Social security under Lenin

Question 1

What did Karl Marx say about employment?

Answer 1

“Labour produces marvels for the rich but it produces deprivation for the worker.”

Question 2

What did Karl Marx view capitalists as?

Answer 2

Karl Marx viewed capitalists as “parasites”

Question 3

Why did Karl Marx view capitalists as “parasites”?

Answer 3

Marx viewed capitalists as “parasites” in the sense that they lived off the work of the working class without contributing to their well-being

Question 4

After the revolution Marx argued that parasitism should be abolished and that all able people should work. Marx also argued that the relationship between work and wealth would go through two phases after the revolution. What were these two phases?

Answer 4

Socialist economic organisation would be based on the principle: “from each according to their ability, to each according to their ability.” Therefore, work, rather than property, would be the key to gaining economic resources

Communist economic organisation would be based on a higher principle: “from each according to their ability, to each according to their need.” Individuals should contribute to society based on their capabilities, and resources should be distributed based on the varying needs of each individual

Question 5

Lenin’s view of work was influenced by who?

Answer 5

Karl Marx

Question 6

What did Lenin publish?

Answer 6

the Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited People

Question 7

What did the Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited People introduce?

Answer 7

The Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited People introduced two principles that were designed to transform work

Question 8

The Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited People introduced two principles that were designed to transform work - what were these principles?

Answer 8

The Declaration abolished the private ownership of land. Therefore capitalists could no longer make money simply by owning things

The Declaration introduced universal labour duty. This was designed “to eliminate the parasitical layers of society” by ensuring that everybody worked and therefore capitalists could no longer simply live off the labour of others

Question 9

Lenin’s economic policy went through several phases but what did they all reflect?

Answer 9

Lenin’s economic policy went through several phases but they all reflected the Communist Party’s belief in the duty of all people to labour

Question 10

Why was ensuring stable employment extremely difficult between October 1917 and mid-1918?

Answer 10

The revolutions of 1917 had caused economic chaos

Question 11

How many industrial enterprises closed between March and August 1917 and what did this lead to?

Answer 11

570 industrial enterprises
As a result, unemployment had increased to over 100,000 by October 1918

Question 12

Why did the employment situation worsen after the October Revolution?

Answer 12

Lenin called a truce, effectively taking Russia out of the First World War. Consequently, war production ceased, leading to higher unemployment

Question 13

By March 1918, how many chemical and metal workers in Petrograd were unemployed?

Answer 13

75 per cent

Question 14

During this period, what did Lenin stress?

Answer 14

Lenin stressed the duty of labour discipline and collaboration between workers and their former bosses, who were employed as “bourgeois specialists”. The “bourgeois specialists” no longer made money through property. Rather they received wages for their work running factories and organising production

Question 15

Lenin’s early economic plans failed to…

Answer 15

stop the disintegration of the economy and rising unemployment

Question 16

In theory, what was War Communism based on?

Answer 16

In theory, War Communism was based on a relationship between the government and workers. Workers had a duty to provide labour, and the government had a duty to provide food and basic amenities

Question 16

In theory, what was War Communism based on?

Answer 16

In theory, War Communism was based on a relationship between the government and workers. Workers had a duty to provide labour, and the government had a duty to provide food and basic amenities

Question 17

The widespread unemployment of early 1918 was ended by…

Answer 17

the introduction of compulsory labour. From September 1918 able-bodied men between 16 and 50 lost the right to refuse employment. People in work were issued a work card which entitled them to food rations

Question 18

Who lost the right to refuse employment and when?

Answer 18

From September 1918 able-bodied men between 16 and 50 lost the right to refuse employment

Question 19

What were people in work issued?

Answer 19

People in work were issued a work card which entitled them to food rations

Question 20

After money was abolished, what were rations allocated according to?

Answer 20

Occupation

Question 21

What was the rationing system based on and what did this mean?

Answer 21

The rationing system was based on class, so that working-class people received the highest rations, but people working in middle-class occupations such as medical doctors received less

Question 22

Aristocrats and former factory owners, “the former people”, were entitled to about __ per cent of the food that working people received. At the height of the rationing system __ products were rationed and there were __ million people entitled to ration cards

Answer 22

25
36
22

Question 23

Who was rationing organised by?

Answer 23

Prodraspred

Question 24

Prodraspred had subsections which…

Answer 24

delivered rations to workers and a Community section which tried to deliver food to schools and to people who could not work due to sickness or disability

Question 25

Provide an example of another benefit workers - at least in Moscow and Petrograd - had access to?

