Russia 1.4 Flashcards
What undermined the system’s capacity to provide benefits for all?
Economic problems
What was a pragmatic reason for transforming society?
Social benefits in exchange for conformity and loyalty.
Equality of the sexes - more possible output. Also for the revolution to take place the vanguard of the revolution needed to be there in the first place, and then needed to be loyal to the state.
What were ideological reasons for transforming society?
Destroying economic and sexist oppression seen in capitalist societies.
In 1918, Lenin published the Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploiting People. What did this include?
The Declaration abolished the private ownership of land. Capitalists could no longer make money by simply owning things.
The Declaration introduced universal labour duty - designed ‘to eliminate the parasitical layers of society’ by ensuring everybody worked - capitalists could no longer live off the labour of others.
What caused economic chaos in 1917?
Both revolutions.
Between March and August of 1917, how many industrial enterprises closed?
570
By October 1918, how many were unemployed?
100,000
War Communism was based on a relationship between who?
The government and workers. Workers had a duty to provide labour, and the government had a duty to provide food and basic amenities.
What ended widespread unemployment and what ensured this?
Widespread unemployment ended by introduction of compulsory labour - from Sept 1918 able-bodied men between 16 and 50 lost the right to refuse employment.
People in work issued a work card - entitled them to food rations.
At the height of the rationing system, how many products were being rationed and how many people were entitled to ration cards?
36 products
22 million
What did a work card give access to, at least in Moscow and Petrograd?
Free public transport and rations.
What percentage of people living in Moscow did the government claim were regularly fed in communal dining halls?
93%
(Failure)
Why was compulsorily labour unsustainable in the conditions of the Civil War?
By July 1920 factories were closing due to fuel shortages - government response was forcing the unemployed to search for fuel or join food detachments (groups of men organised to search villages for food).
(Failure)
How much of the food and fuel people needed to live on did War Communism actually provide?
50%
Between 1917 and 1921 the Pertrograd population fell ____ . The total population of factory workers was reduced by ____ during the Civil War.
50%
25%
What disappeared as a result of the NEP?
The relationship between government benefits and compulsory work disappeared under the NEP.
Why was unemployment high after the Civil War?
1921 and 1922 millions of soldiers from the Red Army were demobilised.
Urban workers who had left the cities returned at the end of the Civil War.
Government sacked 225,000 administrators who were employed to administer War Communism.
What was the unemployment rate in 1921 and in 1924?
5.5%
18%
What ensured unemployment remained high?
Aims to increase productivity.
The 1922 Labour Law
The 1922 Labour Law gave unions the right to negotiate binding agreements about pay and working conditions with employers.
How many people did social insurance cover?
9 million
Was the system of social insurance successful?
System of social insurance was the most comprehensive and extensive in the world. However peasants were excluded due to the government’s focus on the special position of the proletariat.
Was there a gap between the urban workers and the rural peasants by the end of the NEP?
Yes. While unemployment remained a major problem, urban workers were clearly better off in 1926 - paid 10% more and ate more meat and fish while peasants did not benefit from the social insurance available.
To Stalin, what were the Soviet workers and why did he want full employment?
For Stalin, Soviet workers were a crucial economic resource, central to building socialism - he wanted full employment to ensure rapid industrialisation.
By when had the USSR reached full employment?
1930
How many hired workers were there in 1927? In 1937?
1927 - 11.6 million
1937 - 27 million
What was the impact of full employment on workers?
Low productivity. In 1927, the average Soviet worker produced only half of what an average British worker produced. This only worsened.
Working conditions deteriorated - to Stalin, industrial workers were expendable.
Harsh labour laws.
What were the harsh labour laws which Stalin introduced?
Lateness was criminalised.
Unions lost the right to negotiate with factory managers.
Damaging factory property was criminalised.
Strikes were banned.
The ‘continuous work week’ - Factories and mines could work seven days a week. To meet production targets, managers used uninterrupted work - day and night shifts so that machinery could be kept busy 24 hours a day.
In 1939, absenteeism was criminalised since labour was in short supply.
Why was an internal passport system introduced and when was it introduced?
In 1932.
Managers feared not meeting targets due to labour shortages as people often changed their job in search for better employment.
Food rations were distributed through the work place - ensured workers were where they were needed.
Was the internal passport system successful?
Partly successful but even by 1937, 30% of all urban workers changed their jobs in each quarter of the year.
What was the issue with offering skilled workers higher wages in 1934 to incentivise more people to become skilled workers?
Higher wages were only a small incentive since there was so little to buy in shops.
What benefits did the Five-Year Plan bring?
Workers were entitled to food rations and by 1933 most Soviet citizens had access to electricity.
During the 1930s, 30,000 km of railways were built, increasing access to transport. Passenger traffic increased by 400% in the 1930s. The Moscow Metro opened in the 1930s.
Significant increase in healthcare provision - mass vaccination campaigns dealing with several diseases.
Factory and farm canteens provided meals for workers.
Why did Stalin makes benefits only accessible through factories or collectives in the 1930s?
This re-emphasised the link between work and social welfare and ensured that the only way to access benefits was through work. Disincentivised absenteeism.
