AQA A-Level History 7042
1A The Age of the Crusades, c1071–1204
1B Spain in the Age of Discovery, 1469–1598
1C The Tudors: England, 1485–1603
1D Stuart Britain and the Crisis of Monarchy, 1603–1702
1E Russia in the Age of Absolutism and Enlightenment, 1682–1796
1F Industrialisation and the People: Britain, c1783–1885
1G Challenge and Transformation: Britain, c1851–1964
1H Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855–1964
1J The British Empire, c1857–1967
1K The Making of a Superpower: USA, 1865–1975
1L The Quest for Political Stability: Germany, 1871–1991
2A Royal Authority and the Angevin Kings, 1154–1216
2B The Wars of the Roses, 1450–1499
2C The Reformation in Europe, c1500–1564
2D Religious Conflict and the Church in England, c1529–c1570
2E The English Revolution, 1625–1660
2F The Sun King: Louis XIV, France and Europe, 1643–1715
2G The Birth of the USA, 1760–1801
2H France in Revolution, 1774–1815
2J America: A Nation Divided, c1845–1877
2K International Relations and Global Conflict, c1890–1941
2L Italy and Fascism, c1900–1945
2M Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition, 1906–1957
2N Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia, 1917–1953
2O Democracy and Nazism: Germany, 1918–1945
2P The Transformation of China, 1936–1997
2Q The American Dream: Reality and Illusion, 1945–1980
2R The Cold War, c1945–1991
2S The Making of Modern Britain, 1951–2007
2T The Crisis of Communism: The USSR and the Soviet Empire, 1953–2000
2N Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia, 1917–1953
The Gulag and the End of the Purges
- 3 things to know
- Component 2
Overview
Recall questions on conditions in the camps, how the mass operations were halted, the fate of Yezhov and the change under his successor.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Who replaced Yezhov as head of the NKVD and what change did this bring?
What are the intentionalist and revisionist interpretations of responsibility for the Terror?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What were conditions like in the gulags?
Model answer
Inadequate food, extreme cold, exhausting work quotas, disease, and arbitrary violence, resulting in high mortality rates.
- 2
How did the mass purges come to an end in late 1938?
Model answer
Yezhov was replaced by Beria, and the regime acknowledged that excesses had occurred, blaming overzealous NKVD officers.
- 3
What happened to Yezhov after the purges ended?
Model answer
He was arrested in 1939 and executed in 1940, becoming a scapegoat for the terror he had administered on Stalin's orders.
- 4
Who replaced Yezhov as head of the NKVD and what change did this bring?
Model answer
Lavrentiy Beria became head of the NKVD in 1938 and reduced the scale of mass arrests while maintaining the apparatus of repression.
- 5
How and when was Leon Trotsky assassinated?
Model answer
In Mexico City in August 1940 by NKVD agent Ramón Mercader, who struck him with an ice axe.
- 6
What was the significance of Trotsky's assassination for Stalin?
Model answer
It eliminated Stalin's most prominent critic abroad and the symbolic leader of opposition to Stalinism.
Other ways to work this
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Every question in 2N Revolution and Dictatorship: Russia, 1917–1953, 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.
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