Was it better to live in the countryside or in the towns?

Countryside - advantages

• Access to machinery such as tractors
• Villages had schools and clinics for the first time
• Peasants had private plots to fall back on when war broke out in 1941

Countryside - disadvantages

• The countryside was under strong central control and the regime began to police the countryside more closely
• Peasants were viewed as inferior by Party members
• Peasants had most of their produce taken from them

Towns - advantages

• Conditions improved…