A-level
HISTORY
Component 2P The Transformation of China, 1936–1997
Friday 7 June 2024 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7042/2P.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01.
In Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
IB/M/Jun24/G4006/E5 7042/2P
, 2
Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From a statement made in an interview with a Western historian, by Liu Lin, 2001.
Liu Lin, an agricultural expert, worked at a people’s commune during the
Great Leap Forward.
Even when the cooking pot of the last family in the production team was thrown into the
backyard furnace, it was still not enough to meet the steel production goals set by the
commune’s cadre. The cadre then walked around the village, came back and
announced that he wanted the production team to smash their waterwheels to feed the
furnace. I couldn’t stand this and stood in his way. “The waterwheel is an important 5
production means and is needed to irrigate the crops,” I said. With cold eyes, he looked
at me. “Would you like to take over my position as cadre and see what it is like?” he
replied. For a moment, I did not know what to say. He walked back to the members of
the production team standing nearby and ordered: “Smash them!” After three of the
commune’s waterwheels had been smashed and fed into the furnace, the cadre’s steel 10
production target was finally met.
Source B
From a speech at a CCP conference for provincial and local party cadres by
Mao Zedong, February 1959.
The ratio between our achievements and our shortcomings in the Great Leap Forward is
the ratio between nine fingers and one finger. The achievements outnumber the
shortcomings by a great amount! Some people suspect or deny the success of the
Great Leap Forward and suspect or deny the advantages of the people’s communes.
This viewpoint is obviously completely wrong. Extra-large communes are the best 5
means for us to achieve the transition from the rural collective system to the socialist
system of full public ownership, and are the best means of accomplishing the transition
from socialism to communism. If any suspicions develop regarding this basic principle,
this is completely wrong. This should be considered a rightist deviation. I fear that we
need to anticipate that rightist factions will come out jeering at us and that those 10
landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries and other bad elements may well carry
out dreadful acts of sabotage.
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2P
, 3
Source C
From a speech made to schoolchildren by a CCP-appointed headmaster, Principal Gao,
1960. The speech was reported in the memoirs of one of Gao’s pupils, published 1993.
Our one time ‘elder brother’ has betrayed the Chinese people! Khrushchev, the
Revisionist, has summoned back to the USSR all the Soviet engineers and technicians
who were in our country helping us with socialist construction in our Great Leap Forward.
He has torn up all the agreements we had made calling for scientific and technical
cooperation! Khrushchev has called in all the loans that the Soviet Union had made to 5
China. The reason for the food shortages is because China had to borrow a lot from the
Soviet Union at high interest rates to fight the Korean War and now, because of the
ideological differences created by Khrushchev, we have to pay back those debts with
food. That is why we have no fruit, vegetables or grain. The recklessness of Khrushchev
and the Soviet Union is responsible for our current food shortages. It is because of them 10
that we are now suffering, hungry and tired.
0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context,
assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying the
Great Leap Forward.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2P Turn over ►
HISTORY
Component 2P The Transformation of China, 1936–1997
Friday 7 June 2024 Afternoon Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
Materials
For this paper you must have:
• an AQA 16-page answer book.
Instructions
• Use black ink or black ball-point pen.
• Write the information required on the front of your answer book. The Paper Reference is
7042/2P.
• Answer three questions.
In Section A answer Question 01.
In Section B answer two questions.
Information
• The marks for questions are shown in brackets.
• The maximum mark for this paper is 80.
• You will be marked on your ability to:
– use good English
– organise information clearly
– use specialist vocabulary where appropriate.
Advice
• You are advised to spend about:
– 1 hour on Question 01 from Section A
– 45 minutes on each of the two questions answered from Section B.
IB/M/Jun24/G4006/E5 7042/2P
, 2
Section A
Answer Question 01.
Source A
From a statement made in an interview with a Western historian, by Liu Lin, 2001.
Liu Lin, an agricultural expert, worked at a people’s commune during the
Great Leap Forward.
Even when the cooking pot of the last family in the production team was thrown into the
backyard furnace, it was still not enough to meet the steel production goals set by the
commune’s cadre. The cadre then walked around the village, came back and
announced that he wanted the production team to smash their waterwheels to feed the
furnace. I couldn’t stand this and stood in his way. “The waterwheel is an important 5
production means and is needed to irrigate the crops,” I said. With cold eyes, he looked
at me. “Would you like to take over my position as cadre and see what it is like?” he
replied. For a moment, I did not know what to say. He walked back to the members of
the production team standing nearby and ordered: “Smash them!” After three of the
commune’s waterwheels had been smashed and fed into the furnace, the cadre’s steel 10
production target was finally met.
Source B
From a speech at a CCP conference for provincial and local party cadres by
Mao Zedong, February 1959.
The ratio between our achievements and our shortcomings in the Great Leap Forward is
the ratio between nine fingers and one finger. The achievements outnumber the
shortcomings by a great amount! Some people suspect or deny the success of the
Great Leap Forward and suspect or deny the advantages of the people’s communes.
This viewpoint is obviously completely wrong. Extra-large communes are the best 5
means for us to achieve the transition from the rural collective system to the socialist
system of full public ownership, and are the best means of accomplishing the transition
from socialism to communism. If any suspicions develop regarding this basic principle,
this is completely wrong. This should be considered a rightist deviation. I fear that we
need to anticipate that rightist factions will come out jeering at us and that those 10
landlords, rich peasants, counter-revolutionaries and other bad elements may well carry
out dreadful acts of sabotage.
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2P
, 3
Source C
From a speech made to schoolchildren by a CCP-appointed headmaster, Principal Gao,
1960. The speech was reported in the memoirs of one of Gao’s pupils, published 1993.
Our one time ‘elder brother’ has betrayed the Chinese people! Khrushchev, the
Revisionist, has summoned back to the USSR all the Soviet engineers and technicians
who were in our country helping us with socialist construction in our Great Leap Forward.
He has torn up all the agreements we had made calling for scientific and technical
cooperation! Khrushchev has called in all the loans that the Soviet Union had made to 5
China. The reason for the food shortages is because China had to borrow a lot from the
Soviet Union at high interest rates to fight the Korean War and now, because of the
ideological differences created by Khrushchev, we have to pay back those debts with
food. That is why we have no fruit, vegetables or grain. The recklessness of Khrushchev
and the Soviet Union is responsible for our current food shortages. It is because of them 10
that we are now suffering, hungry and tired.
0 1 With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context,
assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying the
Great Leap Forward.
[30 marks]
Turn over for Section B
IB/M/Jun24/7042/2P Turn over ►
