CULTURE UNDER STALIN

CHURCH

• Orthodox church suffered a more direct attack, religious schools were closed down and the teaching of religious creeds were forbidden.

• Worship was restricted to ‘registered congregations’ only and many churches were physically destroyed or deconsecrated.

• Between 1929 and 1940 the holy day of Sunday was itself abolished, workers were employed for sixth of the seven days of the week with a sixth of the workers having each day off.

• There was a brief relaxation of the anti-religious campaigns in 1935, it was vigorously renewed as the terror was extended.

• Stalin’s 1936 constitution criminalised the publication or organisation of religious propaganda,although priests regained the right to vote (lost in 1918)

• Many priests were victims of the purges, accused of political involvement and large numbers went to the gulags later in the 1930s. Nevertheless, Orthodox congregations survived, with priests supported by voluntary donations.

• Soviet Muslims also suffered as their property and institutions (land, schools and mosques) were seized and Sharia courts were abolished

• They produced a split within the Islamic church with the ‘new Mosque’ taking a pro-soviet line.

• Pilgrimages to Mecca were banned from 1935, the frequency of prayers, fasts and feasts were reduced and the wearing of the veil was forbidden.

• This led to backlash in some of the central asian communities where traditionalists murdered those who obeyed soviet injunctions. Many muslim priests were imprisoned or executed.

• Jewish people were also targeted, jewish schools and synagogues were also shut down, with attacks also occuring on Buddhist instutions and the Armenian and Georgian churches, but whilst the power of the church as an institution broke the faith remained strong.

• By 1941 nearly 40,000 churches and 25,000 Muslim Mosques had been closed and converted into schools, cinemas, clubs, warehouses, museums and grain stores.

• There was plenty of evidence for strong religious belief and this was possibly strengthened by collectivisation and the purges. Despite the pressure on believers and the dangers of expressing ‘controversial’ views, in the 1937 census over half a million soviet citizens described themselves as religious believers, with the real number almost certainly much higher.

• only around 1 in 40 churches were still working as a church

• Komsomol encouraged to attack religion in the countryside, no churches allowed to be established in new towns and cities, but the countryside proved to be a bigger issue

• priests accused of being capitalist agents or in league with kulaks were arrested and murdered, had higher rates of taxation,

• fasting during Ramadan was forbidden

• Trotsky, Bukharin, Kamenev and Zinovied were all Jewish

• In 1935 the campaign against religion eased, easter novelties and christmas trees sold, kids of priests could attend school and a number of churches reopened but this was abandoned with the outbreak of terror

• In 1941 (in the needs of national unity, he went as far as to ask the church to support the war effort)

WOMEN

• By the 1930s there was a decline in the population, which led Stalin to revert back to more traditional policies.

• This ‘great retreat’ was a conscious rejection of the social experiments of the post-revolutionary period, with the family becoming the centre of the new wave of propaganda. Stalin was presented as the ideal family man and divorce and abortion was attacked

• The importance of marriage was re-emphasised, wedding rings were reintroduced and new-style wedding certificates were issued. Even in films and arts women were presented in a new way, muscular, plainly dressed women who had helped to build Russia in the 1920s were replaced with feminine women with adoring children.

• A new ‘family code’ was put forward in May 1936 and made law in June following a decision of the CC: abortion became illegal which increased the birth rate in the late 1930s, it was made difficult to get a divorce with large fees being introduced and both parties had to attend the proceedings, contraception was banned and only permitted on medical grounds, mothers with six or more children recieved tax exemptions and bonus payments for every additional child under ten in the family, child support payments by fathers were fixed at 60% of income but were hard to collect as many men married several times and children who committed violent crimes were to be treated likea dults from the age of 12. Adultery was criminalised (and the names of male offenders published in the press) and new decrees were enforced against prostitution and homosexuality (although in reality the authorities regarded them as ‘capitalist vices’ and were reluctant to acknowledge their existence or extent)

