Unit 4 - Social Developments

Question 1

What benefits did workers receive when the Bolsheviks took power? (Employment under Lenin)

Answer 1

The Declaration of the Rights of Toiling people abolished the private ownership of land. Therefore, a capitalist could no longer make money simply by owning things.

Introduced universal labour duty. This was designed “to eliminate the parasitical layers of society” by ensuring that everybody worked and therefore capitalists could no longer simply live off the labour of others

Question 2

How were the benefits that workers received when the Bolsheviks took power limited? (Employment under Lenin)

Answer 2

• Ensuring stable employment was extremely difficult between 1917-18 as the revolution of 1917 caused economic chaos
• Around 570 industrial enterprises closed between March and August 1917 - as a result unemployment had increased over 100,000 by October 1918
• The situation worsened during the October Revolution and during the war, war production ceased, leading to higher unemployment.

Question 3

What problems did workers face during War Communism?

Answer 3

Factory closures and food scarcity.

Question 4

How did things improve under the NEP?

Answer 4

1920 - A system of benefits was created for urban workers

A work card entitled workers to travel on public transport.

Communal dining halls set up in factories to feed workers.

Other communal facilities such as laundries and creches were also provided in urban centres, in part to help women work in factories.

Question 5

How did Stalin achieve full employment?

Answer 5

Well paid jobs in the cities attracted peasants fleeing from poverty.

Rapid industrialisation led to full employment.

In order to reach production quotas, factories had to hire lots of workers so demand was high.

Question 6

How did Stalin enforce Labour discipline?

Answer 6

Internal passports were introduced to prevent workers moving to different factories without permission. Benefits began to be given out by factories rather than trade unions or local Soviets. This incentivised workers.

Question 7

How did workers benefit under Stalin?

Answer 7

There was a significant increase in healthcare provisions such as vaccinations. Factory and farm canteens provided for workers.

Question 8

Employment changes after the war?

Answer 8

Planned economy was established.

The planned economy struggled to produce simple things like soap, warm clothing and shoes, which led to greater health problems.

Question 9

How did Khrushchev improve Social Benefits?

Answer 9

Soviet healthcare budget more than doubled in Khrushchev’s first 5 years from 21.4 billion roubles in 1950 to 44 billion roubles in 1959.
Major reforms in 1961 improved social benefits:
-Free lunch in factories and offices
-Free public transport
-Full pension and healthcare rights for farmers

Increased the production of consumer goods via the Virgin Land Scheme.

Question 10

What benefits did the ‘Social Contract’ offer the Soviet workers? (Brezhnev)

Answer 10

• Job security through guaranteed full employment
• Social benefits such as free healthcare
• Social mobility
• Low prices for essential goods

Question 11

What did the 1977 Soviet constitution promise? (Brezhnev)

Answer 11

The Soviet Constitution included a series of civil and political rights. Among these were the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of assembly and the right to religious belief and worship. In addition, the Constitution provided for freedom of artistic work, protection of the family, inviolability of the person and home, and the right to privacy.

Question 12

What is “developed socialism”? (Brezhnev)

Answer 12

An ideological catchphrase popularized during the Brezhnev era in the Eastern Bloc countries and the Soviet Union.
The term referred to the Soviet-type economic planning enforced by the ruling communist parties at that particular time.

Question 13

How did Khrushchev promote a Stable Society?

Answer 13

Khrushchev promoted the view that the population standard of living should be prioritised - he radically changed the aims and methods used in Soviet politics in order to produce consumer goods and for people to see the benefits of a communist system - improved health care and housing.

Question 14

How did Brezhnev promote a Stable Society?

Answer 14

Brezhnev’s goal was stable society through Developed Socialism:
During the 1960s and 1970s Soviet citizens enjoyed an unprecedented standard of living:
- A combination of government benefits, work and trading on the black market (guaranteed conform life for Soviet citizens). By ensuring a high and rising standard of living Brezhnev’s policies succeeded in promoting a stable society in the period 1964-85.
They both wanted to keep the Soviet people happy by improving Standards of living and this was used to create a stable society - particularly important after the rejection of terror as full employment was essential to the idea of a stable society.

