Living and Working Conditions of Industrial Workers

Question 1

5 points

What Negative developments in living conditions were there between 1855 - 1905?

Answer 1

• Period saw rapid urbanisation and industrialisation: St Petersburg population grew from 928,000 (1881) to 1,905,000 (1910).
• Led to slum accommodation e.g. families sharing a single room divided into cubicles, little ventilation or light.
• Overcrowding; 1904 average SP apartment housed 6 people per room.
• Inadequate water supply; 1904 only 1/3 of SP houses had running water.
• Poor sanitation; resulted in outbreaks of disease, e.g. cholera. Between 1892-4 estimated 200,000 died from disease across all Russia.

Question 2

2 points

What negative developments in working conditions were there between 1855 - 1905?

Answer 2

• Low wages and long hours.
• Dangerous conditions led to frequent accidents, e.g. in 1904 556 deaths and 66,000 injuries in metallurgical industries alone.

Question 3

1 point

What negative developments were there in political freedoms between 1855 - 1905?

Answer 3

Independent trade unions illegal.

Question 4

1 point

What positive developments were there in living conditions between 1855 - 1905?

Answer 4

Workers enjoyed some freedom of movement.

Question 5

3 points

What positive developments were there in working conditions between 1855 - 1905?

Answer 5

• Wages were higher than in countryside.
• 1882: Ban on employment of children under 12 and introduction of factory inspectorate (but limited actual impact due to limited numbers).
• 1896: Introduction of 11 hour working day (law did not apply to small workshops; 6 day working week remained the norm).

Question 6

3 points

What negative developments were there in living conditions between 1905 - 1917?

Answer 6

• Poor living conditions exacerbated by continuing rapid urban growth (urban working class numbered 1 mill by 1913).
• War made situation even worse; influx of workers created huge strain on cities; e.g. between 1914 and 1917 pop of Petrograd increased from 2.1 mill to 2.7 mill.
• War resulted in urban grain and food shortages. By Jan 1917 Petrograd only recieving 48% of its grain requirements.

Question 7

1 points

What negative developments were there in working conditions between 1905 - 1917?

Answer 7

War produced inflation of 400% by 1916, and whilst wages did rise, they only did so at half the pace.

Question 8

3 points

What negative developments where there to political freedoms between 1905 - 1917?

Answer 8

• Despite legalisation of trade unions in 1905, industrial relations worsened. E.g. in 1910 47,000 people took strike action, in 1914 it was 1,300,000.
• Government repression of strikes caused anger. E.g. Lena Goldfields Massacre, 1912, where 200 unarmed demonstrators were killed by troops.
• Worker influence in the Duma very limited; 1 gentry vote was worth 45 workers’ votes. Situation worsened after 1907 Electoral Law.

Question 9

2 points

What positive developments were there for working conditions between 1905 - 1917?

Answer 9

1905 revolution resulted in key reforms:
* Indtroduction of free trade unions.
* A Duma system which gave workers a (limited) democratic voice.

Question 10

2 points

What positive developments were there for political freedoms between 1905 - 1917?

Answer 10

• Government introduced social insurance scheme to protect workers in the event of workplace injury.
• By 1914 average working day was 9-10 hours, and statutory holidays were introduced.

Question 11

4 points

What negative developments in living conditions were there during War Communism (1918 - 1921)?

Answer 11

• Disruption of Civil War resulted in food shortages.
• Also resulted in a collapse of industrial production as transport of goods and raw materials disrupted.
• Resulted in massive urban depopulation as people returned to the countryside in search of food.
• Populations of St Petersburg and Moscow halved between 1917 - 1920.

Question 12

3 points

What negative developments in working conditions were there during war communism (1918 - 1920)?

Answer 12

• Hyperinflation of 1,000,000% made wages worthless. By 1919 wages were at 2% of 1913 levels.
• Pressures of war meant that worker controls of factories didn’t last. In 1918 War Communism saw state seize control of running of factories from worker committees, and re-introduction of harsh workplace discipline.
• By 1921 worker discontent resulted in demonstrations and strike action - esp in Moscow and St Petersburg. Prompted government to cut bread rations by 1/3/

Question 13

1 point

What negative developments were there in political freedoms during War Communism (1918-1921)?

