1941 - Social Improvements

• Literacy rates in the Soviet Union in 1941 were much higher than they had been in 1924.

  • This was largely due to the wider availability of education in both urban and rural areas.
• Whilst the quota system for entry into higher education had been abolished, there was still a much higher representation of working class people and women in higher education than ever before.
• There was greater access to social services such as healthcare and nursery care.

  • The latter had contributed to more women entering the workforce although this was as much the result of economic necessity rather than the greater provision of childcare services.
• Someone from a proletarian or peasant background could rise through the ranks of the party if they demonstrated some talent but mainly loyalty to Stalin and a willingness to carry out his orders.