Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism

What Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism covers

Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism is examined in Paper 1, Understanding the modern world. It covers Russia’s economy and society, Nicholas II’s autocracy and the court, the First World War and the collapse of Tsarist government, the Provisional Government, the impact of Lenin's dictatorship, war Communism, the Kronstadt Rising and the New Economic Policy, Stalin the dictator, Stalin's modernisation of the USSR and impact of the Second World War.

The 9 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Russia’s economy and societyRussia in 1894, Witte's industrial drive and the Trans-Siberian Railway, the fastest-growing industries, factory and housing conditions in the cities, the mir and backward peasant farming, redemption payments, the famine of 1891, and why industrial growth made tsarism more vulnerable.Open →
• Nicholas II’s autocracy and the courtAutocracy and the institutions that upheld it, the Social Revolutionaries and the Bolshevik–Menshevik split, Bloody Sunday and the 1905 revolution, the October Manifesto and the Fundamental Laws, the Dumas and the political stalemate, and Stolypin's land reform, repression and record by 1914.Open →
• The First World War and the collapse of Tsarist governmentTannenberg and the Masurian Lakes, the shortage of equipment, Nicholas taking command, distrust of Alexandra, Rasputin, Petrograd's winter of 1916 to 1917, the food crisis, the February strikes, the garrison's mutiny and the abdication.Open →
• The Provisional GovernmentLvov and Kerensky, dual power and Order Number 1, fighting on, the land question, Lenin's April demands, Peace, Bread, Land, the July Days, the Kornilov affair, Bolshevik growth, and the seizure of power in October.Open →
• The impact of Lenin's dictatorshipThe Constituent Assembly closed, Brest-Litovsk and the civil war it fed, the Cheka and the Red Terror, Trotsky's Red Army, the Whites and foreign intervention, the Romanovs' deaths, why the Reds won, and the cost.Open →
• War Communism, the Kronstadt Rising and the New Economic PolicyWar Communism and the peasants' answer, the famine of 1921, the Kronstadt sailors and their crushing, the tax in kind and private trade, the Nepmen, whether the new policy worked, and Lenin's and Trotsky's records.Open →
• Stalin the dictatorLenin's Testament, the General Secretary's power, socialism in one country against permanent revolution, the defeat of Stalin's rivals, Kirov's murder and the purges, the show trials, the NKVD, the Gulag, and the cult of personality.Open →
• Stalin's modernisation of the USSRWhy Stalin forced the pace, collectivisation, the kulaks, peasant resistance and the famine of 1932–33, the Five Year Plans and what they built, the lives of industrial workers and Stakhanov, what the changes meant for women, city dwellers and professional workers, and how far modernisation succeeded.Open →
• Impact of the Second World WarThe pact of 1939, Operation Barbarossa, the State Defence Committee, the Great Patriotic War, the factories moved east, Stalingrad and Kursk, the siege of Leningrad, the 25 million dead, continued repression, and Stalin's standing.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism further

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Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Bolsheviks vs Mensheviks

  Bolsheviks: Lenin's wing wanting a small, tightly disciplined party of professional revolutionaries. Mensheviks: Martov's wing wanting a broad party open to all workers.

• October Manifesto vs Fundamental Laws

  October Manifesto: 1905 promise of an elected parliament, freedom of speech and legal political parties. Fundamental Laws: 1906 restatement that the Tsar held supreme autocratic power and could rule by decree.

• War Communism vs New Economic Policy

  War Communism: emergency system from 1918 of state-run factories, banned private trade and grain seizures. New Economic Policy: 1921 system of a fixed tax in produce, with surplus sold privately and small shops legal.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   In what year did Nicholas II come to the throne, and what sort of country did he inherit?

   Model answer

   1894; an empire of about 125 million people stretching across Europe and Asia, the great majority of them poor peasants living in villages.

2. 2

   Which minister drove the surge of industrial growth in the 1890s, and how did he pay for it?

   Model answer

   Sergei Witte, who raised heavy taxes at home, borrowed on a large scale from French and other foreign investors, and put the rouble on the gold standard in 1897.

3. 3

   What was the Trans-Siberian Railway meant to do for the Russian economy?

   Model answer

   Open up the coal, iron and timber of Siberia and link Moscow with the Pacific coast, although it was still single track and unfinished when war broke out with Japan in 1904.

4. 4

   Which industries grew fastest during the great spurt of the 1890s?

   Model answer

   Coal, iron, steel and oil; output of coal and pig iron roughly doubled and the Baku oilfields made Russia one of the largest oil producers in the world.

5. 5

   What were conditions like inside the new Russian factories?

   Model answer

   Shifts of eleven hours or more for low wages, with unguarded machinery, fines for small mistakes and no legal trade unions to complain through.

6. 6

   Where did factory workers in the growing cities live?

   Model answer

   In overcrowded barracks and tenement rooms shared by several families, sometimes sleeping in shifts in the same bed, with filthy water and almost no sanitation.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism revision questions

What does Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism cover in AQA GCSE History?

9 subtopics: russia’s economy and society, nicholas ii’s autocracy and the court, the first world war and the collapse of tsarist government, the provisional government, the impact of lenin's dictatorship, war communism, the kronstadt rising and the new economic policy, stalin the dictator, stalin's modernisation of the ussr and impact of the second world war. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Russia, 1894–1945: Tsardom and Communism organised?

By the AQA 8145 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.