Living and working conditions of rural and urban people Flashcards
(24 cards)
Urbanisation under Tsars
-15% lived in towns compared to 80% in Britain
-Rapid after 1897 e.g 1914 populations of Kiev/Riga doubled
Urban housing under Tsars
-Poor quality (1914= over half made from wood)
-Only 74 towns had electricity/35 gas
-Big effect on health e.g 1910 93% St Petersburg drank heavily from young age
-Overcrowding/diseases e.g cholera= 1911 sewage system (shows politicians willing to act in desperation/positive reaction to reform as cholera affected all classes)
-Factory workers had worst conditions
Urban housing under Lenin
Decree on Peace planned for redistribution of private property
= some improvements but short-lived
Urban housing under Stalin
Conditions deteriorated (e.g 1930s Moscow 25% lived in 1 room/25% in communal dormitories)
-Allocated space rather than rooms to individuals/families
-Most social projects neglected as focus on Five-year plans
-WW2= 25 million homeless
Urban housing under Krushchev
Huge housing programme= housing doubled/communal living abandoned
=Population happy but some benefitted more than others (wealthier professionals with housing cooperatives)
-More ppl wanted to stay in than join political meetings
Rural housing under Tsars/communists
Majority remained the same
-Overcrowded wooden huts
-Poor conditions
=Misery but atleast cheap/peasants could control it
Little improvements made
Rural housing under Stalin
-Special housing blocks on collectives
Rural housing under Krushchev
Agro-towns
-Poor standard
=Health problems like in towns
-Kulaks got barracks/tents
Food/famine under Tsars/communists
Russian diet rich/varied as emphasis on agriculture
but STILL famine as:
-Monoculture (growing one crop species in a field)
-Restrictions of mir (e.g growing certain crops)
-Weather conditions
-Gov restrictions (e.g grain requisitioning/collectivisation)
Food/famine under Alexander II
Put zemstva in charge of dealing with famines
Didn’t prevent
Famine of 1891 (Alexander III)
Caused by weather/raised taxes on consumer goods (peasants had to sell more)
Provincial gov coped well but + diseases= 350,000 deaths
Alexander banned exports of grain/set up Special committee on famine relief but too little/too late= + revolutionary groups
Food shortages WW1
Good harvests but inadequate transport/used for troops= difficult to get food/peasants hoarded grain and slaughtered animals later
=Bread queues of 8+ hours in towns
Problems continue after Tsars
Food crisis of 1918
Peasant hoarding/land lost to Brest-Litovsk= grain-requisitioning/blamed Kulaks
-Peasants protested:
-Refused to join collectives/make surplus supplies of grain
=Cheka/Red army to seize food (1920)
=Countryside in chaos (1921)/another SEVERE FAMINEE
Famine of 1921
Caused by Bolshevik policies/droughts/severe winters/shutdown of railway system
-Ukrainian food production - 20%
-Death toll of 5 MILLION
-BODYSNATCHING/CANNIBALISM
Lenin partly blamed as slow to respond/suspicious of charitable aid (arrested some)
Mid 1920s stability in countryside
Decent harvests (1926-7) but shortages in 1928 due to weather
=Grain requisition/blamed Kulaks
Urals Siberian method villagers denounced hoarders/kulaks for rewards
Famine of 1932-4 (worst)
Caused by 1st phase of collectivisation/weather
=Repression:
-Death penalty for stealing/hoarding grain
-Discussion of grain crisis banned
-Restrictions on travelling to find food
=Peasants slaughtered animals instead of handing them over= horse shortage= slow ploughing/cows froze as not enough barns
1935 food production improved but not to pre-war standards by WW2
-Diet of workers worsened under communists (e.g consumption of meat/fish fell 80%)
WW2 and food supplies
Collectivisation relaxed: size of private plots unrestricted= + food production BUT another famine in 1947
-Poor harvests/shortages continued under Krushchev
-Food still imported despite Virgin Land campaign/improving state pricing mechanism
Socialist agriculture= inefficiency
Rural work under Tsars/communists
Success determined more by quality of soil/weather/farming ability than gov policies but still influenced
Rural work under Tsars
-Peasants controlled pace they worked/how much produced
-Only restricted by mir
-Aim was to produce as much as possible
-Had to work hard but still had fun fun with seasonal festivals
Rural work under communists
-How much produced/methods dictated by gov
-Most targets of collectivisation not achieved by peasants
-Investment in new agricultural techniques/technology (e.g tractor)= mixed success
=Work far more regulated/punishment severe
Urban work under Tsars/communists
-Worst conditions in factories
-Low wages, women received less
work under Tsars
-No factory inspectors until 1882= terrible conditions
-Factory inspectors ineffective (e.g 1882 child labour banned but still practised)
-Workers insurance system helped with low wages
-Hours could be increased
-Employers found loopholes in law to increase hours
work under communists
-1920= rabkrin (inspectorates)= ineffective
-Long hours/low pay/harsh discipline (e.g fines/threatened with purges)- women and children treated more severely
-Some workers destroyed machinery (wreckers)
-Working hours strictly controlled
-Bonus schemes helped wages
-Wages fell 50% after 1st 5 -year plan, rose again but didn’t meet 1920s standard until 1954
-Piece rate system= productive workers paid more
Little change to living and working conditions for urban and rural?
Food/Famine
-Vyshnegradsky famine 1891= 350,000 deaths. Also famine 1921 which led to Lenin giving NEP appeasements
-Famine in Stalin’s after collectivisation- pushed on with policy unlike Lenin shows living conditions not his priority
-K virgin land scheme not sufficient= had to import
Must be Tsar examples in other paragraphs
Working conditions
-Hours= 11 a day under NII- PG= 8 hours/K= 7 hours
-HOWEVER WW2 Stalin increased to 12 hour days as part of New Work Discipline in 5YPs
-Workers insurance system N to offset bad pay- offered bonus schemes so communists adapted as didn’t want financial incentives
Freedoms (education/family life)
-Alexander II educational reforms: schools ran by Zemstva 1864, before by wealthy individuals= schools opened to wider no of pupils
-Stalin made primary education compulsory
-Bolsheviks replaced gymnasiums with polytechnics (Lenin)
= Wasn’t enough change
-e.g food and famine continued- worse under Vysnegradskii
e.g working conditions- Pay is poor throughout even with schemes to offset, expected to be better after emancipation
e.g freedoms/education/family life- saw most change but not major
