Social security under Stalin

Question 1

What was re-established under Stalin?

Answer 1

The link between compulsory work and social benefits

Question 2

How did Stalin view Soviet workers?

Answer 2

Soviet workers were viewed as a crucial economic resource, central to building socialism

Question 3

Why did Stalin want to ensure full employment?

Answer 3

Stalin wanted to ensure full employment in order to ensure rapid industrialisation

Question 4

What did full employment not lead to?

Answer 4

Full employment did not lead to a rising standard of living

Question 5

Why did full employment not lead to a rising standard of living?

Answer 5

Safety was not a benefit that Stalin prioritised for his workers

Question 6

What happened to the working conditions under the Five-Year Plans?

Answer 6

Working conditions deteriorated as a result of the Five-Year Plans

Question 7

____ ____ was more important to Stalin than ___ and ___ workplaces

Answer 7

Speedy
construction
clean
safe

Question 8

What did Stalin introduce?

Answer 8

Stalin introduced harsh labour discipline

Question 9

Stalin introduced harsh labour discipline. Many measures that had been brought in as part of War Communism were revived. What are some examples of these measures?

Answer 9

Lateness was criminalised
Unions lost the right to negotiate with factory managers
Damaging factory property was criminalised
Strikes were banned

Question 10

When did Stalin introduce the “nepreryvka” or “continuous work week”?

Answer 10

1929

Question 11

What was the “nepreryvka” or “continuous work week”?

Answer 11

Workers were split into five groups on five-day cycles with staggered rest days so that production never stopped - factories and mines could work seven days a week

Question 12

In 1940 what did workers loose the right to do?

Answer 12

In 1940 workers lost the right to change jobs

Question 13

What was introduced in 1940?

Answer 13

Internal passports were introduced

Question 14

Why were internal passports introduced in 1940?

Answer 14

Internal passports were introduced to prevent workers moving from town to town without permission

Question 15

What did most Soviet citizens have access to by 1933 under the Five-Year Plans?

Answer 15

By 1933 most Soviet citizens had access to electricity

Question 16

During the ____, _____ km of railways were built, increasing access to ____. Passenger traffic increased by ____ per cent in the ____

Answer 16

1930s
30,000
transport
400
1930s

Question 17

When did the Moscow Metro open and what did it provide?

Answer 17

The Moscow Metro opened in the 1930s, providing underground transport to the population of the capital

Question 18

What did factory and farm canteens provide under the Five-Year Plans?

Answer 18

Factory and Farm canteens provided meals for workers

Question 19

There was a significant increase in healthcare provisions under the Five-Year Plans - what did this include?

Answer 19

This included mass vaccination campaigns dealing with smallpox, diphtheria, malaria and typhoid

Question 20

How was there a significant shift in how benefits were administered under Stalin?

Answer 20

Under the NEP benefits were available through trade unions or through local Soviets. However, during the 1930s benefits were increasingly available through factories or collective farms. This re-emphasised the link between work and social welfare

Question 21

In what way did peasants benefit much less than workers under Stalin?

Answer 21

They were not entitled to rations, and food was much scarcer on farms than it was in cities as the government seized the vast majority of farm production

Question 22

During the late 1930s farm workers would have to travel to ____ to buy ____ as there was so little food available on the farms

Answer 22

towns
bread

Question 23

In theory all Soviet citizens had rights to these benefits. However, in practice scarce resources meant that some benefited more than others - give examples of this For example, Soviet healthcare operated a “Party first” policy - what did this mean?

Answer 23

Soviet healthcare operated a “Party first” policy, where Party members were guaranteed vaccines and other workers could queue for any medicine that remained

While all workers were entitled to rations, senior Party members could organise special events, such as banquets, which were paid for from government money.

Question 24

What did the “Part first” policy and the system of privileged access to resources lead to? + give an example

Answer 24

It led to radical inequalities

In Dnepropetrovsk, a city in the Ukraine, all Party officials were vaccinated against typhus, and yet there were 10,000 cases of malaria among the working population in 1932 and 26,000 in 1933

Question 25

Full employment increased after the war. How much did the industrial workforce increase by between 1945 and 1950?

Answer 25

The industrial workforce increased from 8 million to 12.2 million between 1945 and 1950 largely as a result of returning soldiers

Question 26

How much did infant mortality decline by between 1940 and 1950?

Answer 26

Infant mortality declined by 50 per cent between 1940 and 1950

Question 27

The number of medical doctors increased by _____ between ___ and ___

Answer 27

two-thirds
1947
1952

Question 28

When were vaccines for common diseases such as typhus and malaria made universally available?

Answer 28

1947

Question 29

Malaria declined rapidly from ___ onwards

Answer 29

1949

Question 30

Why did the expansion of healthcare under Stalin not lead to an improvement in the health of the Soviet people?

