AQA A-level History · 2N

Revolution and dictatorship: Russia, 1917–1953

50 exam-style questions with answers for 2N Revolution and dictatorship: Russia, 1917–1953 in AQA A-level History (spec 7042). Practise with flashcards, a topic quiz, a random quiz across the course, 5 crosswords, or read every question and answer below.

All 50 questions and answers

Question 1 · Spec 2N, Part one
State two causes of the February 1917 revolution. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: food and fuel shortages in Petrograd (1); military defeats (1); the Tsar’s absence at the front (1); strikes and the army joining protesters (1).
Question 2 · Spec 2N, Part one
When did Nicholas II abdicate? [1 mark]
Answer:
March 1917 (February in the Old Style calendar).
Question 3 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was Dual Power? [1 mark]
Answer:
The uneasy sharing of authority between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet.
Question 4 · Spec 2N, Part one
What were the April Theses? [1 mark]
Answer:
Lenin’s demands for no support for the Provisional Government, ‘All power to the Soviets’, and ‘Peace, Bread and Land’.
Question 5 · Spec 2N, Part one
What happened in the July Days? [1 mark]
Answer:
Failed armed demonstrations in Petrograd, after which Bolsheviks were arrested and Lenin fled.
Question 6 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the Kornilov Affair (August 1917)? [1 mark]
Answer:
An apparent coup by the army commander, which Kerensky defeated with Bolshevik help.
Question 7 · Spec 2N, Part one
Who planned the October Revolution? [1 mark]
Answer:
Trotsky, through the Military Revolutionary Committee.
Question 8 · Spec 2N, Part one
Explain why the October Revolution succeeded. [2 marks]
Answer:
The Provisional Government had lost support and had few loyal troops (1); the Bolsheviks were organised and offered popular slogans (1).
Question 9 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was Sovnarkom? [1 mark]
Answer:
The Council of People’s Commissars, the new government led by Lenin.
Question 10 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the Decree on Peace? [1 mark]
Answer:
The Bolsheviks’ call for an immediate end to the war without annexations.
Question 11 · Spec 2N, Part one
What happened to the Constituent Assembly? [1 mark]
Answer:
It was dissolved by the Bolsheviks in January 1918 after one day.
Question 12 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (March 1918)? [1 mark]
Answer:
Russia’s peace with Germany, giving up huge territories.
Question 13 · Spec 2N, Part one
When was the Tsar’s family murdered? [1 mark]
Answer:
July 1918, at Ekaterinburg.
Question 14 · Spec 2N, Part one
Who were the Whites? [1 mark]
Answer:
Anti-Bolshevik forces, including generals such as Denikin, Kolchak and Yudenich.
Question 15 · Spec 2N, Part one
State two reasons for Bolshevik victory in the Civil War. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: Trotsky’s Red Army (1); central control of railways and industry (1); White divisions (1); peasants feared the return of landlords (1).
Question 16 · Spec 2N, Part one
Define the term ‘state capitalism’. [1 mark]
Answer:
Lenin’s early system in which the state controlled the economy but kept some existing management.
Question 17 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was War Communism? [1 mark]
Answer:
Bolshevik economic policy (1918–1921), including grain requisitioning and nationalisation.
Question 18 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the Kronstadt Rising (1921)? [1 mark]
Answer:
A sailors’ rebellion against Bolshevik rule, crushed by the Red Army.
Question 19 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the NEP? [1 mark]
Answer:
The New Economic Policy (1921), allowing small private trade and grain sales.
Question 20 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was Comintern? [1 mark]
Answer:
The Communist International, set up in 1919 to spread revolution.
Question 21 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the Treaty of Rapallo (1922)? [1 mark]
Answer:
An agreement restoring relations between Soviet Russia and Germany.
Question 22 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was Lenin’s Testament? [1 mark]
Answer:
Lenin’s notes criticising Stalin and recommending his removal as General Secretary.
Question 23 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the Lenin Enrolment? [1 mark]
Answer:
The mass recruitment of new party members after 1924, many loyal to Stalin.
Question 24 · Spec 2N, Part one