Question 15

How did Lenin redistribute housing?

Answer 15

Lenin issued a decree in August 1918. Local soviets were empowered to by this decree and took housing away from its owners and redistributed it to the poor and homeless

In 1923-24 large town houses were ‘socialised’. Property owners were forced to live in one room, while working class families were moved into the other rooms.

Church property was nationalised and turned into stores, civic centres or housing.

Question 16

How did Stalin try to solve the problem of lack of housing in urban areas?

Answer 16

Kommunalka (communal apartments) were built. Although it provided a space to live, the space was usually small.
Factory towns - New buildings constructed under Stalin to support factory towns such as Magnitogorsk.

Question 17

How did World War 2 affect housing?

Answer 17

Stalin chose to prioritise industrial buildings over housing - destroyed due to the war. Therefore there was little done to deal with this. The official pre-war policy of cramming more people into smaller spaces continued

Workers scheme encouraged workers to build their own houses

Question 18

How did Khrushchev improve housing?

Answer 18

Between 1950 and 1965 the amount of urban housing more than doubled. This was due to a deliberate initiative by Khrushchev to construct more urban housing. Khrushchev ordered a halt to new government buildings and invested in new materials and techniques in order to solve the housing problem. He argued that cheap mass housing was important for the short term. This resulted in the construction of the ‘Khrushchyovka’ or K-7 blocks which could be constructed easily from prefabricated parts. Temporary until 1980, better houses when communism is achieved.

Question 19

How did the ‘Social Contract’ improve housing? (Brezhnev)

Answer 19

Social Contract - “Little Deal” promised a rising standard of living and greater social benefits in return for obedience and conformity. Brezhnev’s formula for stable society

Job security through guaranteed full employment

Low prices for essential goods

A thriving second economy, free of government interference

Social benefits such as free healthcare

Some social mobility.

Question 20

How did Lenin expand compulsory education?

Answer 20

Abolished fees for Primary schools

Local soviets took over gymnasias (schools established by the Tsarist regime)

Unified schools (1918) - Gov introduced decree that: Made school compulsory, introduced polytechnic education to all children aged 8 to 17, abolished corporal punishments, ended gender segregation (co-educational schools) , promised free breakfast for school children and free medical examinations

1927 - He abolished fees for primary schools, from then on the majority of children received a four - year primary education.

By 1928, 60% of Soviet children of primary school age were in schools- however still inequalities (rural areas unlikely to complete education)

Question 21

How did Stalin use Education for his own policies? (Factories)

Answer 21

Stalin wanted to educate all the Soviets citizens. He needed disciplined and illiterate workers in for them to work in factories and farms (economic purposes) - “Good workers”

Question 22

How did Stalin use Education for his own policies? (Illiteracy)

Answer 22

The campaign against illiteracy happened during Stalin’s campaign to collectivise agriculture. This meant teachers were targeted and attacked as they were associated with the government and therefore considered an enemy.

For example, some teachers were locked in schools that were set on fire whilst others were beaten to death or had acid thrown on them. There were also rumours that the teachers were there to kidnap children and send young women to China as slaves.

Question 23

How did Stalin eliminate illiteracy? (Relaunching Campaign)

Answer 23

Relaunched campaign against illiteracy. The 16th Party congress of 1930 adopted new targets to eliminate illiteracy and ensure that primary schooling was compulsory during the first 5 year plan. Government recruited 3 million volunteers from Komsomolto educate workers and peasants. The campaign was organised in a military fashion. Volunteers were called ‘cultural soldiers’, organised in ‘cultural battalions’ and tasked with fighting a ‘cultural war’ against illiteracy.

Question 24

How did Stalin eliminate illiteracy? (Courses)

Answer 24

90% of Soviet adults attended a literacy course. By the end of the Five Year Plan around 68% of people were literate.

Question 25

How did Stalin eliminate illiteracy? (LRS)

Answer 25

Labour Reverse Schools (1940) - form of industrial conscription, in order to train young men between the ages of 14 and 17 in specialism in industry.

Question 26

What was discipline like under Stalin? (Teaching Methods)

Answer 26

Copying Stakhanov, e.g Olga Fedororna said all her students would gain excellent grades- encourage other teachers.

