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Need help-Russian History Coursework (LENIN)

Hi, can any History students/teachers give me any advice? I have done loads of work on my history coursework, but I really need help in devising a good plan to organise it. Basically I need to know which topics are most important to cover (as its such a big area), and in which order (intro, etc). I am limmited to around 3000 words.

My coursework is to consider 'to what extent Lenin betrayed the Russian Revolution'.

Any help would be much appreciated, thanks...
Come on there can't be that much - just organise it into about 6-8 themes, and structure it like:

1. Intro - Focus the question, put forward the debate, and grab the marker's attention (quote etc.)
2. How Lenin betrayed the Russian Revolution - 3/4 themes + relevant evidence and analysis
3. How Lenin didn't betray the Russian Revolution - 3/4 themes + relevant evidence and analysis
4. Conclusion - Although... Ultimately...
Hm. As my uni tutor would say, first you've got to analyse what the Russian Revolution was- i.e. what actually changed, ideals, etc.- before you can assess whether Lenin betrayed it! This means you can have some nice quotes from Marx and so on to illustrate how the revolution would have occurred in an ideal world, and how circumstances- including Lenin- shaped the path it did take.

From the black hole that is my Russian knowledge, I would say the NEP is a large factor...

Oh, and how about looking at the sailors who mutinied in a fortress or something, and were massacred on Lenin's orders- i.e. expression of socialist rights and standing up for socialism- key themes of Russian Revolution- suppressed by Lenin.

I havn't got my notes from my coursework (they're still in my history teacher's office, despite the fact that I left school in June!) so can't help with any more detail, I'm afraid.
This is interesting, I will be following this.
Am doing a similar subject for exam
FadeToBlackout
Hm. As my uni tutor would say, first you've got to analyse what the Russian Revolution was- i.e. what actually changed, ideals, etc.- before you can assess whether Lenin betrayed it! This means you can have some nice quotes from Marx and so on to illustrate how the revolution would have occurred in an ideal world, and how circumstances- including Lenin- shaped the path it did take.

From the black hole that is my Russian knowledge, I would say the NEP is a large factor...

Oh, and how about looking at the sailors who mutinied in a fortress or something, and were massacred on Lenin's orders- i.e. expression of socialist rights and standing up for socialism- key themes of Russian Revolution- suppressed by Lenin.

I havn't got my notes from my coursework (they're still in my history teacher's office, despite the fact that I left school in June!) so can't help with any more detail, I'm afraid.

Talking about the actual revolution sounds more A-Level/University level. Unless this isn't GCSE we're talking about?
Reply 5
student_kyle
Hi, can any History students/teachers give me any advice? I have done loads of work on my history coursework, but I really need help in devising a good plan to organise it. Basically I need to know which topics are most important to cover (as its such a big area), and in which order (intro, etc). I am limmited to around 3000 words.

My coursework is to consider 'to what extent Lenin betrayed the Russian Revolution'.
Any help would be much appreciated, thanks...



You need to look at the forces behind the revolution:
What did they want?...
What were Lenin's aims?...
How did these things differ.
Then you need to look at Lenin's actions when he was in power:
How do the results of his actions compare to the 'propaganda' of the revolution.

In this essay you might want to highlight the difference between Marxism and Lenin's interpretation of Marxism.
You might want to look at the Mensheviks - if they had won the civil war would the Russian Revolution have delivered more of what the Russian people wanted? :frown:
Finally Marxism would not have truly delivered what the Russians wanted (i.e. food) as shown by the need for the implementation of the N.E.P. :rolleyes: (as it showed that Marxist systems did not work in practise), so the question one is left with is: did Lenin betray the Russian Revolution, or did he save it?

Hope this point of view works for you. PM if you want to talk anything over. :smile:

--------------

The Ace is Back
Talking about the actual revolution sounds more A-Level/University level. Unless this isn't GCSE we're talking about?


This essay doesn't require you to talk about the actual revolution, just to look at its 'after-effects' and the Russian troubles before hand (i.e. bad harvests, greedy nobles, debased Serfs, political upheval, police state).
Reply 6
Also consider, whose revolution did he betray if he did at all? Look at his work previous to October 1917 such as what is to be done? and i think whilst in exile he wrote Letters from abroad or something like that.

So consider, did he betray what he had believed the revolution to be or what orthodox Marxists considered it to be? In several cases he was seen to be manipulating Marxist revolution - most importantly in forcing it rather than relying on historical inevitability.

So by forcing the revolution had he betrayed it? So yeah - a balanced argument for/against and dividing the coursework into chunks is always a good method.
Reply 7
egyptiancat
You might want to look at the Mensheviks - if they had won the civil war would the Russian Revolution have delivered more of what the Russian people wanted?



Careful with this! Your essay needs to be based on evidence and it is usually hard to find evidence for something that didn't happen. In short, don't speculate.

Counterfactual history is a double-edged sword and you need to know your stuff pretty well in order to be able to do it effectively (I mean well as in having worked on it for years!).

Apart from that I agree with what egyptiancat and the others have said.
Reply 8
The Ace is Back
Talking about the actual revolution sounds more A-Level/University level. Unless this isn't GCSE we're talking about?


This is A Level, I believe. We have to do similar coursework for ours (OCR History) and are limited to a maximum of 3000 words which you can actually write very quickly - it's the editing that's the difficult bit :eek:
Reply 9
I think two acts define Lenin betraying the Revolution. The shutting down of the Constituent Assembly and the introduction of the NEP.