Edexcel AS/A-level History Russia 1917-91 From Lenin To Yeltsin 2025 EDITION ALL ANSWERS RATED GRADE A+

Edexcel AS/A-level History Russia 1917-91 From Lenin To Yeltsin 2025 EDITION ALL ANSWERS RATED GRADE A+ When was the Decree on Land? November 1917 What was the Decree on Land and how much land was redistributed? Peasants could seize land from the nobility and Church with 540 million acres of land redistributed When was the Decree on peace? November 1917 What was the Decree on Peace? A decree that would pull Russia out of the war How was the Decree on Peace implemented? Through The 1918 Brest-Litovsk treaty When was the workers decree? November 1917 What was the workers decree? 8 hour working day, and introduction of minimum wage What was the nomenklatura system? The method of controlling bureaucratic appointments through Party selection. It created a Party Elite How many members did the Party grow by during the course of the civil war? 400,000 Where did power pass from in the Civil War? Sovnarkom, which was accountable to Soviets. To Politburo which was accountable to Lenin When did Lenin authorise the Cheka to eliminate political opponents? Cheka authorised in 1921 What percentage of the Party was purged under Lenin during the Red Terror 33% How many peasants fought the communists in the Tambov region in 1920/1921? 50,000 When did the Red Army open fire on unarmed workers in response to strikes? Early 1921 When was War Communism replaced with NEP? 1921 Party Congress When was the Kronstadt Mutiny? 1921 When did Lenin introduce the ban on factions? 1921 What was the 1921 'On Party Unity'? The ban on factions What did the ban on factions mean? Workers' opposition could not reintroduce workers' control of industry. The Democratic Centralists could not make the Communist Party more democratic. What happened to Party members guilty of forming factions? They were kicked out the Party What was Lenin's legacy? Lenin left a highly authoritarian political legacy with the dictatorship of the proletariat defending the revolution. However, Lenin also destroyed soviet democracy What happened to Sovnarkom post 1920? Sovnarkom became a rubberstamping organisation for Politburo made decisions. It existed but ceased to function Between 1923 to 1928, who was Stalin engaged in a power struggle against? Trotsky, Bukharin, and Zinoviev How did Stalin gain power? Stalin established himself as a true Leninist, expelling rivals from the Politburo and packing it with his supporters Stalin gave power to his supporters through jobs, and sacked other members who would stand against him. Stalin ensured loyalty in this way When did Stalin expel Trotsky from the USSR, and place Zinoviev under house arrest? 1928 How many citizens died as a result of the Great Terror? 10 million (10% of the population) What was Stalin's totalitarianism? Stalin's complete control of the economy, use of widespread political terror, control of the media, and use of extensive propaganda What percentage of the Party was purged under Stalin's Chistka by 1935? 22% How did Stalin use bureaucracy to prevent competition for himself? Stalin placed rivals in similar positions within the Party and State, so that they would compete with each other and not him. When was the purge of the Red Army, and how many officers were executed or imprisoned? 1937, 35,000 What percentage of marshals, and what percentage of army commanders were purged? 60%, 90% What was the most senior committee in government in 1938? The Politburo What was the most senior committee in government in 1942? The State Defence Committee How did Stalin use committees to maintain his overall power? No one was a member of multiple committees other than Stalin. As power shifted between them, only Stalin had total control What was the Leningrad Affair of 1949? A purge against Andrei Zhdanov's powerbaye where 100 supporters were executed and 2000 were arrested and dismissed How did Stalin control Molotov? Stalin imprisoned Molotov's wife. Molotov in turn demonstrated loyalty to Stalin. What were Lenin's economic objectives? Modernisation, Consolidation, Military Victory, and Destruction of Capitalism Which economic goals did Lenin prioritise? Pragmatic goals over long term ideological goals When did Lenin nationalise industry? 1918 When was state capitalism introduced and what was it? 1918 State capitalism merged capitalism and socialism through nationalisation of large scale industry. What was Vesenkha and when was it set up? Set up in December 1917 to take control of economic institutions and ran the economy under State Capitalism principles. It re-established worker discipline through offering higher pay to productive workers. It also ensured factories were properly managed by placing them under control of well paid specialists. Vesenkha co-ordinated economic production to meet the needs of new society What was War Communism and when was it introduced? Summer 1918, War Communism led to military victory but economic ruin. It destroyed incentives to work What was the harvest in 1921 compared to 1913? 46% How much did the industrial workforce decline by between 1917 and 1921? 1.4 million members Why did Lenin introduce the NEP? Retain political power, revive the economy, build socialism How did NEP create a mixed economy? Farming was left to the free market where grain requisitioning was replaced by a tax in kind, small factories and workshops were denationalised, large factories and major industries remained nationalised, money was reintroduced What was the 1926 scissor crisis? Agriculture recovered slower than industry and so led to an imbalance that led to a fall in the price of food, yet a rise in the price of industrial goods .