1. The state and cultural change
Control of the People:
The state and cultural change
Power point 13:

2. Aim:
Students to understand the key elements of social security.

3. Topics covered: Full employment, housing and social benefits 1917–53;
Khrushchev, Brezhnev and the promotion of a stable society 1953– 85;
The impact of social reform 1985–91.

4. Introduction:
Committed communists thought that the state should take a leading role in bringing about social change.
With authority invested in the Party and the state, there was an opportunity to transform society for the good of the ordinary working people.
This transformation would entail using social policy to transform the population with its basic needs and to change the attitudes and values of society itself.
Communist ideology, envisaged a society that operated on a collective basis and would therefore mark a break with the individualistic approach associated with capitalism.
An important branch of Soviet society was the provision of social security through the achievement of full employment, and adequate housing and pensions.
These measures would ensure that poverty, a feature of capitalist societies, was eradicated.
In the pursuit of equality, the status of women was addressed and policies towards the role of the family were used to break down traditional attitudes that limited opportunities for women.
Educational provision would be extended to ensure that the potential of the whole population was developed and utilised to its full.
For these reasons. Social policy was an essential part of the Soviet experiment.

6. Introduction:
As well as being agents of social transformation, social policies played a vital role in providing support for the continuance of the Communist Party rule.
A population whose basic needs are met is much more likely to support the regime that carries responsibility for providing for it.
In this way, the social policy of the Soviet government was a method of providing social and political stability.
After the death of Stalin in 1953, and the reduction in the use of terror to control the people, this method became more important as a factor in buttressing the regime.
Stability was enhanced by government promotion of the family as a unit that provided social regulation and cohesion.
Early attempts to change the nature of the family were abandoned after 1835 in favour of more traditional attitudes.
The Communist government was prepared to use the traditional family when it suited its purposes.

7. Introduction:
The huge expansion of educational provision at all levels allowed the hold of the state to reach most of the population.
The growth of education ensured Soviet citizens were better equipped for a modern industrial economy, but also provided opportunities to instil socialist values from a young age.
Education was one of the main mechanisms for upward social mobility in the Soviet Union, and a recognition by the population that this provided opportunities for the advancement tied many citizens into the Soviet system.
Thus, social policy started with ideas and policies that attempted to bring about radical change, but after 1935 it became, more often than not, a tool of social stability rather than transformation.

9. How successful was the government in providing social security for the Soviet people between 1917 and 1985?
On of the great attractions of communism was its claim that it would ensure that the people were provided with what they needed.
This would be the provision of employment, shelter, food, an education and welfare provision such as health care.
This contract was enshrined in the Soviet Constitution of 1977, which stated that all Soviet citizens had the right to work, rest and leisure, health protection, care in old age and sickness, housing, education and cultural beliefs.
The government's ability to live up to this contract was often compromised and not always fulfilled.

12. Full employment, housing and social benefits: 1917 – 1953:
Given the chaos that accompanied the early years of Bolshevik rule, it is no surprise that the regime was slow to achieve social and material benefits for the population.
Stalin’s push to industrialise the Soviet Union in the 1930’s transformed the labour market and not only produced full employment, but also labour shortages.
Improvements in housing and other social benefits were much slower to be realised.

13. The labour market under Lenin:
The collapse of industrial production during the civil war of 1918 to 1921, resulted in a drift of factory workers to the countryside, where food supplies were more reliable.
Those factories still in production found themselves without sufficient workers and the government resorted to issuing a decree that forced people without employment to take any work offered to them.
In 1918, under War Communism, labour conscription was introduced to ensure that the Red Army was adequately supplied to win the civil war.
Labour exchanges were established to supervise the hiring of workers, but fear of being forced into a job they did not want meant that many workers did not register with the exchanges.

15. The labour market under Lenin:
The end of the civil war brought additional pressures to the labour market.
The demobilisation of the Red Army returned millions of soldiers to the cities in search of work, and food shortages in the countryside led to a wave of workers and peasants drifting into the cities.
Unemployment soared and reached over a million workers by 1926.
Yet, for skilled workers, there was increased job security under the economic growth of the NEP and real wages started to rise.