• Despite this new emphasis on family life, the numbers of women working in factories continued to increase and large numbers worked on collective farms where status and conditions were poor, The divorce rate also remained high (37% in Moscow in 1934) and there were 150,000 abortions to every 57,000 live births. Although the encouragement of traditional marriage meant that in 1937 91% of men and 82% of women in their thirties were married,

• The years 1929-1940 saw a falling rate of population growth. Single and divorced women were also ore likely than men to be left unemployed and not get compensation. Women appeared on the fringes of society (eg the number of prostitutes in cities rose). The failures of women to get injustices overturned in the courts led to several strikes and protests but only rhetoric most committed women were prepared to give up activities such as attending party organised meetings in the workplace and female participation in high party politics declined in the 1930s

• in 1926 there was a ‘new code on marriage, family and guardianship’ in 1926 and more permanently in 1936 with ‘the family code’

• Zhenotdel was closed down in 1930 as womens issues had been ‘solved’

• new decrees enforced againt prostitution and homosexuality

• In 1928, only 3 million were employed in russian industry but this increased to 13 million in 1940. By 1945, 80% of collective farm workers were female but their income did not match that of men.

• had nannies, organised nurseries and activities for seriously ill children

• Family described as the ‘primary cell of our society’

• soviet press hounded men who deserted their wives, siberian communist oart - organised a conference of young women who were encouraged to discuss ways that their lives had been ruined by men

• women only paid 60% of their male counterparts

• 1934 gov campaign promoting sexual abstinence

• seven children women got 2,000 rubles a yr for 5 yrs and 11 kids was 5,000 roubles

• wives of communist officials didn’t work but created a ‘well ordered communist home’

• there was police action against women who had an ‘immoral appearane’ and the collective farm chairmen supported initatives for ‘medical virginity checks on young women’

• Gosplan had no resources to produce contraception, so they disappeared in the 1930a, qith 1936 providing a secret directive to officially end the sale of all birth control resources

EDUCATION

• Stalin regarded Lenin’s experiments as disastrous, so the CC made big changes in the 1930s, introducing a more centralised school structure with traditional methods of teaching and discipline

• Centralised control of education was provided by Narkompros (the people’s commissiart for education) which provided nursery schools for kids at 3 years, ifnat schools until 7 and secondary until at least 15.

• Parents were expected to contribute towards the cost of secondary schooling, many adult education institutions were also established

• many schools became the responsability of the collective farms or town enterprises while Unis were seen as agencies for delivering economic growth and put under the control of the Veshenka (economy)

• The quota system (which gave a high proportion of working class students were fiven places at secondary school) was abandoned in 1935 and selection reappeared for all, including non-proleterians, this meant the able recieved a strong academic education

• More emphasis was placed on the higher training of specialists who could help in the industrialisation drive with courses in mathematics, sciences and technology. For the less able, increasing amounts of practical work were encouraged. The importance of duty and loyalty to the party and the state was fostered at all levels. Teachers were given a higher status and were increasingly likely to be party members. However, teacher and uni lecturers were closely watched and could be arrested if they failed to live up to the expected high standards. They were encouraged to set high standards for themselves and their students under the Stakhanovite movement and if students failed to do well they could be blamed or purged.

• There was an incredible spread of literacy (especially across the countryside) in the 1930s, , onyl about 65% of the population had been literate before the revolution and by 1941, 94% of the 9-49 aged population group in towns was literate and 86% in the countryside (can absorb passive propaganda). Also marked improvements at a university level and the USSR turned out particularly strong science graduates, even though the number of working class students and graduates dropped drastically when the Quote system was abandoned.

• PAVLIK MOROZOV - soviet govs example of the ‘perfect child’, at age 14 he denounced his parents for helping Kulaks and then was killed by the kulaks.

• argument to wear uniform, girls wore their hair in plaits

• pupils were allowed to study in their native tongue but were forced to learn Russian

• Rabfak (the workers faculty) was created for the education of the working class (eg Kruschev)

• by 1940 nearly 60% of all undergraduates were women, Jewish people were 2% of the population and 13% of the uni places

YOUTH ORGANISATIONS

• From 1926 the youth organisation ‘Komsomol’ catered for those aged 10-28 years, but this became even more important under Stalin

• Organisation taught communist values, smoking, drinking and religion was discouraged whilst volunteer work, sport, political and drama clubs were organised to inspire socialist values.

