Social security under Stalin Flashcards
What was re-established under Stalin?
The link between compulsory work and social benefits
How did Stalin view Soviet workers?
Soviet workers were viewed as a crucial economic resource, central to building socialism
Why did Stalin want to ensure full employment?
Stalin wanted to ensure full employment in order to ensure rapid industrialisation
What did full employment not lead to?
Full employment did not lead to a rising standard of living
Why did full employment not lead to a rising standard of living?
Safety was not a benefit that Stalin prioritised for his workers
What happened to the working conditions under the Five-Year Plans?
Working conditions deteriorated as a result of the Five-Year Plans
____ ____ was more important to Stalin than ___ and ___ workplaces
Speedy
construction
clean
safe
What did Stalin introduce?
Stalin introduced harsh labour discipline
Stalin introduced harsh labour discipline. Many measures that had been brought in as part of War Communism were revived. What are some examples of these measures?
Lateness was criminalised
Unions lost the right to negotiate with factory managers
Damaging factory property was criminalised
Strikes were banned
When did Stalin introduce the “nepreryvka” or “continuous work week”?
1929
What was the “nepreryvka” or “continuous work week”?
Workers were split into five groups on five-day cycles with staggered rest days so that production never stopped - factories and mines could work seven days a week
In 1940 what did workers loose the right to do?
In 1940 workers lost the right to change jobs
What was introduced in 1940?
Internal passports were introduced
Why were internal passports introduced in 1940?
Internal passports were introduced to prevent workers moving from town to town without permission
What did most Soviet citizens have access to by 1933 under the Five-Year Plans?
By 1933 most Soviet citizens had access to electricity
During the ____, _____ km of railways were built, increasing access to ____. Passenger traffic increased by ____ per cent in the ____
1930s
30,000
transport
400
1930s
When did the Moscow Metro open and what did it provide?
The Moscow Metro opened in the 1930s, providing underground transport to the population of the capital
What did factory and farm canteens provide under the Five-Year Plans?
Factory and Farm canteens provided meals for workers
There was a significant increase in healthcare provisions under the Five-Year Plans - what did this include?
This included mass vaccination campaigns dealing with smallpox, diphtheria, malaria and typhoid
How was there a significant shift in how benefits were administered under Stalin?
Under the NEP benefits were available through trade unions or through local Soviets. However, during the 1930s benefits were increasingly available through factories or collective farms. This re-emphasised the link between work and social welfare
In what way did peasants benefit much less than workers under Stalin?
They were not entitled to rations, and food was much scarcer on farms than it was in cities as the government seized the vast majority of farm production
During the late 1930s farm workers would have to travel to ____ to buy ____ as there was so little food available on the farms
towns
bread
In theory all Soviet citizens had rights to these benefits. However, in practice scarce resources meant that some benefited more than others - give examples of this For example, Soviet healthcare operated a “Party first” policy - what did this mean?
Soviet healthcare operated a “Party first” policy, where Party members were guaranteed vaccines and other workers could queue for any medicine that remained
While all workers were entitled to rations, senior Party members could organise special events, such as banquets, which were paid for from government money.
What did the “Part first” policy and the system of privileged access to resources lead to? + give an example
It led to radical inequalities
In Dnepropetrovsk, a city in the Ukraine, all Party officials were vaccinated against typhus, and yet there were 10,000 cases of malaria among the working population in 1932 and 26,000 in 1933
Full employment increased after the war. How much did the industrial workforce increase by between 1945 and 1950?
The industrial workforce increased from 8 million to 12.2 million between 1945 and 1950 largely as a result of returning soldiers
How much did infant mortality decline by between 1940 and 1950?
Infant mortality declined by 50 per cent between 1940 and 1950
The number of medical doctors increased by _____ between ___ and ___
two-thirds
1947
1952
When were vaccines for common diseases such as typhus and malaria made universally available?
