History HL - Paper 2

Paper 2 – Conditions: How did war create conditions for authoritarian rule in Russia?

Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) → humiliating defeat.

1905 Revolution → Bloody Sunday (Jan 1905), 200k protest, 100s killed.

WWI (1914–17) → 1.7m soldiers dead, 1m desertions.

Inflation ×4 by 1917 → bread queues miles long.

February Revolution (Feb 1917) → sparked by food crisis, soldiers mutiny.

Paper 2 – Conditions: How did social/economic crises create authoritarian opportunities?

80% peasants → land hunger, redemption payments.

Urban workers → 12–14 hr shifts, poor pay, unrest.

Nobility (1%) owned 25% land.

Strikes: Lena Goldfields (1912), 200 workers shot.

1917 economy collapsed → factories shut, unemployment soared.

Paper 2 – Conditions: How did political weakness create conditions for authoritarian rule?

Nicholas II → autocrat, resisted reform.

Dumas (1906–17) → created then repeatedly dissolved.

Rasputin’s influence (1915–16) → damaged monarchy’s reputation.

Provisional Government (Mar–Oct 1917) → failed to leave WWI.

Kornilov Affair (Aug 1917) → exposed PG weakness, boosted Bolsheviks.

Paper 2 – Methods: How did Lenin establish power (1917–24)?

April Theses (Apr 1917) → “Peace, Land, Bread.”

October Revolution (Oct 1917) → Red Guards seized Winter Palace.

Brest-Litovsk Treaty (Mar 1918) → left war, lost 1/3 population.

Cheka (Dec 1917) → Red Terror, 200k executed by 1920.

Civil War (1918–21) → Red Army victory under Trotsky.

Paper 2 – Methods: How did Stalin establish power (1924–29)?

General Secretary (1922) → controlled appointments.

Lenin’s Testament (1924) → critical, suppressed by allies.

Funeral trick (1924) → Trotsky absent, Stalin appeared loyal.

Defeated United Opposition (Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev) by 1927.

Exiled Trotsky (1929).

Paper 2 – Policies: How did Stalin transform the USSR economy?

First Five-Year Plan (1928–32) → steel +400%, coal +200%.

Collectivization (1929–33) → kulaks eliminated, famine (5–6m deaths).

Stakhanovite Movement (1935) → propaganda for productivity.

2nd Five-Year Plan (1933–37) → USSR self-sufficient in steel.

3rd Plan (1938–41) → rearmament.

Paper 2 – Policies: How did Lenin’s policies shape the USSR?

War Communism (1918–21) → requisition, famine (5m dead).

Kronstadt Rebellion (1921) → “Soviets without Bolsheviks.”

NEP (1921) → private trade returns, peasants appeased.

Economic recovery by 1924 → but party split (Left vs Right).

Lenin called NEP a “strategic retreat.”

Paper 2 – Methods: How did Stalin maintain power (1929–41)?

Great Terror (1936–38) → 1m executed, show trials.

NKVD → arrests, gulags, surveillance.

Propaganda → socialist realism, cult of personality.

Education (Short Course, 1938) → Stalin rewrote history.

Russification → minorities suppressed.

Paper 2 – Methods: How did Lenin maintain power?

Cheka (1917) → eliminated opposition.

Ban on factions (1921) → party discipline.

Red Terror (1918) → targeted “enemies of the people.”

NEP (1921) → won back peasants’ support.

Comintern (1919) → international appeal.

Paper 2 – Opposition: What opposition did Lenin face, and how did he respond?

Whites in Civil War (1918–21).

Foreign intervention (UK, France, USA).

Kronstadt Rebellion (1921).

Tambov peasant revolt (1920–21).

Lenin responded with Cheka, Red Army, repression.

Paper 2 – Opposition: What opposition did Stalin face, and how did he respond?

Left Opposition (Trotsky, Kamenev, Zinoviev).

Right Opposition (Bukharin, NEP supporters).

Peasant resistance to collectivization.

Military purges (1937–38, 40k officers removed).

Stalin responded with purges, exile, gulags.

Paper 2 – Policies: What role did women have in Soviet authoritarian states?

Lenin: Zhenotdel (1919) promoted women’s literacy & divorce rights.

Stalin: abortion banned (1936), family strengthened.

Women in workforce (by 1940, 43% of workforce).

Education access expanded for girls.

Women glorified as mothers + workers.

Paper 2 – Policies: How were minorities treated under Soviet rule?

Lenin allowed some minority languages initially.

Stalin → Russification (1930s), Russian = dominant.

Deportations (e.g. Crimean Tatars, 1944).

National churches repressed.

“Soviet identity” promoted over local culture.

Paper 2 – TWE: To what extent did Lenin achieve totalitarian control?

Cheka (1917–22) → eliminated rivals.

Ban on factions (1921) → controlled party debate.

Controlled press → only Bolshevik messages.

But NEP (1921) allowed limited freedom → incomplete control.

Leninism = one-party dictatorship, but pragmatic compromises.

Paper 2 – TWE: To what extent did Stalin achieve totalitarian control?

Great Terror (1936–38) → destroyed opposition.

Cult of personality → Stalin = “Vozhd.”

NKVD & Gulags → fear society-wide.

Education + propaganda → youth indoctrinated.

Some limits: corruption, black market, hidden dissent.