Russia 1917-91 topic 4

1926 -- unemployment over one million. 1929, "shcok brigades" of enthusiastic communists to work on construction projects. "Arteli" use in the recruitment of labour, led by older members. 11.6 million hired in 1928, 27 million in 1937. Full employmet -- October 1930 unemployment benefits officially cancellled. 1932 internal passport needed to change jobs, food rations through workplace, bur even by 1937 30% of workers still changing jobs in each quarter. 1931 wage differentials between skilled and unskilled work reintroduced, 1934 picework expanded. "Stakhanovites". 1939 -- abseentism can be punished by imprisonment. 2.5 million gulag inmates 1953 vs fewer than 1.5 1945. 

Moscow -- 2.2 to 4.1 million 1929-36, Leningrad 1.6 to 3.4 1926-39. 1930s -- Donbass coal and steel towns double in population. 1936 -- 6% rented housing units only have mroe than one room, 24% only part of a room. 5% live in kitchen or corridor, 25% in dormitories. Few families spent more than 8% of their money on accomodation. WWII -- Stalingrad loses 90% of housing, Leningrad one-third during the 1941-45 siege. 

Workplace -- from 1930s cheap food and free work clothes distributed through the workplace. The trades unions took over organisation of sport and leisure facilities and sick pay having been stripped of any political power. Two weeks' paid holiday to each worker. 1921 -- chlorea leads to compulsory vacccinations. 1918-20 six million typhus deaths. 1928-1940 70,000 to 155,000 dcotrs, 1928-39 247,000 to 791,000 hospital beds. Medicines had to be paid for although at cheap rates.

Khrushchev onwards -- idea of "developed socialism" which lead to security but also to stagnation. 1977 Constitution guarantees employment. Schroeder -- 1967-77 real wages rose by 50%. Hanson -- 3.8% annual increase in consumption during the Khrushchev years. Wage differentials in 1970 less than half those of the USA. Almost impossible to fire anyone, workers absent to queue for food or to unofficially work elsewhere. 30% turnover per year, 1956 minimum wage through in. 1957 -- week reduced, days of paid holiday increased. Nomenklatura remained. After 1974 collective farmers could obtain passport. 1953 6.9 million Party members, 1980 17 million. End of 1970s, 20% of males > 30 Party members. Nepotism -- Yuri Brezhnev minister of foreign trade, Kosygin's son-in-law head of committee for science and technology. 1980s females in higher education match males. Octobrists, Pioneers, Komsomol (up to age 28). 1950-80 state welfare spending quintuples, 1956 pennsions expanded and retirmeent age reducedd, pensions rise during Brezhnev period fasteer than wages but at 40 roubles per month remain insufficient. Many retirees coitnued to work part-time. Around the same time peasants began to receive pensions. 1951-1961 178 to 394 million m2 housing. Khrushchoby (Khrushchev's slums), prefab panels build to set design. COncrete blocks left inside apartments, often left to do plastering themselves. Logn waiting lists. "POlyclinics", referral to specialists where necessary. 1978 -- 2,000 sanatoria, 1,000 rest homes linked to medical care. In Central Asia even by 1988 some hospitals lacked heating or running water. Equipment mostly poorly made. 1966 incomes of…