Were peasants still worse off than urban workers?
Yes. Peasants benefited much less than workers - not entitled to rations, and food was much scarcer on farms than in cities (vast majority seized). During the late 1930s farm workers had to travel to towns to buy bread.
Why did Stalin place doctors at factories and collectives and why were they strict?
It was designed to keep workers healthy enough to keep working.
Doctors were strict about allowing people to have time off due to illness.
the number of doctors increased from _______ (1928) to _______ (1940) and the number of hospital beds rose from _______ (1928) to _______ (1939).
70,000
155,000
247,000
791,000
Was there inequality between Party officials and Soviet citizens in health are?
Soviet healthcare operated a ‘Party first’ policy - guaranteed vaccines and medicine. In a city in the Ukraine all Party officials were vaccinated but there were 26,000 cases of malaria in the working population (1933) up from 10,000 (1932).
The industrial workforce increased from _______ (1945) to _______ (1950)
8 milllion
12.2 million
What improvements in healthcare were made between 1940 and 1953?
Infant mortality declined by 50% between 1940 and 1950.
The number of medical doctors increased by two-thirds between 1947 and 1952.
Vaccines for common diseases were made universally available from 1947. Malaria declined rapidly from 1949.
Despite the expansion in healthcare, how did food shortages, poor housing and poverty caused by the worse counteract the expansion?
The planned economy struggled to produce simple commodities (soap, warm clothing and shoes) - greater health problems.
Food was a major problem. Work canteens used rotten food, animal feed and other products that were unfit for human consumption to make up for food shortages - led to illness.
Sanitation in factories and farms often inadequate - lice infestations and outbreaks of vomiting.
Hygiene education was poor - not until 1947 that there was a publicity campaign encouraging workers to ‘use the toilet in a civilised fashion’ and wash their hands afterwards.
How many days off a year did the average Soviet worker take due to illness in 1946?
10 to 13 days.
Under the NEP, what percentage of urban housing was denationalised?
60-80%
However, in 1923 and 1924 what was nationalised to create more housing. This is in addition to what other establishment.
In 1923-34 large town houses were ‘socialised’ - owners given a single room while working-class families moved in. Often the authorities thought that one room was enough for an entire family.
At the same time, Church property was nationalised, priests were evicted from their cottages and Church buildings were turned into stores or housing.
Under the NEP, how much of house building was undertaken by private companies?
89%
The urban population _____ between 1929 and 1940
Tripled
What were kommunalka?
What size was the average family kommunalka in 1930?
In existing cities Soviet authorities divided buildings into small kommunalka (communal apartments). Families shared one room and bathrooms + kitchens were shared. The average family kommunalka was 5.5 square metres in 1930.
By 1940 what was the average kommunalka and why?
Pressure on housing - kommunalka being redivided - by 1940 the average kommunalka was 4 square metres.
In the Lyubertsy district of Moscow, the _______ did not have a single ________.
650,000
Bathhouse
What else was converted into accommodation?
Who were ‘corner dwellers”?
How much could space in a corridor cost?
Coal sheds and under-stair cupboards converted into accommodation.
‘corner dwellers’ - lived in corridors or communal kitchens within kommunalka buildings - space in corridors could cost as much as half a month’s wage and corridor living was permanent
In 1936, what percentage of rented units of housing consisted of more than one room?
In 1936 what percentage lived in a kitchen or a corridor?
6%
8%
In Factory towns, instead of housing there were ________ which lacked ____________
Dormitories occupied by several families.
Basic necessities (paved streets, electric lights)
In Magnitogorsk, what percentage lived in mud huts?
20%
How much of urban housing was damaged or destroyed between 1941 and 1945?
1/3
The average worker living in dormitories had just _____ square metres?
3
Worries in Moscow coalfields had just 15,000 beds for how many workers?
26,000 workers
Under the Fourth Five-Year Plan, why did housing projects fail? Provide the example of Moscow.
House building not a major priority under the Fourth Five-Year Plan - budgets were small, and management inefficient. Workers were often reassigned to other projects. In the first half of 1948 house building projects outside Moscow spent 40% of their budget and were then suspended - not a single house was completed.
In the Ukraine, Khrushchev built gown many house in how many new farming villages and why did Stalin veto his same plan for Moscow?
919,000 houses in 4000 farming villages.
Expense.
Did Stalin’s policies create the housing crisis?
Industrialisation always took precedence over housing. In many ways, Stalin’s policies created the housing crisis, which worsened by the Great Patriotic War.
What saying by Khrushchev summarises his policies?
“What sort of Communism is it that cannot produce sausage”.
What labour laws were introduced in 1956 and 1957?
A minimum wage was introduced in 1956 to ensure no workers were below the poverty line, the working week was reduced in 1957 and the number of days’ paid holiday increased.
What early healthcare advancements were made?
The Soviet healthcare budget doubled - 21.4 billion roubles in 1950 to 44.0 billion roubles in 1959.
Infant mortality reduced from 81 per thousand live births in 1950 to 27 by 1965.
Which welfare reforms were made in regards to pensions, transport and lunches?
