NB Social change = the breaking down of old social barriers
and values (ie greater social mobility) eg a peasant improving
his place in society
What changed?
Opportunities available to all
In Stalin’s Russia there were greater opportunities (eg
for women and for the graduates of technological institutes)
but there was no equality.
The elite of the Tsar’s time was replaced by a new elite
- the top levels of the CPSU (the ‘party’)
1. Technical graduates and the new elite.
The 5 year plans brought the need for technical expertise so
technological institutes were created. The graduates of these
institutes had tremendous career opportunities
eg Khrushchev (son of a farmer) left the Moscow Industrial Academy
in 1931 and became Party Secretary
eg Brezhnev left the Metallurgical Institute in 1937 and became
Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee.
The new elite enjoyed benefits such as
bank accounts,
high quality housing,
country cabins (dachas) for the weekends,
special medical care,
chauffeurs,
free or very cheap holidays to the Black Sea,
access to good and cheap food and clothing and
‘middle class’ luxuries such as plush carpets and
decorations, tea sets, chintz curtains.
The other side to Stalin’s regime was of course that more
people crowded into the cities to work in industry and living
standards fell.
This led to violence, crime and increasing alcoholism.
The NKVD came more and more into evidence as a means of keeping
order.
2. The changing role and status of women.
NB women had worked on farms in Tsarist
Russia especially at harvest time and there was a small female
intelligentsia but their role changed markedly under Stalin:
Why?
The modernisation programme needed all the workers it could
get. Hence,
factories were provided with nurseries so that women could go
to work
facilities were provided for mothers to express their breast
milk so that their babies could be bottle fed in the creche
while they worked
Results.
women began to attend university
many of the new doctors trained were women
some 80% of the new workers in the second 5 year plan were women
in 1927 28% of industrial workers were women and by 1937 it
was 40%
and women found jobs in the party and state hierarchy.
THUS:
Women achieved some sort of equality though this was primarily
because most of the Soviet citizens who disappeared during the
purges were men, so women were needed if the 5 year plans were
to have any chance of succeeding.
Other changes.
Marriage was attacked as a “bourgeois institution”
which exploited women and tied them to the home. Instead stable
cohabitation was made legal and the children of such unions
given full rights. Divorce was made easy (supplied on request
eg a postcard) and abortion was made available on demand.
These policies liberated women.
37 out of every 100 marriages at that time ended in divorce.
The government was concerned that this might result in falling
population and thus fewer recruits for the army and the work
force, as well as many abandoned children in criminal gangs
they then started a media campaign (1934-5) to encourage stable
family life and devotion to the upbringing of children. “Free
love” was described as a “bourgeois invention”!
From 1935 policy changed again.
Registry offices were smartened up and marriage ceremonies were
encouraged
the manufacture and sale of gold rings was authorised
divorce was made more expensive and more difficult to obtain
NB from 1944 onwards court proceedings had to be taken to secure
a divorce.
abortion was prohibited except where there were serious health
risks
SO - from 1935 women complained that their ‘right to work’
had been curtailed
The impact of the war on women.
The massive call up of men and the number of deaths (20-25 million
Soviet men killed) meant that women had a newly important role
in military service - (eg tank driving)
in local military defence (eg digging tank traps and machine
guns emplacement)
in the industrial work force
also male:female ratio changed (633:1000)
Collective farms became more relaxed and women became involved
in private enterprise and selling and bartering for profit (like
the NEP)
3. The general impact of the war.
NB Our period ends in 1941.
In parts of Russia one in four of the
population was killed and tens of millions of people were made
homeless.
1,710 towns and 70,000 villages were destroyed
about 28 million died (one seventh of the pre war population)
including 9m soldiers and 19m civilians.
infrastructure was destroyed (railway track, roads, bridges)
The war also completed the work that Stalin had begun in the
1930s.
whole ethnic groups were transported to Siberia (about 3.3m
in all)
membership of the Communist party rose (8.6m joined during the
war most of them in the armed forces)
As the tide turned in 1943 Stalin claimed to be the saviour
of the Soviet Union - he emerged from the war a far stronger
figure than he had been before.
The church.
1941 - what was left of the Church threw its weight behind patriotic
war
1943 - Stalin set up a Council for Church Affairs (ie the church
was therefore a department of state) and re-established
the bishops
church administration
three theological academies to train priests
20,000 churches reopened (about half of 1917 figures)
The military.
had suffered appallingly between 1937-8. With the onset of war
ranks and promotions were re-introduced organised by the military
rather than by the party (thus giving the army more independence)
saluting was restored
Commanders were given splendid uniforms, (with gold braid) good
homes and high quality shops)
Suvurovs (military schools) were set up restoring the military
as a profession with career prospects.
4. Patriotism
the nation came together as a family.
eg Soviet propaganda used the image of the nation as a family
for the first time
eg Stalin broadcast in July 1941 to his ‘brothers and
sister’ and ‘my friends’
Support for Stalin was secured because
he stood firm in Moscow
he did well as an administrator, coordinating military and civilian
resources
the German treatment of prisoners of war was so bad that Hitler
looked worse than Stalin
5. The economy.
army recruitment put pressure on the work force
new working practices had to be put in place and women and old
men were mobilised into the work force
compulsory working hours were increased by 50%
because military matters were given priority there was a severe
shortage of civilian supplies
the scorched earth policy (the destruction of the countryside
in order to make it useless for an advancing enemy) devastated
many areas of Russia
A useful specific example is the Leningrad siege in 1941 when
Leningrad was bombarded for 9 hours a day for almost 900 days
and 630,000 (one-sixth of the population) died
the loss of the Ukraine meant reductions in harvest
as the Germans neared Moscow and Leningrad people, livestock,
equipment and even whole factories were moved to the East
by November 1941 1,500 factories had been dismantled and moved
along with 10m people
the movement to the East and the conquests of the Germans cut
industrial production by a third and agricultural production
by two thirds
as most horses had been sent to the army, workers (mostly women)
had to plough the fields by hand
small private farms were encouraged
families were allowed to use collective farm land and equipment
to work independently
industrial workers suffered with food shortages and the impact
of inflation and had to queue for food
for 4 years all Soviet citizens went hungry
However there were some benefits:
the highly skilled were exempt from military service and the
guarantee of adequate food rations
the average wage rose by 75%-300% (1938-1944)
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