17. The labour market under Lenin:
On feature of the job market during the years of the NEP was the continued use of Arteli in the recruitment of labour.
Arteli were groups of workers usually in the same trade who offered their services as a group and were paid as a group.
They were led by older members, who arranged jobs and distributed pay, often based on age but in some cases based on the length of their beard.
These groups were similar to the traditional peasant groups who pooled their tools and worked as teams to meet seasonal activities or work on construction projects.
The government considered them to be a backward feature of the organisation of the economy and did not encourage their use, but in 1929 the use of shock brigades made up of enthusiastic young communists to works on construction projects owed much to this system.
Under the NEP, wage differentials grew as skilled workers demanded more money than their unskilled counterparts.
The trend was encouraged by the relative shortage of skilled workers, much in demand as the economy recovered from the civil war.
Thus there were increasing benefits for some sections of the working class.

19. Industrialisation and full employment:
The Soviet government could hardly claim that the Five Year Plans were launched to create full employment, but it was certainly achieved as a consequence of the push to industrialise.
In 1930, the Soviet government announced that it was the first country in the world to achieve full urban employment in peacetime.
The number of hired workers rose from 11.6 million in 1928 to 27 million in 1937.
Employment opportunities were plentiful with the rapid expansion of industry.
The excessive targets set by the government for industry resulted in factories using every available labour source.
The lack of modern technology, with most work undertaken manually, put additional pressure on the labour force.
Many had joined the urban and industrial workforce from the countryside.
Large numbers of peasants drifted to the towns as a result of collectivisation and the subsequent hardship inflicted on rural areas.
Despite this, by 1932 there were labour shortages.

20. Industrialisation and full employment:
Full employment had a considerable impact on the workers.
The swamping of the old industrial workers by new peasant recruits led to divisions in the workplace.
The more established groups of skilled workers tried to protect their position and pay by discrimination and harassment of newcomers.
Restrictions were placed on trade unions, who were no longer allowed to negotiate with managers to improve conditions.
Working conditions were poor, with little attention paid by the government to even the basic levels of health and safety.
In October 1930, unemployment benefit was cancelled in light of full employment.
Trade unions were left to act as providers of social insurance, dealing with issues such as compensation for injury out of their own funds.
Vast numbers of jobs had been created, but productivity was low.
In 1927, the average Soviet worker produced only half of what an average British worker produced.
Productivity increased during the Five Year Plans as machinery was produced, but it still lagged behind much of the industrialised West.
To meet production targets, managers used uninterrupted work, that is, the use of day and night shifts so that machines could be kept busy for 24 hours every day.
Long shifts with not much time off did little to improve the experience of the industrial worker.
Much of the work was hard, repetitive and unchallenging.

22. Industrialisation and full employment:
Labour shortages were a real fear for managers who were anxious to meet their production targets.
Workers unhappy with their job constantly changed their occupation in search of better employment.
In order to deal with this, the government issued a passport system.
In 1932, an internal passport was needed to change jobs, and food rations were distributed through the workplace.
Both policies were introduced to keep the workers where they were needed.
These measures were only partly successful. Even by 1937, 30% of all urban workers changed their jobs in each quarter of the year.
In 1931, wage differences between the skilled and unskilled workers were increased in an attempt by the government to reward skilled workers and discourage them from moving jobs.
The following year, better rations and bonuses were introduced to add incentives.
From 1934, the use of piecework rates, whereby workers were paid according to the amount that produced, was expanded., an action that pleased the more skilled section of the workforce as it greatly increased the opportunity for them to earn higher wages.
But higher wages were only a small incentive when there was so little of buy in the shops.

23. Industrialisation and full employment:
Alongside material incentives, the government used honours and medals to motivate the workforce.
Soviet workers were encouraged to work like the hero Alexei Stakhanov, a coalminer from the Donbass region who could mine 15 times the average amount of coal.
Komsomol enthusiasts were used by the government to form “shock brigades”.
These were deployed to instil socialist values in the workforce in order to promote production.
There were rewards for model workers, such as a new flat, bigger rations, slackers were held up to ridicule.

