Topic 4 USSR: Social Security and Housing 1917-1985

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What was one of Marx's central critiques of capitalism?
It did not reward hard work; under capitalism people grow rich because they own property
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How did Marx view capitalists?
He viewed them as parasites; lived off the work of the working class and did not contribute anything to society
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What did Marx believe would happen following a socialist revolution?
Society would be reorganised according to the principle "from each according to their ability, to each according to their ability"
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What would this mean?
Work, rather than property, would be the key to gaining economic resources
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What would communist society be organised along the lines of?
"From each according to their ability, to each according to their need"
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What would this mean?
People would contribute in whatever way they could and get the resources they needed, regardless of the scale of the contribution they made
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What did Lenin publish in 1918?
Declaration of the Rights of Toiling and Exploited People
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What did this do?
Abolished the private ownership of land
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Why?
Capitalists could no longer make money by simply owning things
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What else did this declaration introduce?
Universal labour duty
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What was this designed to do?
Eliminate the "parasitical" layers of society by ensuring that everybody worked and therefore capitalists could no longer live off the work of others
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What was the rate of unemployment in 1918?
100,000
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What did this conflict with?
The Communist Party's belief in the duty of all people to labour
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By March 1918, what percentage of chemical workers in Petrograd were unemployed?
75%
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What ended widespread unemployment in 1918?
Able-bodied men aged between 16 and 50 lost the right to refuse employment
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How were rations allocated?
According to occupation
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How did class affect ration distributions?
Working class people had the highest rations; people working in middle class professions had less
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Who received the least?
Aristocrats and former factory owners (the former people) received 25% of what working people received
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What did rationing look like at the height of rationing?
36 products were rationed and 22 million people were entitled to ration cards
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Who organised rationing?
Prodraspred
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What other benefits were workers entitled to?
A work card entitled workers to travel on public transport
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How many people dined communally?
The government claimed that 93% of people in Moscow in 1920 regularly dined in communal halls
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What other communal facilities were offered?
Laundries, creches were provided for women in urban areas
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What special privileges did Party members enjoy?
Gov't ran special shops where Party members could acquire goods and food that were scarce
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What led to the government's system being unsustainable?
The Civil War made gov't policy unsustainable; by July 1920 factories were beginning to close due to fuel shortages
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How did the government respond?
Forced men to join food detachments, groups of men organised in a similar way to the Army who were responsible for searching villages for food
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How much food did War Communism provide?
Never more than 50%
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Between 1917 and 1921 how much did the population of Petrograd decrease by?
50%
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How much did the total population of factory workers reduce by during the Civil War?
25%
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What did this all mean?
Food scarcity meant that War Communism failed to create a system of employment which provided social security for all in work
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What did Lenin view the NEP as being?
A return to state capitalism; with the promise of promoting economic growth
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What was the unemployment rate in 1921?
5%
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What was the unemployment rate in 1924?
18%
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What led to an increase in unemployment?
Demobilised Red Army soldiers found it hard to get work; urban workers returned from the countryside finding it hard to get jobs
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What did the government do at the end of War Communism which made the situation worse?
Sacked 225,000 administrators who had been employed maintaining the system
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Why did unemployment remain high throughout the 1920s?
Government prioritised former Red Army soldiers in employment; ended funding for creches
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In 1922, what percentage of unemployed people in the Soviet Union's towns were women?
62.2%
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What did the 1922 Labour Law create?
Gave unions the right to negotiate binding agreements about pay and working conditions with employers
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What was social insurance?
Paid disability benefits, maternity benefits, unemployment benefits and medical benefits
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How many workers did this cover?
Nine million
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What was the issue with social insurance?
While it was great for urban workers, peasants were largely excluded
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Why?
The government sought to increase focus on the proletariat
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What could be said about urban workers in 1926?
They were in a better position than they were in 1913
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Why?
They were paid 10% more and ate more meat and fish
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Whose lot was not improved?
The peasants
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What was re-established under Stalin?
The link between compulsory work and social benefits
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What was ended following Stalin's Great Turn?
The compromise with capitalism
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How did Stalin view Soviet workers?
As an essential economic resource that could be used in the process of building socialism
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What attracted peasants fleeing the horrors of collectivisation?
Relatively well-paid jobs in the cities
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What were working conditions like under Stalin?
