life im soviet union

What were living and working conditions like for urban workers?

• Policies:
  

  • Five-Year Plans (1st in 1928–32; 2nd in 1933–37; 3rd in 1938–41): focused on heavy industry and rapid industrialisation.

  • 1932 Labour Law: banned changing jobs without permission; absenteeism punished harshly.

• Conditions:
  

  • Low wages and long hours (10–12 hrs/day).

  • Poor housing: e.g. families crammed into one-room kommunalki.

  • Rationing and shortages of basic goods continued well into the 1930s.

  • Some reward for overproduction: e.g. Alexei Stakhanov (mined 102 tonnes of coal in 5.5 hours), inspiring the Stakhanovite Movement (1935).

What were living and working conditions like for rural workers?

• Policy: Collectivisation (1928 onward), enforced through kolkhozes and Motor Tractor Stations (MTS).

• Resistance: Peasants burned crops and slaughtered livestock — 25–30% of cattle destroyed by 1931.

• Repression: Dekulakisation campaign (1929–32) deported or killed millions labelled “kulaks”.

• Famine: The Holodomor in Ukraine (1932–33) killed 3–7 million from forced grain requisitioning.

Changes for women?

Policies

:

• 1936 Family Code:
  

  • Abortion outlawed (except medical cases).

  • Divorce made harder and more expensive.

  • Mothers with 6+ children received awards like the Order of Maternal Glory.

Employment

:

• Women encouraged into industrial work and education.

• By 1940: 13 million women in factories, 40% of industrial workers.

• Female tractor drivers trained through MTS — seen as symbols of progress.

Limitations

:

• Double burden: Women expected to work full-time and manage home.

• Few held leadership roles in party or government.

Changes in education?

• 1930 Education Law: Made primary education compulsory.

• 1932 Curriculum Reform: Focus on discipline, Stalinist history, maths, science, and Russian nationalism.

• 1934 Unified Labour School system created uniform standards across USSR.

Outcomes

:

• Literacy rates rose from ~51% (1926) to ~81% (1939).

• Education became a tool of ideological control.