24. Industrialisation and full employment:
One consequence of the restrictions on workers changing jobs was the increase in absenteeism.
Harsh punishments were introduced for absent workers in key industries in 1931, but the problem persisted.
By 1939, absenteeism was made a criminal offence that +could result in imprisonment.
Of course, with labour being in short supply, these measures were not always applied.
Slave labour from the labour camps had to be used to meet the need for workers.
The pressure on labour was intense during the Second World War and there was little let-up after 1945.
During the war, women were encouraged into employment and were thus employed in greater numbers to make up for the shortfall caused by the conscription of men into the Red Army.
Demobilisation of soldiers in 1945 returned many men to the workforce, but not necessarily where they were needed. Prisoners of war were used as forced labour, supplemented by increasing numbers in the Gulag.
Labour camp inmates rose from fewer than 1.5 million in 1945 to nearly 2.5 million in 1953.
Despite the achievement of full employment, at a time when most of the developed world was experiencing an economic depression that put millions out of work, the Soviet worker had a harsh drab life.
The demands of industrialisation in the 1930’s were followed by the privations of the Second World War and the tough period of reconstruction from 1945 to 1953.
It was to be a long time before some of the material benefits of full employment were enjoyed by many of the Soviet workforce.

26. Housing:
The Soviet government was slow to make an impact on the provision of housing for its population.
In 1917, the Bolsheviks began a programme of confiscating the large houses of the rich, portioning them and renting them to families of workers.
The principle of allocating housing according to need was often dropped in favour of distribution according to rank within the Communist Party.
The reality was that there was not enough housing to meet the needs of all.

27. Housing:
The enormous growth of towns and industrial centres under the Five Year Plans put considerable strain on housing.
Not only did housing receive few resources and a low priority, the focus of industrialisation greatly increased the demand for workers’ housing.
Established cities saw exceptional growth.
Moscow’s population increased from 2.2 million in 1929 to 4.1 million in
Leningrad experienced huge growth too, from 1.6 million in 1926 to 3.4 million in 1939.
Many new cities also emerged from the industrial development of the 1930’s. the towns of the Donbass coal and steel region saw a doubling of their population in the 1930’s.

29. Housing:
The population of Magnitogorsk rose from a mere 25 people in 1929 to 250,000 in 1932.
These new industrial centres lacked the range of facilities usually associated with towns and cities. In the rush to industrialise, resources for housing were often non-existent.
Workers had to sleep in tents, makeshift huts or even in the factories.
Conditions improved throughout the 1930’s but often amounted to little more than the erection of drab barracks.
Blocks of apartments were built were resources would allow.
They all looked the same and often included elements designed to promote communism, kitchens were usually communal.
The allocation of a modern apartment with running water, electricity and central heating was only a realistic hope for those workers who showed an impressive commitment to fulfilling the Plan.

31. Housing:
In 1936, only 6% of rented units of housing consisted of more than one room and in 24% of cases it was only part of one room. 5% of people renting lived in a kitchen or corridor and 25% lived in dormitories.
These figures illustrate the pressure that must have existed on family life.
The cost of renting housing was very low, with few families spending more than 8% of their income on accommodation, but the lack of privacy probably goes some way towards explaining the popularity of communist youth groups, which got children out of the home in the evenings.
Improvements in rural housing were even slower to materialise.
Peasants on collectives were expected to provide for their own housing, which was more often than not little better than a one room timber hut.
The lack of available housing was exacerbated by the damage caused by the Second World War.
Some cities were particularly badly hit, Stalingrad lost 90% of its housing and Leningrad lost 33% during the siege of the city from 1941 to 1944.
Housing remained low priority under the Fourth and Fifth Five Year Plans, which tackled post-war reconstruction by focusing on heavy industry.
At least in Moscow, where vast resources were used to build an underground transport system, complete with stations decorated with sculptures and murals like palaces, workers could travel from their drab apartments to their drab workplaces in some comfort.

