Social + Cultural Developments, 1945-64

• There was very little improvement of living standards under Stalin.
• Consumer goods and housing remained few, poor and in short supply during social life under Stalin.
• 12 working hours a day remained the norm within social life under Stalin.
• The pay of a Kolkhoz workers was a sixth of that compared to a factory worker.
• Stalin determined to make Soviet culture superior to liberal Western culture. This anti-Westernism shaped policy in Russia's art.
• Workers and artists were attacked for showing "bourgeoisie", non-Soviet values.
• Khrushchev was a true believer in communism. He was determined to show it could achieve a better life for people.
• Khrushchev gave priority to consumer goods and housing because he could show the Soviet Union compared with the West.
• Fridges and TVs began appearing in Russian homes.
• Wage differences were reduced to ease the gulf between managers and workers. The minimum wage was increased.
• Pensions expanded to the elderly, the sick and the disabled.
• Pension expansion was important because many were permanently injured from war and there were many one-parent families.
• Housing construction increased. 108 million people moved into homes between 1956 and 1965.
• An issue with the quality of housing construction was that they were poorly made. This still changed lives because people no longer shared accommodation.
• Doctors, hospitals and students in higher education increased in society.
• Only senior party officials still received privileges. They got access to special healthcare, holidays and cars.
• Anti-religious propaganda was stepped up. 3/4 of all religious places of worship had been closed down.
• Non-Russian nationalities came under more control from Moscow. The top jobs were reserved for Russians.
• It became easier to access news from the West. Many people tuned into foreign radio stations for trustworthy news despite its prohibition.
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich was a book published in 1952. It was authored by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
• Solzhenitsyn spent 8 years in a labour camp. His book struct a chord with those who were recently released from camps because it was a fictional account of his own experiences.
• A million copies of Denisovich were sold in 6 months.
• Boris Pasternak authored Dr Zhivago. It didn't pass the censors because it was critical of the October Revolution.
• Dr Zhivago was published abroad in 1957. Pasternak gained the Nobel Prize but was not allowed to accept.
• Dr Zhivago circulated illegally around the Soviet Union. Thousands attended Pasternak's funeral in 1960.
• The Soviet Union was now open to Western tourists.
• Moscow hosted the World Festival of Youth in 1957. 34,000 people attended from 131 different countries.
• One aim of the World Festival of Youth was to win over the youth with the Soviet way of life. The youth were won over by the foreigners who brought over the Western way of life - jeans and jazz.
• Western culture was more appealing than Soviet culture because it wasn't as comformist as Komsomol.
• Khrushchev was particularly keen to reawaken the enthusiasm of the early Revolution years to engage young people. The most ambitious idea he came up with was mobilising the youth into the Virgin Lands scheme.
• Orlando Figes said the regime "could no longer count on fear".
• Martin Sixsmith said the "target of beating the Americans was intended to boost production".