Social Policies of Brezhnev

In this section we will look over one of the many areas of Brezhnev’s era and the extent to which it had changed by 1982: social policy. There are many (boring) layers to social policy to explore, the most likely to come up is dissidence and nationalities so as dull as it may be, it is important to revise!

The 1977 Brezhnev Constitution

-          The USSR was previously governed by Stalin’s 1936 Constitution

-          The draft Constitution had 150 amendments made to it after 400,000 suggestions

-          The role of the Party given prominent role, “the leading and guiding force in Soviet society and the nucleus of the political system, of all State and public organisations.”

·         Had the role of supervising all enterprises and institutions

-          Guarantees of freedom of speech, assembly, religion, press and individual conscience

·         Important proviso – rights of individual citizens “must not injure interests of society and state and rights of other citizens”

-          Socialist democracy = “for the first time in the history of civilised society, the mass of the population will rise to take an independent part, not only in voting and elections, but also in the everyday administration of the State.”

-          The Constitution was adopted by each Republic, and a promise was made that Republican languages would be officially recognised.

-          BUT – limited, only the State decided what the “interests of society” were. They could quash appeals to individual rights on the basis this was against national or other interest.

·         Individual rights were “inseparable from the performance by the citizen of his obligations” – determined by State alone (e.g. conscription)

·         The Constitution prohibited “the incitement of hostility and hatred in connection with religious beliefs” gave the Party free rein to interfere in religious practices.

Although at the time it seemed to be propaganda and vapid, it allowed Gorbachev to “introduce the notion separation of powers” (Keep) following Brezhnev’s death through the possibility of later amendments.

Social Change

-          Urban population significantly rose between 1964-1982

·         Soviet citizens living in towns rose from 53% to 64%

-          Over 300 towns in the Russian Federation were dependent on one industry and the workforce was almost exclusively female

·         Male unemployment higher than national average, nat. average = 13%

-          Adults with higher secondary/further educational qualifications steadily grew

·         But blue-collar workers often earned more than white-collar professionals like doctors and teachers, it became difficult for people to advance to a level that matched their qualifications

-          Life expectancy fell (alcoholism, consequences of environmental pollution)

-          Birth rate fell below the necessary level to sustain the population in the long run – one cause was shortage of men from war.

·         Village women with any ambition tried to move elsewhere (even Siberia!), where wages were higher.

-          Meanwhile populations in the Republics with large Muslim population rose rapidly.

·         In the 10 years after 1970s the Russian population grew by 6.5%, the Tajik population grew 37.5%

-          Relatively little labour mobility across regions, labour surplus in Central Asia wasn’t used to solve this

-          Always shortage of agricultural labour despite the disparity in income between town and countryside reduced considerably

Living and Working Conditions

-          Gradual increase in overall standard of living during Brezhnev’s rule

·         During K – 40% of Soviets lived in shared/communal apartments, by 1985 this was 15-18%

·         1967 – five-day working week became the norm

·         Holidays increased from 12 to 15 working days

-          Minimum wage increase

·         Real wages, what people could actually buy, increased by 50%.

·         1968 – minimum wage was 60 roubles per month.

·         Doctor/teacher would earn double that

·         Manager of industrial enterprise would earn 600

·         Government/party officials earned 800 and had access to special privileges

-          Consumption of fish, meat and vegetables increased 50%

-          Evidence of broad level of satisfaction with material conditions

·         Soviet citizens who had emigrated expressed satisfaction with job security, social security and educational provision of their previous existence

·         Complaints focused on propaganda, limits on cultural, religious and intellectual freedom, petty restrictions and rigidity of previous lives

·         But there were local food shortages, leading to demonstrations and indicating significant problems

-          Disparities between different regions

·         Highest economic growth rates in Belorussia & Moldavia, the lowest in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.

·         Baltic Republics did well. Collective farm workers in Estonia bucked the trend elsewhere, earning double the average for the USSR as a whole.

·         Baltic inhabitants were increasingly more likely to live longer than other Soviets.

·         Babies in Turkmenistan were five times more likely to die than in Latvia. Alcohol abuse wasn’t a major issue in Central Asian Republics, but was a major concern in European Republics.

-          High divorce rates from cramped housing conditions and increasing dissatisfaction in women’s domestic role.

·         But major factor was alcohol abuse, which compromised 40-50% of divorce pleas.

·         In urban European Russian, one in two marriages ended in divorce.

·         Led to increasing numbers of single parent families and growing concerns of youth issues (hooliganism and delinquency)

-          There was an ageing population and rise in infant mortality, and drop in life expectancy (especially for men), because men were more likely than women to die from alcohol poisoning, accidents or stress-related issues in contrast to developed world

·         Home-brewed spirits led to alcohol-related deaths

·         Alcohol-related concerns led to pressure on social services and didn’t help the strained economy.

·         This was compounded by decline in proportion of State budget on health care, while defence remained high.

·         Doctors and nurses were reported as lacking motivation and sensitivity and prone to taking bribes.

·         Sometimes necessary to bribe hospital to gain admission. They were notoriously under equipped and badly run. Statistics kept secret BUT almost certainly a rise in rate of serious diseases (cancer and hepatitis)

Regime coy about revealing details (hard to quantify impact of social concerns) and even pretended problems (e.g. drug abuse) didn’t exist, claimed it was caused by inequalities of capitalism that no longer existed in socialist world.

Women

-          Shared material gains of population at large, but had rough deal compared to men.

·         This was not a new development, second-class citizens since 1917 Revolution.

·         Had constantly helped economy in workforce, success of war and reconstruction undermined without them.

-          In 1970s, women formed 45% of workforce, but disproportionately confined to less-skilled, low-paid jobs and less educated

-          Laws protecting them from excessively physically demanding jobs were ignored

·         Higher percentage of women employed in manual tasks or construction

-          Women dominated several professions

·         99% of typists and nurses, 74% of doctors, 72% of schoolteachers  - lowest paid professions

-          Many women complained about their situation but authorities ignored absence of “socialist equality”

-          1970 – census revealed 70% of Soviet women had full-time jobs outside home.

-          Few ever reached the top (especially in politics).

·         After 1945 only one women held a top political post: Katerine Furtseva, a Politburo member and minister for culture 1957-60

-          Women complained that despite their massive contribution to the economy, they shouldered the burden of housework, because the Soviet man was reluctant to contribute to household chores.

·         1970s – women shoppers (3/4 of total shoppers) spent on average 21 eight-hour days seeking supplies

·         Women spent 27 hours a week on housework, men spent less than 12

·         Women had one less hour a day for necessary activities like eating and sleeping.

-          Blatant inequalities were major factor for high divorce rate. Also explains why, if they were educated, they became reluctant to marry

And that’s Brezhnev social policy just about covered. Remember to back up your points with lots of evidence to win over the examiner’s confidence, you’ll get more marks for that! My overall conclusion for this section would be that while at the time there was definite change, but not to a great extent, this allowed Gorbachev to later bring in policies like Glasnost and Political Perestroika in continuity.