Living Conditions & Ethnic Minorities in the USSR

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Living and Working Conditions in Towns and the Countryside.

Living and working conditions varied hugely across the Soviet Union. It depended upon where you lived and who you were.

The towns

Housing in towns was low quality and living standards were low. Many people lived in barracks or communal accommodation.
Between 1928 and 1933, fruit and meat consumption went down 66% in Leningrad. Queuing for food was a daily experience in the Soviet Union during the 1930s.

The workplace and international movement

There was no concern for health and safety in the workplace, and industrial accidents resulted in many deaths.
One day off work without good reason could lead to a worker losing their job. Early ideas about equality of wages were abandoned.
Internal passports were introduced in 1932 to stop the free movement of people around the country.
Arrest and imprisonment could result from failing to prove a ‘right’ to be in a particular city.

The countryside

In the countryside, there was only basic housing, with outside toilets and no running water. There were rations in the countryside too, allowing Stalin to confiscate excess food to take to the cities.
Productivity was so poor in the countryside that in 1939 the government allowed peasants to sell produce from garden plots for a profit to incentivise them to produce more.
Peasants were not allowed to leave their farms, and also had internal passports.

Party officials

Party officials, by contrast, lived in relative luxury. This included access to special shops for consumer goods. This was how loyalty was rewarded.
- This created a new ruling class within a ‘classless society’.
Although the quality of life for some workers improved, these elites had become more important than the workers.

Changes in Family Life and the Role of Women in the Soviet Union

Women had access to jobs in a similar way to men, although party officials were mostly male. But, more extensive equality measures were not a priority, and women were often paid less than men and continued to bear the burden of responsibility in the home.

The ‘Zhenotdel’

The ‘Zhenotdel’ (the women’s section of the Communist Party) was closed down in 1930, as many of the male leaders felt that it was no longer needed.
Equal rights ‘in theory’ were deemed enough, even if women remained underrepresented in politics.
- Only 13.5% of party members were women when their party section was closed.

Marriage

The state was now a supporter of marriage, and ended access to divorce and abortion.
Stalin believed that marriage breakdown had led to abandoned children roaming the streets. Fees were introduced for divorce which workers could not afford.
Male homosexuality was made illegal in 1933.

Abortion

Abortions were made illegal in 1936 in order to boost population growth in an attempt to create the next generation of workers.
Many women resorted to illegal, unregulated abortions, which led to long-term health damages.
Contraceptives were hard to find in Russia.

Women in work

In 1928, there were 3 million women were in work. By 1940, this number had reached over 13 million.
40% of industrial workers were women.
- Although there were many posters showing women, most workers in heavy industry were men.

Ethnic Minorities in the Soviet Union

Tales of equality and liberation in Soviet propaganda did not match the real lives of ethnic minorities. The government still viewed ethnic Russians as being superior, and did not treat ethnic minorities equally.

Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia

In November 1917, the Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia promised equality and self-determination for national minorities, as an attempt to bond the regions to the Soviet Union.
- Stalin, although Georgian, was happy to see Russians dominate.

A 'federation of nationalities'

Technically, the Soviet Union was a ‘federation of nationalities’. Each group was supposedly self-governing.
The first census listed 172 nationality options. Only 55% of the population was Russian.
There were 15 large Soviet Socialist Republics. All had many ethnic groups within them.
Yet the regime really wanted to centre power in Stalin’s hands.

The dominance of Russia

By the 1930s the government required Russian language and culture to be supreme. Promotion of other cultures was seen as disloyal.
During the Great Terror, cultural leaders were arrested, and languages of minority groups were suppressed in schools.
Minorities were often referred to as ‘bourgeois’ nationalists to be distrusted. This sense of distrust contributed to the persecution of ethnic minorities throughout Stalin’s rule.

The outbreak of war

Groups were forcibly removed from the border areas, and after the invasion of Poland in 1939, approximately one million Poles were sent to the gulag in Siberia.
The same approach was taken in other invaded countries such as Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland.

1The Leadership Struggle, 1924-1929

1.1Struggle for Power 1924-28

1.1.1Stalin & his Rivals

1.1.2The End of Lenin & Stalin

1.1.3Stalin & the Communist Party

2Five Year Plans & Collectivisation

2.1Changes in Industry

2.1.1Industrialisation & Gosplan

2.2Agriculture & Collectivisation

2.2.1Five Year Plans & Grain Hoarding

2.2.2Collectivisation

2.2.3Kulaks

3Purges, Show Trials & The Cult of Stalin

3.1The Use of Terror in the 1930s

3.1.1Purges

3.1.2NKVD

3.1.3Show Trials

3.1.4Labour Camps

3.2Propaganda & Censorship

3.2.1Art & Religion Under Stalin

3.2.2Media & the Cult of Stalin

3.2.3The Cult of Stalin

3.2.4History

4Life in the Soviet Union, 1924-1941

4.1Life in the Soviet Union

4.1.1Living Conditions & Ethnic Minorities in the USSR

5The Second World War, 1941-1953

5.1USSR in the War

5.1.11941-1942

5.1.21943-1945

5.2Stalin & WW2

5.2.1Stalin's Popularity

5.2.2Post-War Consolidation

5.3Post-War Recovery

5.3.1Economic Recovery

5.3.2The USSR by 1953

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