social change Flashcards
(33 cards)
1
Q
What is social security?
A
Provisions to meet the basic needs of the people; work, housing, healthcare, education, food
2
Q
Work and benefits under Lenin
A
- influenced by Marx
-
1918, published the Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited People
- abolished private ownership of land
- everyone worked, eliminated parasitism through Universal Labour Duty
3
Q
Work and benefits under Lenin, War Communism
A
- introduction of compulsory labour for all able men 16-50 years old, this ended widespread employment from post WW1. Unsustainable under Civil War, by Jul 1920 factories forced to close due to fuel shortages
- rationing allocated by occupation and organised by Prodraspred, at the peak of the system 22 million people entitled to ration cards
- benefit system e.g. communal dining halls, 93% of people living in Moscow by 1920 regularly fed here
- War Communism never provided more than 50% of food required
4
Q
Work and benefits under Lenin, NEP
A
- unemployment surged e.g. 1921-22, Red Army soldiers demobilised and unemployed, 225,000 admins were fired by the government
- benefits:
- 1922 Labour Law: unions had right to negotiate pay and work conditions
- social insurance: disability/maternity/unemployment benefits. BUT PEASANTS EXCLUDED, urban workers benefited
5
Q
Housing under Lenin
A
- 1920s, existing houses were redistributed from rich property owners to poor and homeless
- end of Civil War, houses destroyed for timber for fuel due to workers fleeing the cities
- NEP: 60-80% of urban housing was denationalised
6
Q
Women under Lenin
A
- AGRICULTURE: ‘triple shift’ of farm labour, household chores and handicrafts
- POLITICS: under-represented at highest levels of Party ( 1918 = 5% delegates. 10% Party), role reflected traditional gender roles e.g. usually in social welfare/health/education (men in economy/military)
- PROPAGANDA: less visible than men, usually maternal/caregiver role. Peasants played supporting role while industrial workers played leading role THEREFORE peasants usually = women
- INDUSTRY: NEP lead to widespread unemployment of women, prostitution was legal and therefore widespread for women (39% of urban men used prostitutes in 1920s), only 3 mil women in industry
7
Q
Family unit under Lenin
A
- Alexandra Kollontai claimed the family was an oppressive social unit therefore it was replaced with communal living, free love
- HOWEVER Lenin was critical of free love but he also recognised abuses in traditional marriage -> reforms
- Zhenotdel: co-education for women, reading rooms in urban centres, quotas for women’s education
- legal rights for equal pay/voting rights
- legalised abortion on demand
- postcard divorce
- legalised prostitution, never criminalised lesbianism
8
Q
Failures of reforms to the family unit under Lenin
A
- 1917-28, 70% of divorces initiated by men to leave women after they became pregnant
- 1926 Marriage code, belief in traditional family
- abolishment of democracy made many policies pointless
- Zhenotdel did not help women who were SA victims, women had to organise movements themselves but this led to no change
- creches/daycare facilities unfunded under NEP
9
Q
Education under Lenin
A
- LITERACY: Decree on Illiteracy 1919 which meant that all 8-50 should learn to read, Trotsky also led campaigns for the Red Army to learn (100% literate by 1925) but general uneven achievement, 32% 1914 but 55% 1928. Campaigns like reading rooms scaled down during NEP
- PRIMARY: free polytechnic education for all 8-17 from Oct 1918 but fees introduced under NEP. Education was compulsory. 1928 60% attended school (up from 10%)
- SECONDARY: vocational education, 4 hours in factory and 4 hours in school. Disparities between MC and WC children (25% of 90% of MC students finished, 3% of 40% of WC students finished)
- UNIVERSITY: open to all, courses for those with no former education
10
Q
Youth groups under Lenin
A
- established Komsomol (Young Communists’ League) for those aged 16-28, Young Pioneers for those aged 10-15
- reputation for drunkenness, hooliganism, promiscuity, etc. Rarely attended meetings
11
Q
Work under Stalin in the 1930s (pre-WW2)
A
- did not prioritise workers’ safety, poor working conditions e.g. fast construction > clean workplaces
- harsh labour discipline:
- criminalised lateness, unions lost right to negotiate, strikes banned, etc.
