Social Reform Of The USSR Flashcards
Priority 1918- 21
- winning the civil war
- social benefits secondary of importance
1921-28 priorities:
- economic development and social peace
- saw promotion of social benefits
1928-41 priotirtes
- economic development
- social benefits limited
- to ensure enough resources for industrial growth
1941-45 priorities
- winning WWII
- social benefits are secondary of importance
1945-53 priorities
- economic reconstruction (after WWII)
- social benefits were secondary of importance
1954-64
- reforming socialism to ensure that it guaranteed a good life for all
- all social benefits became central to the system
1964-85
- ensuring social stability
- Social benefits used to secure peace among the citizens
- catch up with the west
What were social reforms supported by?
- propaganda
- showing happy citizens with recent development
- showing modern and civilised society
Family under Lenin:
- Radical family policies suggested by Kollantai to encourage socialism - family unit seen as bourgeoise
- communal living and free love suggested (abandoned by mid-20s)
- Lenin recognised abuses in traditional marriages
- 1917/18 Abortion made legal/contraception
- Women considered equal to men under the new constitution
Family under Stalin:
Traditional views reinstates: The Great Retreat 36-53 (for war)
- aimed to increase birth rate for industrialisation/cut divorces - family = key to stability
- abortion criminalised/contraception banned
- 1930s offered money to have big families - 2000 roubles for 5 kids = PRONATALISM
- homosexuality criminalised 5 years labour/lesbianism as a disease - conversion measures
- premarital sex stigmatised
- divorce expensive, got more expensive after 1st
- BUT child support = 1/3 of pay
Family under Khrushchev:
Liberation of women on traditional assumptions: - family still key to social security
- abortion legalised 1955
- 1956 = longer maternity leave
- 6th 5YP -crèches and laundries expanded
- 7th 5YP- convenience foods and mass produce clothing to end double shift
- fridges made available (no need for daily shopping)
BUT:
- contraception hard to acquire
- crèches open for short hours - cant work full day
- lack of domestic appliances and didn’t work great
Family under Brezhnev:
- 1965 - divorces liberalised - 79 = 1/3 in divorce
- wanted to increase birth rate
- 1968 - illegal to divorce a pregnant lady
- prenatal campaigns emphasised natural differences in the sexes
- criticised women who neglected children by working (persisted to the 1980s - working women responsible for delinquency, alcoholism, drug taking and crime)
Social benefits under Lenin:
- 1918 - legal abortion
Under war communism:
- work cards gave those in work food/fuel rations by Prodraspred
- housing and transport free for workers
- laundries and crèches
- (however rations too little - malnourishment)
NEP:
- 1920s develop social benefit system:
- social insurance = maternity, medical, disability, unemployment
- invest in education for working families
- all provided by trade unions - 9 million urban workers covered
BUT PEASANTS HAVE NO ACCESS
Employment under Lenin:
Believed all able bodied men should work:
- between 16-50 all must work or fight:
- 1918 - labour exchanges set up
- 18-21 = conscription to the workplace under war communism
Under war communism:
- work cards gave those in work food/fuel rations by Prodraspred
- housing and transport free for workers
- laundries and crèches
- (however rations too little - malnourishment)
NEP:
- return of soldiers push women and others out of jobs - 18% unemployed
- 1920s develop social benefit system:
- social insurance = maternity, medical, disability, unemployment
- invest in education for working families
- all provided by trade unions - 9 million urban workers covered
BUT PEASANTS HAVE NO ACCESS
Good aspects of Work and social benefits under Stalin:
- full employment - 5YPs increased labour force
- 1930 = full employment
- social benefits include rations
- transport access - metro and 300,000 km of train
- 1941-5 female conscription into families
- two weeks holiday paid
- 1947 = typhus and malaria vaccines available
- sick pay organised by the unions
Bad aspects of Work and social benefits under Stalin:
- full employment so 1930 Unemployment benefit cancelled
- internal work pass ports restricted workers movements (couldn’t get away from abusive workplaces)
- 1939 - absenteeism criminal offence
- peasants unentitled to rations
- food shortages in factory canteens = major issue, rotting meat + animal feed = illness and malnutrition
- harsh discipline and unsanitary/safe working conditions
Work and social benefits under Khrushchev:
- 1956 lowered retirement age + pension increased (not for peasants tho) - quadrupled pensions budget up until 65
- state spending on benefits increased
- 1956 - minimum wage
- 1957 reduction of working hour week
- 1961 - free school, office and factory lunches/ free public transport/pensions and healthcare for some farmers
Brezhnev social benefits:
- 67-77 - real wages rose 50%
- low govt prices (subsidised - low choice)
- peasant pensions
- 1968 - illegal to divorce pregnant lady
- 1966 - wages introduced on collective farms
- 1977 - Soviet constitution guarantees you a job
- wage differentials small between workers
1974 - collective peasants allowed to travel
HOWEVER: a lot of policy based on traditional views about women - often refused industrial jobs so female unemployment was at 10% in some cities
Why did Brezhnev need social benefits to improve:
- it was part of the social contract between citizen and state
- goal of achieving communism by 1980 abandoned
- is the people support the party the party will ensure a certain loving stat card
- in 1970s highest soviet standard of living in the cities (could become comfortable through govt provisions and black market trading
Housing under Lenin:
- large areas of land/housed of the aristocracy seized and redistributed in 1920s
Housing under Stalin:
- rapid industrialisation = shortages and poor quality
- badly designed, a lot of communal living
- 1936 = 25% of people love in dormitories
- Stalingrad lost 90% of housing WW2, but rebuilding housing is lower priority than rebuilding industry
- Narkomfin apartment experiment in Moscow (similar rare and expensive)
- barracks constructed on new industrial centres like Magnitogorsk (Moscow coal fields = 15000 beds for 26000 miners)
Housing under Khrushchev and Brezhnev
- 1956-65 - extend the housing programme
- a main priority of Stalin
- K7 housing block = Khrushchyovka (low cost housing blocks which were constructed quickly, easily, large concrete panels)
- families now had whole apartments to themselves! Running water, central heating etc..