˙. Farmers could not afford industrial goods, and the government had to impose price cuts on industrial goods How did NEP introduce inequality? Large farms prospered, small farms did less well. NEPmen became rich trading highly desirable goods. However the Communists hated NEPmen and viewed them as parasites often arresting them for profiteering How did NEP create political stability? Ending Grain requisitioning was highly popular with peasants and therefore meant that they were more likely to support the government. How did the NEP divide the party? Right-wing supported the NEP, arguing it was necessary. Left-wing opposed the NEP arguing it allowed the problems of capitalism to reemerge. Centre supported the NEP arguing it helped to rebuild the economy Why did Stalin introduce his FYPs? Stalin wanted to abolish the capitalist market, NEP failed the economy, Russia needed industrialisation to prepare for war with capitalist nations, and Stalin won the support of the Party's left-wing When did Stalin prioritise rearmament? 1936 onwards How did the FYPs grow in terms of heavy industry? Electric output increased 1000% Both Coal and Steel production increased 500% Oil production increased by 300% How did the FYPs grow in terms of transport? Moscow Metro opened in 1935 Moscow-Volga Canal opened in 1937 What were Stakhanovites? Workers who exceeded their targets and were held as examples for others to follow, named after Aleksei Stakhanvo, a coal miner who exceeded his mining target by huge amount and was rewarded heavily. The Stakhanovite movement was a propaganda campaign based on improving worker productivity as well as pressure and higher targets. In 1988 it was proved that Aleksei Stakhanvo's achievements are fake. How much did productivity rise during the first three FYPs? Between 25% to 50% How much of the GDP was spent on military in 1940 33% What percentage of goods produced were of such low quality that they were wasted? 40% Why was Gosplan unable to effectively plan? Gosplan officials had no idea how big the factories were, or how they were controlled. Industrial managers lied about production levels, as well as falsified data. Why was collectivisation needed? Capitalist ideology of NEP needed to change, USSR needed to collect greater wealth from farms to invest in industrialisation. NEP failed to produce enough food in 1927 leading to food shortages When was collectivisation introduced? 1928 How many tons of grain did production decrease by between 1928 and 1933? 5 million How many millions of livestock were destroyed due to collectivisation unrest? 114 How many deaths resulted from the Holodomor? 5 million How many tractors were produced from MTS when launched, and why did they have no effect? 75,000, barely made up for all the horses lost to collectivisation How many more tons of grain did the USSR requisition between 1928 and 1933? 12 million How many more tons of grain was exported in 1931 compared to 1928? 4 million How many kilos of grain per hectare did collective farms produce less compared to private farms? 90 How many Soviet people were homeless in 1945? 25 million What was the industrial output in 1945 compared to 1940? 33% What was the agricultural output of grain in 1945 compared to 1940? 50% What percentage of the GDP was spent in heavy industry post war? 90% What percentage of government spending was the military budget in 1952? 25% When did Soviet scientists successfully test their first atomic bomb? 1949 What percentage of industrial investment went into Light Industry between and what was the outcome? 12%, and a failure of growth Why did farming remain labour intensive? Lack of incentives and high tech options When was the Decree on the Press and what did it do? 1917, and gave the government power to close any 'counter revolutionary' newspapers What gave the state the power to censor the press in 1918? The Revolutionary Tribunal of the Press Which agency was established in 1918 that gave the state control over all advertising and all news reporting? ROSTA (All-Russia Telegraph Agency) How did Lenin use ROSTA/ Propaganda? ROSTA produced cartoon films to support the revolution, El Lissitzky designed a poster to "Beat the whites with the red wedge.' How did Stalin use propaganda? He used movies, radios, newspapers and loudspeakers to create a cult of personality around himself and praise communist ideology. Stalin banned works of his rivals, and praised idealised images of workers What was Glavit and when was it introduced? It employed professional censors to examine all books for anti-communist ideas and was established in 1922 When did Glavit control access to economic data, and what did this mean for news? 1928, It prevented common knowledge of all natural disasters and industrial accidents to create only positive impressions of the USSR What happened to censorship under Khrushchev? Popular magazines were encouraged to publish readers' letters, allowing citizens to express their thoughts on 'non-political' subjects. There was a cultural thaw. What issues did the average citizen complain about in magazines under Khrushchev? Common issues entailed alcoholism and domestic inequalities When was the nuclear Kyshtym disaster and how did the Soviet public find out about it? CONTINUED..