ATAR Source Analysis Skills for Russian History

Comprehension

Identify main ideas/messages in sources.

Historical Contextualisation

Apply deep contextual knowledge of Russia 1914-45.

Source Evaluation

Assess reliability, purpose, perspective, and usefulness.

Synthesis of Evidence

Integrate own knowledge and primary/secondary viewpoints.

Critical Argumentation

Construct a substantiated, balanced, and evaluative response.

Message and Purpose Questions

What is the message/purpose of Source A?

How to Answer Message and Purpose Questions

Literal message - What is being shown or said? Infer implied message - What is the broader idea or propaganda line? Explain purpose - Inform? Persuade? Justify? Mobilise support?

Contextual Tip for Message and Purpose Questions

Consider historical context of the source: e.g. during War Communism (1918-21), sources often aimed to justify harsh Bolshevik measures.

Example of Message and Purpose

Source A presents the message that Stalin is a heroic and visionary leader guiding Soviet industrial progress.

Historiographical Support - Primary

Stalin, in a 1935 speech: 'Life has become better, comrades, life has become more joyous.'

Historiographical Support - Secondary

Orlando Figes argues Stalin's cult 'replaced reality with a manufactured version of Soviet achievement.'

Compare and Contrast Source Messages

Compare and contrast the messages of Source A and Source B.

Scaffold for Compare and Contrast

Identify both messages. Compare: Do they agree or contradict? Link to context or purpose. Explain why their views differ (origin, audience, bias).

Contextual Tip for Compare and Contrast

Often one is official propaganda and the other may be critical, exiled, or foreign.

Example of Compare and Contrast

Source A glorifies Stalin as the architect of industrial progress, while Source B, an excerpt from Trotsky's The Revolution Betrayed, condemns Stalinist policies as a betrayal of the proletarian revolution.

Historiographical Contrast - Trotsky

Trotsky (1936): '[Stalin's regime is] a thermidorian reaction... crushing the soul of the revolution.'

Historiographical Contrast - Stephen Kotkin

Stephen Kotkin (2014): Argues Stalin was 'a rational actor' in a volatile revolutionary state who believed his actions were necessary for survival.

Usefulness Questions

Evaluate the usefulness of Source A in understanding the effects of collectivisation.

Scaffold for Usefulness Questions

Content - What useful insights does it offer? Limitations - What is left out or misleading? Origin & perspective - Who created it and why? Cross-check with knowledge/historians.

Ideological bias

Explain how Communist or anti-Communist leanings shape a source.

Revisionist history

Use when citing historians who challenge Cold War-era interpretations.

Cult of personality

Describes Stalin's deliberate myth-making and control of media.

Hagiography

Useful term for overly glorified portrayals of leaders (especially Stalin).

Manufactured consent

Use for explaining how propaganda encouraged public compliance.

Primary Sources

Lenin's April Theses (1917), Stalin's Speech at the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers (1934), Pravda articles, The Revolution Betrayed - Leon Trotsky (1936), Eyewitness famine accounts (e.g., Gareth Jones, Welsh journalist on Holodomor).

Orlando Figes

Revisionist: Focuses on cultural and personal dimensions of revolution.

Sheila Fitzpatrick

Social history: Explores lives of ordinary people under Soviet rule.

Richard Pipes

Conservative: Argues revolution led to totalitarianism from the outset.

Robert Service

Balanced: Critiques Lenin and Stalin while recognising achievements.

Stephen Kotkin

Structuralist: Sees Stalin as a product of the revolutionary system.

1932 Politburo order

Any attempts to withhold grain must be crushed mercilessly.

Source B

A Soviet poster from 1933 that lacks factual reliability due to its propagandistic nature.

Richard Overy

Stalin created a political theatre in which he was both director and star performer.

Robert Conquest

[The propaganda] masked a reality of mass arrests, starvation, and fear.