levo

Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917–41

Life in the Soviet Union

  • 2 things to know
  • Paper 3

Overview

Crowded town housing, harsh factory work and what workers gained, life on a collective farm, internal passports, rationing and queues, the groups who did best and those who suffered most, the gap between skilled and unskilled wages, and new chances for able young people from poor homes.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Key term

What was housing like in the towns in the 1930s?

Key term

What was work like in Soviet factories in the 1930s?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What was housing like in the towns in the 1930s?

    Model answer

    Workers arrived far faster than flats could be built, so families lived in a single room and shared a kitchen and washroom with their neighbours.

  2. 2

    What was work like in the new factories?

    Model answer

    Hours were long and discipline savage: lateness or absence could mean the sack or prison, and safety was sacrificed to meeting targets.

  3. 3

    What did town workers gain in return for the hardship?

    Model answer

    There was work for all, with free schooling and medical care, cheap canteens, sports and holiday clubs and a real chance of promotion.

  4. 4

    What was daily life like on a collective farm?

    Model answer

    Peasants worked to quotas for very little, lived in poor cottages without electricity, and relied on the vegetables and animals of their private plots.

  5. 5

    Could country people move to the towns as they wished?

    Model answer

    No: an internal passport was needed to live in a town and collective farmers were refused one, which tied them to the land.

  6. 6

    How were food and goods distributed in the 1930s?

    Model answer

    Bread and other basics were rationed for much of the decade and queuing was a normal part of life, with the best supplies going to those the state valued.

Other ways to work this

The same content, four other ways.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

1Closed book
2Open book
3Closed book

See a huge jump in your memorisation

Answer cold, learn it, then prove it stuck. Levo tracks the jump between your first attempt and your last.

Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060–88
British America, 1713–83: Empire and Revolution
Conflict in the Middle East, 1945–95
Crime and Punishment in Britain, c1000–present

Cram a whole paper in one sitting

Sort every topic into what you know and what you do not, then drill only the weak ones.

£6.6 , fixed in 1921.
billionmillionthousand

Blank Blitz consolidates the facts

Rapid timed gap-fills on the terms and numbers you need to recall without thinking.

AThe huge loss of life left England short of workers.
BForeign craftsmen and labourers were wanted.
CCompetition for work also bred resentment.

Build It trains answer structure

Assemble a full-mark answer from its marking points, in the order an examiner wants them.

Strategy means the plan for a whole campaign.
TrueFalse

Test It catches misconceptions

Spot the fault in a statement. The traps are the mistakes students actually make.

721941163128510

Brain Breaks between sessions

Short focus games to reset attention, so the next set lands better than the last.

Every question in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1917–41, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

Or £46 a year, about £3.83 a month. Cancel anytime.