Who were the Left and Right Oppositions? [2 marks]
Answer:
The Left (Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev) wanted rapid industrialisation and world revolution (1); the Right (Bukharin) wanted to keep the NEP (1).
Question 25 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the ‘Great Turn’ (1928–1929)? [1 mark]
Answer:
Stalin’s abandonment of the NEP for rapid industrialisation and collectivisation.
Question 26 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the grain procurement crisis (1927–1928)? [1 mark]
Answer:
Peasants held back grain because of low prices, leading Stalin to use force (the Urals-Siberian method).
Question 27 · Spec 2N, Part one
Who was Kerensky? [1 mark]
Answer:
The leader of the Provisional Government from July 1917.
Question 28 · Spec 2N, Part one
What was the Cheka? [1 mark]
Answer:
The Bolshevik secret police, founded in 1917.
Question 29 · Spec 2N, Part two
When did collectivisation become forced? [1 mark]
Answer:
From late 1929, with the campaign to ‘liquidate the kulaks as a class’.
Question 30 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was the famine of 1932–1933? [1 mark]
Answer:
A famine caused by collectivisation and grain requisitioning, killing millions, especially in Ukraine.
Question 31 · Spec 2N, Part two
What were MTS? [1 mark]
Answer:
Machine Tractor Stations, supplying machinery to collective farms and keeping political control.
Question 32 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was Gosplan? [1 mark]
Answer:
The state planning agency that set Five Year Plan targets.
Question 33 · Spec 2N, Part two
State two achievements of the first Five Year Plan. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: big increases in coal, oil and steel (1); Magnitogorsk (1); the Dnieper dam (1); unemployment ended (1).
Question 34 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was socialist realism? [1 mark]
Answer:
The official art style showing Soviet life heroically.
Question 35 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was the Kirov murder (1934) used for? [1 mark]
Answer:
As a pretext for mass arrests and the start of the Great Terror.
Question 36 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was the Yezhovshchina? [1 mark]
Answer:
The height of the Terror (1936–1938) under NKVD head Yezhov.
Question 37 · Spec 2N, Part two
What were the show trials? [1 mark]
Answer:
Public trials of leading Bolsheviks such as Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin.
Question 38 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was the 1936 Constitution? [1 mark]
Answer:
Stalin’s constitution promising rights that were not respected in practice.
Question 39 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was the Family Code (1936)? [1 mark]
Answer:
Laws banning abortion and making divorce harder.
Question 40 · Spec 2N, Part two
When did the USSR join the League of Nations? [1 mark]
Answer:
1934.
Question 41 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was Order No. 227 (1942)? [1 mark]
Answer:
‘Not one step back’: retreating soldiers would be shot.
Question 42 · Spec 2N, Part two
What happened at Stalingrad (1942–1943)? [1 mark]
Answer:
The Soviet victory that turned the war on the Eastern Front.
Question 43 · Spec 2N, Part two
State two reasons for Soviet victory. [2 marks]
Answer:
Any two from: relocation of industry east (1); huge manpower (1); Lend-Lease aid (1); commanders such as Zhukov (1); patriotism (1).
Question 44 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was the Leningrad Affair (1949)? [1 mark]
Answer:
A purge of Leningrad party leaders.
Question 45 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was the Zhdanovshchina? [1 mark]
Answer:
Post-war cultural repression led by Zhdanov.
Question 46 · Spec 2N, Part two
What was the Doctors’ Plot (1953)? [1 mark]
Answer:
False accusations against mainly Jewish doctors.
Question 47 · Spec 2N, Part two
Define the term ‘satellite state’. [1 mark]
Answer:
An Eastern European country under Soviet control after 1945.
Question 48 · Spec 2N, Part two
When did the USSR test an atomic bomb? [1 mark]
Answer:
1949.
Question 49 · Spec 2N, Part two
What were the ‘kulaks’? [1 mark]
Answer:
Better-off peasants targeted by Stalin as class enemies.
Question 50 · Spec 2N, Part two
Who was Stakhanov? [1 mark]
Answer:
A miner whose record output was used to push workers harder.

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Revolution and dictatorship: Russia, 1917–1953

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