35. Social benefits:
The workplace was the source of some social benefits for the Soviet worker.
By the 1930’s cheap food was available within the workplace canteens.
During the difficult years of the early 1930’s the government instructed canteens to keep rabbits to ensure a supply of meat for their workforce.
Another benefit was that work clothes were given free of charge.
Social benefits were often provided by trade unions.
Stripped of any real economic or political power, they nonetheless played a key role in organising sports facilities, meetings and film shows.
Workers were given two weeks’ paid holiday and this was usually taken on cheap, subsidised vacations to state resorts.
Trade unions were responsible for arranging these holidays, although attendance could be based on an individual’s attitude to their work.
Sick pay was also organised by the trade unions.
Thus, trade unions were an important aspect of a worker’s life and expulsion from a trade union was a serious matter.

37. Social benefits:
Health care was designed by the government to benefit all of the population and, despite limited resources, it proved effective at containing epidemics.
A compulsory vaccination programme was implemented to deal with a serious cholera epidemic in 1921.
Lice spread typhus was a serious issue between 1918 and 1920, resulting in the deaths of over 6 million people- Lenin launched a campaign to eradicate the problem, declaring, “Either lice will defeat socialism of socialism will defeat lice.”
Many doctors had fled Russia soon after the Revolution in 1917 and this weakened the health care provision.
The government was forced to increase the number of training places on offer.
As a result, the number of doctors increased from 70,000 in 1928 to 155,000 in 1940.
The number of hospital beds also rose from 247,000 in 1928 to 791,000 in Quantity was no guarantee of quality, but there is no doubt that these figures represent considerable improvements through this period.
Sanitation was taken seriously and all sanitary inspectors were given the status of doctors.
Patients had no choice in health care and all medicines had to be paid for, albeit at a cheap, subsidised rate.
Much of this progress was due to women training to enter the medical profession in large numbers.

39. Social benefits:
By 1953, the Soviet worker was likely to be employed, housed and in receipt of basic social services.
Life was harsh and the provision of services remained more primitive, if not non-existent in rural areas.
The promised socialist utopia had yet to be realised.

41. Khrushchev, Brezhnev and the promotion of a stable society: 1953 – 1985:
After the social upheavals of the Stalin years, Soviet society became more stable under Khrushchev and Brezhnev.
The hardships that had accompanied the rapid industrialisation of the 1930’s and the Second World War gave way to a more prosperous period, which allowed Khrushchev to declare in 1961 that the Soviet population would finally enjoy the benefits of socialism.
Khrushchev’s statement was, of course, over optimistic propaganda, but it highlighted the basis of what was to become a more stable society in the USSR, greater economic prosperity.
The final date for the achievement of communism was, inevitably, not met, but progress had been tangible enough for Brezhnev to talk about a move to developed socialism.

43. Khrushchev, Brezhnev and the promotion of a stable society: 1953 – 1985:
Developed socialism was the term applied to a Soviet society that had become instilled with the values of the Revolution, collectivism, political consciousness and an active participation driven by a revolutionary spirit.
It may have been a propaganda slogan that over exaggerated reality, but there is no doubt by the late 1970’s there was a lot of support for a social system that provided advantages and material rewards for the majority.
It was this support that gave Soviet society under Brezhnev considerable stability.

44. What were the key features of social stability under developed socialism?:

45. Full employment:
The Soviet Constitution of 1977 guaranteed its citizens full employment.
Full employment had been a feature of Soviet life since the 1930’s and continued to be so through the Khrushchev and Brezhnev years.
There was some unemployment, seasonal work such as farming often resulted in unemployment in rural areas, and it was common for graduates to experience a short period of unemployment after finishing university.
Moreover, having employment was no guarantee of job satisfaction and many jobs were created that were undemanding, repetitive and sometimes pointless.
What often made a difference was the increase in real wages.
Accordingly, real wags, that is wages compared to the rise of prices, rose by 50% between 1967 and 1977.
This increase gave Soviet workers more spending power.
Most Soviet workers accumulated savings due to the fact that there was a scarcity of goods in the shops and that low prices were fixed by the government.
Nonetheless, economic historians have put the increase in per capita consumption at an annual increase of 3.8% for the Khrushchev years.
What really helped stability was the limited gap between the best paid and the worst paid.
Wage differentials were relatively low, less than half of that of the United States in 1970, enough to offer workers the chance of material gain through hard work, but not wide enough to cause anger over excessive inequality.

