Lenin - Social Development
social security
lenin seized power on the promise of making the lives of the workers and peasants better
he stated that land and wealth should be distributed, men and women would be treated equally and every child could access education
successes
1918 - declaration of the rights of the toiling people - promised the end of unemployment and job centres were set up
1918-20 - 93% of people in Moscow fed off communal dining
1922 - most comprehensive welfare system in the world
failures
1918-21 - war communism - money abolished, rationing
1921 - 24 - NEP - unemployment tripled to 18%, inequality of wages
Housing
privatised housing against communist ideology
Lenin introduced communal apartments - a 'new collective vision of the future'
between 2 and 7 families shared a communal apartment
successes
some projects completed to reflect revolutionary values. Buildings such as the Zuev workers club in Moscow had a collective creche, library and kitchen.
rent free housing happened for a time until 1921
failures
under NEP (1921-24), 60-80% of houses privatised
Education
Lenin's wife, Krupskaya was the deputy minister for education and almost entirely created the soviet education system
successes
free compulsory education for boys and girls age 7 to 17
abolished corporal punishment, homework and exams
free breakfasts and medical checks
adult classes set up to abolish illiteracy, 5 million people completed courses
failures
1 pencil for every 60 students
class sizes of 40
on average students only completed 2.77 years of school
Women
under the tsar, women were severely oppressed, in 1897 only 13% of Russian women were literate
'Social progress can be measured by the social position of the female sex' - Marx
Family code 1918 - Alexei Kollontai minister for social welfare and was key in created new family code for women
divorce legalised and made easy, only one person needed to consent
however this meant the Ussr had the highest divorce rate in Europe and led to abandonment of pregnant women
abortion legalised in 1920, first country in world
banned again under stalin
maternity leave granted
huge pay gap, expectation of women to be mothers
Industry
during civil war, women worked jobs in towns. But after war they were sacked to make way for returning men
NEP led to widespread unemployment and prostitution, 40% of urban men regularly used prostitutes
Agriculture
women worked the 'triple shift' - labour on the farms, household chores and additional handicrafts to increase income
only 8 female tractor drivers
military
70,000 women fought in civil war, but afterwards women were first to be demobilised
politics
women filled stereotypical roles like social welfare, health or education
only 5% of delegates to the 1918 party congress were women