Answer 30

Food shortages, poor housing and the poverty caused by the war meant the sickness rates did not fall

Question 31

What did the planned economy struggle to produce and what did this lead to?

Answer 31

The planned economy struggled to produce simple things like soap, warm clothing and shoes, which led to greater health problems

Question 32

Why was food a major problem?

Answer 32

In order to make up for shortages, work canteens used rotten food, animal feed and other products that were unfit for human consumption. This led to illness

Question 33

Sanitation in factories and farms was often inadequate - what did this lead to?

Answer 33

This led to lice infestations and outbreaks of dysentery and vomiting

Question 34

Give a piece of evidence to showcase that hygiene education was poor

Answer 34

It was not until 1947 that there was a publicity campaign encouraging workers to “use the toilet in a civilised fashion” and wash their hands after using toilets

Question 35

How many days did the average Soviet workers take off ill a year?

Answer 35

The average Soviet worker took between ten and thirteen days off ill a year in 1946 - this figure remained constant until the mid-1950s

Question 36

In existing cities Soviet authorities divided buildings into small _____

Answer 36

kommunalka

Question 37

What are kommunalka?

Answer 37

Communal apartments where entire families would share a single small room

Question 38

By 1940 the average kommunalka was ___ square metres

Answer 38

4

Question 39

Often buildings were divided up into barely useable spaces - give an example of this

Answer 39

Rooms would be divided, without being rewired. Therefore one light switch would control the lighting of several apartments

Question 40

What was converted into accommodation under Stalin?

Answer 40

Coal sheds and under-stairs cupboards - In one case in Moscow a family of six lived in an under-stairs cupboard

Question 41

The 1930s also saw the emergence of “corner-dwellers” - what were “corner-dwellers”?

Answer 41

People who lived in corridors or communal kitchens within kommunalka

Question 42

The 1930s also saw the emergence of “corner-dwellers” - what were “corner-dwellers”?

Answer 42

People who lived in corridors or communal kitchens within kommunalka buildings

Question 43

Corner-living could be expensive; space in corridors could cost as much as…

Answer 43

half a month’s wage

Question 44

One worker in ____ lived in a corridor for ___ years before being moved into a ____

Answer 44

Leningrad
five
kommunalka

Question 45

New buildings were constructed under Stalin to support…

Answer 45

the new factory towns like Magnitogorsk

Question 46

What was prioritised over housing under Stalin?

Answer 46

The construction of factories

Question 47

Accommodation in the new factory towns was often inferior to the…

Answer 47

kommunalka

Question 48

What did the accommodation in the new factory towns lack?

Answer 48

They did not have running water or bathrooms

Question 49

What basic necessities did new factory towns lack?

Answer 49

Paved streets and electric lights

Question 50

Magnitogorsk was initially designed as a…

Answer 50

model town. At the beginning of the project planners commissioned a radical German architect to design clean, modern, state-of-the-art accommodation. However, these houses proved too expensive

Question 51

When were the initial Magnitogorsk housing plans abandoned?

Answer 51

Within a year of the project starting

Question 52

How did the majority of workers in Magnitogorsk live?

Answer 52

The majority of workers lived in barrack-style dormitories and around 20 per cent lived in mud huts

Question 53

The combination of dormitory living and poor sanitation in Magnitogorsk led to…

Answer 53

disease and lice

Question 54

What made the housing situation much worse under Stalin?

Answer 54

The Second World War

Question 55

What fraction of urban housing was damaged or destroyed between 1941 and 1945?

Answer 55

Approximately one-third

Question 56

Stalin continued to prioritise ____ buildings over ____

Answer 56

industrial
housing

Question 57

By ___ the average worker in a kommunalka had ___ square metres of space, and the average worker living in a dormitory had ___ square metres

Answer 57

1947
four
three

Question 58

Where were workers in the Moscow coalfields housed?

Answer 58

In dormitories

Question 59

How were conditions in dormitories poor for the workers who worked in the Moscow coalfields?

Answer 59

There were only 15,000 beds for the 26,000 workers
All kinds of furniture were scarce - there was one table between every 10 workers, one wardrobe for every 27 workers and one wash basin for every 70 people

Question 60

Why was house building not a major priority under the Fourth Five-Year Plan (1945-50)?

Answer 60

Budgets were small, and management inefficient

Question 61

Workers were often reassigned to other projects, which meant that even the small number of projects that were started progressed extremely slowly - give an example of this

Answer 61

In the first half of 1948 housebuilding projects outside Moscow spent 40 per cent of their budget and were then suspended, meaning that not a single house was completed

Question 62

How were the houses that were constructed in the early 1950s extremely poor quality?

Answer 62

Roofs leaked, plaster fell off walls and there was no gas, electricity or sewerage