QR Challenge: What was life like in Stalin's Society?

Created using the ClassTools QR Treasure Hunt Generator

Teacher Notes

A. Prior to the lesson:

1. Arrange students into groups. Each group needs at least ONE person who has a mobile device.

2. If their phone camera doesn't automatically detect and decode QR codes, ask students to

• Download a QR reader (e.g. I-Nigma | NeoReader | Kaywa) onto their mobile devices
• Bring these devices into the lesson.

3. Print out the QR codes.

4. Cut them out and place them around your class / school.

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B. The lesson:

1. Give each group a clipboard and a piece of paper so they can write down the decoded questions and their answers to them.

2. Explain to the students that the codes are hidden around the school. Each team will get ONE point for each question they correctly decode and copy down onto their sheet, and a further TWO points if they can then provide the correct answer and write this down underneath the question.

3. Away they go! The winner is the first team to return with the most correct answers in the time available. This could be within a lesson, or during a lunchbreak, or even over several days!

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C. TIPS / OTHER IDEAS

4. A detailed case study in how to set up a successful QR Scavenger Hunt using this tool can be found here.

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Questions / Answers (teacher reference)

Question	Answer
1. Stalin was pragmatic (practical) when dealing with religion. During collectivisation he closed many churches in the country as they supported the resistance to his policies. The NKVD attacked priests and intellectuals.	religion
2. They attacked Jadids and Sufi groups who were dedicated from saving Islam from Marxist pollution. 1936 Sufi groups in places such as Islamic strongholds such as Ferghana Valley in Turkestan had been destroyed. Islam survived despite the claims of soviet propaganda. He set targets for the number of people from different ethnic groups which needed to be purged. In Central Asia Islam was the dominate religion.	religion
3. WW2: Stalin made an alliance with the Church. The Russian Orthodox Church was linked to the Russian national identity. It was natural for the Russians to look to the Church. The Church provided comfort for bereaved families. Soldiers found comfort in the idea they would go to heaven. The Metropolitan (leader of the Russian Orthodox Church) urged Christians to fight for the motherland. He proclaimed Stalin as ‘God’s chosen leader’.	religion
4. The government stopped the anti-religious propaganda. Stalin granted Metropolitan Sergey a house in Moscow. He promised to end the censorship of religious magazines after the war. 414 churches were re-opened during the final year of the war. The priesthood expanded from 9254 in 1946 to 11,827 in 1948. From 1945 Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, Pentecostalists and Methodists increased.	religion
5. This era is called ‘The Great Retreat’ as Stalin wanted to increase birth rates and cut divorce. 1936 He criminalised abortion unless the life of the woman was in danger. He banned contraception. Male homosexuality was criminalised. This was punishable by 5 years in a labour camp. Lesbianism was a disease and had hypnotherapy in an attempt to cure them. Sex outside of marriage was stigmatised and ‘medical virginity checks’ on young women enforce sexual abstinence.	family
6. Divorce was expensive and difficult to obtain. The first divorce cost 1 week’s wages and further divorces increased in expense. Media campaigns exposed unfaithful men. The trade union paper Trud regularly carried stories of men who abandoned themselves to ‘wildness’ Fathers had to pay a minimum of 1/3rd of their income for their children and had to pay 60% of the salary if they had left three or more children.	family
7. There were financial incentives for women to have children. Those with 7 children got 2000 roubles a year for 5 years. This was 5,000 roubles for women with 11 children. Women were expected to perform essential family labour and on average spent 5s longer on their domestic duties than men.	family
8. During the Five Year plans large numbers of women joined the labour force. By 1940 there were 13 million in work compared to 3 million during the NEP. 1940 41% of women worked in heavy industry. They did the same jobs as men but were paid 60-65% of men’s wages. They suffered verbal and physical abuse in factories and some men refused to work with them as they brought bad luck. WW2: women made up 75% of the labour force.	women
9. This era is called ‘The Great Retreat’ as Stalin wanted to increase birth rates and cut divorce. 1936 He criminalised abortion unless the life of the woman was in danger. He banned contraception. Male homosexuality was criminalised. This was punishable by 5 years in a labour camp. Lesbianism was a disease and had hypnotherapy in an attempt to cure them. Sex outside of marriage was stigmatised and ‘medical virginity checks’ on young women enforce sexual abstinence. Divorce was expensive and difficult to obtain. The first divorce cost 1 week’s wages and further divorces increased in expense. Media campaigns exposed unfaithful men. The trade union paper Trud regularly carried stories of men who abandoned themselves to ‘wildness’ Fathers had to pay a minimum of 1/3rd of their income for their children and had to pay 60% of the salary if they had left three or more children. There were financial incentives for women to have children. Those with 7 children got 2000 roubles a year for 5 years. This was 5,000 roubles for women with 11 children. Women were expected to perform essential family labour and on average spent 5s longer on their domestic duties than men.	family
10. During the Five Year plans large numbers of women joined the labour force. By 1940 there were 13 million in work compared to 3 million during the NEP. 1940 41% of women worked in heavy industry. They did the same jobs as men but were paid 60-65% of men’s wages. They suffered verbal and physical abuse in factories and some men refused to work with them as they brought bad luck. WW2: women made up 75% of the labour force.	work
