[Gthreadgold]

Hi guys,

I know people ask about this all the time, but I was wondering what questions or ideas you have about doing the extended project on the Soviet Union. What's a really good topic to do it on?

I was thinking either something Soviet Union, Jack the Ripper or "Princes in the tower" related (referring to Edward V and his brother Richard who went missing in the Tower of London, apparently due to Richard III). What do you think?

Thank you!

[Andy101]

How about looking at the depiction of the Soviet Union in the pamphlets of UK communists? Obviously most of it will be supportive but there were quite a lot of splits within UK communists at the time Trotskyite / Stalinist etc. Or if you can read Russian the way in which the satellite states interacted with Russia.

Hope that helps, also isn't that quite a wide range of different topics to look at?

[Gthreadgold]

(Original post by Andy101)
How about looking at the depiction of the Soviet Union in the pamphlets of UK communists? Obviously most of it will be supportive but there were quite a lot of splits within UK communists at the time Trotskyite / Stalinist etc. Or if you can read Russian the way in which the satellite states interacted with Russia.

Hope that helps, also isn't that quite a wide range of different topics to look at?

Thank you!
And haha, yes, they're all from massively different eras too but they're the types of things I'm interested and, if I'm honest, I'm a bit torn what to do it on. I do study "the making of modern Russia" at A Level though, which might stop me doing my project on the USSR, unfortunately. So I'm not sure, but thanks a lot for your help

[Agenda Suicide]

Have you considered the missile crisis? So many questions you could use for your extended project on that area alone.

E.g.

"To what extent was the natural clash of communist and capitalist ideologies responsible for the Cuban missile crisis?"

[Andy101]

I did that for AS it was really interesting. The other two have so much research already done into them and are impossible to prove an answer to. Saying that though Jack the Ripper could be an interesting look at how it's portrayed in the media or influenced other serial killers.

[Gthreadgold]

Thanks everyone.

I'm liking the Ripper and the media thing. There's loads to write on that and I've done an essay on it before, but I think I'm favouring doing something along the lines of, what extent does evidence show that Richard III was responsible for the murder of the princes in the tower.

[SebCross]

(Original post by Gthreadgold)
Hi guys,

I know people ask about this all the time, but I was wondering what questions or ideas you have about doing the extended project on the Soviet Union. What's a really good topic to do it on?

I was thinking either something Soviet Union, Jack the Ripper or "Princes in the tower" related (referring to Edward V and his brother Richard who went missing in the Tower of London, apparently due to Richard III). What do you think?

Thank you!

For me personally, the most interesting of those possible topics is the Soviet Union, hands down. There's so much fantastic work on that regime that you'd have such a wealth of secondary and tertiary sources to consult: everything from Getty & Naumov's The Road to Terror (2010) to Anne Applebaum's The Gulag: A History (2004) and everything in between. Personally, I'd say the most fascinating and useful accounts of the S.U., and particularly under Stalin, are Tucker's Stalin in Power: The Revolution From Above 1928-41 (1996) and Robert Conquest's epic volume The Great Terror (2008). For general background you might want to check out Robert Service's material, particularly the biographies on Lenin and Stalin, and Comrades: A History of World Communism (2008).

Which topic have you chosen to go with?

[SebCross]

(Original post by Gthreadgold)
Thanks everyone.

I'm liking the Ripper and the media thing. There's loads to write on that and I've done an essay on it before, but I think I'm favouring doing something along the lines of, what extent does evidence show that Richard III was responsible for the murder of the princes in the tower.

You should check out John Guy's Tudor England (1988). It's a very authoritative volume on the history of the whole period, as its title suggests.

[Gthreadgold]

(Original post by SebCross)
You should check out John Guy's Tudor England (1988). It's a very authoritative volume on the history of the whole period, as its title suggests.

Thank you so much! Really appreciate it.

I've gone with Richard III and done loads of research already and will be checking out the York museum on him next week I love the USSR, my favourite era by far but it's what I study for A Level next year, thus I'm not able to do my project on it

Thank you though!

[SebCross]

(Original post by Gthreadgold)
Thank you so much! Really appreciate it.

I've gone with Richard III and done loads of research already and will be checking out the York museum on him next week I love the USSR, my favourite era by far but it's what I study for A Level next year, thus I'm not able to do my project on it

Thank you though!

I'm glad to be of some help or other =) I just wish I was more knowledgeable about the epoch that you are studying. I'm sorry I can't be of greater assistance.