Question 27

What was discipline like under Stalin? (Code of Conduct)

Answer 27

Teachers had a strict set of rules that they had to follow.

Included discipline rules such as how to sit and stand.

Question 28

What was discipline like under Stalin? (Gender Segregation)

Answer 28

In July 1943, Stalin introduced gender segregation in secondary schools. Where possible, local soviets were encouraged to ensure male and female students did not share the same building. Stalin felt that the interaction between the two genders would likely lead to distraction and ill-discipline

Question 29

How did Khrushchev change what was taught in schools?

Answer 29

With the educational reforms of 1956 and 1958. He reintroduced polytechnic education. He increased the practical focus of science and maths teaching, outside of lessons the school was expected to organise trips to factories and farms as well as work experience placements.

He wanted workers with more sophisticated skills for light industry.

Question 30

How did Khrushchev change the use of discipline?

Answer 30

Removed rules relating to sitting and standing postures in schools.

Question 31

How did Khrushchev improve education for women?

Answer 31

Education was made widely available in cities for Women. By the 1960s, women made up half of the graduates. By 1970, women started to dominate certain professions.

Question 32

How did Brezhnev reverse many of Khrushchev’s policies?

Answer 32

• Ended vocational training for students aged 16-19 in farms and factories
• Ended the 11 year schooling policy in favour of a gradual shift from 8 year schooling to 10 year schooling.
• Drew up a temporary curriculum to restore the focus on academic education.
• Abandoned compulsory secondary education (replaced the target that 100% of children complete secondary education by 1970)

Question 33

Were universities successful in the Soviet Union?

Answer 33

• New courses were introduced

- New buildings were made to accommodate non-Russian ethnic backgrounds

Question 34

Were universities successful in the Soviet Union? (Student numbers)

Answer 34

Higher education grew from about 1.5 million to over 5 million, around 19% of the population.

Question 35

Were universities successful in the Soviet Union? (Courses)

Answer 35

From 1958 new courses including electronics, radio, construction, agricultural chemistry and machine-building were introduced.

Question 36

Were universities successful in the Soviet Union? (Staff)

Answer 36

Academic staff increased from 87,000 to 380,000 between 1958-80.

Question 37

Were universities successful in the Soviet Union? (Diversity)

Answer 37

In 1954 Khrushchev initiated the building of five new universities to serve students from non-Russian ethnic backgrounds. Brezhnev continued this initiative by founding 18 universities in non-Russian Soviet republics including Kazakhstan, Tadzhikistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

• In 1953 only 9000 Soviet citizens had doctorates; by 1975 that figure had risen to 32,000.
• Most postgraduate courses focused on sciences, which were considered politically less dangerous.
• Postgraduate students in the humanities were expected to write a chapter on how their research supported the established truths of Marxism-Leninism in order to show that they remained committed to the official ideology.

Question 38

How did Lenin reduce illiteracy? (Trotsky)

Answer 38

With the help of Trotsky - Introduced education for soldiers. Literacy rates increased by 50% in 1918 to 86% in 1921. Campaign continued after the war was won and by 1925, 100% of soldiers in the Red Army could read and write.

Question 39

How did Lenin reduce illiteracy? (Trade Unions)

Answer 39

While working with trade unions - The government set up libraries and reading groups in factories to educate workers and reading groups in factories to educate workers. The Metal Workers union reported an increase in literacy from 86% in 1925 to 96% in 1926.

Question 40

How did Lenin reduce illiteracy? (Textbooks)

Answer 40

The Communist Gov. published 6.5 million textbooks containing simple rhymes that taught the alphabet. There was a rise in the number of people who could identify letters (but this campaign did not lead to an increase in literacy)

Question 41

How did Lenin reduce illiteracy? (Lunacharksy)

Answer 41

Lunacharsky also set up a network of reading rooms or likpukty (liquidation points) in towns and villages. They offered 6 week intensive courses and were designed to liquidate illiteracy.

Question 42

What problems did Lenin face with education? (Civil War)

Answer 42

The Civil War meant that there would be a lack of resources to invest in education and saw a decline in literacy.

Learning was not a priority for those trying to survive the Civil war including orphans.

