Life in the Soviet Union

Aspect

Lenin (1917-24)

Stalin (1924-45)

Women

  • gender equality

  • abortion legalised

  • education compulsory for all 8-17

  • equal pay

  • women conscripted to work during Civil War

  • more opportunities

Impact:

  • sexism still rife- practical inequalities

  • work + traditional roles → double the work

  • easier divorce → abandoned women

  • more women in workforce

  • women able to own property separately from their husbands

  • 20% of higher education places reserved for women

  • 3 millions women workers by 1928

Great Retreat of 1936:

  • abortion illegal

  • divorce costlier

Education

  • free + compulsory education for 8-17 year olds

  • religious schools nationalised

  • corporal punishment + homework banned

  • established unified labour schools

  • ‘liquidation of illiteracy’

Impact:

  • lack of discipline

  • many did not attend + disappeared at harvest time

  • schools underfunded during Civil War + NEP

  • gov. introduced a quota system to encourage working class into university in 1929

  • focus on eliminating literacy in 1930

Great Retreat of 1936:

  • introduced stricter discipline

  • official compulsory textbooks- revisionist text

  • government controlled curriculum

  • socialist views taught

Family

  • divorce easier

  • abortion legalised

  • creches (nurseries) made available

Impact:

  • family breakdowns

  • by mid-1920s, USSR had highest divorce rate in Europe

  • increased orphans on streets

    • gangs

    • homelessness

Great Retreat of 1936:

  • aimed to boost birth rates and reinforce more traditional families

  • male homosexuality illegal again

  • abortion illegal

  • divorce more expensive

  • divorced fathers had to pay child support

led to 28% birth increase (1931- 40)

1944:

  • tax on single people

  • women with 10 or more children got ‘Mother Heroine’ award

Arts + Culture

  • Commissariat of Enlightenment set up

    • allowed experimentation

    • encouraged artists to work with gov.

  • Banned books removed

  • All publications had to be approved

  • Commissariat of Enlightenment used to control artists

  • 1930 onwards:

    • only acceptable art form was Socialist Realism

Religion

  • anti-religion

  • pursued policies to remove Church influence

  • separation of Church + State

  • religious schools nationalised

  • Church lost land + religious publications banned

  • attacks on priests and Churches

  • anti-religion but more pragmatic than Lenin

  • quota for priests during Purge

  • let Church bring people comfort in WW2

  • anti-Semitics laws and acts increased