Edexcel AS History Student Unit Guide: Unit 1 Stalin's Russia, 1924-53 (Option D4)

Summary:
Student Unit Guides are perfect for revision. Each guide is written by an examiner and explains the unit requirements, summarises the relevant unit content and includes a series of specimen questions and answers.

There are three sections to each guide:

Introduction - includes advice on how to use the guide, an explanation of the skills being tested by the assessment objectives, an outline of the unit or module and, depending on the unit, suggestions for how to revise effectively and prepare for the examination questions.

Content Guidance - provides an examiner's overview of the module's key terms and concepts and identifies opportunities to exhibit the skills required by the unit. It is designed to help students to structure their revision and make them aware of the concepts they need to understand the exam and how they might analyse and evaluate topics.

Question and Answers - sample questions and with graded answers which have been carefully written to reflect the style of the unit. All responses are accompanied by commentaries which highlight their respective strengths and weaknesses, giving students an insight into the mind of the examiner.

• A revision guide specifically written to meet the requirements of the unit
  

• Written by an examiner with commentary on key points and concepts
  

• Features specimen questions and answers, together with examiner's comments
  

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Section 1: The struggle for power 1924-29
The contenders for power
Powerbases
Ideology: the great industrialisation debate
Ideology: foreign policy
Making and breaking alliances
Devious tactics
Exam focus
Section 2: Transforming the Soviet Union - collectivisation and industrialisation
Causes of modernisation
Collectivisation and its consequences
The First Five-Year Plan 1928-32
The Second Five-Year Plan 1933-38
The Third Five-Year Plan 1938-41
The Great Retreat: women
The Great Retreat: family and education
Exam focus
Section 3: Persecution and control - the totalitarian regime
Causes of the Great Terror
Moscow show trials
Yezhovshchina
The impact of the Terror
Socialist Realism
Cult of Personality
Exam Focus
Section 4: The making of a superpower - the impact of the Second World War
The coming of the war
The cost of the war
Reasons for victory: Russia at war
Reasons for victory: military campaigns and Allied support
Superpower
Exam focus
Glossary
Timeline
Answers

About the Author(s):
Robin Bunce is a bye fellow at St Edmund's College in Cambridge and a senior examiner in history.