1947
Malaria declined rapidly from ___ onwards
1949
Why did the expansion of healthcare under Stalin not lead to an improvement in the health of the Soviet people?
Food shortages, poor housing and the poverty caused by the war meant the sickness rates did not fall
What did the planned economy struggle to produce and what did this lead to?
The planned economy struggled to produce simple things like soap, warm clothing and shoes, which led to greater health problems
Why was food a major problem?
In order to make up for shortages, work canteens used rotten food, animal feed and other products that were unfit for human consumption. This led to illness
Sanitation in factories and farms was often inadequate - what did this lead to?
This led to lice infestations and outbreaks of dysentery and vomiting
Give a piece of evidence to showcase that hygiene education was poor
It was not until 1947 that there was a publicity campaign encouraging workers to “use the toilet in a civilised fashion” and wash their hands after using toilets
How many days did the average Soviet workers take off ill a year?
The average Soviet worker took between ten and thirteen days off ill a year in 1946 - this figure remained constant until the mid-1950s
In existing cities Soviet authorities divided buildings into small _____
kommunalka
What are kommunalka?
Communal apartments where entire families would share a single small room
By 1940 the average kommunalka was ___ square metres
4
Often buildings were divided up into barely useable spaces - give an example of this
Rooms would be divided, without being rewired. Therefore one light switch would control the lighting of several apartments
What was converted into accommodation under Stalin?
Coal sheds and under-stairs cupboards - In one case in Moscow a family of six lived in an under-stairs cupboard
The 1930s also saw the emergence of “corner-dwellers” - what were “corner-dwellers”?
People who lived in corridors or communal kitchens within kommunalka
The 1930s also saw the emergence of “corner-dwellers” - what were “corner-dwellers”?
People who lived in corridors or communal kitchens within kommunalka buildings
Corner-living could be expensive; space in corridors could cost as much as…
half a month’s wage
One worker in ____ lived in a corridor for ___ years before being moved into a ____
Leningrad
five
kommunalka
New buildings were constructed under Stalin to support…
the new factory towns like Magnitogorsk
What was prioritised over housing under Stalin?
The construction of factories
Accommodation in the new factory towns was often inferior to the…
kommunalka
What did the accommodation in the new factory towns lack?
They did not have running water or bathrooms
What basic necessities did new factory towns lack?
Paved streets and electric lights
Magnitogorsk was initially designed as a…
model town. At the beginning of the project planners commissioned a radical German architect to design clean, modern, state-of-the-art accommodation. However, these houses proved too expensive
When were the initial Magnitogorsk housing plans abandoned?
Within a year of the project starting
How did the majority of workers in Magnitogorsk live?
The majority of workers lived in barrack-style dormitories and around 20 per cent lived in mud huts
The combination of dormitory living and poor sanitation in Magnitogorsk led to…
disease and lice
What made the housing situation much worse under Stalin?
The Second World War
What fraction of urban housing was damaged or destroyed between 1941 and 1945?
Approximately one-third
Stalin continued to prioritise ____ buildings over ____
industrial
housing
By ___ the average worker in a kommunalka had ___ square metres of space, and the average worker living in a dormitory had ___ square metres
1947
four
three
Where were workers in the Moscow coalfields housed?
In dormitories
How were conditions in dormitories poor for the workers who worked in the Moscow coalfields?
There were only 15,000 beds for the 26,000 workers
All kinds of furniture were scarce - there was one table between every 10 workers, one wardrobe for every 27 workers and one wash basin for every 70 people
Why was house building not a major priority under the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1945-50)?
Budgets were small, and management inefficient
Workers were often reassigned to other projects, which meant that even the small number of projects that were started progressed extremely slowly - give an example of this
In the first half of 1948 housebuilding projects outside Moscow spent 40 per cent of their budget and were then suspended, meaning that not a single house was completed
How were the houses that were constructed in the early 1950s extremely poor quality?
Roofs leaked, plaster fell off walls and there was no gas, electricity or sewerage
