SOCIETY

Question 1

What was society like under Alexander II? 7

Answer 1

• backwards
• 90% population was in serfdom, 1% nobility and less than 1% middle class
• intelligentsia which was a small minority of educated doctors, lawyers and bankers often sons of nobles.
• serfs had to pay direct and indirect taxes to the government whilst the nobility and clergy were exempt
• multiple different ethnic groups 56% Russian and 22% Ukrainian many other minor ethnic groups.
• serfs were illiterate but deeply religious
• serfs were unable to leave the mirs

Question 2

what was nobility like under Alexander III? 8

Answer 2

1. nobles remained top 1% of the population
2. nobles conscripted into the army from the military reforms of 1874-75
3. nobles dominated the electoral systems - zemstvos
4. their landing declined since emancipation a they had to give away to serfs
5. In 1880 1/3 of uni professors were hereditary nobles
6. 1882 700 nobles owned businesses in Moscow
7. majority retained wealth and social status
8. some nobility dropped down to the middle class due to emancipation and their debts

Question 3

the middle class under Alexander III? 4

Answer 3

1. grown from 1855-94 yet still small 500,00
2. bankers doctors teachers and administers high demand
3. gov contracts to build railways and state loans for factories provided great opportunities for those who were enterprising
4. more opposites to take up management positions or set up as worship owners and traders

Question 4

the working class under Alexander III? 7

Answer 4

1. The urban population did grow due to the rapid expansion of industry
2. population small with less than 2%
3. common to move to towns only temporarily but some did leave to be urban workers
4. conditions in the cities could be grim and early factories paid little head to their worker’s welfare despite reforming legislation
5. 1885 - prohibited nit time employment of women and children
6. 1886 - workers had to be employed according to factory boards
7. 1892 - employment of children under 12 and women not allowed to work in mines anymore.

Question 5

the peasantry under Alexander III? 7

Answer 5

1. became divided in 1894
2. kulaks were at the top who brought up land-employed labour and sometimes acted as spawn brokers
3. brought less fortunate grain in the autumn to provide them with money for the winter but sold it back in higher with inflated prices
4. often took land as repayment for debt if their clients couldn’t pay them back
5. The poorest people became landless labourers and depended on others
6. 2/5 of former peasants in the Tambov region were unable to feed their households without falling into debt
7. A large proportion was deemed unfit for military service and mortality rates were higher than those in European countries
8. average life expectancy was around 27 years for males and 28 years for females

Question 6

the church under Alexander III? 10

Answer 6

1. In 1894 massive influence with 70% subscribed as orthodoxy was encouraged to everyone across Russia
2. presented tsar as the saint on earth
3. baltic region 37,000 Lutherans were converted to orthodoxy to create a stronger purer Russian identity
4. The church fundamental in Alexander’s Russification
5. to combat opposition he closed down the catholic church, introduced forced mass baptism
6. 1883 - a created policy that meant members of non-orthodox churches were not allowed to build new places of worship, wear religious dress except within their meeting places or spread any religious propaganda
7. attempts to covert members of orthodox religion to something else were punishable with exile in Serbia
8. rural areas grew suspicious of priests as they often regarded them as money-grasping and less-than-perfect role models
9. churches’ power weakened because it was not kept up in pace with the growth of urbanisation
10. church proved little relevance to those in the factories as they listened closer to socialists

Question 7

living and working conditions under Nicholas II?

Answer 7

1. urban population at 6 million and empire at 28 million
2. too many people and workers lived in barrak-like buildings supplied by factory owners causing dangerous amounts of overcrowding and a serious lack of sanitation
3. private accommodation owned by workers themselves faired little to better as around 40% of houses had no running water or sewage
4. poop piled up in backyards and collected by wood cards which caused the death of 30,000 inhabitants to cholera in 1908-09
5. rent was too much it covered half a worker’s salary therefore many just lived on factory floors or on streets
6. women earned the lowest-paid earning less than half the industrial ways
7. Conditions worst in the industry of 1909-08 where wages decreased from an increase fo inflation by 40%

Question 8

conditions of the countryside of Nicholas II?

