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1H Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964

  • 25 subtopics
  • 67 things to know
  • Component 1

What 1H Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964 covers

Option 1H is a breadth study of Russia, taken as one of the Component 1 choices. It runs from the attempt to preserve autocracy under Alexander II through revolution and the making of the Communist dictatorship to the years after Stalin.

Where it is assessed

Component 1

A breadth study, of which a student sits one.

Check the AQA specification ↗

The 25 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What did autocracy mean in the Russian political system?

Key term

What were the key features of Russia's political system in 1855?

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What was serfdom and what restrictions did it impose on peasants?

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What role did the mir play after emancipation?

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What were the zemstva and what responsibilities did they have?

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What happened to censorship under Alexander II?

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What was the underlying purpose of Alexander II's reforms?

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What event in 1866 caused Alexander II to become more reactionary?

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What powers did the Statute on State Security (1881) grant the government?

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What was Russification?

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What was Populism (Narodnichestvo)?

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What methods did the Tsarist regime use to deal with opposition?

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What personal qualities did Nicholas II lack that made him ill-suited to managing the pressures facing the Russian state?

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What powers did the Fundamental Laws of 1906 preserve for the Tsar despite the creation of the Duma?

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Who led the workers presenting a petition to the Winter Palace on Bloody Sunday in January 1905?

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What change followed the dissolution of the Second Duma in 1907?

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How could peasants reorganise their landholdings under Stolypin's reforms?

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What policies did Finance Minister Witte use to promote rapid industrial growth in the 1890s?

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How were grain exports significant to the Russian government, and at whose expense were they achieved?

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How was Russian society legally organised, and what were the main estates?

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What cultural changes occurred in late tsarist Russia?

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What two traditions influenced socialism in Russia?

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What type of party organisation did Lenin and the Bolsheviks advocate?

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What methods did radical groups use, and how did the Okhrana respond?

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What military problems did Russia face during the First World War?

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How did the protests in Petrograd develop after 23 February 1917?

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What were the July Days and what were their consequences?

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What was the Marxist foundation of Lenin's ideology?

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After defeating Trotsky, who did Stalin ally with against the Left Opposition?

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What was grain requisitioning under War Communism?

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What was the policy on private trade under NEP?

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When and where was the ban on factions within the Communist Party introduced?

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What did the 1924 Constitution establish as the supreme authority, and where did real power actually lie?

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How was terror used as a governing tool under Stalin?

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Define dekulakisation and its impact.

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What was characteristic of the targets set in the First Five Year Plan?

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What was the purpose of internal passports introduced under Stalin?

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How did Stalin's policies change divorce laws?

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How did the Soviet state persecute the Orthodox Church through its buildings?

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How was history rewritten under Stalin?

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What economic policies did Bukharin's Right Opposition support?

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What punishments were meted out during the Great Purges?

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What was the impact of the purge of the Red Army in 1937-38?

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Who led the NKVD during the mass operations of the Great Terror, and what was his fate?

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What was the state of Soviet agriculture by 1941?

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What was the codename for the German invasion of the USSR in June 1941, and what immediate effect did it have on the Soviet system?

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How did the war affect Soviet ideological controls regarding religion?

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What were the estimated Soviet population losses during the war, and what problems did this create?

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What is meant by 'High Stalinism' and when did it occur?

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What happened to the Gulag system after the war?

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How did Khrushchev outmanoeuvre Malenkov in the power struggle?

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Who comprised the Anti-Party Group, and what happened when they attempted to remove Khrushchev in June 1957?

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What positions did Khrushchev hold by 1958?

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What were the key elements of Khrushchev's ideology regarding international relations?

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What characterised post-war Stalinist economic policy?

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What was the Virgin Lands scheme?

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How did policy toward private peasant plots change from the post-war period to Khrushchev's era?

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What does 'The Thaw' refer to in Soviet history?

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How did the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962) affect Khrushchev's position?

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What was the Soviet Union's international and economic status by 1964?

Process

What was Russification, and who promoted and suffered it?

Process

Why did the land issue remain unresolved after emancipation?

Key term

What was the difference between Slavophiles and Westernisers?

Process

Who were Russia's finance ministers before Witte?

Process

How did Stalin's state control workers and prisoners, and how did it change divorce law?

Process

What were the foundations of Lenin's ideology?

Process

What military and economic problems did Russia face in the First World War?

Take 1H Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • War Communism vs New Economic Policy

    War Communism: centralised emergency controls imposed during civil conflict. New Economic Policy: mixed system restoring limited private trade after economic collapse.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What did autocracy mean in the Russian political system?

    Model answer

    The Tsar held absolute power, ruling by divine right without constitutional limits or a representative assembly.

  2. 2

    What were the key features of Russia's political system in 1855?

    Model answer

    Centralised bureaucratic control, censorship, and the absence of elected national institutions.

  3. 3

    Describe the structure of Russian society in 1855.

    Model answer

    It was rigidly hierarchical, with the nobility holding privileges, a small urban middle class, and the vast majority being enserfed peasants.

  4. 4

    What was serfdom and what restrictions did it impose on peasants?

    Model answer

    Serfdom bound peasants to the land and their landlords, requiring labour services or payments and restricting their freedom of movement.

  5. 5

    What characterised Russia's economy in 1855?

    Model answer

    It was predominantly agricultural, with limited industrial development, poor infrastructure, and reliance on serf labour.

  6. 6

    What military weaknesses did the Crimean War expose in Russia?

    Model answer

    Outdated weapons, inadequate transport networks, and poor logistics.

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1H Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964 revision questions

What does 1H Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964 cover in AQA A-Level History?
25 subtopics: autocracy and serfdom in 1855, the emancipation of the serfs and alexander ii's reforms, reform, reaction and the death of alexander ii, pobedonostsev and russification, liberals, populists and the tsarist police, economy and society after emancipation, nicholas ii, bloody sunday and the fundamental laws, the dumas, stolypin and witte's industrialisation, workers, peasants and the grain trade, liberals, socialist revolutionaries and marxists, the first world war and the february revolution, lenin's return and the october revolution, lenin's ideology, war communism and kronstadt, the new economic policy and the ban on factions, stalin's rise and the power struggle, terror, the 1936 constitution and collectivisation, the five year plans, internal passports, the gulag and soviet society, the party oppositions and the moscow show trials, the great purges and the ussr by 1941, barbarossa and the soviet war effort, high stalinism and the succession to stalin, the secret speech and the anti-party group, soviet economic policy from stalin to khrushchev and the thaw, the fall of khrushchev and the ussr by 1964. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is 1H Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964 organised?
By the AQA 7042 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

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