Theme 4 Flashcards
How did Lenin focus more on eradicating the bourgeoisie rather than giving everyone social security in war communism ?
Rationing - working class got more than bourgeoise classes. Aristocrats received 25% of working class
What did Lenin do in the war with labour ?
What was the fallout of this in terms of unemployment ?
All able bodied men 15-50 forced conscription.
After the fallout of war conscription
1921. 5.5% unemployed
1925 18% unemployed
What did Lenin do with housing in NEP
NEP - 60-80% housing denationalised
What were the labour exchanges under Lenin ?
How effective were these ?
Modern day job centres
People didn’t join in fear of being put in a bad job
What was Arteli and how did it contribute to lack of social security under Lenin ?
Workers paid as a group -
Inefficient direct pay
What did Stalin claim
About employment ?
Stats ?
Claimed full employment had been reached
Indeed , 11million - 27 million unemployed 1928-1937
How did Stalin enforce productivity ?
Military style discipline - lateness criminalised
Stakhanovite movement
Failures of housing under Stalin ? (3)
How was this an effect of his heavy focus on industrialisation ?
Magnitogorsk - increased 25-250,000 people under first five year plan’s rapid industrialisation. However housing was not prioritised with people building make shift huts for housing
KOMMUNALKA - tiny housing shrinks from 5.5 square metres to 4 square metres
War - focus on industry left lack of housing worth 1 basin per 70 people
Medical security under Stalin ?
Doctors increase by two thirds
Infant mortality decreases by 50%
Despite full employment claims, how did employment under Stalin fail in terms of social security ?
Gulag population increased 1.5 million to 2.5 million which increased the use of slave labour
What did Khrushchev say about social security ? What did this mean?
WHAT SORT OF COMMUNISM IS IT THAT CANNOT PRODUCE SAUSAGE ?
- meaning communism was impossible without food and consumer goods
Especially after removing the ‘stick’ method with socialist legality.
Khrushchev needed therefore a lot of ‘carrot’ or in his case, sausage.
What did Khrushchev do with consumer goods ?
Increased investment 60%
What did Khrushchev do with healthcare budget?
Doubled it
What did Khrushchev do with the pensions budget ?
How was this still limited ?
Budget quadrupled
However the 40 roubles a month was still arguably insufficient
Which leader introduced the minimum wage and when?
Compared to Britain ?
1956 - Khrushchev
U.K. - 1997
What did Khrushchev do with housing ?
How was this limited ?
Housing more than doubled under Khrushchev .
He invested in housing with lots of low funded buildings giving families whole apartments compared to Stalin’s 4 metres squared !
This was called
KHRUSCHYOVKA
However these did not look appealing and were criticised as ‘Khrushchev slums’
However something better than nothing ???
What was the social contract and who introduced it ?
What was the result ?
Introduced by brezhnev
Guaranteed employment
Led to 20% hidden unemployment as lack of incentive
What was healthcare like under brezhnev in rural areas ?
As late as 1988, some hospitals had no heating or water
Star on brezhnev and consumer goods ?
1980 - 85% of families had a television
Productivity under brezhnev compared to the USA ?
25% of ussr on farms compared to 5% in the USA.
USA farms 6X more productive
Who was Alexandra Kollontai ?
First European woman in government under Lenin
How did Lenin improve the lives of women in politics ? 2
Zhenotdel created - women’s branch of Central committee
Kollontai - first european woman in government
Evidence of Lenin being inconsistent with women in politics
Kollontai’s idea of ‘free love’ where women would be liberated when the traditional idea of family ‘withered away’
Lenin said this was too radical
Kollonatai removed from government 1923
Only 10% of the party were women
What social changes did Lenin bring about to benefit women ?
Abortion legalised
Contraception legalised
Lesbianism is legal
What did Lenin do with women in the war ?
How was this limited ?
70,000 low rank women in the war
Are removed after the war
In the 1920s, how many urban men used prostitutes ?
39%
What did Lenin do with marriage ?
What adverse effect did this have ?
Made it easier to divorce
This led to 70% marriages ended by men and them not supporting their children
What did Stalin do with women in politics in 1930 ?