47. Job security: There were other advantages for the Soviet Worker.
It was very difficult to dismiss someone who was not good at their job, whether that was due to laziness, incompetence or alcoholism.
Managers often ignored low standards of work discipline as workers were absent to queue for food and other items in the shops or moonlighting to earn extra money on the side.
This would then be followed by a short period of intense work at the end of the month to ensure that production targets were met.
Labour turnover remained high, often at a rat of 30% each year, as workers moved to jobs where the managers offered more benefits.
A minimum wage was introduced in 1956, which was designed to ensure no workers were below the poverty line, but hardships remained for those workers who had to support families on the minimum wage.
The working week was reduced in 1957 and the number of days’ paid holiday increased.

49. Improved material benefits:
The greater availability of consumer goods played a central part in ensuring a contented society.
Khrushchev had moved economic resources away from heavy industry towards consumer goods and Brezhnev continued this trend.
For the first time, the Ninth Five Year Plan of 1971 to 1975 set a higher rate for consumer goods than heavy industry.
The ability to deliver an improvement in the quality of life was seen by the government as legitimising the rule of the Communist Party.
Targets for production of consumer goods were not met, but progress was sufficient for the population to recognise real improvements.
Sustained economic growth, often relying on skilled rather than unskilled labour, also ensured that there were greater opportunities for upward mobility within the Soviet system.

52. The nomenklatura system:
A key feature that tied the population to the state was the fact that, for the vast majority, the state was their employer.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party had developed the nomenklatura system into a vast apparatus of patronage.
The Party was responsible for appointments in virtually every economic enterprise.
Promotions were the source of higher wages and greater rewards and privileges.
A worker’s place of employment depended on securing an internal passport and dwelling permit, those for job and residence in Moscow being the most sought after.
After 1974, collective farmers were allowed passports, bringing farmers into a system that offered some hope of mobility and betterment for the rural population.
Getting a passport and permit was much easier if you were educated and had become a Party activist.
Taking part in unpaid propaganda campaigns helped gain a position in the local Party branch.
A period of ideological study at a Party school was also a useful action in securing a promotion.
It is no surprise that membership of the Communist Party grew considerably, from 6.9 million in 1953 to 17 million in 1980.
By the end of the 1970’s 20% of all males over the age of 30 were Party members.

54. The nomenklatura system:
Ultimately, advancement depended on having a recommendation from a sponsor within the Party and this process was responsible for building in loyalty to the system and enormous stability.
Risk takers and troublemakers, often the same people, found it very difficult to rise within the system.
Under Brezhnev’s leadership this trend was entrenched.
A pattern developed whereby people were promoted within the region that they were born and lived in rather than moving on with promotion, which had been common during the Khrushchev era in order to keep officials fresh and encourage innovation.
The Party at all levels was ensuring that control remained with their chosen successors.
One consequence of this trend was an increase in nepotism, Khrushchev’s son in law, Alexei Adzhubei, became editor of Izvestiya, Brezhnev’s son Yuri became a deputy minister for foreign trade, Kosygin’s son in law became head of the State Committee for Science and Technology.

55. The education system:
Attachment to the Party was reinforced through the educational system, which did its best to instil socialist values from a young age.
For those children whose parents wished them to progress to good jobs and benefit from the status attached, the usual route was to complete secondary education before entering higher education.
This became one of the most important vehicles for gaining social status in Soviet society because good educational qualifications helped secure better jobs and increased promotion chances.
Both boys and girls had equality of access to education and by the 1980’s the number of female students continuing to a higher education matched that of males.
Schools in large urban areas tended to attract better teacher, especially in residential areas occupied by the elite.
Thus, education played a key role in perpetuating a Soviet elite.

