Hi, my school has been on the ball on the Russian topic leaving the coursework almost solely down us :'(, but on the bright side of things, it's meant we've had ample time for revision of Russia.
The best way to tackle this question I think is finding three or four things that drove reform in Russia.
Firstly, the named reason, the economy. Alexander III with Count Witte to improve industrial output, Stalin with the first two 'five-year-plans' to modernise heavy industry, for example.
Secondly I would choose society. Alexander II and the emancipation of the serfs, The october manifesto under Nicholas II, Khrushchev introducing larger consumer industry to improve living standards.
Thirdly I would choose Political tension / revolution. The assassination of Alexander II caused harsh reforms from his son to avoid a repeat. The october 1917 revolution caused massive reform in respects to private property, shown with war communism and the requisition squads.
Finally I would choose War as the biggest contributing factor to reform in Russia. The Crimean war at the beginning of the period caused the emancipation of the serfs (social reform). The Russo-Japanese war caused the october manifesto (political and social reform). The Russo-Turkish war caused Witte's great spurt (economical reform).
In the conclusion I would say that the social, political & economical reform were all as a result of a war which highlighted the inadequacies and the need for reform & change in those areas.
I hope this is of some help, you can choose any topic areas you wish, as you were saying earlier its perfectly possible to choose ideologies as a reason for reform, you just need to have examples where it has influenced reform in Russia. However, I would advise against going with things which are obscure. Try stick to social, economical, political and conflict as the four themes if you can, simply because they have the most accessible examples to use.