Russia 1917-1991 topic 4 social developments lenin to stalin

Question 1

What were Lenin and Stalin both committed to?

Answer 1

The principle that all able bodied adults should work

Question 2

What became compulsory under War Communism and who did this affect?

Answer 2

Work compulsory for all Soviet Citizens between ages of 16-50, they had to either work or fight

Question 3

During War Communism what were workers entitled to what?

Answer 3

Received a work card which enabled them to get rations of food, free transport and housing for workers in urban areas. Laundries and creches provided in cities too.

Question 4

Who was food and fuel rationed by?

Answer 4

Prodraspred

Question 5

Why in practice did war communism fail?

Answer 5

As rations for urban workers were inefficient, workers began searching for food in the countryside. Thus the population of urban areas fell by 25% during W.C.

Question 6

What were the aims of the NEP?

Answer 6

To ensure that the Soviet economy had reached mature phase of capitalism to allow socialism to fully flourish, by doing so he intended to allow some elements of capitalism into the ussr to increase production and motivate the workers so they would be more productive, thus producing more units of output and growing the economy

Question 7

What were some of the unintended consequences of the NEP?

Answer 7

Unemployment increased because factories sacked workers that were no longer needed and soldiers were demobilised

Question 8

Why was it harder for women to work during the NEP?

Answer 8

As free creches abolished

Question 9

What percentage of the urban workforce were unemployed in 1924?

Answer 9

18%

Question 10

Despite the downfalls of the NEP what developed really well?

Answer 10

Social welfare for urban workers

Question 11

What were urban workers entitled to during NEP?

Answer 11

• Social insurance( in case they couldn’t work, which paid disability, maternity, unemployment and medical benefits)
• Urban workers’ children had investment from govt for their education

Question 12

How many urban workers did the social benefits include during the 1920s?

Answer 12

9 MILLION

Question 13

who was not included in the giving out of social welfare?

Answer 13

peasants

Question 14

What was reintroduced under Stalin?

Answer 14

compulsory work

Question 15

What did the intro of the 5YPs lead to?

Answer 15

Full employment for males and increasing employment for women, over ten million joined labour force (women) by 1940

Question 16

Labour discipline was what in Stalin’s factories?

What were the conditions like?

Answer 16

• Harsh

- dirty and dangerous

Question 17

Living standards slowly improved under Stalin what exactly did he provide that was different to Lenin?

Answer 17

In 1947 he made vaccines for things like typhus and malaria universally available for all citizens of the Soviet Union.
Provided food rations and access to better transport with the building of the 30,000km of railway and the Metro. Factory workers ate in canteens

Question 18

What three problems developed under Stalin?

Answer 18

• Peasants not entitled to the same social benefits as urban workers(eg not entitled to rations)
• Food shortages made food unfit for human consumption because they had to use animal feed and rotten food in order to feed workers
• Factory sanitation inadequate and lead to infestations of lice, dysentery and vomiting

Question 19

During the 1920s how was property redistributed?

Answer 19

They took large and expensive property away from the rich (capitalists and aristocrats) and gave it to poor people instead to live in

Question 20

Experiments like which apartment block in Moscow provided excellent housing? But?

Answer 20

The Narkomfin Apartment House but were terribly expensive to build and a rarity in the cities

Question 21

What was the name of communal apartments that were urban buildings divided up?

Answer 21

Kommunalka

Question 22

Who would be able to stay in these apartments that were 4 -5.5 metres squared?

Answer 22

Entire families

Question 23

Under Stalin what was the alternative to housing for those who lived in new industrial towns like Magnitogorsk?

Answer 23

Barrack-style dormitories, inefficient still because workers in the Moscow Coal Fields had just 15,000 beds to sleep 26,000 workers