They were poor; miners worked in dangerous conditions and it was often dangerous to be a manual labourer under Stalin
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What were examples of Stalin's reintroduction of harsh labour discipline?
Lateness was criminalised, strikes were banned, unions lost the right to negotiate with factory managers
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What was the "continuous work week"?
Workers still got their one day off a week, yet this alternated from week to week
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What did this mean for factories and mines?
They could work seven days a week; rather than closing down on Sundays
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What happened in 1940?
Workers lost the right to change jobs
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What was demand for labour like during the Five-Year Plans?
Very high
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What did this mean for workers?
Workers were able to move from job to job in search of better pay
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What was introduced in 1940 to stop this?
Internal passports
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What improved benefits did the Five-Year Plans lead to?
Workers were entitled to food rations; significant increase in healthcare provisions; factory and farm canteens provided meals for workers
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What infrastructure projects occurred during the 1930s?
30,000km of railways were built; passenger traffic increased by 400%
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What was also completed during the 1930s?
The Moscow Metro
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What gave out benefits under Stalin in the 1930s?
They were distributed through factories or collective farms
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What did this re-emphasise?
The link between work and social welfare
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Even under Stalin, what was the situation like for peasants?
Peasants were not entitled to rations, food was much scarcer on farms than it was in cities
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What happened in the late 1930s?
Farm workers would have to travel to the towns to buy bread, as there was so little food available on the farms
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What meant that some benefits were distributed unevenly?
Soviet healthcare operated a "Party first" policy
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What did this mean?
Party members were guaranteed vaccines, other workers could queue for any vaccines that remained
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What is evidence of Party members' privilege?
While all Party members were entitled to benefits, party members could throw lavish banquets which would be funded by government money
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What was an example of the inequality this resulted in?
In Dnepropetrovsk all Party members were vaccinated against typhus yet there were 10,000 cases of malaria
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What did the industrial workforce increase by after the war?
Increased from 8 million to 12 million between 1945 and 1950
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What suggested that communal canteens weren't as great as they first seem?
Cost workers between 250 and 300 roubles a month
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What was this?
Half of a workers' monthly wages
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What were workers under 18 entitled to?
Three subsidised meals a day
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What did these subsidies cover?
2.3kg of meat and six eggs, could not afford to pay for the meals
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What evidence was there of a general improvement in healthcare during Stalin's later years?
Infant mortality declined by 50% between 1940 and 1950; number of medical doctors increased by two thirds between 1947 and 1952
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What led to greater health problems, however?
Command economy struggled to produce simple things like soap, warm clothing and shoes, which led to greater health problems
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How much time did the average Soviet worker take off in 1946?
Between ten and thirteen days a year from 1946 until the mid-1950s
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What was the first Soviet housing policy?
In the 1920s, Soviet authorities redistributed existing housing, taking it away from rich property owners and allowing poor people to live in them
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What happened under Stalin?
The construction of new houses did begin
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What were the issues with this housing?
It was cheap; lacked facilities such as running water, electricity and sewage
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What happened in early 1918?
Housing was seized from the middle class and redistributed to peasants
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What was Lenin's August 1918 decree?
Sought to bring the process under control
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What happened under the NEP?
Between 60% and 80% of housing was denationalised
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What happened after Lenin's death?
Large town houses were socialised; working class people moved into other rooms
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What else happened to the church during this period?
Church property was nationalised and priests were forcibly evicted from their cottages and church buildings were used for other purposes
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What percentage of housebuilding was undertaken by private companies under the NEP?
89%
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What were examples of housing that was built in Russian cities?
The Zuev Club and the Rusakov Club
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What style were these buildings built in?
A Constructivist style
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What demonstrated a commitment to the liberation of women?
The provision of communal canteens and kindergartens reflected the desire to eliminate the double burden
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What led to a housing crisis under Stalin?
Peasants fled collective farms for better jobs in the cities
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What were kommunalkas?
Apartment buildings were divided into collective living spaces
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What was the size of the average kommunalka by 1940?
Only four square metres
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What was a slightly comic problem with the kommunalkas?
They would often be divided without being rewired; meaning one light switch controlled the whole apartment
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In the Liuberetsy district of Moscow, how many people had no bathhouse?
650,000 with no bathhouse
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What suggests that modernisation was not a priority?
