society and culture

• Religion (R) needed to be abolished; churches closed, priests deported, buildings used for barns and school
• R by 1939 1/40 churches functioned and only 7 bishops were active
• R islam was also attacked as 1917= 26,000 mosques and in 1941= 1300
• R by 1939 57% still believers
• Education E- by 1939 each child spent 7 years compulsory at school and an emphasis on vocational training with a more traditional approach (uniform, exams)
• E- by 1939 4% of men were illiterate and 18% women
• E- higher education fees 1940 and rising libraries
• E- young pioneers and Komosol were youth groups
• Family- 1936 new laws which made divorce was cheap, abortion legalised, childcare, women encouraged to work with creches to look after kids
• F- poor living conditions, husbands and wives deserted their families, gangs of street children, dekulakisation and famine had devastating effect on family
• sports- stadiums were built, chess, gymnasts were given coaching, PE emphasised in school
• soviet culture SC- radios and loud speakers, cinemas, art, music and literature, Union of Russian writers monitored Russian writers work
• There was a cultural revolution 1928-32 which saw arts trying to root our the bourgeoise
• in 1931 wage differentials had been increased based on how much work workers produced
• prices often lower in shops; however Workers could still not buy
• wages rose to 56% of 1928 by 1940
• luxury goods only avaliable to managers
• queues constantly outside shops
• 1/5 of the meat and fish was eaten during Stalin's reign than in 1900
• bread consumption 50% to 1900
• 90% children born in hospitals
• parks made, emphasis on health, hospitals and clinics built
• overcrowding, people wore old, bad quality clothing, boots and shoes impossible to find
• by end of 1930s farmers lives had improved to own plots and sell food, more mechanization
• grain harvests in 1940 equalled 1913 levels
• new class of foreman, supervisors, technicians built
• Tsaritsyn is named Stalingrad in his honour 1925
• for Stalin's 50th birthday 1929 he recieved 350 greetings
• in 1931 huge portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin appeared on special occasions
• post 1945 Stalins image is everywhere and is celbrated
• Stalin declared 1941 'Let the images of great ancestors insipre you during this war'
• 1930s 25% of population in Moscow lived in 1 room, shared between 2 households.
• 5% of people lived in bathrooms, kitchens and hallways
• WW2 25 million Russians became homeless
• built high rise communcal living spaces; built home on edges of collective farms
• stikes forbidden
• use of internal passports to restrict movement
• constitution of 1936 enshrined the workers right to work and also gave them health and unemployment insurance
• average living space fell
• 1932- 10 hour working day