Unit 4 - Social Developments

• Housing - Lenin

  • Destroyed in CW
  • 1918 - working people forcibly took property in cities from aritocrats and middle class
  • Large movement from the countryside to cities for jobs led to overcrowding
  • NEP: 60-80% urban housing denationalised
  • 1923/4 large town houses 'socialised'
  • Houses expensive to build and often not priority
  • Under NEP 89% of house building was undertaken by private companies
• Housing - Stalin

  • Destroyed in WW2 and not a priority as expensive
  • Budget kept to a minimum
  • Kommunalka - small, communal flats providing poor living conditions with families having to share a single room. 1930s avg size was 5.5 sq mtrs. Family of 6 living in an understairs cupboard in Moscow
  • Bathhouses scarce & gov failed to invest in sewage or communal facilities
  • Workers encouraged to build their won homes but materials were scarce
  • 1947: avg size of Kommunalka was 4 sq mtrs
  • 1945-50: 4,500 farming villages built & constructed 919,000 houses & 31,000 communal buildings
• Housing - Khrushchev

  • Increased investment with urban housing more than doubling 1950-65
  • Buildings built in a grand, architectural style
  • 'What sort of communism is that cannot produce sausage?'
  • Money invested into building functional houses for ordinary people
  • Virgin Land Scheme to increase production of consumer goods
  • K-7 apartment blocks which were cheap and quich to build. Each flat had a kitchen and bathroom with 10X more space than Kommunalka
• Housing - Brezhnev

  • Not significant issue
  • Success of K's housing policies meant Br only had to continue them
• Education - Lenin

  • Aim was to reduce illiteracy
  • 1914: 32% of population literate
  • Decree on illiteracy: all illiterate aged 8-50 had to learn how to read and write
  • 1918: Unified labour schools provide free breakfast, polytechnic ed to 8-17, ended gender segregation, churches converted into schools
  • First 18 months of NEP children in education halved & forced soe schools to shut to save money
  • Secondary ed designed to be vocational: 4 hrs of day in factory
  • Gov published 6.5 million textbooks containing rhymes about the alphabet
  • Reading rooms offered 6 week intensive course (90% shut during CW)
• Education - Stalin

  • 1939: 94% were illiterate
  • During collectivisation teachers were attacked - in 1930 40% were (acid thrown on their face)
  • History focused on triumphs of great Russians like Peter the Great which led to idea of hero worship + COP
  • Main objective was to prepare children for factory work
  • Decree in discipline 1932 made it law to attend school puntucally and to set homework
  • Trade unions offered scholarships
  • 1939: Number of unis increased by 800%
  • Labour Reserve Schoolss 1940 - industrial training colleged for men aged 14-17 to perform specialist skills (recruited 4.2 mil 46-52)
• Education - Khrushchev

  • 1956 abolished school fees
  • Secondary school kids rose from 200 in 1953 to 750 in 1959
  • Education reforms were unpopular with parents who wanted children to recieve academic ed rather than practical
  • 1959 28% of school day involved practical training
  • School trips to farms and factories and children required to take out work placements
• Education - Brezhnev

  • Priority to reverse K's reforms
  • Put a temporary curriculum in place to restore focus on academic ed
  • 1970 textbooks updated to reflect latest scientific knowledge
  • Secondary education children target was 100% by 1970 but in 1976 it was only 60%
  • 70% of teachers university educated
  • All schools required to provide 1 hot meal per day and free textbooks
• Social benefits - Lenin

  • 9 milliom had social insurance which gave them free healthcare
  • 1920s 93% of workers ate in communal halls
  • Food rations based on class with upper class only getting 25% of what workers got
  • Workers entitled to numerous benefits under War Communism
  • Work cards gave workers free travel on public transport
  • Party members enjoyed special privledges
  • People turned to the Black market
• Social benefits - Stalin

  • Shortage of food and resources after WW2 led to decline of SB's available
  • 1947 1 meal per day costed half you wage
  • Increase in health provision for workers - mass vacination campaigns for smallpox, malaria and typhoid
  • Worker's earnt SB by working
  • 1933 most had reliable electricity
  • 'Continuous work week' - only given one day off per week
• Social benefits - Khrushchev

  • Death rates and infant mortality decreased
  • 1950-65 pension budget increase by 4x
  • 'What sort of communist is it that cannot produce sausage?' - highlights imporatnce of standard of living
  • Free lunches for factories and offices and public transport free
  • Healthcare budget increased up to 44 billion roubles in 1959 (doubled in 1950s)
• Social benefits - Brezhnev

  • Decline in healthcare standards
  • Infant mortality rose from 3% to 7% in 1970s and life expectancy to 64
  • 'Social contract' was an unspoken agreement between gov and people trading political rights for better standard of living
  • Subsidised rent and utlitity cost to almost free
  • 1970 gov offered subsidies on holidays for workers
• Women - Lenin

  • 1919 women given the legal right to equal pay and voting rights
  • During NEP prostitution was legal
  • 'Postcard divorces' made it easier for women to get divorced
  • Few employment opportunities for women in industry during the NEP - only 3 million employed in factories during this period
  • 1st country to give abortion rights
• Women - Stalin

  • Underrepresented in CP - 1928 only 12% were women as they were expected to be 'wife activists'
  • Central role in armed forces WW2 - 1945 800,000 women serving combat roles
  • During WW2 presented as vulnerbale and in need of male protection ('Tanya' pictured and enslaved and tortured woman by Germans)
  • 'Great Retreat' abortion was criminalised, contraception banned, price of divorce increased and lesbianism treated as an illness
  • 'Medical Virginity tests' to test purity of women as premarital sex discouraged
• Women - Khrushchev

  • 1960s 45% of industrial workforce and K used this to say gender equality had been achieved. However, most restricted to low-skilled jobs recieving lower wages
  • 1955 abortion legalised
  • Women's magazines highlighted inequalities ('Peasant Women' + 'Women Worker')
  • Paid maternity leave rose from 77 days to 112 days
  • 1960s clerical/administrative work opened opportunity
  • Virgin Land Scheme - single women under 26(prescence of women to entice men to work but subject to abuse)
• Women - Brezhnev

  • Baikal-Amur project a new railway line recruiting women as made it more attractive to men
  • 1970 72% of lowest paid agricultural workers were women with only 2% of farm managers women
  • 1985 70% doctors were women
  • Dominant industry was mining and women often declined due to gender sterotypes
• Employment - Lenin

  • 1918 unemployment over 100,000 but worse after pulling out of WW1
  • 1918 able bodied men 16-50 lost right to refuse work
  • Work cards gave food rations
  • 1921 5.5% labour force unemployed and 18% in 1924
  • 'Declaration of Rights of Toiling and Exploited' abolished private land ownership
  • Labour law 1922 gave trade unions rigth to negotaite pay and working conditions
• Employment - Stalin

  • Working conditions deteriorated
  • Lateness criminalised and damaging of work property
  • Trade unions lost right to negotiate for better pay and rights
  • 1940 workers lost the right to change. 'Internal passports'introduced to track movements of workers who tried to search for better jobs
  • Factories and collectivised farms opened canteens that provided meals for workers
  • Full employment after WW2 . 1950 12 million in industrial work
  • 'Continuous work week'
• Employment - Khrushchev

  • Full employment key figure of centrall planned industry and agriculture
• Employment - Brezhnev

  • Publically stated there was full employment
  • 1970s hidden employment with 20% paid but not working
  • Labour shortages in late 1970s with 1 million unfilled vacancies in industry
  • Banned political dissidents from right to work which led to further 2% unemployed