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Date Posted: 18:17:20 05/13/03 Tue
Author: Mr John D Clare
Subject: How did life change between 19?? and 19??
In reply to: 's message, "People" on 01:36:24 05/13/03 Tue

Good question!
Let's start by thinking about the factors that contribute to the quality of life.
I can think of three main ones:
1. How well-off are you?
- eg how much money you have, what kind of house you live in, how well you eat.
2. What kind of government do you have?
- can be very important: how much freedom do you have, is it democratic, does it acknowledge a responsibility to make your life comfortable, what is law and order like, is it at war, does it have a secret police etc.
3. What system of values and beliefs do you live by?
- what faith are you, how much freedom do you have to believe what you want, what principles does society espouse, what hopes and opportunities are there for different groups and individuals, is there persecution etc.

If you read your textbook - or the mini-book on Russia on www.johndclare.net - it will be fairly easy for you to find out some facts about all three of these areas for any date you care to mention.

What you have to do then is to write an essay with three paragraphs, one for each area, saying in each what life was like in the two periods being compared, and then passing a judgement about which was better.


THUS (eg): Did life for Russians improve 1916-1921?

1. Standard of Living
1916 - war/ starving in towns/ bread riots/ men at war so can't do farm work/ railways congested with war traffic/ economic chaos/ peasants desperately poor anyway/ 4 families to each room/ nobles still flog peasants etc.
1921 - Civil War/ famine/ production less than 1913 etc.
Evaluation - no change - things were just as bad

2. Government
1916 - Tsar/ Rasputin/ incompetence/ Okrana.
1921 - Dictatorship of Proletariat (Lenin has dismissed the Assembly)/ Cheka/ Politbureau - Bolsheviks ruthlessly efficient etc.
Evaluation - just as tyrannical, but much better at it - things got worse.

3. Beliefs and principles
1916 - Orthodox religion/ accept the Tsar as their father/ society very class-ridden, but there is a comfort in knowing your place - peasants very set in their ways.
1921 - Bolshevik society/ War Communism (see <a rel=nofollow target=_blank href="http://www.johndclare.net/Russ6.htm)/">http://www.johndclare.net/Russ6.htm)/</a> religion proscribed/ strikers shot/ hope for a Communist future, but misery of Civil War atrocities
Evaluation - much harsher, less comfortable - shown in Kronstadt revolt - but hope for a brighter Communist future - swings and roundabouts.

Conclusion
All-in-all, seems overall to have got worse - as is proven by the fact that Lenin was forced to bring in the New Economic Policy.


Now, you can use that three-paragraph structure easily for ANY start and end dates, by simply subsituting a few facts about the stadard of living, the government and the beliefs of those times.
Hope this helps.

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