In November 1917, the official abolition of the ‘class hierarchy’ including titles and privileges everybody became a ‘grazhdanin’ (citizen) while Party members became ‘tovarishch’ (comrade)
Bourgeoisie were not allowed to work and were forced to undertake menial tasks and their houses turned into kommunalka, a communal dwellings and house blocs.
During the civil war class reforms extended to rations which depended on ‘work-value’ with workers and soldiers receiving more than professionals. Some were forced into selling their possessions.
The NEP was seen as an admission that Soviet Russia needed bourgeoisie ‘specialists’ in the interests of economic growth. It didn’t halt the campaign against the bourgeois ‘way of life’ (byt).
‘Socialist man’: a man who was publicly engaged and committed to the community and willing to give service to the state. Policy aimed to allow this sort of individual to flourish.
