Culture and society

• Church:

  • Religious schools closed
  • by 1941, nearly 40,000 churches destroyed
  • 4000 priests imprisoned
• Women:

  • Family code - abortion illegal, banned contraception, tax breaks to mothers with 6 or more children, divorce difficult to obtain
  • Number of women working in factories and collective farms increased from 3 million in 1928 to 13 million in 1940
• Youth:

  • Selective secondary schools only accepted the most able
  • Rigid academic curriculum
  • Exams reintroduced
  • Vesenkha controlled higher education - focus on industrial specialists
  • By 1941 around 94% of population in towns were literate
• Men:

  • Skilled - improved opportunities, paid more
  • Unskilled - moved from place to place to avoid a bad working record, poor living conditions
• Urban:

  • Positive - regulated hours and wages, free education, opportunities for skilled workers
  • Negative - overcrowded living conditions, denunciations, water was rationed, crime, food shortages
• Rural:

  • Positive - access to food, private plots, free education, health clinics
  • Negative - state control, fear of purges, state requisitioning, poverty, low status
• Socialist man and woman:

  • Party-minded
  • Educated in socialism
  • Works for the good of everyone
  • Self-sacrificing
  • Community
  • Urban and modern
  • Enthusiastic campaigner