AQA History A2 HIS3K &#x27;USSR 1941-1991&quot; June 2016 prediction

Haven't a clue....

My worry is cramming all the hard facts and historian viewpoints into my head. I know the general knowledge regarding Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Chernenko and Andropov (I have to say haven't been other these two yet) along with Gorbachev, but getting all their specific stastics such as economy, industrial output and policies is a struggle.

- My teacher is always giving me low level 4/levels 3 for my essays, which is worrying me. Then again, she is a strict marker but is always trying to get precise facts out of me. Really want to do my best in this.

So I have a different question for you:
How exactly do you go about getting precise facts into your head? Flashcards, rewriting notes? It just isn't working for me

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 3

hannah398

Original post by Khanthebrit

Perhaps make your own podcasts? Listening to it time and time again might help. I know some people that this works for :smile:

Reply 4

so basically if you look at past papers the last few years the 45 mark questions have paired khrushchev and gorbachev together and stalin and brezhnev along with a breadth question

now previous to 2012 it had always been khrushcehv and stalin one year, brezhnev and gorby the next, however in 2012 they kinda switched it with one of the question before pursuing the full switch from 2013 onwards

I kind of think they'll keep it the same because stalin and brezhnev covers more of the era than say stalin and khrushchev, however you would be wrong to not revise everything as the breadth question will ensure every era is tested, but at the same time ask yourself if you are particularly comfortable with stalin and brezhnev and i guess prioritise them

so to summarise if i had to put money on it i'd say brezhnev and stalin will come up as the first 2 followed by a breadth question, but please revise all of them because knowing exams they'll troll us and test khrushchev and gorbachev haha

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 5

Hope it is Stalin and Khrushchev - I find with each era, there is a load more policies to learn. Basically, the knowing what happened purely becomes politics, especially during Brezhnev's reign.

Reply 6

Original post by Khanthebrit

Hope it is Stalin and Khrushchev - I find with each era, there is a load more policies to learn. Basically, the knowing what happened purely becomes politics, especially during Brezhnev's reign.

yeah thats definitely true but I can almost guarantee you will get a question solely on Brezhnev so just understand the whole geontocracy and political stagnation

Reply 7

hannah398

Historiography on Stalin and Brez? I'm struggling to find clear quotes and opinions that can be used in every essay?

Also how is it best to answer the breadth questions on economy? Tackle the questions leader by leader? or by sector

Reply 8

Original post by hannah398

I do it leader by leader.

Reply 9

Pencil Case

Original post by hannah398

Historiography-wise here are some quotes I find useful for Stalin and Brezhnev;

Stalin:
Great Patriotic War:
"Stalin almost certainly played a pivotal part in every aspect of the Soviet war effort." Pearson
GKO had "all the power and authority of the state." Overy
"The war effort was not the product of one man." Overy
"USSR couldn't have won the war without foreign aid" Zhukov
"USSR could have still fought the Germans to a standstill without foreign aid" Clark (Barbarossa 1965)
Stalin may have believed too strongly in the "invincibility of the Red Army." Laver
Stalin was an "effective symbol of resistance." Laver

Industry:
"The USSR could face the arms race ... with a stronger industrial structure than before the war." Nove
"The speed of reconstruction was impressive." Kenez

Agriculture:
"excessive centralisation of decisions" Nove
"insufficient investment" Nove
"lack of adequate incentives" Nove
"the always neglected stepsister of heavy industry" Kenez
"the poor relation of industry" Laver

Politics:
"Paranoia had a large part to play in Soviet politics of the time." Lynch

Nationalities:
"Stalin was obsessed with a supposed national threat." Laver

Brezhnev:
Overall:
"Ideology had all but lost its meaning to many within the USSR by 1982." Laver

Economy:
"Economically speaking, the Brezhnev period has to be seen as a disaster." Nove

Politics:
The Communist Party became a "refuge for nostalgics." Keep
The Communist Party became a platform for 'careerists' to promote their position. Keep

Nationalities:
"If there was a national threat then Brezhnev did not solve it." Laver
Main policy was of "letting sleeping dogs lie." Laver

Social and Cultural:
"Unfortunately, the reality did not live up to the aspirations." Laver
"By the early 1980s the regime appeared to have crushed the dissident movement." Thompson

________________________________________________________________________________________

Tackle breadth questions thematically and contrast/find parallels between leaders within these themes.

