The imposition of Marxist systems in Eastern Europe had
far-reaching social consequences. Most Eastern European
countries made the change from peasant societies to
modern industrialized economies. In Bulgaria, for example,
80 percent of the labor force was in agriculture in
1950, but only 20 percent was still there in 1980. Although
the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites
never achieved the high standards of living of the
West, they did experience some improvement. In 1960,
the average real income of Polish peasants was four times
higher than before World War II. Consumer goods also
became more widespread. In East Germany, only 17 percent
of families had television sets in 1960, but 75 percent
had acquired them by 1972.
According to Marxist doctrine, government control of
industry and the elimination of private property were
supposed to lead to a classless society. Although the classless
society was never achieved, that ideal did have important
social consequences. For one thing, traditional
ruling classes were stripped of their special status after
1945. The Potocki family in Poland, for example, which
had owned 9 million acres of land before the war, lost all
of its possessions, and family members were reduced to
the ranks of common laborers.
The desire to create a classless society led to noticeable
changes in education. In some countries, the desire to
provide equal educational opportunities led to laws that
mandated quota systems based on class. In East Germany,
for example, 50 percent of the students in secondary
schools had to be children of workers and peasants. The
sons of manual workers constituted 53 percent of university
students in Yugoslavia in 1964 and 40 percent in
East Germany, compared to only 15 percent in Italy and
5.3 percent in West Germany. Social mobility also increased.
In Poland in 1961, half of the white-collar workers
came from blue-collar families. A significant number
of judges, professors, and industrial managers stemmed
from working-class backgrounds.
Education became crucial in preparing for new jobs in
the communist system and led to higher enrollments in
both secondary schools and universities. In Czechoslovakia,
for example, the number of students in secondary
schools tripled between 1945 and 1970, and the number
of university students quadrupled between the 1930s and
the 1960s. The type of education that students received
also changed. In Hungary before World War II, 40 percent
of students studied law, 9 percent engineering and
technology, and 5 percent agriculture. In 1970, the figures
were 35 percent in engineering and technology, 9 percent
in agriculture, and only 4 percent in law.
By the 1970s, the new managers of society, regardless
of class background, realized the importance of higher education
and used their power to gain special privileges for
their children. By 1971, fully 60 percent of the children
of white-collar workers attended a university, and even
though blue-collar families constituted 60 percent of the
population, only 36 percent of their children attended institutions
of higher learning. Even East Germany dropped
its requirement that 50 percent of secondary students had
to be the offspring of workers and peasants.
This shift in educational preferences demonstrates yet
another aspect of the social structure in the Communist
world: the emergence of a new privileged class, made up
of members of the Communist Party, state officials, highranking
officers in the military and secret police, and a
few special professional groups. The new elite not only
possessed political power but also received special privileges,
including the right to purchase high-quality goods
in special stores (in Czechoslovakia, the elite could obtain
organically grown produce not available to anyone
else), paid vacations at special resorts, access to good
housing and superior medical services, and advantages in
education and jobs for their children.
Ideals of equality did not include women. Men dominated
the leadership positions of the Communist parties
in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Women did
have greater opportunities in the workforce and even in
the professions, however. In the Soviet Union, women
comprised 51 percent of the labor force in 1980; by the
mid-1980s, they constituted 50 percent of the engineers,
80 percent of the doctors, and 75 percent of the teachers
and teachers’ aides. But many of these were low-paying
jobs; most female doctors, for example, worked in primary
care and were paid less than skilled machinists. The chief
administrators in hospitals and schools were still men.
Moreover, although women were part of the workforce,
they were never freed of their traditional roles in the
home. Most women confronted what came to be known
as the “double shift.” After working eight hours in their
jobs, they came home to face the housework and care of
the children. They might spend two hours a day in long
lines at a number of stores waiting to buy food and clothes.
Because of the housing situation, they were forced to use
kitchens that were shared by a number of families.
Nearly three-quarters of a century after the Bolshevik
Revolution, then, the Marxist dream of an advanced,
egalitarian society was as far away as ever. Although in
some respects conditions in the socialist camp were an
improvement over those before World War II, many
problems and inequities were as intransigent as ever.
World History