The Civil war halted the progress of improving illiteracy and didn’t help to improve literacy rates. The Government prioritised military victory rather than education. War economy didn’t produce educational products. War disrupted education. Majority of teachers didn’t support the regime and were on strike. Government prioritised military victory and economic survival, not education.

Question 43

What problems did Lenin face with education? (Teachers)

Answer 43

Majority of teachers did not support the regime - were on strike.

Question 44

What problems did Lenin face with education? (Schools)

Answer 44

Schools were requisitioned by the army and turned into stores or barracks.

Under the NEP, School funding was cut and some schools were forced to close Mid 1920s there was a campaign to “liquidate illiteracy”. In May 1925 the government wanted everyone literate by October 1927.

Question 45

What problems did Lenin face with education? (Reading Rooms)

Answer 45

Government closed 90% of the reading room network established during the Civil War while under NEP.

Question 46

What problems did Lenin face with education? (Literacy Rate)

Answer 46

Overall, literacy rates improved from 28% in 1914 to 55% in 1928 however the achievement was extremely uneven and illiteracy began to increase after the illiteracy liquidation campaign ended in 1927.

Question 47

How did Lenin improve education for women?

Answer 47

Laws that made a woman obey her husband were abolished and they no longer needed their husband’s permission to take a job or study in further education.
Co-education- Reading rooms for women and using the Zhenotdel scheme to educate women in factories (28% of people in university, compared to 2% in Germany)

Question 48

How were women shown in the media (consider civil war)?

Answer 48

Ideologically Lenin had believed in the “emancipation of women” and how the “bourgeois” nature of marriage was a form of slavery. This ideal worked its way into his policy and propaganda but under the circumstances of war and industrialisation, this did not always take priority in propaganda.

Soviet Propaganda ridiculed women and femininity. Sergei Eisenstein’s film “October” in 1928, mocked female soldiers who fought against the Bolsheviks in the October Revolution.

Question 49

Why didn’t women work under Lenin?

Answer 49

Less visible in propaganda than men

Supporting role - a maternal and weak figure rather than workers

Soviet propaganda posters of this period often contained a male industrial worker and a female peasant representing the nation.
Distinction between the two different types of worker emphasised the difference in role between women and men. industrial workers played the leading and decisive role, whereas peasants were only supporting roles.

Question 50

What type of work did Women do in agriculture?

Answer 50

Women in the countryside performed ‘triple shifts’. They provided agricultural labour on farms, they were responsible for household chores and they were often engaged in handicrafts to supplement family income.

Question 51

An example suggesting political role of women under Lenin

Answer 51

Alexandra Killontai - Made head of the Zhenotdel - she was a feminist who believed in free love, however Stalin dislike her ideas.

They tended to get jobs in government that reflected traditional roles. For example, during the civil war, females tended to work as commissariat of social welfare, Education or Health.

Question 52

How were women shown under Stalin (consider propaganda during WWII)?

Answer 52

From 1917-40, women tended to play a supporting role in Soviet art.

One of the most famous statues was called the “Worker and Kolkhoz woman” (1937) made under Stalin’s period.

25 meters high made of stainless steel which consisted of two figures, a male factory worker holding a hammer and a female collective farm worker holding a sickle.

Question 53

Why did more women work under Stalin? What type of work?

Answer 53

Women joined the industrial labour force in large numbers due to the demands of the Five-Year Plans.

WW2 made women replace men on industrial work.

Question 54

Did women fight during WWII?

Answer 54

Women were often seen as vulnerable and in need of protection. Although Women didn’t fight, they were used in propaganda such as the poster ‘The Motherland is Calling’ to encourage Russian men to fight for their nation.

Question 55

An example suggesting political role of women under Stalin

Answer 55

Under Stalin, women were no longer encouraged to employ nannies to participate in government. They
were expected to be wives and mothers. This meant that women who married were often encouraged
into “obshchesttvennitsa” (movement of wife activists).

Question 56

How were women shown by Khrushchev?

Answer 56

Women could now play a “leading” role and had greater importance than they had before
Devushkivoiny (girl-warriors) and Frontovishki, women who served on the front line, were a feature of top level speeches, such as Khrushchev’s Secret Speech and of Soviet War films all through till the 1980’s.

