USSR Topic 4 - Life in the Soviet Union

Question 1

Stalins policies on living conditions

Answer 1

overcrowding meant communal bathrooms
magnitogorsk - pop 25 in 1929 to 250k in 1932
mudhuts for housing
stalin insisted on more leisure
football stadiums, athletics grounds and cinemas made
cinema in magnitogorsk had annual audience of 600k
mini olympics with teams from different categories

Question 2

stalins policies on working conditions

Answer 2

full employment
factories provided basic clothing
pay increases - Stakhanovites
however
poor healthy and safety in factories - deaths common
1940 labour code increased working hours from 7-8 and working days from 5-6

Question 3

Stalins policies on conditions in countryside

Answer 3

peasents received less food as considered less imp
villages didnt have leisure oppertunitites
low wages, couldn’t own land due to collectivisation
long hours of hard labour
many ran away with fake passports

Question 4

Stalins policies on women + family life

Answer 4

Zhentodel promoted womens rights, divorce, abortion
1930 stalin closed this, said women should marry before having babies
1936 family code introduced
divore made expensive
abortion + homosex illegal
mothers with more than 6 children supported by state

Question 5

Stalins policies on womens employment

Answer 5

10 mill more women joined workforce during 5 yr plans
by 1940 - 13 mil in workforce
41% of women in heavy industry
however
paid 60% less than men
less likely to be promoted
had to work and think about childcare - harder

Question 6

Stalins policies on women in politics

Answer 6

1930 Zhentodel closed
party dominated by men
no women member of politburo until 1957
stalin thought most of peasent revolts of collectivisation was due to women - he though they stopped seizing of horses

Question 7

Stalin policies on education

Answer 7

high standards of discipline - uniforms
compulsory education to age of 15
official textbooks, exams and homework
worked well
num of children in education increased from 60% in 1928 to 95% in 1932
num of children in university increase from 170k 1927 to 812k in 1939

Question 8

Stalins policies on ethnic minorities

Answer 8

stalin worried minorities was supported any invasions
russian language taught as superior
minority leaders, writers purged
1937 171k ethnic koreans deported
1941 when germany invaded all germans living in USSR arrested

Question 9

Stalins policies on religion

Answer 9

persecuted islam and christianity
7 day working week - no holy days off
mosques and churches closed
pilgrimages to mecca banned
schools taught atheism
1939 only a few churches left to prove freedom of conscience as part of 1936 constitution