57. Youth groups:
These also provided opportunities to mould the young, both boys and girls, into committed communists.
Progression from the Octoberists for those aged five to nine, through the Pioneers for children aged ten to fourteen to Komsomol for those aged up to 28 was important if you wanted to join the Party and therefore secure better promotion prospects.

58. The provision and range of social security benefits:
Between 1950 and 1980, state welfare spending increased fivefold.
Pensions, maternity benefits and housing all received more attention and did much to relieve poverty.
In 1956 the pension scheme for the old, sick and disabled expanded and the retirement age was reduced.
Pensions rose at a higher rate than wages during the Brezhnev period but remained insufficient, for example 40 roubles a month in 1980.
This encouraged many to continue work part-time after reaching retirement age.
The armies of street sweepers who cleared the pavements of winter snow were recruited from the elderly.
Peasants did not receive a pension until the Brezhnev era.

59. Housing:
Many Soviet lives were improved by Khrushchev’s extensive house building programme.
The annual amount of housing space provided by the state increased from 178 million square metres in to 394 million square metres in 1961.
Most of this new housing was provided directly by the state or through co-operatives assisted by government credits.
The edges of many Soviet cities resembled building sites, with endless housing blocks erected in a sea of mud.
Housing blocks were nicknamed khrushchoby, Khrushchev’s slums.
The housing was based on prefabricated panels built on a standard design.
This process helped the speed and cost of building but resulted in drab, uniformed housing that was often poorly finished in a rush to meet targets.
Occupants often complained that concrete blocks were left inside their apartments and that finishing touches such as plastering were left for them to do.
Despite these problems, waiting lists for apartments were still long as many had been living in far worse conditions before.

61. Health care:
There was a considerable growth in the provision of health care during the period of 1950 to 1980.
Availability of health care was not a problem for the Soviet population, but the quality of the provision was a lot more problematic.
Polyclinics provided all purpose health care in the first instance with referral to specialists where deemed necessary. Many workers made use of these services, partly encouraged by the right to time off work to see a doctor.
A Russian tradition was the use of sanatoria, a sort of rest home with medical facilities.
In 1978, there were over 2000 sanatoria and over 1000 rest homes linked to medical care.
Workers were entitled to take time at one of these establishments for a wide range of conditions that included high blood pressure, heart problems and stomach complaints.
Most places were allocated by trade unions.
The best medical services were available in Moscow, with Leningrad and other major cities not far behind.
Provincial cities had fewer services and those in rural areas were primitive.
The Central Asian Republics of the USSR were particularly badly served, even as recently as 1988 some hospitals did not have heating or running water.
Equipment in most hospitals was poorly made, outdated and often in need of repair.

63. Living conditions in the countryside:
The increased investment in agriculture, which had occurred under Khrushchev, was continued under Brezhnev.
Some of this investment was used to build schools, housing and health services in rural areas.
Incomes of collective farmers were increased in 1966 when the government introduced regular wages rather than payment based on a share of the farm’s income.
By the mid 1970’s the wages of rural worker were only 10% less than their urban counterparts.
Collective farmers could also supplement their wage with the produce from their private plot.
By the 1970’s the majority of the Soviet population were experiencing benefits from the great Soviet experiment.
State control over the economy and social welfare provision meant they had a stake in keeping the system as it was and this helped create an underlying stability of developed socialism.

65. How stable was society under developed socialism?:
With the increase in living standards there had been a rise in the expectations of the Soviet population.
These greater expectations provided occasional problems for the government and show that the apparent stability of Soviet society could be undermined.
That the Soviet government feared social instability is shown by its nervous reaction to developments in its satellite states in Eastern Europe.
There had been an uprising against Soviet rule in Hungary in 1956, which had resulted in Soviet tanks invading the country to maintain communist rule.
Soviet military intervention had also been used in Czechoslovakia in 1968 to quell serious unrest.
Soviet intervention to deal with popular unrest in Poland was avoided in 1980 when the Polish government declared martial law to prop up the Communist regime.
The Polish protests were over food prices and echoed many of the issues causing discontent in the Soviet Union itself.
Open protest caused by workers’ discontent was rare in the Soviet Union, but it did occur.
It was usually caused by changes to living or working conditions but tended to encompass wider aspects of life for which the government could be deemed responsible.

