Living and working conditions of rural and urban people

Question 1

Urbanisation under Tsars

Answer 1

-15% lived in towns compared to 80% in Britain
-Rapid after 1897 e.g 1914 populations of Kiev/Riga doubled

Question 2

Urban housing under Tsars

Answer 2

-Poor quality (1914= over half made from wood)
-Only 74 towns had electricity/35 gas
-Big effect on health e.g 1910 93% St Petersburg drank heavily from young age
-Overcrowding/diseases e.g cholera= 1911 sewage system (shows politicians willing to act in desperation/positive reaction to reform as cholera affected all classes)
-Factory workers had worst conditions

Question 3

Urban housing under Lenin

Answer 3

Decree on Peace planned for redistribution of private property
= some improvements but short-lived

Question 4

Urban housing under Stalin

Answer 4

Conditions deteriorated (e.g 1930s Moscow 25% lived in 1 room/25% in communal dormitories)
-Allocated space rather than rooms to individuals/families
-Most social projects neglected as focus on Five-year plans
-WW2= 25 million homeless

Question 5

Urban housing under Krushchev

Answer 5

Huge housing programme= housing doubled/communal living abandoned
=Population happy but some benefitted more than others (wealthier professionals with housing cooperatives)

-More ppl wanted to stay in than join political meetings

Question 6

Rural housing under Tsars/communists

Answer 6

Majority remained the same
-Overcrowded wooden huts
-Poor conditions
=Misery but atleast cheap/peasants could control it

Little improvements made

Question 7

Rural housing under Stalin

Answer 7

-Special housing blocks on collectives

Question 8

Rural housing under Krushchev

Answer 8

Agro-towns
-Poor standard
=Health problems like in towns
-Kulaks got barracks/tents

Question 9

Food/famine under Tsars/communists

Answer 9

Russian diet rich/varied as emphasis on agriculture

but STILL famine as:
-Monoculture (growing one crop species in a field)
-Restrictions of mir (e.g growing certain crops)
-Weather conditions
-Gov restrictions (e.g grain requisitioning/collectivisation)

Question 10

Food/famine under Alexander II

Answer 10

Put zemstva in charge of dealing with famines
Didn’t prevent

Question 11

Famine of 1891 (Alexander III)

Answer 11

Caused by weather/raised taxes on consumer goods (peasants had to sell more)

Provincial gov coped well but + diseases= 350,000 deaths

Alexander banned exports of grain/set up Special committee on famine relief but too little/too late= + revolutionary groups

Question 12

Food shortages WW1

Answer 12

Good harvests but inadequate transport/used for troops= difficult to get food/peasants hoarded grain and slaughtered animals later
=Bread queues of 8+ hours in towns

Problems continue after Tsars

Question 13

Food crisis of 1918

Answer 13

Peasant hoarding/land lost to Brest-Litovsk= grain-requisitioning/blamed Kulaks
-Peasants protested:
-Refused to join collectives/make surplus supplies of grain
=Cheka/Red army to seize food (1920)
=Countryside in chaos (1921)/another SEVERE FAMINEE

Question 14

Famine of 1921

Answer 14

Caused by Bolshevik policies/droughts/severe winters/shutdown of railway system

-Ukrainian food production - 20%
-Death toll of 5 MILLION
-BODYSNATCHING/CANNIBALISM

Lenin partly blamed as slow to respond/suspicious of charitable aid (arrested some)

Question 15

Mid 1920s stability in countryside

Answer 15

Decent harvests (1926-7) but shortages in 1928 due to weather
=Grain requisition/blamed Kulaks

Urals Siberian method villagers denounced hoarders/kulaks for rewards

Question 16

Famine of 1932-4 (worst)

Answer 16

Caused by 1st phase of collectivisation/weather
=Repression:
-Death penalty for stealing/hoarding grain
-Discussion of grain crisis banned
-Restrictions on travelling to find food
=Peasants slaughtered animals instead of handing them over= horse shortage= slow ploughing/cows froze as not enough barns

1935 food production improved but not to pre-war standards by WW2
-Diet of workers worsened under communists (e.g consumption of meat/fish fell 80%)

Question 17

WW2 and food supplies

Answer 17

Collectivisation relaxed: size of private plots unrestricted= + food production BUT another famine in 1947
-Poor harvests/shortages continued under Krushchev
-Food still imported despite Virgin Land campaign/improving state pricing mechanism

Socialist agriculture= inefficiency

Question 18

Rural work under Tsars/communists

Answer 18

Success determined more by quality of soil/weather/farming ability than gov policies but still influenced

Question 19

Rural work under Tsars

Answer 19

-Peasants controlled pace they worked/how much produced
-Only restricted by mir
-Aim was to produce as much as possible
-Had to work hard but still had fun fun with seasonal festivals

Question 20

Rural work under communists

Answer 20

-How much produced/methods dictated by gov
-Most targets of collectivisation not achieved by peasants
-Investment in new agricultural techniques/technology (e.g tractor)= mixed success
=Work far more regulated/punishment severe

Question 21

Urban work under Tsars/communists

Answer 21

-Worst conditions in factories
-Low wages, women received less

Question 22

work under Tsars

Answer 22

-No factory inspectors until 1882= terrible conditions
-Factory inspectors ineffective (e.g 1882 child labour banned but still practised)
-Workers insurance system helped with low wages
-Hours could be increased
-Employers found loopholes in law to increase hours

Question 23

work under communists

Answer 23

-1920= rabkrin (inspectorates)= ineffective
-Long hours/low pay/harsh discipline (e.g fines/threatened with purges)- women and children treated more severely
-Some workers destroyed machinery (wreckers)
-Working hours strictly controlled
-Bonus schemes helped wages
-Wages fell 50% after 1st 5 -year plan, rose again but didn’t meet 1920s standard until 1954
-Piece rate system= productive workers paid more

Question 24

Little change to living and working conditions for urban and rural?

Answer 24

Food/Famine
-Vyshnegradsky famine 1891= 350,000 deaths. Also famine 1921 which led to Lenin giving NEP appeasements
-Famine in Stalin’s after collectivisation- pushed on with policy unlike Lenin shows living conditions not his priority
-K virgin land scheme not sufficient= had to import
Must be Tsar examples in other paragraphs

Working conditions
-Hours= 11 a day under NII- PG= 8 hours/K= 7 hours
-HOWEVER WW2 Stalin increased to 12 hour days as part of New Work Discipline in 5YPs
-Workers insurance system N to offset bad pay- offered bonus schemes so communists adapted as didn’t want financial incentives

Freedoms (education/family life)
-Alexander II educational reforms: schools ran by Zemstva 1864, before by wealthy individuals= schools opened to wider no of pupils
-Stalin made primary education compulsory
-Bolsheviks replaced gymnasiums with polytechnics (Lenin)

= Wasn’t enough change
-e.g food and famine continued- worse under Vysnegradskii

e.g working conditions- Pay is poor throughout even with schemes to offset, expected to be better after emancipation

e.g freedoms/education/family life- saw most change but not major