Leninist/Stalinist Society Flashcards
What did Marx teach about social evolution?
Society evolves through class struggles - it makes sense that the Bolshevik revolution was accompanied by an active campaign against the class enemies of the proletariat.
Who were the burzhui?
Aristocrats, priests, merchants and the general ex-bourgeoise. They were considered a hindrance to workers and branded as bloodsuckers.
What happened with the abolition of class hierarchy in November 1917?
Titles and privileges disappeared and everyone was referred to as citizen, aside from Party members who were labelled comrade.
What was life as a burzhui like?
Not allowed to work and had to undertake menial tasks such as road sweeping. They had their houses requisitioned and turned into kommunalka for the workers.
How was class warfare reflected in rationing?
Allocations depended on work value, with worker and soldiers receiving the most, civil servants and educated professionals a lower rate and burzhui the least.
What did middle-class girls turn to during rationing?
prostitution
How did the NEP bring a reprieve in the class battle?
The capitalist policy was an admission that Soviet Russia still needed bourgeois specialists in the interest of economic growth.
What did the Bolsheviks want to create?
The ‘socialist man’, the type of man who was publicly engaged and committed to the community, he would have a sense of social responsibility and would willingly give service to the State.
What took precedence in socialist social policies?
The community always took precedence over the individual.
What happened after the brief spell of worker power?
Labour discipline was tightened and early freedom never returned. Internal passports were issued to stop workers leaving employment areas and by 1921 workers could be imprisoned if they failed to meet targets and unions became a means of social control.
What was the inadvertent effect of Stalin’s collectivisation policies on urban workers?
The urban workforce doubled by 1932
What did the drive for industrialisation bring?
A 7-day work week and longer hours, arriving late or missing work could result in dismissal, eviction and loss of benefits. Damaging machinery or leaving a job without permission was illegal.
What was introduced in 1931 which produced a more diverse proletariat?
The introduction of wage differentials, bonuses, payment by the piece and opportunities for better housing to reward skills and devoted application.
What was the ‘proletarian elite’?
Peasants moving to towns, town workers becoming manages and more children of workers benefiting from the educational opportunities offered by Stalinist Russia.
What was the Stakhanovite Movement?
He was a miner who in 1935 extracted 102 tonnes of coal in 5 hours 45. Competitions were arranged for people to try beat his record, and he was hailed as an example of how human determination and endeavour might increase productivity.
How did Stalin’s industrialisation drive produce new opportunities for social advancement?
His purges hit hardest at the intellectuals and white-collar workers, reducing the numbers competing for jobs and creating vacancies in advanced positions.
What did Stalin announce in 1933?
‘life has become better, comrades, life has become more joyous’
In what way was life in Stalinist Russia still grim?
Living conditions in the countryside remained primitive, while in the towns worked had to live in extremely cramped communal apartments and cope with inadequate sanitation and erratic water supplies.
In what way was life in Stalinist Russia still grim?
Living conditions in the countryside remained primitive, while in the towns worked had to live in extremely cramped communal apartments and cope with inadequate sanitation and erratic water supplies. Public transport was over-crowded, shops empty and queues and shortages a feature of life.
How did wages change during the Second Five Year Plan?
Wages increased, but were still lower in 1937 than they had been in 1913.
When was rationing phased out?
1935
What could those in positions of importance obtain?
Goods more cheaply, but living standards for ordinary workers stagnated in the pre-war period.
What did Soviet propaganda extoll about women?
The new liberation which communism offered.
What was the role and place of the peasant woman in the Tsarist period?
To attend to household tasks and children, although they had been expected to play their part in farming and the small-scale domestic economy. They were without legal privileges or inheritance rights.
What did the government decree in November 1917?
They outlawed sex discrimination and gave women the right to own property.
What were the main decrees surrounding women from 1917?
Church influence was removed by recognising only civil marriage.
Divorce was made easier and less expensive.
In 1920, abortion was legalised, to protect against the high mortality rates produced by illegal abortions.
Free contraceptive advice provided.
A new family code in 1926 gave women in common law marriages the same rights as anyone else.
In 1928 wedding rings were banned.
How were the female employment and social rights actually a hindrance to females?
Women found themselves both in employment and attending to household tasks and family needs. They spent a considerable amount of non-working hours in food queues.
What was the focus of Stalin’s new propaganda wave?
the family - Stalin was presented as a father figure and ideal family man, divorce and abortion were attacked, and women rebranded as feminine family women.
Which measures were introduced from 1936 which reversed earlier changes?
Large fees introduced to deter divorce - men would contribute 60% of their income towards child support
Adultery criminalised and offenders publicly shamed
Contraception banned
Tax exemptions granted to families over 6.
What did the number of female industrial workers grow from 1928-1940?
3 million - 13 million
What % of the industrial workforce was female by 1940?
43%
Why was the divorce rate in Moscow in 1934?
37%
