 37

in 1937, what percentage of society defined themselves as believers in religion?

Answer 37

57%

Question 38

How did Stalin’s centralisation affect national minorities?

Answer 38

It juxtaposed the single ‘soviet identity.’

Question 39

When did Stalin begin deportations of non-Russians?

Answer 39

1930.

Question 40

When was Petrograd renamed to Leningrad?

Answer 40

1924.

Question 41

Why was Petrograd remaned to Leningrad?

Answer 41

Lenin had to be remembered as Godlike in order to support Stalin’s cult and the idea that Stalin was Lenin’s ‘disciple’

Question 42

How did the 1930s shape literature and the arts?

Answer 42

Stalin felt the arts were only necessary if they supported socialist ideologies.
The creativity of the 1920s was suppressed in a wave of conformity by the 1930s.