• Special ‘palaces’ were built to serve as community centres for the 10-15 year old ‘young pioneers’ and free summer and winter holiday camps were organised.

• Komsomol had close links to the party, and became directly affiliated in 1939. Members took an oath to live, study and fight for the fatherland and helped to carry out party campaigns and assisted the red army and police. Komsomolskaia Pravda was published as a youth newspaper, encouraging youth to respect their parents. Many members of Komsomol became very enthusiastic about the industrialisation drive and joined activist groups flocking to projects such as the building of Magnitogorsk.

• Members of the Komsomol and Young Pioneers demanded full-time commitment but also offered a chance for social and educational achievement advancement. The uniform (red neckerchief and rank badges) singled these people out and ensured they were favoured within the soviet system.

• Yet there was some resistance as many were interested in Western culture, such as the cinema, fashion and jazz despite the regimes condemnation of these as ‘hooliganism’. Some dimply opted out but other joined small secret oppositonal youth organisations but this was rare.

MEN

• Those who did the best out of Stalinist policies were the skilled workers. With the spread of technocal education and more opportunites for training, the introduction of wage differentials from 1931 and the Stakhanovite movement, determined and loyal workers found new ways to improve themselves.

• The acute skills shortages suffered in the 1930s meant that those who were ready to aquire expertise could, provided they conformed to harsh labour laws, thus their living standards did improve somewhat, but dipped again in 1940/41 due to the war.

• However life for most unskilled working men (many peasants forced out by collectivisation) was harsh. Unused to the strict labour discipline, they were likely to move from job to job, trying to avoid staying too long in one place so as not to acquire a bad working record.

• Conditions of living were tough, overcrowding strained family life and meant there was little privacy, petty crime and drinking was prolific.

• Coming from a bourgoisie could spell disaster for a working man, or a family where someone had been purged.

URBAN AND RURAL DIFFERENCES

• Urban workers likely coped better in the 1930s than the peasants. Changes were fewer and at least factory workers had regulated hours and wages and could benefit from workplace canteens and even shops, providing goods for the employees to purchase.

• In rural communities there were troubled times and much of their produce was taken. But in 1941 there was a reversal, due to harsh conditions and rationing but at least peasants could rely on their own private plots.

• Conditions improved from 1935 with 1937 being probably the best year for living standards, became legal for some small trades to operate privately (shoe repair, hairdressing and plumbing). This was because the state just could not restore the shortages (especially shoes). However, problems increased again after 1937 as the bad harvest of 1936 and the continued increase in the urban population, put further strains on public services.

• Many cities were without sewage, street lighting and public transport despite show projects such as the Moscow Metro. Water was rationed, there was also considerable ‘hooliganism’ and ‘urban violence’. Living standards dropped considerably, with 1933 being the worst year (overall food consumption was lower than in 1900 and meat consumption only a third if the 1928 figure, many depended on the black market for survival.

• Life in urban communities was hard, the ‘great famine; of 1932-3 caused millions of deaths in the countryside but also caused major issues in the towns, they were swamped with refugees and the rationing system which continued until 1935, broke down. There was a shortage of housing and practically no privacy in the Kommunalka (communal dwelling or housing block). people learned to whisper in case their neighbours overheard and denounced them . Apartment blocs were supervised by concierges whose tasks included spying on the inhabitants. Some workers lived in barracks or factories, and only favoured party members had the right to more substantial or private accomodation.

• Areas which were relatively untouched pre-collectivisation found themselves under strong control. The rise in literacy also now fed propaganda to the countryside. It was a time of dislocation as ‘basic certainties’ were questioned (eg religion, family, traditions) and a time of movement.

• By the 1930s collectivisation was begrudgingly accepted, some peasants benefitted from the access to machinery like tractors and villages now often have schools and even clinics for the first time. But peasants were still viewed as lesser by the party. For many rural workers the dream was to move to the city.