Answer 8

1. farmers and peasants didn’t improve substantially
2. strip farming persisted on 90% of the land with widespread rural poverty
3. The gap between kulaks and peasants increased
4. living standards varied across countries with more prosperous commercial farming in the peripheral regions
5. mortality rates are higher in Russia than in any other European country
6. not enough teachers and education only 605 illiteracy
7. families lived in primitive huts
8. still a strong sense of loyalty to the tsar religion helped cohesion and festivals and vodka helped punctuate the work cycle.

Question 9

the nobility under Nicholas II? 6

Answer 9

1. position suffered as a result of emancipation as several lost lands
2. others served government positions or military links and kept their positions in society and their lifestyles
3. 1861-1905 around 1/3 of all land was transferred to townsmen and peasants so nobles failed to meet debts and filed to adjust to lives
4. nobles were given senior roles within the and each province had its own noble assembly that met annually
5. May 1906 = Nobles voted to retain their property rights and traditional interests in the face-off change
6. they retained almost all their previous privileges wealrth and status

Question 10

the middle class under Nicholas II? 7

Answer 10

• Was very small and emerged from 1855-1914.
• Expanded faster as economic changes quickened.
• Was made up of business people and other professionals.
• There was some mobility as nobles’ sons chose to go and join the business world or as those who worked hard as peasants were able to join the middle ranks.
• Grew as positions in an industrialising society demanded more of them
• The growth of education and the demand for more administrators also fuelled the growth in the middle class
• Were able to get into the zemstva as well as into town and state dumas where they exerted an influence beyond their size

Question 11

Workers and peasantry under Nicholas II?

Answer 11

• Awakened to political activism
• Peasants began to associate with others who lived and worked in close proximity - and became easy targets for political agitators, big reason for the regime to end

Cultural changes
- Patriarchal structure remained
- Women’s educational opportunities improved
- More women at work

• 1860 - 1914, university students from 5,000 to 69,000
• 5 million roubles in 1896 to 82 million by 1914 Growth in education -
• 1905 Relaxation of censorship in the ‘silver age’ - more poets
• 1911 - over 6.5 million children receiving primary education
• In 1914 40% of illiteracy
• Much more diverse

Question 12

Society during WW1? 10

Answer 12

• War required large amounts of men - mobilised 15 million between 1914-17, mainly conscripted peasants, did help to relieve some of the population pressure
• Sent to fight without suitable weaponry, basic warm clothing and waterproof footwear - 1914 - 2 rifles for every 3 soldiers
• 1915 - 2 to 3 shells a day - Had to rely on weapons of fallen comrades
• Brusilov offensive - 1916 - push westwards from Ukraine and break through Austro-Hungarian lines. Within 3 months it halted, due to the Germans superior railway network
• Morale in army low by 1916 - Spending rose from 1.5 billion roubles in 1914 to 14.5 billion by 1918
• Production slumped - Women and children took on some of the men’s roles
• Russian trade was a virtual standstill - Peasants could make money by supplying the army with surplus grain
• Tools and equipment in short supply, hard to find essential household goods - Inefficient distribution - railways taken over to transport men and goods to front line
• No grain for townsfolk - Unemployment soared as non-military factories were forced due to close due to a lack of vital supplies
• 300% rise in cost of living - Thousands on brink of starvation

Question 13

Workers and peastns under Stlain?

Answer 13

• “Manage society” created particularly in the development of the labour force, everything to be subordinated to for the sake of survival
• Dec 1941 new law which mobilised all undrafted workers for war work
• Unauthorised absence from work punishable by death
• Average work week 70-77 hours, normal to sleep in factories harsh conditions of 30s made people likely to accept new measures- Chronic food shortages
• Over ¼ of death because of starvation - Comprehensive rationing system, allies provide tinned spam
• Housing and fuel problems, health problems escalated - Some refugees fled
  Others forced to leave homes and accept tough living conditions in the eastern factories - 41-42 people forced to live in improvised huts and tents whilst new factories built
• Gulag labour used, many deported to camps, build land

Question 14

Women under Stalin?

Answer 14

• The war brought reaffirmation of importance of family - 1944 new measures introduced to combat falling birth rate and the deaths brought about war.
• Taxes increased for those with fewer than two children - Restrictions on divorce tightened
• Abortion forbidden - Right to inherit property re-established
• Mothers of more two made” heroines of Soviet Union”- Such measures undermined communist attitudes to woman and female communist organisations collapsed as they were not use to war production or defence
• Dual burden as women were an essential part of workforce - 1945 over half of all workers and four fifths of all land workers were women
• Over half a million women fought in soviet forces as pilots’ snipers and tank directed

Question 15

Young people under stalin?

Answer 15

★ Under Stalin: Smoking, drinking and religion were discouraged and volunteering in social work eg sports, and politics were encouraged
★ Only 6% of eligible youth had joined - not very popular.
★ Komsomol could be aged 10-28 years old and enacted in traditional activities like drama and hiking
★ Teachers in schools could be sacked for being anti-Stalin
★ Under Lenin: freedom, creativity and individualism
★ Free education at all levels and mixed sex schools
★ Formal teaching in higher education

Question 16

Religon under Stalin? 1941

Answer 16

★ There was a respite in the persecution of churches which were reopened.
★ The Russian patriarch whose position had been abolished by the Tsars was restored and clergy were released from camps.
★ Stalin wanted to use the church to lift morale and strengthens the peoples resolve so attendance was encouraged.
★ Services became patriotic gatherings with sermons and prayers calling for victory and defiance of the Germans and praising the great leader, Stalin.
★ Priests blessed troops and tanks
★ However, the church was not allowed any real autonomy and all Christian denominations were placed under the control of the orthodox church which to some extent turned religion into an arm of the government.
★ Lenin stole the church bells and melted them into materials for ww2
★ The red corner in people's homes worshipped Stalin, Lenin, Engels and Marx

Question 17

National minorites under Stalin?

Answer 17

• Bolsheviks came into power with the support of ethnic minorities which they had promised national self-determination.
• Dec 1917 Finland became independent state whilst a selected ‘rada’ (parliament) was set up in the Ukraine.
• 1917 banned all anti-Semitic laws, Yiddish became an acceptable language although Hebrew with religious connotations didnt
• in 1926 Jews were given separate representation within communist party
• 1930 Stalin policies meant it veered towards greater centralisation and less tolerance of the ethnic groups
• 1930s Deportations of non-russians
• 1938 learning Russian language became compulsory in society schools and only language used in red army
• 1939 - 40 - 2 million Jews incorporated into the Soviet Union to invasion of eastern Poland and the Baltic republics
• By 1941, quarter of the population was Jewish
• Soviet Jews given special national homeland settlement so they can maintain their cultural heritage
• campaigns of the period were politically rather than racially motivated

Question 18

Propaganda under Stalin?

Answer 18

Propaganda
- Posters, films and arts were employed to win converts to socialism especially for illiterate peasants - Relied heavily on propaganda machine to harness support for his collectivisation and industrial policies
- Pictures full of happy productive workers and heroes like Stakhanov - Many posters showing Karl Marx, Engels Lenin and Stalin
- Slogans like ‘Stalin is the Lenin today - Peasants created a red corner which of the great leaders in their homes
- Cult of personality formed quickly for Stalin - 1920s Lenin was being treated like god and Stalin insisted that Lenin’s body was embalmed and it was turned into a shrine
- Petrograd became Leningrad

Question 19

Culutre changes in Stalin?

Answer 19

Culture change
1. After October revolution the cultural enterprise flourished - 1920s knows as the silver age of Russian literature and poetry
2. Stalin viewed cultural pursuits in much the same way he viewed pure propaganda - Movies books and music only seen as valuable if they were considered legitimate if they supported socialist ideology and the creation of the new socialist man
3. 1932 all writers had to belong to the union of soviet writers which exerted control of what they could create
4. Socialist realism was not allowed where artists were not allowed to express their arts of what soviet life was exactly like at that time
5. 1936 Pravda published a damning critique of Shostakovich’s opera lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, he would impact opposing ideas of Stalin in his works which led to the director of the theatre and his wife being killed for defending Pravda
6. No attempt to create a new proletarian culture which was in a way distinct to the upper class - In music return to composers like = Glinka and Tchaikovsky
7. In literature = Pushkin and Tolstoy 8. New metro Moscow in 1935 with marble pattern floors and stained-glass panels to show pride and reverence
9. Folk culture also promoted - Traditional peasant arts and crafts were praised and museums of folklore were set up and it supposedly seen as representing a Russian national culture
10. Extreme censorship and state control of media was imposed and traditional Russian cultural aspects were repressed and exploited.
11. Womens role in society drastically changed, they were drafted into industrial works and could become full-fledged workers
10. Laws changed to help women become more adopted into the workplaces with childcare, maternity leave and equal pay in place - Stalins views on family was very important and saw it as a vital role in society

Question 20

impact of WW2 under stlain for society?

Answer 20

WW2 = 1939-45
Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa taking Stalin by surprised due the Nazi-Soviet pact. Stalin locked himself away, leaving the Politburo to take charge. 10 days later he comes back and announces himself the ‘supreme war leader’ he encouraged
morale and anti-German sentiment. Issued ‘not one step back’ preventing deserters by shooting them. 150,000 shot dead.

Political Impact;
- Deported suspected ethnic minorities, 1.5 million forcefully moved.
- Increased party membership to 3.6 million many military officials to reinstate relationships previously destroyed through purges
- War strengthened nationalism and belief in Stalin

Economic Impact;
- Germany occupied 63% of Russian coal lands, 68% steel, 45% railways, 41% arable land.
- ‘Scorched Earth’ policy meant much of Nazi’s new land was in farmable
- Entirety of factories,1232, were moved to more secure areas
- Managed to preserve the economy better than Western Allies and the workforce maximised production.
- Military budget increase from 29% to 57% and munitions were 76% of all production
- Output exceeded Germany in volume and quality
- Yet had food problems with strict quotas, ran by women and children
- UK and USA supplied essential materials to USSR, 17.5 million tons of military equipment delivered with 94% from USA
- Land-Lease gave 11 billion dollars aid by USA

Social Impact;
- 120,000 signed up from Moscow alone to fight in the war
❖ Soldiers and workers → only created things of need for survival. Gov authority stepped in to ‘manage’ factories. 1941 all undrafted workers for war work. 16-55-year-old women and 16-45-year-old men had to work. Overtime obligatory and no
holidays 70-77-hour week. Normal for workers to sleep on factory floors. Increased punishment, could lose house or be shot for being late. Became an offence to be held captive. 8.6 million soldiers killed X2 daily rate of allies
❖ Living Condition → huge food shortages 25 million deaths and ¼ were from starvation, only survived by the allies providing spam. Many were refugees as houses had been destroyed by scorched earth policy. Prioritised factory building over
housing, many lived in tents. Relied on gulag work to make progress
❖ Propaganda and culture → encouraged people to sacrifice themselves for the war and the ‘motherland’ spread anti-German sentiment. Artists to spread propaganda.
❖ Churches → reopened to boost morale reinstated church official but had limited power and had to swear loyalty to the regime. Sermons for used for propaganda
❖ Women and the family → reaffirmation for the family new measures to tackle birth rate. Increased taxes for childless couples via restrictions on divorce and abortions. Burdens for women increased as they were expected to fulfil the work left
by men. 500,000 women in the military as snipers, tank operators. Yet they received little reward.
❖ Partisans → citizens and soldiers that had been left behind in occupied territory. Estimated there was 300,000 many women. Kosmodemyanskaya made ‘hero of the Soviet Union’ by cutting telephone lines and refusing to tell intelligence to the
Germans. Propaganda used her tortured body.
- Stalin became hero in wartime and his support was greater than ever before. With painting and pictures of him. But his paranoia had increased especially for those who came back as prisoners of war, they were sent to gulags. Many Cossacks
were executed
- Yet the war was seen as a victory for the government not the people, Stalin had no desire to be different from his pre-war ruling
- At the end of the war 25 million had died and many were living in tents/huts
- Soldiers had been exposed to Western ideology and hoped for more liberal treatments and culture such as Hollywood films and books this was a threat to Stalin.

Question 21

Cultural High Stalinism 1945-53

Answer 21

• Zhdanovshchina - cultural purge in 1946, conformity to socialist ideals and promoted Stalin’s cult - purged two literary journals in Leningrad- Everything western was condemned as bourgeois
• All things Russian were regarded as superior and uplifting - Socialist realism again became the norm in literature, art, music and film
• Literary scholarship was condemned for suggesting that Russian literature had been influenced by Western thinking - Novels, plays and films that praised Stalin were favoured
• Anti-Semitism flourished - Jewish drama and literacy critics disappeared and the last Jewish newspaper was closed down - Maths, Physics and Chemistry were also governed by Marxist principles
• 1952 - Stalin’s economic theory, no one dared challenge - Foreign radio transmitters were jammed
• Few ‘approved’ foreign books were translated into Russian - Only pro-soviet foreign writers and artists were allowed to visit the USSR, very few allowed to go the west

Question 22

Social change under Khrushchev

Answer 22

Khrushchev aimed to improve the living standards of the Soviet people - through de-Stalinization campaigns and economic reforms he did achieve this aim.
- Consumer goods e.g. radios, televisions, sewing machines and refrigerators became more available. - Small quantities of imported foreign goods available in shops - sold out very quickly
- New housing incentives such as prefabricated flats to reduce overcrowding in cities. - 1958 - compulsory voluntary subscriptions to the state were abolished and tax on childless couples removed.
- Pension arrangements were improved allowing peasants to be eligible for a state pension. - Hours of work reduced to a 40-hour working week
- Social differences with gender pay gaps and people saw an increase in wages to the lowest paid jobs. - Factory trade unions given more responsibilities and had an active role in employment negotiations.
- Education improvements along with welfare and technological improvements. - Privileges still remained to those higher up in society as paid holidays and health care only accessible to people in high positions in the government.
- Cars still reserved for party officials so beyond reach for the peasantry and middle class. - Living standards still remained lower compared to more industrial countries and quality of consumer goods still very poor.

Question 23

Cultural change under Khrushchev
- changes in elitsit culutre
- the churchs
- ethnic minorites

Answer 23

De-Stalinization also led to a greater personal freedom for Soviet citizens this included:
- Lifted restrictions on reading foreign literature and radio.
- Only a limited number of citizens were allowed to travel abroad.
- International tours to the Kirov ballet and the Moscow state circus - also to the Moscow Dynamos football team.
- Established the ‘Intourist’ - foreigners could visit the USSR - more western ideas arrived in Russia.
- World festival of Youth in Moscow 1957 where 34,000 people from 131 different countries attended - Soviet version of ‘Teddy boys’ and jazz/rock and roll entered the USSR.
- 55% of the population was under 30 years old so hooliganism and opposition to Khrushchev was on the rise, especially due to western ideology becoming more prevalent.

Changes in elitist culture:
- Writers such as Akhmatova, Bebel and Pilnyak were all permitted to begin working again.
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was released from a political camp and in 1962 wrote a book called ‘A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich describing the conditions in the gulags.
- Khrushchev disliked modernism so it was still restricted within the arts.
- Boris Pasternak wasn't allowed to publish his book called ‘Dr Zhivago so had to get it printed in Italy in 195 and became a bestseller - expelled from the USSR as he criticised the base of communism.

The Churches:
- Atheism brought into the school curriculum and all children were banned from the church services in 1961
- Forbidden for parents to teach their child religion.
- All higher education had to teach a course on ‘the foundations of scientific atheism’
- Mass closure of monasteries reducing from 22,000 in 1959 to 8000 by 1965.
- Churches often became town halls or community centres.
- Pilgrimages were banned and ringing church bells had extensive controls on - any clergyman who criticized atheism were forced into retirement, arrested of sent to labour camps - jobs could be lost and their children taken off them.

Ethnic minorities:
- Even Though Khrushchev himself wads Ukrainian he never made any radical reforms to greater the independence of ethnic minorities.
- The Party doctrine from 1961 stated that the aim was for ethnic distinctions to disappear and one single language was to be adopted by all Soviet citizens.
- He spoke about ‘rapprochement’ - greater unity of all nationalities (a fusion)
- He had a Jewish daughter in law but was still strongly against permitting Jews access to education.
- Khrushchev also refused to allow Jews to emigrate to the new state of Israel created after the Second World War.