67. Evidence of protest: There was serious unrest in Temirtau in 1959.
Temirtau was an industrial centre in Kazakhstan.
The Party had encouraged enthusiastic Komsomol members to flock to the town in order to help build the new metal works.
Many responded, but their enthusiasm was quickly dented by the appalling conditions they were expected to endure, a lack of clean water and few supplies of food.
To add insult to injury, they discovered that East German and Polish workers at the site were being paid more. In protest, the young workers burnt down the workplace canteen and hanged the local police chief.
The KGB were used to restore order and several dozen protestors were killed.
There was a wave of protests over food prices in 1962, when the government increased the price of meat and dairy products.
At Novocherkassk, the protests developed into serious unrest when the local factory manager reduced wages at the same time. The workers blamed the government, in particular Khrushchev.
Their slogan was “Cut up Khrushchev for Sausages.” At least 70 were killed before order was restored.
The seriousness of the affair was indicated by the fact that members of the Politburo were sent to the town to investigate.
Extra food supplies were rushed to the area to quell further trouble.

69. Evidence of protest:
There were strikes and riots over food shortages in Sverdlovsk in 1969 and Gorki in 1980.
Unrest over poor housing provision occurred in Kiev in 1969.
In each case the situation tended to escalate due to the clumsy actions by the local police before order was finally restored.
Incidents like these made the government nervous, but they were spontaneous and improvised demonstrations.
The setting up of the Free Trade Union Association in 1977 was different.
The association sought to represent the real grievances of Soviet workers rather than them having to rely on government controlled and therefore restricted trade unions that already existed.
The government took action quickly and the organisation’s leader, Vladimir Klebanov was dismissed from his job and evicted from his flat.
The point was made, the state had provided, it could take away.
The Association gained little support and came to nothing.

71. Evidence of protest:
Terrorist actions were rare, but not unknown, in 1977 a bomb on the Moscow Metro killed several passengers.
In 1969, there was an assassination attempt on Brezhnev when his motorcade was fired at.
The assassin fired at the wrong car killing the driver but leaving Brezhnev untouched.
The assassin had no political motive and the official explanation was that he was mentally unstable.
These incidents did not indicate a broader revolutionary movement aimed at overthrowing the government.
Soviet society was predominately stable, but this does not mean that it was without social problems which had a detrimental effect on social cohesion.

72. Evidence of protest:
The Second World War had killed a disproportionate number of young men and that led to a generation growing up without a father figure at home.
The lack of good role models for young men was possibly one of the causes of the high rate of divorce in the USSR.
In 1979, the divorce rate was 34% of every marriage.
Alcoholism especially among men, was a serious problem.
Between 1940 and 1980, when the Soviet population grew by 25%, alcohol consumption increased by 600%.
There were an estimated 20 million alcoholics in the USSR in 1987.

74. Evidence of protest:
Hooliganism while never on the scale of that in other countries in the developed world, was a cause for concern.
In the 1970’s commuters in Moscow complained about being robbed by young thugs on evening trains.
In 1975, the government introduced a one year course on “Principles of the Soviet State and Law” to make young citizens aware of their obligations.
The gangs of stilyagi, nonconformists, may have been harmless but their liking for music and protest and nonconformist fashions worried the older generation.
Thus beneath the surface of social stability lay social ills that threatened the cohesion of the family and, with it, society as a whole.
What also undermined the stability of society in the longer term was the fact that it was based on an increasingly inefficient economic basis.
There may have been full employment and considerable provision of social welfare, but it was based on poor productivity and corrupt practice.
In the end, this system could not be sustained.