Abolished zhenotdel claiming equality had been achieved
What was the involved in Stalin’s infamous great retreat ? 1936 (4)
Abortion illegal
Lesbianism pathologised
Non marital sex stigmatised
Harder to get divorces -1944 laws tighten
Women in the war under Stalin ?
How was this limited ?
800,000 women in the war
E.g. Night witches - praised in propaganda
However women removed from army soon after war ends
How many women made up the party under Stalin compared to Lenin ?
10% Lenin
12% Stalin
How much did women spend doing chores compared to men under Stalin and brezhnev ?
Stalin - 5 times as long
Brezhnev - 2 times as long
When was Eisenstein’s October ?
How did it depict women ?
1928
Mocked women’s battalion fighting the Bolsheviks
What percentage of women compared to men were in the workforce under Khrushchev ?
49% women
How did Khrushchev respond to Stalin’s great retreat whilst in power ?
Reversed most of it
Abortion legalised again
Who was the first woman in the politburo ?
Under which leader ?
Furtseva
Khrushchev
Who was the first woman in space ?
When?
Under which leader ?
Tereshkova
1963
Khrushchev
How did Khrushchev increase women’s roles in the party? (2)
Increased women in central committee to 26% from 20%
Furtseva
How did Khrushchev’s increase in consumer goods tailor to women?
Growth of women’s magazines
Benefits for urban women under brezhnev VS limitations for rural women ?
1985
70% urban doctors were women
72% of lowest paid farmers were women
Which feminist group was suppressed by brezhnev ?
LOTOS -1983
Female academics and teachers
How did brezhnev regard women ?
Responsible for drug and alcohol addiction and breakups
How were women depicted in Khrushchev’s work propaganda ?
Pros and cons ?
“Your caring hands are needed everywhere”
- pros - appealing to g r women to work
- cons - stigmatises women into a certain category of abilities
What percentage of the population was literate in 1914?
32%
What can be said about lenin’s educational policy ?
Set high aspirational targets but lacked resources to implement them until the 1950s
Set groundwork for progress
What did Lenin state in his 1918 decree ?
What was the reality of this ?
Why?
Free compulsory education 8-17
Free breakfast and medical for school children
Reality -
Free compulsory education not until 1950s
Schools couldn’t afford meals / medical checks
Why?
Civil war
NEP - schools closed to save money (halve in first 18 months)
How did Stalin improve primary and secondary education drastically ?
95% attend primary school
100% attend secondary school (8-12)
By what percentage did universities increase under Stalin
800%
How did Stalin lay the groundwork for the new elite to prosper with education ?
Party and trade union opened scholarships but were mainly reserved for children of the nomenklatura
How did the great retreat contribute to education under Stalin?
Exams and traditional teaching authority brought back
How did the Great War limit university students ?
Amount of students attending university decreases by over a third
How did Khrushchev make more progress in secondary education attendance than brezhnev?
75% complete under Khrushchev
60% under brezhnev
How did Khrushchev reform education?
Vocational training available for 16-19 year olds
Schools offer 11 years rather than 10
What did brezhnev do to Khrushchev’s educational changes ?
Reversed them
11 years back to 10
Reversed vocational training
Brezhnev uni statistics ?
18
Unis created
5 million students
What happened with the teaching of lysenkoism ?
If you disagreed , gulag
Who said “EDUCATION IS A WEAPON”
Stalin
How did Stalin use education as a weapon?
Edits history of communist party to indoctrinate students into believing him to be a hero
Marxist teaching compulsory in schools
- required chapter at PhD level about how it proved Marx was right
Why did students have to learn about peter the great under Stalin?
He wanted to be compared to him
How did brezhnev use education as a weapon ?
Stalin’s crimes ignored
What was Russification ?
Promotion of Russian identity in schools
What were the three youth organisations for budding young commies ?
Octobrists 5-9
Pioneers 10-14
Komsomol 14-28
Which prominent commie was involved in the youth organisations
Lenin’s wife
Syphallitic whore
What did the pioneers have to do ?
Promise to follow the teachings of Lenin
What did the komsomol have to do ?
Whilstle at actors under Stalin
Act as spies reporting all anti communist activities
How did brezhnev use the Komsomol
To weed the community
Why did you have to be in all 3 youth organisations ?
To get a job in the party
