Specified content
• The main features of Tsarist rule and Russian society before the First World War:– the 1905 Revolution and its aftermath– attempts at reform
• The First World War and its impact on the Russian people
• The March Revolution of 1917
• The Provisional Government and the Soviets, the growing power of revolutionary groups
• Reasons for the failure of the Provisional Government
• The Bolshevik seizure of power, the role of Lenin
• The main features of Bolshevik rule, the Civil War and War Communism, and reasons for the Bolshevik
victory
• The Kronstadt Rising and the establishment of the New Economic Policy
• Lenin’s death and the struggle for power
• Reasons for Stalin’s emergence as leader by 1928
• Stalin’s dictatorship:– use of terror– the Purges– propaganda and official culture
• Stalin’s economic policies and their impact:– the modernisation of Soviet industry– the Five-Year Plans– collectivisation in agriculture
• Life in the Soviet Union:– the differing experiences of social groups– ethnic minorities and women