1. GCE A Level History Revision Conference
Little Heath School
June 2008
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.

2. The A2 (A Level) Examinations
Russia
Two essays
45 m. each
Choice of 3 titles
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.

3. BRING TWO HIGHLIGHTERS FOR USING ON THE TIMELINE
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.

4. Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.
Russia Essays
Examiners are seeking to reward candidates who can project the ‘big picture’; who are able to synthesise elements across the 100 year period.
All the questions set will be on significant aspects of the course.
All questions will require a comparative approach, most of them focusing on similarity and difference.
Remember you will have the CHRONOLOGY in front of you. Use two highlighters to pick out the events that are relevant to your chosen questions.
Don’t abuse it by using it as a frame as you will write a narrative.
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.

5. Russia - Past Questions
Use the questions that have come up to make provisional judgements about this summer’s paper.
Remember that the topic is entitled RUSSIAN DICTATORSHIPS so at least one question is very likely going to examine the nature of Russian government.
Prepare single page REVISION PROMPTS for each topic that has been examined or has been identified as a potential question area.
Do the same with the chronological guides.
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.

6. Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.
Exam Report Issues
1. Candidates who approached their essays thematically usually wrote less but scored higher marks than candidates who adopted a chronological format..
2. A good overview allied to a developed sense of comparison and contrast (similarity/difference, change/continuity) tended to be the essence of a good answer, and a focused introduction and a clear conclusion undoubtedly helped.
3.Thematic essays need to be organised and the most effective answers were usually preceded by a brief outline or plan of the candidates' intended approach. This practice is to be strongly recommended.
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.

7. Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.
Change and Continuity
What caused change?
Revolutions (1905 / Feb 1917 / October 1917)
Wars (Crimean War / Russo-Japanese War / First World War / Second World War)
Personalities (the Tsars / Pobodonostev / Witte / Stolypin / Rasputin / Kerensky / Lenin / Trotsky / Stalin / Khrushchev)
Economic Motives – the need to modernise (clear link to military need)
Famine – sometimes
Opposition - sometimes
What led to continuity?
The size of Russia / the USSR – the sheer scale of the problems
The desire of both Tsars & communist rulers to impose autocracy / dictatorship
Economic Motives – the need to modernise (clear link to military need)
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.

8. Similarity & Difference: Russia Before & After 1917
Government = Autocracy
Secret Police = The Okhrana
The ‘Stolypin necktie’
Industry = backwards, but modernising under state direction
e.g Witte
Peasants = squeezed by state to finance industrialisation.
(famine 1891)
but Kulaks encouraged under Stolypin
Reform = from above & granted under pressure
(October Manifesto 1905)
Minority nations = Russification; a ‘prison of the peoples’ (Lenin).
Capitalism, much of it foreign.
After
Government = Dictatorship
Secret Police = The Cheka
The ‘Red Terror’ & the Purges
Industry = backwards, but modernising under state direction
e.g Five Year Plans
Peasants = squeezed by state to finance industrialisation.
(famine 1921)
but Kulaks encouraged under
NEP
Reform = from above & granted under pressure
(New Economic Policy 1921)
Minority nations = Russification and, from 1945, satellite states.
Capitalism in NEP (Kulaks & Nepmen)
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.

9. Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.
Blatant Differences
1855
Tsarist Autocracy
Feudal society - serfdom
Industrially very backward
On verge of defeat in Crimean War
1956
Communist dictatorship
Serfdom abolished in 1861
Industrially, significantly developed
Victorious in Second World War
Nuclear ‘Super-power’- first atomic bomb exploded 1949
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.

10. Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.
Recent Trends
2005 – 2007 there has been a TURNING POINT essay each year; not set in Jan ’08.
2005 – 2007 there has been an essay asking whether one ruler was better than the rest at ‘something’; not set in Jan ’08.
Ever popular –
Government styles before / after 1917
Reform / repression (reasons for / effectiveness of)
Living / working conditions (peasants / proletariat)
4/12/2019
Preparing today for a better future, using the lessons of the past.