- continuous work week, one day off every other week
- internal passports from 1940 as demands for labour was high but workers moved from job to job searching for better pay
12
Q
Benefits under Stalin in the 1930s (pre-WW2)
A
- FYPs: workers entitled to rations, by 1933 most citizens had access to electricity, healthcare improvements through vaccine campaigns (smallpox, diphtheria, typhoid)
- Party members = guaranteed vaccines (‘Party first’ policy)
- benefits available through factories/collective farms rather than trade unions (NEP)
- peasants still benefited less, not entitled to rations
13
Q
Work and benefits under Stalin 1945-53 (post WW2)
A
- full employment continued
- returning soldiers: industrial workforce 8 mil -> 12,2 mil 1945-50
- food shortages due to war impacted benefits, meant that it cost half a worker’s wages to eat in communal canteens per month
- infant mortality declined by 50% 1940-50 and universal vaccines for typhus + malaria (malaria declined from 1949) BUT planned economy meant food shortages = rotten/unsuitable food used in work canteens, inadequate sanitation in factories, poor hygiene education, etc. Average worker = 10-13 days off sick
14
Q
Why was housing a problem under Stalin?
A
- urban population increased 3x 1929-40 as peasants moved from collective farms to cities
- therefore demand for housing increased
15
Q
How did Stalin address housing shortages?
A
- KOMMUNULKA: buildings were divided into small communal apartments where 1 family would share a room of average size 5.5 square metres in 1930 (4 square metres by 1940). Failure to invest in sewage/communal facilities e.g. 650k people in Liubertsy district in Moscow shared 1 bathouse
- FACTORY TOWNS: new buildings supported factory towns like Magnitogorsk, several families would share a barracks-style dormitory. Factories were prioritised over housing. Magnitogorsk was clean and modern but this was too expensive so other factory towns were left in mud huts
16
Q
How did housing change under Stalin 1941-53?
A
- 1/3 of housing was damaged or destroyed during WW2
- industrial buildings were still prioritised so people were still living in crammed space e.g. kommunulka 4 square metres by now
- conditions were poor e.g. in Moscow coalfields 15,000 beds for 26,000 workers
- 4th FYP: houses still not prioritised, slow projects and not one house was built. Stalin ALWAYS prioritised industrialisation
- houses were constructed in the 1950s but they were of extremely poor quality e.g. roofs leaked
17
Q
Women under Stalin
A
- AGRICULTURE: high proportion of women in agriculture, triple shift
- POLITICS: 1930s, female Party members = homemaking role, exemplary wives/mothers. Wife activist movement (OBSHCHESTVENNISTA) to fill a mothering role for all of society
- PROPAGANDA: motherly role (same as under Lenin), ridiculed women and femininity e.g. October (Eisenstein, 1928) mocked female soldiers who fought against Bolsheviks in October Revolution. 1942, explicit photos of Tanya published in Pravda (she was tortured by German soldiers). Featured heavily in Soviet propaganda WW2 and Cold War
- INDUSTRY: 13 mil women in industry by 1940 due to FYPs, but women paid 60-65% of men’s wages
- WAR: 800,000 served in combat roles in 1945, central role in armed forces. But careers ended early as they were denied entry to military academies post-war
18
Q
Family under Stalin, The Great Retreat 1936-53
A
- KEY AIM to increase birth rates and cut divorce rates
- some legal changes:
- abortion and contraception banned
- male homosexuality was criminalised and charged with 5 years in a labour camp while lesbianism was treated as a disease and subjected to hypnotherapy
- divorce was made expensive and difficult to obtain e.g. a first divorce cost 1 week’s wages, fathers had to pay 1/3 of their income for child support
19
Q
Education under Stalin
A
- LITERACY: 3 million Komsomol volunteers used to educate workers and peasants but 40% of teachers were attacked due to association with government under collectivisation. Mass literacy by 1939 (94%) but gender inequalities (97% of men, 90% of women)
- PRIMARY: compulsory during 1st FYP, curriculum tightly controlled e.g. taught patriotism + values of command economy, by 1932 95% enrolled and almost 100% gained full 4 years
- SECONDARY: fees remained, scholarships favoured Party members’ children, new standards of discipline introduced in 1932 which resembled labour discipline e.g. expelled for misconduct. May 1934 Decree on the Teaching of Civic History, nationalism and great Russian leaders like IVAN THE TERRIBLE (and Stalin’s cult), July 1943 gender segregation
- UNIVERSITY: universities increased by 800%, staff replaced with red specialists, 1953 uni sector reconstructed after destruction in WW2
20
Q
Youth groups under Stalin
A
- members expected to spy on their parents and report criminal behavior to the police
- model member = Pavlik Morozov, supposedly killed a Kulak at 14