11. The urban population trebled between 1929 and 1940. Peasants left the collectives for the factories. The housing budget was kept to a minimum. Building were divided into Kommunalka (communal apartments). Entire families would share a small single room. Kitchens and bathrooms were shared. The average family had 5.5 square metres in 1930. By 1940 this was 4 metres squared. Rooms were divided without being rewired so one light switch would control several apartments. Coal sheds and under stairs cupboards were converted into apartments. Sewage was not invested in and electrification was slow. Corner dwellers developed where people lived in communal kitchens or corridors. One worker in Leningrad lived in the corridor for 5 years.	living conditions
12. New buildings were made in factory towns such as Magnitogorsk but these were worse than the kommunalka. They did not have running water and the best were built of wood and had insulation made of straw. Initially a German architect designed clean, modern state of the art buildings. They were too expensive and the few that were built had American specialists living in them. There were no kitchens as they assumed workers would live in the canteens.	living conditions
13. The majority of workers lived in barrack accommodation and 20% lived in mud huts. There was lots of disease and lice.	living conditions
14. WW2: approximately 1/3rd of housing was damaged. By 1947 the average worker in a kommunalka had 4m squared and those living in dormitories had 3 metres squared space. Furniture was scarce there was one table for every ten workers., one wardrobe for 27 workers and one wash basin for every 70 people.	living conditions
15. The government started a scheme to get workers to build their own homes but building materials were scarce and these failed. 1945-1950: 4,500 farming villages were built. The construction of 919,000 houses and 250,000 agricultural production buildings. 1948 housebuilding projects in Moscow spent 40% of their budget and were then suspended so no houses were completed. 1950s housing – poor quality. Roofs leaked, plaster fell off the walls and there was no gas, electricity or sewerage.	housing
16. 16th Party congress relaunched the campaign against illiteracy. New targets were incorporated to eliminate illiteracy and ensure compulsory primary schooling. Aim: to ensure that all people had the basic education needed to work in factories or on farms.	education
17. 1932 the government set the target that 100% of 8-12 children would be enrolled in primary schools. Official figures suggest this reached 95%. This was a great increase from 60% in 1928. 3 million volunteers were recruited from the Komsomol to educate workers and peasants. They were called cultural soldiers. They were organised in cultural battalions and tasked with fighting a cultural war against illiteracy. He used targets as in industry but this only focused upon literacy and not the educational development of students. This took place in the campaign to collectivise so teachers were attached and considered the enemy by the people as they were linked to the government.	education
18. 40% of teachers were physically attacked in the first year of this campaign. Some were locked in schools which were then set on fire, some were beaten to death and some had acid thrown at them. Rumours were rife that teachers were there to kidnap children and send young soviet women to China as slaves. They were poorly equipped and poorly supported. There were no textbooks or writing materials. They could not provide free meals to the peasants who attended schools. 90% of Soviet adults attended a literacy course during the First Five Year plan. 68% of people were literate by the end of the First Five Year Plan. By 1939 over 94% of citizens were literate. 97% of men were literate but only 90% of women were literate.	education
19. As the government was spending its money on industrialisation, education beyond primary level had fees. This limited access. The Communist Party and trade unions offered scholarships to help students get into higher education. Sons and daughters of Party officials were able to get in to better schools, this helped Stalin to reward loyal party members. Schools emphasised discipline, hard work and traditional skills to ensure they became good workers. 1927 enrolments in universities enrolled 170,000. 1931 – a decree on curriculum reform was ordered. Core subjects such as reading, writing, maths and science formed the basis of a socialist education. This was to prepare them for the discipline at work.	education
20. 1932 – teachers were required to ensure that students attended regularly and were punctual. They had to set regular homework. The national code of conduct covered the correct way to stand in the classes. They were encouraged to set an example like Stakhanov. 1936 Olga Fedorovna Leonova pledged all of her students would gain excellent grades. A media campaign was centred around her.Students could be expelled for misconduct.	education
21. Universities had enrolled 500,000. 1933 – new school textbooks were launched to support then new curriculum. In 1935 the system of national exams and were designed to grade the workforce of the future and identify and train managers. Less successful would be assigned more manual jobs. May 1934 – the decree on the Teaching of Civic History focused upon teaching Peter the Great, Ivan the terrible and became very nationalistic, stressing the Russian nation rather than the history of class struggle or the international class movement. This was at the same time as the cult of Stalin emerged.	education
22. By 1939 universities had increased around 800% since 1914. 7% of the child population (1.5 million) had completed secondary education. This had only been 216,000 by the end of the NEP. 1940 Labour Reserve Schools were introduced to train young men between 14-17 in specialisms in industry. Quotas for compulsory enrolment were set.	education
23. The number of university enrolments were 812,000. University academics were purged in the 1930s but by 1940 there was 50,000 from academics from 29,000 in 1927. WW2: you could avoid military conscription by being in a Labour Reserve School. They started to recruit women. Only 227,000 students remained at university. July 1943 – a decree introducing gender segregation in secondary schools. The local soviets encouraged the students did not share the same buildings where possible. 1946-1952 Labour Reserve Schools recruited 4.2 million people and trained them to work in metallurgy, electricity production, industrial and military construction and as railway workers.	education
24. 1953 official figures said almost 100%b of children aged 8-12 gained four full years of primary education. 65% of children aged 12-17 gained secondary education. 20% of children aged 15-17 completed secondary education. There were 1.5 million students were at university.	young people

 

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