• In 1933 internal passports were introduced to try and prevent rural to urban migration and it dropped by two thirds and between 1926 and 1941 the urban population more than doubled

SOCIALIST MAN AND WOMAN

• dedicated to the party, lived for the community, well educated and intelligent but accepted what the state told them as the best for all.

• Independent thought or attitude was regarded as a curse

• They were an urban creature, not an ill-educated and backwards peasant.

• New industrial city-complexes were built so the socialist man could flourish and the community too.

• There were periodic events (eg Stalin’s birthday) to glorify the successes of socialism.

• Scientists studied how the ideal citizen could be groomed. Eg the scientist Lysenko who believed if human beings aquired the right characteristics then they could be passed onto the next generation, making a state-run socialist society easity to maintain. But Lysenko’s theories were widely discredited outside the USSR.

• Komsomol members were the most receptive to the new ‘socialist man’ idea, as they led an attack on ‘bourgois’ values, revelling in criticising, burning or vandalising non-socialist, books and artworks, heckling actors and mocking religion. They also helped spread ‘proleterian culture’ as they participated in the ‘shock brigades’ used on collectivisation and industrialisation and worked on literacy schemes.

• some cultural figures toed the party line and ‘artistic brigades’ were organised taht exhorted others to fight for socialist relaism. Gorky (an author) said that under Stalin authors ‘lost nothing but the right to be bad writers’. But. the leading figures in the arts in the 1930s (eg photographic artist Isaak Brodsky) were not famous outside the USSR.

• Many were silenced by the regime, eg novilst Boris Pasternak and poet Anna Akhmatova remained silent of their own accord. Some writers were sent to work on industrial or agricultural sites: this was not neccessarily a punishment but a way of trying to ensure they were fully imbued with socialist values.

LITERATURE

• The period of 1928-31 is one that McCauley described as ‘the years of the glorification of the man in the street’. This situation was short lived and Stalin demanded major change, and in 1932 RAPP was abolished and replaced by the Union of Soviet Writers, imposed a new correctness on writers and greatly reduced their creative freedom. Zhdanov stated the aim was to achieve socialist realism and to glorify Stalin. Famous writers now of the time were Gorki and Sholokhov.

• The mid-1930s saw a ruthless attack on the avant-garde, in 1936 for example, the Pravda published a damning critique of Shostakovich’s opera ‘The Lady macbeth of Mtsensk district’ under the headline ‘chaos instead of music. Stalin had recently heard this modernist work, and despite the popularity the opera had enjoyed since the premerie in 1934, the composer was accused of ‘leftist distortions’. Although Shostakovich himself avoided arrest, a theatre director who spoke in his defence was brutally tortured by the NKVD and shot and the directors wife was stabbed to death.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE

• the ministry of culture began to impose the traditional style of socialist realism, abstract art was condemned and it was never exhibited.

• Amongst the leading artists of the day were Nisski and Mukina with many others being content to produce painting and posters that illustrated the achievements of socialism

• Soviet architects now had to focus on austere designs, with functional high rise blocks of flats and offices. The exception was the so-called ‘wedding cake architecture’ used in the academy of sciences in Moscow

• Lenin’s mausoleoum was a good example brutalist architecture (Schichusey)

• Classical Ballet had been important since the mid 18th century, In 1935 the Academic Theatre in leningrad was rename the Kirov ballet

• Stalinist leading company was the Moscow state circus

MUSIC

• Profokiev worked in the US in the mid-1930s when he chose to return to the USSR

• had to conform to socialist realism

• Music considered modern or avant garde was no longer acceptable, new works had to have socialist content and be expressed in a way ordinary people could understand. It was also supposed to ‘rejoice in the glorious potential of life under communism’ eg the iron foundry by Mossolov (although he was later removed from the composers union for being drunk and lewd and spent the next eight years in a siberian gulag.

• great composers of the 1930s were prokofiev, Shostakovich and Khachtirian