Life in Stalin's Russia

Question 1

What did Stalin believe the aim of literature and arts should be?

Answer 1

To contribute to the great collective effort of reshaping the thinking and behaviour of the Soviet people

Question 2

What was the Soviet Union of Writers?

Answer 2

Formed in 1934:

- had authority over all published writers. Had the right to ban or censor any work

Question 3

What guidelines did writers have to conform to?

Answer 3

• was the work acceptable to the party in theme and presentation
• understandable by workers
• was optimistic and uplifting

Question 4

Who was Maxim Gorky?

Answer 4

A writer who praised the FYP

Question 5

Who was Alexander Solzhenitsyn?

Answer 5

A writer who spent many years in the gulag for falling foul of Stalin’s censorship

Question 6

Who was Dmitri Shostakovich?

Answer 6

A composer who spent most of his creative life trying to keep one step ahead of the censors by exploiting their musical ignorance

Question 7

How was there a cult of personality under Stalin?

Answer 7

From the 1930s on, Stalin;s picture appeared everywhere:

• every newspaper, book and film carried a reference to Stalin’s greatness
• every achievement of the USSR was credited to Stalin

Question 8

How was Stalin celebrated similarly to the Tsars?

Answer 8

The biggest celebration of the year was Stalin’s birthday

Question 9

What was Komsomol?

Answer 9

Youth movement open to those aged 14-28

- pledged its self totally to Stalin and the party

Question 10

How supportive of Stalin were Komsomol members?

Answer 10

• among the most enthusiastic supporters of the FYPs

= proved this by helping to build Magnitogorsk

Question 11

What happened to education in 1917?

Answer 11

It was largely eradicated with the Bolsheviks claiming children should instead learn useful trades

Question 12

Why did Stalin focus on education?

Answer 12

Believed for modernisation to occur the state needed a literate population

Question 13

How long was compulsory education?

Answer 13

10 years

Question 14

What was the core curriculum in schools?

Answer 14

reading, writing, maths, science, history, geography, Russian and Marxist theory

Question 15

Between 1926 to 1940 how much did literacy rates for the population over the age of 9 rise?

Answer 15

From 51% to 88%

Question 16

Why were fees introduced for the last 3 years of schooling?

Answer 16

Claimed that all societies needed a trained section of the community to work as doctors, managers, scientists etc

Question 17

How did an elite grow in the USSR?

Answer 17

The intelligentsia that formed the nomenklatura appreciated that education was the key to success
- got private schooling and tuition

Question 18

How did the educational and promotional practice benefit Stalin?

Answer 18

Created a class of privileged administrators who had every motive to support him since he created them

Question 19

What was the Lysenko affair?

Answer 19

Lysenko was a geneticist who claimed he had discovered ways of developing ‘super-crops’
= Stalin gave him his full support as believed in a ‘socialist science’ which was superior to the West - one of the factors for the many famines in the USSR

Question 20

What was the People’s Commissariat of Health set up in 1918?

Answer 20

Aim was to provide free health care for all people

Question 21

How did health improve during the NEP?

Answer 21

Infant mortality drooped and the spread of contagious diseases was checked

Question 22

Why did death and disease increase under Stalin?

Answer 22

Collectivisation caused famine - no effort was made to provide help to citizens as Stalin refused to acknowledge there was a famine

Question 23

Who benefitted the most from the health care system?

Answer 23

Party members and the nomenklatura

Question 24

What seriously lowered the quality of life and the spread of mild infections?

Answer 24

Overcrowding in shared apartments

Question 25

What was the health care dream of the USSR?

Answer 25

To create a health service to outmatch the West

- were attempts to train doctors, build hospitals and improve the health of workers

Question 26

Why did the idea of an effective health service remain an aspiration?

Answer 26

The USSR could not feed its people adequately

Question 27

How many churches were open by 1940?

Answer 27

500 = 1% of the 1917 figure

Question 28

Why wer churches reopened during the war?

Answer 28

To create a sense of unity and provide support for the war

Question 29

By 1953 how many churches were open?

Answer 29

25,000

Question 30

How did a decree made by Stalin in 1936 influence women and the family?

Answer 30

• unregistered marriages no longer recognised
• divorce made more difficult
• abortion restricted

Question 31

What was the emphasis on women under Stalin?

Answer 31

family and motherhood

Question 32

Why did female members of the party feel they had missed out?

Answer 32

The status of women allowed little room for the notion of the independent and self-sufficient female