Answer 25

A work card entitled workers to travel on public transport

Question 26

How did party members enjoy special privileges?

Answer 26

The government ran special shops where Party members could acquire food and goods that were scarce

Question 27

Compulsory labour proved unsustainable in the conditions of the Civil War - give an example of this being the case.

Answer 27

the

Question 28

War Communism never provided more than __ per cent of the ___ and ___ that people needed to live on. In the short term, people turned to the ____ ____. In the longer term, workers fled the cities seeking ___ and ___ on ____

Answer 28

50
food
fuel
black
market
work
food
farms

Question 29

How much did the population of Petrograd drop by between 1917 and 1921?

Answer 29

50 per cent

Question 30

How much did the total population of factory workers reduce by during the Civil War?

Answer 30

25 per cent

Question 31

____ ____ and ___ ____ meant that War Communism ultimately failed to create a system of ___ ____ which provided ____ ____ for all those in work

Answer 31

Factory
closures
food
scarcity
full
employment
social
security

Question 32

What disappeared under the New Economic Policy?

Answer 32

The relationship between compulsory work and government benefits

Question 33

What returned under the New Economic Policy?

Answer 33

A degree of capitalism and unemployment returned

Question 34

What percentage of the labour force was unemployed in the year 1921?

Answer 34

5.5 per cent

Question 35

What percentage of the labour force was unemployed in the year 1922?

Answer 35

8.6 per cent

Question 36

What percentage of the labour force was unemployed in the year 1923?

Answer 36

16.6 per cent

Question 37

What percentage of the labour force was unemployed in the year 1924?

Answer 37

18.0 per cent

Question 38

Why was unemployment a significant problem between 1921 and 1924?

Answer 38

In 1921 and 1922 soldiers from the Red Army were demobilised and found it hard to get work

Urban workers who left the cities towards the end of the Civil War returned. Some were unable to get jobs

At the beginning of the New Economic Policy the government tried to “rationalise” industry in order to make it profitable. Therefore the number of workers in government factories was reduced to lower labour costs

As War Communism ended, the government sacked around 225,000 administrators who had been employed administering the system

Question 39

Who did the government prioritise jobs for following War Communism?

Answer 39

Former members of the Red Army

Question 40

Funding for ____ was ended in the 1920s

Answer 40

crèches

Question 41

In __, __ per cent of unemployed people in the Soviet Union’s towns and cities were ____

Answer 41

1922
62.2
women

Question 42

What did the 1922 Labour Law do?

Answer 42

It gave unions the right to negotiate binding agreements about pay and working conditions with employers

Question 43

During the 1920s, social insurance was introduced - what did it do?

Answer 43

Social insurance paid disability benefits, maternity benefits, unemployment benefits and medical benefits - covering nine million workers

Question 44

The system of social insurance for Soviet workers was the most ____ in the world. However, ____ were almost entirely excluded from these benefits due to the government’s focus on the special position of the ____

Answer 44

comprehensive
peasants
proletariat

Question 45

While unemployment was a major problem during the period of the New Economic Policy, urban workers were clearly better off in 1926 than they had been before the revolution in 1913. Give two examples that showcase this?

Answer 45

Urban workers were paid around ten per cent more and ate more meat and fish

Question 46

From the beginning of 1918, working people in cities had forcibly taken property away from whom?

Answer 46

aristocrats and the middle class

Question 47

Under the NEP what per cent of urban housing was denationalised?

Answer 47

between 60 and 80 per cent

Question 48

Experiments with rent-free housing came to an end in ___ when rent was reintroduced

Answer 48

1921

Question 49

Under the conditions of the NEP what per cent of house building was undertaken by private companies?

Answer 49

89 per cent

Question 50

What were Constructivist houses designed to do?

Answer 50

They were designed to facilitate collective living through the provision of a collective kitchen, crèche, library, gym and laundry facilities, as well as a roof garden

Question 51

What did the provision of a communal kitchen, crèche and laundry reflect?

Answer 51

The provision of a communal kitchen, crèche and laundry reflected a commitment to the liberation of women through sharing domestic duties

Question 52

Why did Constructivist houses make little impact on the lives of Soviet citizens?

Answer 52

Although these buildings were revolutionary and extremely well designed, only a few were built and therefore they made little impact on the lives of Soviet citizens