Topic 4 - Social Changes - Housing

Question 1

What did Lenin seek to achieve with regards to housing?

Answer 1

Wanted to redistribute housing, taking it from the “former privileged people” and giving it to the poorer working classes in order to enforce Communist ideology

Question 2

Lenin housing redistributions - Positives (1)

Answer 2

1918 Decree on Land appealed to peasants as they forcibly took land from middle class landowners

Question 3

Lenin housing redistributions - Negatives (3)

Answer 3

• Former factory owners either killed, forced out of homes or make to live in single rooms
• By end of CW gov had to order destruction of houses for timber for factories
• Experiments with rent-free housing came to an end in 1921

Question 4

What did Stalin seek to achieve with housing?

Answer 4

Housing experiments sought to develop communal living and shared resources – removed privacy

Question 5

Positives of communal living? (2)

Answer 5

• Construction of 919,000 houses, 250,000 agricultural buildings and 31,000 communal buildings
• Narkomfin Apartment House (Moscow) designed to facilitate collective living with kitchens, a creche, library, gym and laundry facilities – liberating women

Question 6

Negatives of housing under Stalin? (3)

Answer 6

• Urban pop trebled between 1929 and 1940 creating more pressure on housing
• Poor living conditions led to spread of diseases
• ‘Corner dwellers’ were common – living in corridors or under stairs as there was nowhere else

Question 7

What did the prioritisation of industrialisation over housing under Stalin lead to?

Answer 7

• Construction of factories prioritised over construction of housing
• 20% of workers living in mud huts
• Approx 1/3 of housing destroyed by WW2 by Stalin continued to push industrial construction
• In Moscow only 15,000 beds for 26,000 workers

Question 8

Aims of housing under Khrushchev?

Answer 8

K aimed to improve housing for all

Question 9

Positives of housing under K? (3)

Answer 9

• Between 1950 and 1965 the amount of urban housing more than doubled
• New apartments allowed families to have whole block rather than being forced to live in single room dwellings
• Tended to be small but were over 10 times bigger than before and included bathrooms kitchens and separate bedrooms

Question 10

Negatives of housing under K?

Answer 10

• New style of housing transformed family life but worried authorities as they recreated privacy
• Therefore new housing backed up by propaganda to ensure people were positive and that privacy did not lead to critical views about gov