However the Khruschyovka = standard model for all homes even though meant to be temporary, and shortage remained an issue still - single occupancy in the 1970s
Healthcare under Lenin:
- many doctors left in the revolution
- 1921 cholera epidemic and vaccination programme
- lice problems
Healthcare under Stalin:
1928 - 70,000 doctors, 1940 - 155,000 doctors
- hospital bed numbers rise to almost 800,000
-1936 = illegal abortion
- healthcare access to all but remained severely varied
- typhus and malaria vaccinations 1947 onwards
Healthcare under Khrushchev
- Provision of medical care extended, particularly in urban areas
- Medical care varies throughout the USSR
- 1955-abortion once more made legal
- doubled spending of healthcare by 1959
- infant mortality dropped and so did deathrate
Healthcare under Brezhnev
- Provision of medical care extended further
- 1978-2,000 sanatoria & 1,000 rest homes developed
- Quality of medical care varies throughout the USSR
- increased spending on healthcare every year and free healthcare
However alcoholism is still rife:
- life expectancy drops form 68-64 for men in the 1970s
Education under Lenin:
- 1917-Commissariat of Education established
- 1918-Church schools taken over by the state
- 1919-Campaign for the ‘Liquidation of illiteracy’
- Boys & girls had equal access to education
- before civil war is more important so schools initially requisitioned
- NEP caused schools to expand - 4 year primary school - 1927 onwards primary school fees abolished
- by 1928 60% completed primary school
Education under Stalin:
- Parents were meant to teach their children to support communism
- 1931-20 million in compulsory education - 1953 = 100% gained primary education but only 20% completed secondary
- 1931 Central Committee attacked the educational system for neglecting literacy & numeracy
- 1935 New curriculum introduced very traditional in nature - core subjects, strict discipline and ‘the history of great men’
- 1940-State funding cut for education & school fees introduced especially in latter years, also to ensure there was a high enough work force for industrialisation
- Scholarships available through the Party
Education under Khrushchev:
-1958-Educational reforms for technical & vocational education
- merged country schools together
- doubled number of urban schools, reduced class sizes
- teachers trained better
- 1956 abolished secondary school fees
- higher focus on vocational training
Education under Brezhnev:
- 1964-Khrushchev educational reforms dropped - seen to undermine academic excellence of the USSR
- 1965-Transport to school made free
- 1980s-Development of specialist schools in mathematics, science & foreign languages
- farming and vocational training on farms for young people stopped
However: even though textbooks updated in the 70s the wider curriculum was never altered - still studying the same subjects established in 1947
Initial literacy rates:
1917 - 32% literate
Early reduction in illiteracy:
CIVIL WAR
- Trotsky introduced literacy classes in RA - 1818 =50% illiterate, 1925 = all literate!
- lunacharsky set up likpunty - reading rooms providing 6 week intensive corses
NEP
- campaign to end illiteracy 1925 (target to solve by 1927)
- worked with unions to do literacy classes and libraries - Transport Workers Union - 99% illiteracy by 1927
- 55% literate in 1928
IlliteracyUnder Stalin:
1930s:
- eliminate illiteracy by the end of the 5 Year plan
- military style tactics and language against the enemy of illiteracy
- alongside collectivisation so teachers assaulted 40% as teachers associated with the government
Took longer than the first 5 YP - by 1939 94% literate so can be seen as a huge quick success
