Life in the Soviet Union 1924-41 Flashcards
(32 cards)
Living conditions in towns
(living)
- huge increase in population due to industrialisation
- 1929-36 2.2 mil to 4.1 million
- average apartment was 4m^2
- corner dwellers = people that didn’t have a flat and slept in sheds, corridors and corners
Living conditions in towns
(housing)
- Magnitogorsk pop. 25 in 1929 to 250,000 in 1932
- monumental lack of housing
- workers initially lived in tents
- even when better in 1930’s basic barrack-style dormitories
-unpaved roads
-no street-lighting - open sewers
- lack of public transport
Living conditions in towns
(everyday items)
- queues when shoes available longer than 1,000 people
- most stole to get by
- food shortages normal
Living conditions in towns
(leisure opportunities)
- Magnitogorsk cinema had annual audience of 600,000
- other towns had parks, stadiums, cinemas
- mini Olympics held between different factories
Gorky park (1928) in Moscow had: - attractive gardens
- snack bars
- swimming pool
- music + dance area
Working conditions in towns
(health + safety)
- hardly any
- accidents, injuries, death very common
Working conditions in towns
(internal passports)
- recognisable green covers
- had to show them asked
- stopped people moving around
Working conditions in towns
(trade unions)
- rights of trade unions restricted
- managers had the power to set wages + sack workers
Working conditions in towns
(progressive piecework + the labour code)
prog piece:
- wages based on production
labour code:
- increase from 7 to 8 hour days
- ‘5 to 6’ days to ‘6 to 7’ days a week
- changing jobs = crime
- if late by 20 mins twice pay would be cut 25% for 6 months
Working conditions in towns
(positives)
- everyone had a job
- factory provided basics like clothes
- laundry facilities
- cheap canteens
- childcare (sometimes)
Difference between the countryside and towns
Life was harder in the countryside than the towns
Living conditions in the countryside
(food)
- peasants didn’t get as much to eat as seen as less important
- had to travel to towns to buy food as so little on the farms
Living conditions in the countryside
(housing)
- peasants had very basic housing
- one-room wooden hut, outside toilet, a well
Living conditions in the countryside
(growth)
- villages received very little new investment
- no new leisure facilities like the towns
Working conditions in the countryside
(loss)
- of freedom, told by chairman what to do
-of land, forced to collectivise
Working conditions in the countryside
(pay)
- paid 80% less than a factory worker
Working conditions in the countryside
(the work)
- long hours of physical work
- people often ran away
- peasants put in the bare minimum effort, bc no profit
Negatives for women in the USSR
(divorce)
USSR had highest divorce rate in Europe
- but bad bc men abandoned women to raise children
Negatives for women in the USSR
(Stalin’s changes)
- gay = illegal
- divorce more expensive
- women with 6+ kids given money by the state
Negatives for women in the USSR
(education)
By 1940 only 40% of engineering students were women
Negatives for women in the USSR
(pay)
paid only 60% of what men were
Negatives for women in the USSR
(Zhenotdel)
1930 - Stalin closed Zhenotdel claiming it’s work was done
but
this was not the case
Positives for women in the USSR
(Zhenotdel)
1937 - Stalin claimed women and men equal
but
still not rly the case
Positives for women in the USSR
(changes to law)
- abortion legal
- marriage made civil not religious
- divorce made easier
- given same political rights as men
Positives for women in the USSR
(stalins changes opinions)
considered a success
- 25 births per 1000 (1935)
- 31 births per 1000 (1940)
- divorce rate slowed