Valentina Tereshkova - first woman in space and and a soviet hero (less than a “Yuri Gagarin in a skirt” claims the head of the Soviet space programme)
Became an engineer and the first female cosmonaut.

Question 57

How were women shown by Khrushchev during the Virgin Lands Scheme?

Answer 57

Women were specifically targeted in the campaign to recruit volunteers in the virgin land scheme. They were given specific roles such as: Milkmaids, gardeners, mothers etc - low paid.

Few women from the cities stayed in The Virgin land scheme

Female workers often subjects to sexual abuse and rape- sometimes forced to marry them

Question 58

Was there much change to agriculture during Khrushchev?

Answer 58

Mechanisation was an important goal for Khrushchev- to make the work on farms easier for women.

However, machinery was scarce and collective farms often gave men priority in terms of access to machines.

Question 59

An example suggesting political role of women under Khrushchev

Answer 59

Women played a slightly larger role in politics. However, the positions they took were mostly the ones that reflected their ‘natural role’ as nurturers. (health, social care and education)

After Stalin’s death, larger numbers of women joined the party and they played a significant role in local politics but women never made up more than 10% of senior roles in the soviet system.

Question 60

How were women shown in a traditional way by Brezhnev?

Answer 60

Propaganda emphasised that a true Soviet woman should be an exemplary worker and caring wife and mother.
The tone of propaganda became even more conservative in the 70’s.

Question 61

What types of work were available to women under Brezhnev?

Answer 61

Work in urban centres arose due to the construction of the BAM (a 4324-kilometre rail line across the north of the Soviet Union.)

New types of works like ‘clerical and administrative work (74% of women)

Question 62

Was there much change to agriculture under Brezhnev?

Answer 62

Women continued to work in low-status, low paid jobs in farming in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1983, around 65% of work on farms was still unmechanised.
Industry expansion meant that men left collective farms to get jobs in factories, leaving women over-represented in the lowest paid jobs. (80% of teachers were women).

Question 63

An example suggesting political role of women under Brezhnev

Answer 63

Women’s participation in politics did not really change. Between 1953 and 1985, women never made up more than 4% of the central committee.

Improved participation of women in the workforce and in education had clearly made little effect on the rise of women in Government.

Question 64

What was the family code of 1918? (Status of Women)

Answer 64

The code provides a temporary legal framework to maintain protections for women and children until a system of total communal support could be established.

Question 65

How did legal rights change under Lenin?

Answer 65

He introduced abortion as a legal right and made contraception legal.

Postcard divorce: allowed both men and women to divorce simply by sending a letter.

Zhentondel worked with the commissariat of Justice to ensure equal voting and equal paid (equal rights) and worked to support prostitutes

Question 66

Why is Stalin’s leadership described as the “great retreat”?

Answer 66

This is due to the fact that during the mid 30s, government policy towards the family became much more conservative compared to the ‘advance’ of women’s rights in the 1920’s. (Trotsky named it this)

Aim was to increase birth rates and create a stable society so that the focus would be on industrialization:

Criminalise abortion, homosexuality (Lesbianism considered a crime).

Banned contraception, divorce was made illegal

Add incentives to encouraged women to have children - 7 children received 2000 roubles a year for 5 years

Women were expected to work but to also perform essential family labour.

Question 67

How did Khrushchev try to improve the lives of mothers? (was he successful?)

Answer 67

Supported single mothers and legalised abortion. He recognised after WWII that 55% of people were women and that many families were now single parents. Stay at home mothers no longer worked for many families.

Maternity leave increased to 112 days. Improved working and living conditions for women by expansion of Crèches and communal laundries.

Improved working and living conditions for women by the expansion of creches and communal laundries.

Question 68

What was the limitation to Khrushchev improving the lives of mothers?

Answer 68

Some employers refused to recognise legal requirements of maternity leave/ pay.

Question 69

How did Brezhnev view women’s role?

Answer 69

Women should hold a traditional role

Brezhnev’s Parental Campaign emphasised women’s abilities to nurture and “natural” need for strong men.

Pension age from 60 to 50 for women.