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History Tsarist Russia AS exam-how did you find it?

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For the source question I said Extract B was the most convincing. I wrote mostly about how A focused on short term causes whilst B included the long term ones. I found quite a lot to criticise about A, but completely forgot to do the same for B :s-smilie:

For Extract A I expanded on Bloody Sunday and then said that it didn't put enough emphasis on the impact of the Russo-Japanese War. For B I supported the idea of the lack of understanding between authority and the Russian people and linked it to the strike movement. I can't remember what else I said, but it was all a bit confused.

The essay question went a lot better for me. I picked the societal transformation one since there was no way I could have written for 40 minutes about Marxism. Mostly I wrote about Alexander II's reforms, the Emancipation and industrialisation/modernisation under Witte. I completely forgot to include agriculture though, so I'm annoyed about that.

All in all I didn't think it was too bad, but I wish I'd spent less time revising the 1917 revolution!!
For the essay question i wrote about Russification as disagree, my reasoning is that he tried to transform society however as a result society was going backwards.

For my conclusion i wrote that society transformed slightly however it mostly remained unchanged.
Am i too on the fence here?????
Original post by socialdisaster
For the source question I said Extract B was the most convincing. I wrote mostly about how A focused on short term causes whilst B included the long term ones. I found quite a lot to criticise about A, but completely forgot to do the same for B :s-smilie:

For Extract A I expanded on Bloody Sunday and then said that it didn't put enough emphasis on the impact of the Russo-Japanese War. For B I supported the idea of the lack of understanding between authority and the Russian people and linked it to the strike movement. I can't remember what else I said, but it was all a bit confused.

The essay question went a lot better for me. I picked the societal transformation one since there was no way I could have written for 40 minutes about Marxism. Mostly I wrote about Alexander II's reforms, the Emancipation and industrialisation/modernisation under Witte. I completely forgot to include agriculture though, so I'm annoyed about that.

All in all I didn't think it was too bad, but I wish I'd spent less time revising the 1917 revolution!!


I put similar to you for the extracts, but I think I misunderstood the first one because I said it thought the 1905 revolution was essentially an organised 'revolution' when really it was just spontaneous. Oh well, can't change it now :biggrin:
Reply 23
I thought the test was ok, most of my friends disliked it though. The sources were quite hard, I said B was more convincing but I still struggled to find a third point for it, and I felt like my counterpoints were a bit repetitive.I did question two and I felt confident but now I'm worried you were meant to do social groups for all 3 themes.... I did Serfs, Education and local government. I made sure I related education and local government to society and how they were vital to it so hopefully I didn't do too badly...
Original post by electrahearts
I put similar to you for the extracts, but I think I misunderstood the first one because I said it thought the 1905 revolution was essentially an organised 'revolution' when really it was just spontaneous. Oh well, can't change it now :biggrin:

Exactly - no point in worrying about it now! In a sense you could have argued that Extract A suggested that it was organised because it referenced the SDs and the SRs, and it certainly didn't put as much stress on spontaneity as Extract B did. Depends how you interpret it, I suppose :tongue:
Reply 25
What was the wording for the Alexander Q?
oh my god guys i reckon i've done it all wrong you know...
for the essay i basically wrote the changes in society, i didn't mention counter-reform or russification.... :dontknow: oh my god
Original post by Helebob
What was the wording for the Alexander Q?


pretty sure it was "'Russian society transformed under the reign of Alexander II and Alexander III' do you agree or disagree?"
Original post by electrahearts
oh my god guys i reckon i've done it all wrong you know...
for the essay i basically wrote the changes in society, i didn't mention counter-reform or russification.... :dontknow: oh my god


No I would imagine that's fine. The question was about changes in society under Alexander II and Alexander III - and that's what you wrote about. As long as you mentioned how their reform influenced and caused such changes then I think what you did is fine.
Reply 29
Original post by electrahearts
pretty sure it was "'Russian society transformed under the reign of Alexander II and Alexander III' do you agree or disagree?"


Thank you.
Reply 30
Original post by electrahearts
oh my god guys i reckon i've done it all wrong you know...
for the essay i basically wrote the changes in society, i didn't mention counter-reform or russification.... :dontknow: oh my god


It is a very broad Q. Changes in society means a great range of evidence can be used...it is how well you argue with what you used that counts.
Looks like quite a few people found the extracts difficult, which is somewhat of a relief. I hope grade boundaries won't be too high...
Original post by socialdisaster
Exactly - no point in worrying about it now! In a sense you could have argued that Extract A suggested that it was organised because it referenced the SDs and the SRs, and it certainly didn't put as much stress on spontaneity as Extract B did. Depends how you interpret it, I suppose :tongue:


Yeah, but how do those arguements relate to the question? It was about the weakening of the tsarist authority, not on the nature of the 1905 revolution (which is what I thought, initially, as the extracts talked a bit about it)
Reply 33
Seems I'm the only one here who argued in favour of Extract A. Not that that's worrying since its mostly subjective in History which is why it is so good. I think this exam was pretty good overall. I think I can get a B overall hopefully. Any idea what the grade boundaries may look like?
Reply 34
The question on Marxism wasnt as bad as it looked. I may be the only person in the world that did it...
I themed my paragraphs as 1) Lenin and the bolsheviks, eg April Theses, 'peace bread and land' and the marxist ideals that he bought'
2) economic hardship within the peasantry and workers, meaning they had little choice but to turn to marxism.
3) Marxist literature eg role of Tchaicovsky circle and Liberals eg Plekhanov.

My main judgement was that Lenin simply acting on existing Marxist influence, and the emergence was down to Literature and Liberals. I then said it grew in popularity because of the peasant and worker hardship.

Im not sure it was a great way to answer it, but I just hated the look of the society question and avoided at all costs.
Reply 35
Original post by popcornjpg
Yeah, but how do those arguements relate to the question? It was about the weakening of the tsarist authority, not on the nature of the 1905 revolution (which is what I thought, initially, as the extracts talked a bit about it)


My understanding is that it was reffering to the 1905 revolution as an example of the weakened tsarist regime. I think the question was trying to get you to analyse the causes and consequences of the 1905 revolution.

Personally, I reffered to the 1905 revolution as weakened authority... For example 'The extract states that workers unrest was a significant reason for the 1905 revolution, suggesting that it the discontent of the workers weakened the Tsarist authority'
I did this one! I messed it up a bit but yeah i did 1. Lenin as like the face of marxism with the april theses, and his role in the october revolution then I countered that saying he was never in russia and there were other key figures 2. Government reforms helped ideas grow ie education/ relaxation of censorship 3. repression/poor conditions/industrialisation meant people were more likely to turn to marxism
Then I concluded that although Lenin did contribute the 'growing influence' was due to continuing poor conditions... but I ran out of time for my conclusion and my structure was a bit all over the place.
I'm hoping that if hardly anyone did that question the examiner might be more lenient? Less to compare to ya know
Original post by niamh1607
I did this one! I messed it up a bit but yeah i did 1. Lenin as like the face of marxism with the april theses, and his role in the october revolution then I countered that saying he was never in russia and there were other key figures 2. Government reforms helped ideas grow ie education/ relaxation of censorship 3. repression/poor conditions/industrialisation meant people were more likely to turn to marxism
Then I concluded that although Lenin did contribute the 'growing influence' was due to continuing poor conditions... but I ran out of time for my conclusion and my structure was a bit all over the place.
I'm hoping that if hardly anyone did that question the examiner might be more lenient? Less to compare to ya know


I also did the Lenin q, with four paragraphs:

1. Growing influence due to rising literacy rates - not lenin - proleteriat, peasants reading revolutionary literature (not only Lenin's work, also Nechaev, Plekhanov etc.)
2. However, Bolshevik Party attracted militant workers/soldiers, influence them with Marxism, advocated Marxism through Pravda etc.
3. However, Bolsheviks advocating more Marxism-Leninism (described this) - therefore Lenin moving people away from Orthodox Marxism, not closer.
4. Role of other revolutionairy parties, organisations - Mensheviks, SRs, Museum of Assistance, 'People's Universities' etc
Reply 38
Original post by ChapMed
My understanding is that it was reffering to the 1905 revolution as an example of the weakened tsarist regime. I think the question was trying to get you to analyse the causes and consequences of the 1905 revolution.

Personally, I reffered to the 1905 revolution as weakened authority... For example 'The extract states that workers unrest was a significant reason for the 1905 revolution, suggesting that it the discontent of the workers weakened the Tsarist authority'


For the first question I think i just wrote about reasons for 1905 revolution and only talked about bloody sunday in the first one which is abit annoying but said B referenced more reasons for unrest so was more convincing

had far too much info to squeeze in in the time slot for the second, was going to write about all russification and economy but only had time for reforms under alexander and only in depth emancipation and then reaction under alexander 2nd and 3rd which is so annoying
Original post by popcornjpg
Yeah, but how do those arguements relate to the question? It was about the weakening of the tsarist authority, not on the nature of the 1905 revolution (which is what I thought, initially, as the extracts talked a bit about it)


Because both extracts used the 1905 revolution as an indicator of the weakening of tsarist autocracy, the question of whether it was organised or not is significant in that it is indicative of how unified opposition to the regime was. If the revolution had been organised it would have shown that the regime was much weaker and more vulnerable to opposition in 1905.

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