The pensions quadrupled between 1950 to 1965 - partly because the number of pensioners increased from 1 million in 1950 to 4.4 million in 1965 as it was expanded and the retirement age was reduced.
Major reforms introduced in 1961 improved social benefits:
Free lunches in schools, offices and factories.
Free public transport.
Full pensions and healthcare rights for farmers.
How much did consumption per capita increase annually under Khrushchev?
3.8%
Between 1960 and 1965 the amount of urban housing more than ______ from ____ million m² (1951) to _____ (1961).
Doubled
178
394
What were Khrushchyovka?
Cheap mass housing blocks that were designed to be temporary but became the standard for all new homes.
What was the K-7 apartment block?
It could be constructed quickly and easily from large prefabricated panels and standardised windows and doors.
How did Khrushchyovka transform Soviet family life?
They were 10 times bigger than the kommunalka.and allowed families to have an entire apartment.
Privacy was recreated and so the authorities could not longer keep a check on the population through informants in dormitories or kommunalka.
What was Brezhnev’s goal?
The promotion of a stable society.
What did the Soviet Constitution of 1977 guarantee in terms of welfare?
the Constitution also granted social and economic rights not provided by constitutions in some capitalist countries. Among these were the rights to work, rest and leisure, health protection, care in old age and sickness, housing, education, and cultural benefits. (Suggests Brezhnev saw a problem that needed to be addressed).
What was the ‘social contract’?
A rising standard of living and greater social benefits for obedience and conformity. In that sense, the Soviet people traded political rights for economic well-being.
What did Brezhnev’s ‘social contract’ guarantee?
Job security through guaranteed full employment.
Low prices for essential goods
A thriving second economy, free of government interference.
Social benefits - e.g. free healthcare.
Some social mobility.
How much did spending on health and pension grow annually under Brezhnev?
4 to 5%
Between 1950 and 1980, state welfare increased _________
Fivefold
Were pensions still insufficient?
Whilst pensions rose, they remained insufficient at 40 rubles per month in 1980. This encouraged many to continue to work part-time after retirement.
Did living conditions in the countryside improve?
Incomes of collective farmers increased when the government introduced regular wages in 1966 rather than payment based on a share of a farm’s income. By the mid 1970s the wages of rural workers were only 10% less than their urban counterparts.
How much did real wages increase by between 1966 and 1977?
50%
Why was greater spending power not always a good thing for Soviet citizens?
Soviet citizens more spending power, but most accumulated savings because of scarcity in the shops and that low prices were fixed by the government. Absenteeism was often the result of people having to stand in long queues for food.
By the 1970s at what percentage was hidden unemployment?
20%
How many unfilled vacancies were there in the late 1970s?
1 million
What percentage of Russians were out of work by 1985?
2%
What did infant mortality increase to in the 1970s and what did the life expectancy decrease to in the dame period?
In spite of increased health spending, Soviet health declined. Infant mortality increased from 3% to 7% in the 1970s while life expectancy declined from 68 to 64 years for men in the same period (Alcoholism).
Evidence for inequalities between urban areas (Moscow) and other republics?
Also major inequalities - best medical services in Moscow and then other cities whereas the Central Asian republics were particularly badly served - even as recently as 1988 some hospitals did not have heating or running water.
Why were there protests in 1962?
Why were there strikes and riots in Sverdlovsk in 1969 and in Gorki in 1980?
Why was there unrest in Kiev in 1969?
Wave of protests over increase in price of meat and dairy products in 1962. Strikes and riots over food shortages in Sverdlovsk in 1969 and Gorki in 1980. Unrest over poor housing provision occurred in Kiev in 1969.
What was the Freed Trade Union Association of 1977 and what was the government’s response?
The setting up of the Free Trade Union Association in 1977 was different - sought to represent grievances rather than having to rely on government-controlled, thus restricted, trade unions. The government took action quickly, the organisation’s leader was dismissed from his job and had his flat taken away - what the state had provided could be taken away. The Association gained little support.
What was the divorce rate in 1979?
34%
Between 1940 and 1980, by how much did the Soviet population grow? In the same period how much did alcohol consumption increase?
How many estimated alcoholics were there in 1987?
25%
600%
20 million.
What early measures took place to bring about the equality of sexes, and why?
Ideology.
In 1917, the Bolsheviks rushed through a series of decrees that gave women greater status and freedom within marriage: divorce was made easier and abortion was legalised.
Principle of equal pay passed into law in 1917 and maternity leave was granted. The Soviet constitution of 1918 declared that men and women were equal.
Which organisation recruited women from towns to fill jobs in nursing and food distribution?
Zhenotdel
How many women fought in the Red Army?
70,000
In 1922, what did the government close and of all unemployed in towns and cities, what percentage were women?
Crèches.
62.2%
What made female prostitution widespread in the 1920s?
During the 1920s, what estimated percentage of urban men used prostitutes?
High unemployment and the famine.
39%
The number of female workers rose by how much between 1928 and 1940?
1928 - 3 million
1940 - 13 million
By 1940 what percentage of workers in heavy industry were women?
41%
Women were paid only _______ of men’s wages for the same job.
60-65%
