Past Examination Papers Higer Level Paper 1

Prescribed Subject 1—The USSR under Stalin, 1924 to 1941

This prescribed subject addresses developments under Stalin’s dictatorship up to the German invasion of the USSR during the Second World War. It could take into account social, economic and political developments within the USSR as well as foreign relations.

Areas on which source-based questions will focus are:

• struggle for leadership

• collectivization, agricultural policies

• Five Year Plans, industrialization, rearmament

• nature of the Soviet State, constitution, extent of Stalin’s power, cult of personality

• purges, impact on society

• foreign relations, USSR and Nazi Germany, Nazi/Soviet Pact.

November 2005 - Stalin’s cult of personality

May 2005- Struggle for leadership after the death of Lenin.

November 2004- Stalin’s foreign policy in relation to Germany.

May 2004 - Purges

November 2003 - Terror and purges

May 2003 - Stalin’s agricultural policy