Unit 1E - Russia, 1917-91: from Lenin to Yeltsin
Topic 4: Social Change, Detailed NOTES (A-A*) with STATS+FIGURES+
Extra knowledge for (A* STUDENTS)
SOCIAL CHANGE 1: SOCIAL SECURITY + HOUSING + HEALTHCARE
Marxism and work:
One of Marx’s central criticisms of capitalism was that capitalist economies
do not reward work.
One of the great attractions to communism was its claim that it would
ensure people are provided with what they need. This contract was
enshrined in the Soviet constitution of 1977 meaning it said that all Soviet
citizens had the right to work , rest and leisure , health protection , care ,
housing , education and cultural benefits.
Marx argued that under capitalism, people grow rich from owning property
by charging rent.
Workers stay poor because they have no property.
Marx viewed capitalism as parasites.
Lived off of the work of the working class and did not contribute to
the economy.
After the revolution Marx argued that parasitism should be abolished and
everyone should work.
Wealth would go through two different phases following the revolution:
Socialist economic organisation would be based off of:
“From each according to their ability, to each according to
their ability.
Work over property.
Communist economic organisation would be based on:
“From each according to their ability, to each according to
their need”
Marx believed that during Communism, everyone would
be so wealthy that everyone would have what they
needed.
Labour market
Work and benefits under Lenin:
Lenin influenced by Marx.
In 1918, he published the Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited
People:
Designed to transform work:
Declaration abolished private ownership of land.
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, Capitalists could no longer make money off of simply
owning things.
Declaration introduced Universal Labour Duty.
Designed to eliminate the parasitical layers of
society.
Ensured everybody worked and therefore capitalists
couldn’t simply live off the labour of others.
Many worked in agriculture therefore Marx issued a
decree that forced people without employment to take
any work offered to them (usually in factories).
Work 1917-18:
Lenin’s economic policies based of ensuring stable employment.
570 Industrial enterprises closed between march and August 1917.
Unemployment increased by over 100,000 by October 1918.
Situation worsened after the October Revolution.
Lenin took Russia out of WW1.
War production ceased causing unemployment to rise.
During this period of time, Lenin stressed the duty of labour discipline and
collaboration between workers and their former bosses, who were
employed as “bourgeois specialists”
The specialists no longer made money through property, rather earn a wag
for running the factories.
Lenin’s early economic plans failed to stop the disintegration of the
economy and rising unemployment.
Work and benefits, 1919-21
War Communism was based on a relationship between the government and
the workers.
In 1918 , labour conscription was introduced to ensure all of the Red Army
was adequately supplied to win the Civil War.
Workers provided labour and government provided food and basic
necessities.
Widespread unemployment was ended by the introduction of compulsory
labour.
From September 1918, able men from 16-50 lost the right to refuse
employment.
People in work issued a work card and given rations.
After money was abolished, rations were allocated according to occupation.
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, Working class got the highest, but people working in the middle-
class like doctors and aristocrats were entitled to 25% of the food
that the working class received.
At the height of the rationing system, 22 million people were
entitled to ration cards.
Rationing organised by the Prodraspred.
Had subsections which delivered rations to workers.
Workers also had access to benefits, like work cards entitled to travel on
public transport.
Communal dining halls set up in factories to feed the workers.
Government claimed that 93% of the people living in Moscow in
1920 were regularly fed in communal halls.
Party members given privileges.
Government ran shops where Party members could buy food and
goods that were otherwise scarce.
In practice, the system of compulsory work and government provisions was
unsuccessful:
Compulsory labour was unsustainable under Civil War conditions.
By July 1920, factories were being forced to close due to
fuel shortages.
Government forced unemployed people to search for fuel
or join food detachments.
War communism never provided more than 50% of the food and
fuel that people needed to survive.
In the short term, people turned to the black market.
In the long term, workers fled the cities and seeked work
on farms for food.
Between 1917-21, the population of Petrograd dropped by
50%.
Factory closures and food scarcities meant that War Communism failed to
create a system of full employment.
Work and benefits in the 1920’s:
Year Percentage of labour force unemployed
1921 5.5
1922 8.6
1923 16.6
1924 18.0
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, Unemployment surged for a number of reasons:
In 1921 and 1922, soldiers from the Red Army were demobilised
and unemployed.
Urban workers who left the cities during the civil war returned and
were unable to work.
The demobilisation of the Red Army returned millions of soldiers to
the cities in search of work and food shortages in the country side
led to a wave of urbanisation in the cities.
At the beginning of the NEP, the government tried to rationalise
industry to make it more profitable.
Workers in government factories reduced to lower costs.
Government sacked 225,000 admins who had been administering
the system.
Unemployment soared reaching over a million workers in 1926
however for skilled workers there was greater job security and real
wages started rising.
Despite high unemployment, the government administered some benefits
for working:
1922 Labour Law gave unions rights to negotiate binding
agreements about pay and conditions with employers.
Social insurance: Paid disability benefits, maternity benefits,
unemployment benefits, which covered nine million workers.
The government invested in education for urban workers and
families.
Peasants excluded from social insurance.
Government focused its benefits towards the proletariat.
Whilst unemployment was a huge problem during the period of the NEP,
urban workers were better off in 1926, than before the revolution in 1913.
Paid around 10% more before revolution and had access to more
meat and fish.
Peasants did not benefit whatsoever.
One of the features of the job market under the NEP was through the use
of artelli in the recruitment of labour. Artelli were groups of workers in the
same trade who offered their services as a group in exchange for payment as
a group. Pay was distributed among them. This was similar to the peasant
groups who did seasonal activities or construction.
The Government saw them as a backward feature therefore discouraged
their use but by 1929 the use of "shock brigades" made up
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