Peasants Flashcards
To what extent did the peasants suffer more under the communists than Tsars?
Para 1- Housing:
In general- housing available to peasants remained same, yet some notable improvements under comm.
Majority dwelled in izbas)- v. crowded and dirty- damp, squalid.
Comm: some attempts made- Kulaks usually dumped in barracks- given tent in field.
-Stalin constructed ‘special’ housing blocks on periphery of collective farms- Khrushchev- agro-towns- housing stock doubled 1955-64.
Para 2- Food:
Severe instances of food shortages in both periods- peasants hungrier than ever before under comm due to focus on heavy industry.
Tsars: 1891 famine- cholera/typhus- peasants forced to sell grain surplus- vyshnergradsky raised tax on consumer goods- showed Ts didn’t care- BUT- AII did- put zemstva incharge of emergency measures.
Comm: 1921 famine- similar but worse as Lenin to blame- slow to respond- didn’t accept American relief- 5 million dead- 1932-4 famine- harsh treatment by Stalin-death penalty for stealing grain etc.
Para 3- Working conditions:
Harder under comm- tsars made more effort- introduce reforms for their benefit.
Tsars: able to control pace they worked/ how much they produced- Emancipation edict- more access to land- doesn’t matter about limitations as much more than any other leader did. Land captains, Stolypin’s- finally recognised- creation of educated ‘kulaks’.
Comm: had to work harder- Decree on Land ‘Peace, Bread and land’- proclaimed comm responding to interests but war comm reversed this. Mass collectivisation= liquidation of kulaks.
Para 4- Civil rights:
Didn’t really have any throughout period- arguably worse under comm- less freedom of speech.
Tsars: emancipation edict- serfs could marry who they wanted/use law courts- didn’t really have a problem with people expressing views as long as it didn’t directly threaten authority.
Comm: considered religion as ‘opium of the people’- severe restrictions on church- by 1938 only 16 working orthodox churches compared with 224 in 1930.
Magic para-for whom:
