Society under Stalin Flashcards
How did Marx describe religion?
The opium of the people and claimed it was used to justify the power of the upper class over the people
What was Lenin’s attitude towards the church?
Allowed the freedom of religious worship whilst destroying the power of the Russian orthodox church as church lands were seized, births, marriages, deaths and schools became secularised, priests pursecuted and atheist propaganda circulated
What happened in 1927?
Sergius, the patriarch of the orthodox church made a promise to stay out of politics for state recognition
How did Stalin directly attack the church?
- Religious schools were closed
- Religious creeds forbidden
- Worship was restricted to registered congregations
- Many churches were physically destroyed or deconsecrated
- From 1929-1940, holy Sunday was abolished as workers were employed for six of the seven days of the week with 1/6th of workers having each day off
- Brief relaxation in 1935 but renewed through terror as the constitution criminalised the publication or organisation of religious propaganda
- Whilst priests could vote (which they previously lost in 1918), lost were accused of political involvement and many were sent to gulags
- Orthodox congregations still survived through donations
What happened to Muslims?
- Their property and institutions were seized
- Sharia courts were abolished
- This created a split in the church with the new mosque movement taking a pro-soviet line as pilgrimages to mecca were forbidden from 1935, the frequency of prayers, fasts and feasts reduced and the veil forbidden
- This led to backlash from central Asian Muslim communities as traditionalists who followed these guidelines were murdered
- Many Muslim priests were imprisoned and executed
What happened to Jews?
Jewish schools and synagogues were destroyed especially in Georgia and Armenia but faith remained strong
What was religion like by 1941?
- Nearly 40,000 Christian churches and 25,000 mosques were closed and converted into schools, cinemas, clubs, warehouses, museums and grain stores
- Religious belief remained strong due to the harshness of collectivisation nd the purges with over half a million religious believers in the 1937b consensus despite it being much higher but people failed to admit due to pressure on believers and expression controversial views thus it became impossible to kill religious beliefs
What were the lives of women like under Lenin?
Propaganda created a new liberation for women where sex discrimination was outlawed, divorce and abortion made easier, family as a relic of bourgeoise society and women encouraged to work but there were limited numbers
Why did Stalin retreat to traditional policies towards women in the 1930s?
A fall in population, fear of war and rise in family breakups (several million orphans in the USSR causing them to be placed into state run institutions considered a great social evil). This was known as the great retreat as family became the focus of propaganda with Stalin as a father figure and ideal family man
How was the importance of marriage emphasised?
Wedding rings and certificates being reintroduced
How did film and art change?
Shifted from presenting muscular women for the soviet economy to feminine family woman with adoring children
What was the new family code issued in May 1936 and by law in June?
- Abortion became illegal leading to rising birth rates after it was previously legalised in 1929
- Fees were introduced for divorced and both parties has to attend the proceedings increasing difficulties (Previously Russia had the highest divorce and abortion rate in Europe)
-Contraception was only permitted on medical grounds - Mother with 6 or more children received tax exemptions and bonuses for every additional child under 10
- Child support payments were fixed at 60% of the father’s income but difficult to collect due to polygamy
- Children who committed violent cries were treated like an adult from 12
- Adultery was criminalised as the name of male offenders were put in the press
- New decrees were enforced against prostitution and homosexuality although in practice, authorities failed to acknowledge their existence
What were divorce rates like in Moscow in 1934?
37%
How many abortions were there for every 57,00 live births?
150,000
What percentage of men and women in their 30s were married by 1937?
91% of men and 83% of women
What happened to women?
They ere more likely to be unemployed and without compensation as their appearance in the fringes of society increased as prostitutes numbers rose. The failures for women to get injustices overturned in court led to strikes and protests but only the most committed women were willing to attend party-organised meetings but overall female involvement declined. Poorer women were still expected to look after the home and children with the added strain of full time work and the status of Asian Islamic women were reduced further.
How were young people treated under Stalin?
Free education was offered at all levels of co-educational schools in the 1920s in order to teach about socialist ideology as traditional teachers and examinations were abandoned. Students from a proletariat background were given priority in higher education courses but students were poor and dropped out
What was Stalin’s view towards Lenin’s education system?
Stalin wanted to revert back to organised school structure and traditional methods of teaching and discipline as the system failed to produce skilled workers, scientists and technicians
What did the Narkompros?
It centralised education through nursery schools for 3 year olds, infant schools up until 7 and secondary schools until at least 15 with parental contribution plus many adult educational institutions were established. Schools became the responsibility of collective farms of town enterprises
Who controlled universities?
Veshenka for delivering economic growth
When was the quota system abandoned and what replaced it?
1935 and replaced by selection for academic achievement as it had a curriculum formal teaching, report cards and uniform. Nationalism was promoted plus military training before the war
How were days structured?
- 30% for Russian language and literature
- 20% and 15% science for the training of specialists and for the less able practical work as the quality of university science graduates improved but due to the loss of the quota system, there were limited working class students
- 10% for soviet style history
How was loyalty emphasised in the education system?
- Teachers were given a high status and often party members
- They were closely watched and could easily be arrested if they didn’t live up to high standards under the stakanovite system
- If students failed, they could be blamed or purged
How did literacy improve?
65% of the population were literate before the revolution and by 1941, 94% of 9-49 year olds in towns and 86% in the countryside which was beneficial to absorb propaganda
What was Komsomol?
It was created in 1926 for aged 10-28 year olds to teach communist values against smoking, drinking and religion by focusing on volunteer social work, political and drama clubs. It became directly affiliated by the party in 1939 as members took an oath to live, study and fight for Russia through carrying out campaigns with the red army and police. Komsomolskaia was a youth newspaper encouraging young people to respect their parents. Members were enthusiastic about industrialisation by joining activist groups and building projects like Magnitogorsk. It demanded full-time membership for social and educational advancement. They were singled out with a uniform with a red neckerchief and rank badges
What was done for 10-15 year olds?
The young pioneer group was established and built special palaces as community centers with free summer and winter holiday camps
What was membership numbers actually like?
Direct confrontation against it was rare, people joined oppositional youth organisations or engaged in Western culture such as cinemas, fashion and jazz known as hooligans
What were working men’s attitudes to policies about industrialisation?
Enthusiastic as the soviet state was in the name of the proletariat and aspiring workers gained advantages through the attacks on foreigners and bourgeoise managers
How did skilled workers fare?
- Technical education and training policies allowed them to do the best through wage differentials and Stakhanovite movement
- The acute skills shortage suffered in the 1930s meant that they could, provided they would conform to harsh labour laws, command good pay and living standards
- When the war did approach, resources were diverted and their wage was lower
What happened to unskilled workers?
- Moved from job to job in order not to gain a bad working record
- Conditions of living were tough due to overcrowding, the growth of petty crime and drinking
- Some men found it difficult to work due to their bourgeoise history already creating suspicion as an enemy of the state so workers lied or concealed their backgrounds
Why was it worse in rural areas?
- Previosuly isolated ares became under centralised control as compulsory eucation was introduced for the first time causing the rises in literacy rates
- Dislocation from certainties like religion
- Rural depopulation especially amongst young people as the rural workers were seen as inferior citizens
- Terror caused limited collaboration and openness
How was life hard in urban areas?
- The famine increased refugee numbers and the introduction of the rationing system strained housing, sewage, lighting, public transport, water and food with meat consumption in 1933 being 1/3rd less of 1928
- Limited privacy in the kommunalka increased chances of being found by the NKVD
- Apartment blocks were supervised by concierges whose task was to partly spy on individuals
- Workers lived in barracks or factories while only party members gained private accommodation
Hooliganism and urban violence
What was the best year for living standards?
1937 but strains increased again due to rising urban population and the harvest of 1936
What were some benefits in urban areas?
- Factory workers did have regulated hours and wages and could benefit from workplace canteens and shops
- Show repair, hairdressing and plumbing became privatised to resolve shortages in the state especially regarding buying shoes
What were socialist men and women?
- A person who was dedicated for their party and community with limited independent thought and private life as it was against the benefit of the state
- Seen as a product of the shift towards industrialisation which influenced show piece projects
- Periodic events like Stalin’s birthday had processions and festivals to show the triumphs of socialism
What did Trofim Lysenko show?
How the ideal citizen could be groomed through genetics of socialist characteristics that would lead to the disappearance of old class enemies making it easier for Stalin to indoctrinate new generations. He was discredited ouside of the USSR but it was undermined by Stalin as vigilance would have to grow as enemies would be more desperate
What is the impact of cultural change?
- Socialism man culture emphasised y the Komsomol attacked bourgeoise values through criticising, burning or vandalising non-socialist books and artwork, heckling actors and mocking religion
- Engaged in shock brigades used in collectivisation and industrialisation plus literacy schemes
- By 1941, 1 in 40 churches were still active and 152 of the 168 bishops employed since 1930 had been killed or incarcerated
- Barber suggested that only 1/5 of workers truly supported Stalinism
What were attitudes toward high culture?
- The cinema was the most popular cultural activity as Hollywood movies were enjoyed more than soviet propaganda films
- Although, how steel was tempered with was the most borrowed books from Magnitogorsk library, it cannot be said for the whole population
What happened to
Shostakovich?
- Avant-garde was attacked since 1937, pravda published a critique on Shostakovich’s opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk district under the headline chaos instead of music as a leftist distortion
- Shostakovich avoided arrest but a theatre director who defended him was tortured and shot by the NKVD and his wife was stabbed
What happened to writers?
- Artistic brigade were formed to criticise those who wanted to fight for socialism realism as Maxim Gorky declared writers had lost nothing but the right to be bad writers
- Isaak Brodsky were not seen as artistic greats outside of Russia
- Boris Pasternak and Anna Akhmatova remained silent in Russia
- Many writers worked in industrial or agricultural sites not as punishment but to absorb socialist values
How can culture be compared with Lenin?
- Lenin’s reputation was highly regarded under Stalin however some claimed he undermined Lenin rather than continue his work especially Trotsky who believed it wasn’t the first workers’ state
- Lenin had a similar ruthless reputation to Stalin whilst the red terror was a response to the situation in Russia and Stalin mere continued it on a mass scale
- Both pf them adapted policies to suit the needs of the regime at the time through ideological justifications
- Stalin made little contributions Marxist theory after 1929 as he regime especially socially and economically was an expansion on Leninism