For example, if we take your example of a question centred on the economy of the USSR, you could structure your essay in this way;

- Introduction, including a sustainable judgement
- Industry
- Agriculture
- Use of force and coercion, or lack of
- Commitment to the socialist centrally-planned economic system
- Other factor that contrasts the examiners factor
- Conclusion, suggest how all the above themes interplay to produce the final outcome of the question e.g. collapse of the USSR

I followed this structure in a recent essay (How far was the failure to achieve effective economic reform between 1941 and 1991 responsible for the break up of the USSR? (45 marks) and my teacher marked me in L5 at at 42/45

However, to completely contradict myself on the structure above, you can do the breadth question chronologically (leader by leader), in a question asking you to consider a specific part of the economy e.g. agriculture. The key thing to remember is ALWAYS continually contrast and find similarities between leaders whilst synoptically linking back to the question throughout your essay.

Hope this gives a little bit of help and insight into what the examiners are looking for, and if you have any more questions just ask! :smile:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 10

Original post by dylanthevillain

yeah thats definitely true but I can almost guarantee you will get a question solely on Brezhnev so just understand the whole geontocracy and political stagnation

I'm trying to predict questions as well, I had the same prediction as you, Stalin and Brezhnev. Now I'm just trying to predict the topic of the questions, do you think wartime economy might come up for Stalin, not sure about B though.

Reply 11

Original post by Uchiha25

I am not sure but I think they had war economy and his leadership in the Great Patriotic War already (not to say it won't come up again). Could they ask much more on Stalin though?

Reply 12

Original post by Uchiha25

i think that since the last question on stalin was post war and the gpw has only been asked once it would seem somewhat logical for them to put that in a question, but i look at it this way

if your asked a question on the gpw which is probable if you get a stalin question then your always gonna talk about the wartime economy, him as a leader the people maybe and the military maybe (those are the ones i do), but u gotta talk about the economy and stalin himself so honestly it doesn't matter if the wartime economy is put in the question or not your gonna have to talk about it regardless so yh your right its pretty crucial

Reply 13

Original post by dylanthevillain

Yeah I see where your coming from. Also, in the unlikely event that Gorbachev comes up (hopefully he doesn't), what are the topics that can ask about him? I'm struggling to find patterns with him and divide them into categories/themes.

Reply 14

Original post by Uchiha25

I suppose the collapse of the USSR is the obvious one, like what was responsible (the economy, the nationalities, the politics)

I guess thats the major one since the period of gorbachev is so small everything we really learn about him is regarding the collapse of the USSR, so i would say just keep thinking that whatever you read is related to collapse, and make the link yourself

Reply 15

Valyrian

Yasss we can do this lads

Reply 16

CandyDance

Does anyone think it's possible for a Brezhnev Q to come up just about dissidence &/or nationalities?? (...trying to think of something other than economic stagnation)

Reply 17

Original post by CandyDance

Does anyone think it's possible for a Brezhnev Q to come up just about dissidence &/or nationalities?? (...trying to think of something other than economic stagnation)

its possible however it will most likely allow you to talk about other factors e.g. if the question was

"The Brezhnev regime failed because of political dissidence" - asses the validity of this view

begin with a paragraph about dissidence
then choose 3 other factors e.g. Economic stagnation, foreign affairs (U.S relations) and his failure to address social problems- linking to the question for each

hope this helps

Reply 18

To be honest, last time they asked politics and society for Brezhnev was in 2011, which they asked the Gorbachev question from 2011 paper for the 2015 paper, just worded slightly differently, so there is always a possibility they could ask it again but reword it differently. However they have also asked about economy in June 2012 under Krush and Brez, I dont think they have asked about Dissidence though yet.

Reply 19