Answer 13

Closure of Constituent Assembly and loss of democratic freedoms (e.g. freedoms of speech, freedoms to form a political party)

Question 14

3 points

What positive developments were there during 1918 - 1921?

Answer 14

• Living Conditions: Housing was confiscated from private landowners, workers moved into homes of the wealthy. Civil marriage and divorce made easier.
• Working Conditions: Benefited from Lenin’s early reforms; 8 hour working day, system of social insurance.
• Political Freedoms: State Capitalism gave them the right to run their own factories - short lived, soon replaced by War Communism in 1918.

Question 15

3 points

What negative developments were there during the NEP (1921 - 1928)?

Answer 15

• Real wages only passed pre-war levels in 1928.
• Problems of overcrowding remained.
• High prices and unemployment.

Question 16

3 points

What positive developments were there during the NEP (1921 - 1928)?

Answer 16

• Living Condtions: Food shortages largely eliminated until the late 1920s.
• Working Conditions: Benefitted from an 8 hour working day.
• Political Freedoms: Trade Union representatives has large influence over running of the state controlled factories, but largely directed by party rather than worker interests.

Question 17

8 points

What negative developments in living conditions were there during Stalin’s era (1928 - 1953)?

Answer 17

• Rapid urbanisation as industry grew; during 1930s sometimes towns and cities growing at a rate of 200,000 people a month.
• Led to poor accomodation and overcrowding;
• Ppl lived in barracks.
• Moscow, mid 1930s: 25% of families lived in one room shared with another family, 25% lived in communal dormitories, 5% lived in corridors and hallways.
• Living space fell from avr. of 8.5 sq. meters in 1905 to 5.8 in 1935.
• Even those in better housing lacked kitchens, bathrooms.
• Food shortages common; between 1928 and 1933 consumption of meat, fruit and milk in Leningrad fell by 2/3.
• Rationing until 1935.

Question 18

3 points

What negative developments to working conditions were there during Stalin’s era (1928 - 1953)?

Answer 18

• By 1940 wages only 56% of 1928 value.
• Harsh workplace conditions; Absenteeism punished with dismissal, loss of housing, possible imprisonment; Piece rates.
• WWII saw further deterioration in working conditions; 12 hour working day, 6 days a week - these conditions persisted after the war.

Question 19

3 points

What negative developments were there on political freedoms in Stalin’s era (1928 - 1953)?

Answer 19

• Ban on strike action.
• Movement of labour controlled by use of internal passports.
• Extensive use of forced labour; 14-18 million people imprisoned in over 30,000 labour camps (gulag system); estimated 1.6 million died there.

Question 20

3 points

What positive developments were there in Stalin’s era (1928 - 1935)?

Answer 20

• Women given more opportunities in the workplace and recieved support; by 1937 50% of Leningrad workforce female.
• Increased provision of hospitals and clinics, e.g. 90% of babies born in hospitals in cities.
• Increased provision of sports clubs, facilities.

Question 21

4 points

What negative developments in living conditions were there in Khrushchev’s era (1953 - 1964)?

Answer 21

• Quality of new housing poor; prefabricated apartment blocks often lacking lifts and running water.
• Some consumer goods remained expensive, Russian families lagged far behind the West.
• Agriculture could not keep up with urban demand for food; gov.raised prices to decrease demand, e.g. meat prices increased by 38%.
• Increases in food prices led to discontent - Novocherkassk Massacre, 1962.

Question 22

3 points

What positive developments in living conditions were there during Khrushchev’s era (1953 - 1964)?

Answer 22

• Poverty Line established; number living below it fell from 100 mill (1958) to 30 mill (1968)
• Amount of available housing doubled, 1955 - 1964. Communal flats of Stalin abandoned, families able to find their own apartments, with free heating.
• Increased availability of consumer goods; e.g. by 1968 50% of soviet homes had a TV and a washing machine.

Question 23

1 point

What positive developments were there to political freedoms during Khrushchev’s era (1953 - 1964)?

Answer 23

Gulag system closed down; end of forced labour.