21
Q
Benefits under Khrushchev
A
- focus on better living standards for all workers therefore focused on consumer goods and food
- e.g. doubled investment into healthcare 1950-59 so death/infant mortality rates both fell 1950-65
- 19.7 per 1000 to 7.3 per 1000 deaths
- 81 per 1000 to 27 per 1000 births
- major reforms introduced in 1961 e.g. free public transport, free pensions and healthcare for farmers
22
Q
Housing under Khrushchev
A
- policy to create more urban homes, halted building of kommunulka
- new materials/techniques invested into -> Khrushchyovka (short term, cheap housing was necessary, but building continued to the 1970s and 1980s)
- abandoned Stalinist architecture/kommunulka and created K-7 apartment blocks (created quickly but a family now had 1 apartment and not just a single room, 10x bigger than kommunulka)
23
Q
Employment under Khrushchev and Brezhnev
A
Continued Stalinist full employment (until 1985)
24
Q
Women under Khrushchev
A
- AGRICULTURE: targeted mainly younger women around 25 for VLS (1954-74) as manual labourers/carers (‘Your caring hands are needed everywhere’), had the lowest paid and most demanding jobs e.g. by Aug 1958 only 450/6400 hired women in well paid jobs
- POLITICS: slightly larger role but still in ‘feminine’ sectors such as education/health. Only 10% of deputies and only 4% of Central Committee 1953-85
- PROPAGANDA: heroic women used as symbol of absolute sexual equality e.g. Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova. Also featured in top-level speeches like Secret Speech
- INDUSTRY: 45% of industry but restricted to light industry/administrative work so gender pay gap + lack of promotions
25
Women and family life under Khrushchev
- exposed inequalities through national women's magazines from 1956
- legal changes such as:
- 1955 abortion legalised
- 1956 state paid maternity leave expanded from 77 to 112 days
- (because 55% of population = women)
- BUT double shift remained, creches opened during 6th FYP opened late and closed early so women still unable to work, etc.
26
Education under Khrushchev
- PRIMARY: compulsory for ages 7-15 from 1958, relaxed Stalinistic discipline from 1960. But reforms ignored by 47% of schools
- SECONDARY: fees abolished, special funds + merged small country schools for poor/rural students, doubled schools in cities, vocational curriculum
- UNIVERSITY: 5 new unis for non-Russian ethnic backgrounds, expansion as 19% -> 40% of teachers uni-educated 1953-64`
27
Youth groups under Khrushchev
Involved them in initiatives such as holding Party members/factory managers to account
28
Work and benefits under Brezhnev
- **SOCIAL CONTRACT**
- 5 key factors:
- full employment
- low prices for essential goods
- no gov interference in second economy
- social benefits such as free healthcare (hence gov spending on health increased by 5% per year)
- some social mobility
- LED TO HIGH STANDARD OF LIVING as unlike Khrushchev, Brezhnev did not aim to reach Communism by 1980
29
Stagnation due to social contract
- old problems reemerged due to refusal to tackle economic/social issues such as economic inefficiencies (1 mil job vacancies in late 1970s, hidden unemployment where 20% of employees paid but not doing a useful job)
- lower production rates
- 10% of women unemployed (rising)
- health also declined despite investment e.g. male life expectancy 68-64 years due to alcoholism
- but society was stable
30
Women under Brezhnev
- AGRICULTURE: low-status + low-paid jobs, e.g. 72% of lowest paid farmers = women by 1970
- POLITICS: 4% of Central Committee, 19.7% -> 26% of Party 1956-83
- PROPAGANDA:
- late 1960s to mid 1970s: caring wife/mother role
- mid 1970s: became more conservative, campaign to have babies + sex difference campaign (Pronata)
- late 1970s: critical of women who 'neglected' children by going to work
- INDUSTRY: 1974 **BAM**, building Baikal-Amur Mainline. Women hired to be 'company' for men so hired as Bamovkas to serve men. BUT could be liberated through work (building new homes in north of USSR)
31
Women and family under Brezhnev
- lowered women's pension age from 60-65
BUT:
- lack of women in senior roles in all sectors e.g. agriculture
- women spent 2x as men doing domestic chores (triple shift)
- banned info about Western feminist movements
- male homosexuality = crime while lesbianism = mental disorder
32
Education under Brezhnev
- SECONDARY: back to 8 year schooling from 11 years under Khrushchev, curriculum more traditional (vocational education ended for 16-19yo) and largely unchanged but scientific discoveries reflected in updated textbooks. Free textbooks, free meals for poor students. By 1976 only 60% of students finished
- UNIVERSITY: by 1978 70% of teachers uni educated, 18 new universities in non-Russian republics
33
Youth groups under Brezhnev
Suspicious of them as he saw them as young and ambitious and therefore dangerous. They should be disciplined and obedient to the gov