During the 1930s electrification and the provision of street lights slowed
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What was converted into accomodation?
Coal sheds and under-stairs cupboards were converted into accomodation
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What were corner-dwellers?
People who lived in kitchens and corridors of kommunalkas
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What was true about corner-dwelling?
It could be expensive, space in corridors could cost as much as half a month's wage
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What happened to one worker in Leningrad?
He lived in a corridor for five years before being moved into a kommunalka
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What was accomodation like in the new factory towns?
It was often inferior to the kommunalka
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Why?
Construction of factories was prioritised over housing
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What were conditions like?
Several families would occupy a barracks-style dormitory
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What did they lack?
Bathrooms and running water
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What did the towns themselves lack?
Paved streets and electric lights
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Who occupied the few state-of-the-art houses in Magnitogorsk?
The American specialists who came to advise on the project
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What critical flaws did the houses have?
The original designs provided no kitchens, assuming that workers would dine together in communal canteens
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What did 20% of Magnitogorsk workers live in?
Mud huts
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What did Dnepropetrovsk lack?
It had no sewage system, streets were not paved, no electronic lights
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What proportion of housing was destroyed between 1941 and 1945?
One-third
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By 1947, how much space did the average Kommunalka resident have?
Four square metres of space
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How many beds were there for how many workers in the Moscow coalfields?
15,000 beds for 26,000 workers
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There was one table between how many workers?
One table between every ten workers
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There was one washbasin between how many people?
One washbasin between 70 people!
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What issues were there with housebuilding between 1945 and 1950?
Budgets were small and management was inefficient
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What happened in housing projects outside of Moscow in the first half of 1948?
Spent 40% of their budget and were then suspended
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How many houses were built in these projects?
Zero
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What happened in Ukraine after the war?
Between 1945 and 1950, 4500 farming villages were built
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What did this lead to?
The construction or renovation of 919,000 houses
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What was fundamentally behind the difference between Stalin's and Khrushchev's housing policy?
Stalin wanted giant factories and the mass production of raw materials; Khrushchev and Brezhnev wanted to raise standards of living
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How did Khrushchev summarise his approach to socialist economics and politics?
"What sort of communism is it that cannot produce sausage?"
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How much did the Soviet healthcare budget increase by?
From 21.4 billion roubles in 1950 to 44.0 billion roubles in 1959
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What did this lead to?
A general improvement in Soviet health
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What evidence is there of this?
In 1950 infant mortality was at 81, by 1965 it was at 27
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What were introduced in 1961?
Free lunches in schools, free public transport, full pensions and healthcare rights for farmers
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What happened to housing under Khrushchev?
The amount of urban housing doubled between 1950 and 1965
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What did Khrushchev believe about housing?
Low-cost housing was required at this stage, yet by the 1980s more advanced housing could be constructed
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What did this lead to?
Low-cost housing blocks such as the Khrushchyovka
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What was significant about the Khrushchyovka?
It would allow privacy
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Why did this worry the authorities?
Soviet authorities couldn't monitor activities through informants in housing blocks
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What was life in the Khrushchyovka like?
Included a bathroom, a kitchen, and at least two bedrooms
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What was the Social Contract?
Brezhnev's government promised a higher standard of living and more benefits in return for obedience and conformity
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What did the government guarantee under the social contract?
Job security through full employment, some social mobility, low prices for essential goods, social benefits
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What was the effect of the social contract?
Organised opposition to the government was incredibly rare
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What issues were there with full employment?
Led to stagnation
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What do estimates suggest during the 1970s?
There was hidden unemployment of around 20%
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What does this mean?
20% of people had a job, but weren't doing anything useful
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What was this coupled with?
Severe labour shortages
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What's evidence of this?
In the late 1970s there were at least 1 million vacancies in Soviet industry
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What was on the rise?
Female unemployment?
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Where was this a particular issue?
The Caucasus and Central Asia
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Why?
Economy was focused on mining and heavy industry
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What happened to women?
They were refused jobs due to gender stereotypes
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What percentage of Russians were out of work by 1985?
2%
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What else happened?
In spite of increased health spending, Soviet health declined
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What was evidence of this?
Life expectancy declined from 68 to 64 years for men in the '70s
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Why?
Alcoholism
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Card 4

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