Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History · 4HI1 · Free · no account needed
Dictatorship and conflict in the USSR, 1924–53 — exam questions
13 original Incandio exam-style questions on dictatorship and conflict in the USSR, 1924–53, 126 marks, about 189 minutes of writing. Each one carries the command word, the tariff and the specification statement it assesses, exactly as a paper presents them. This is an original Incandio practice question, written to reflect the structure and demands of the qualification. It is not an official Pearson Edexcel past-paper question.
This is the practice set for Dictatorship and conflict in the USSR, 1924–53 — the option that teaches it. Read the option first if the idea is new; come here when you want to find out whether you can turn it into marks. Completely free, no account needed to read.
What these questions ask of you
3 command words run through this set, and on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History each one means something precise. Answering the wrong command is the commonest way a candidate who understands the option still loses the mark.
- What (6 marks)
- analysis of what the author SELECTED and how they treated it, rather than what happened Misread as: evaluating whether the author is right, which earns nothing on this question
- Explain (6–8 marks)
- TWO of whatever is asked for — effects, causes or ways — each analysed and shown to lead somewhere Misread as: one of them explained superbly, which is capped at 4 with no access to Level 3
- How (8–16 marks)
- a judgement on the EXTENT, built from both sides — agreement and disagreement, or three aspects and a criterion Misread as: agreement only on the source question (capped at 4), or the two printed bullets and nothing else on the sixteen-marker (held at 10)
Assessed on Paper 1 (4HI1/01) and Paper 2 (4HI1/02), against AO1, AO2, AO4.
Where these sit in the specification
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History (4HI1) — statements 4HI1 5.2 AO4 · 4HI1 5.1 AO4 · 4HI1 5.3 AO4 · 4HI1 5.5 AO4 · 4HI1 5.4 AO4 · 4HI1 5.2 AO1 · 4HI1 5.2 AO2 · 4HI1 5.1 AO1 · 4HI1 5.1 AO2 · 4HI1 5.4 AO1 · 4HI1 5.4 AO2 · 4HI1 5.3 AO1 · 4HI1 5.3 AO2 · 4HI1 5.5 AO1 · 4HI1 5.5 AO2. Incandio is aligned to this specification; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's wording.
The 13 questions
Answer them on paper, then open the option's exam practice to have them marked. The mark scheme, the accepted and rejected answers and the annotated model answer are in Incandio and are not printed here — an answer beside its question is not practice.
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about collectivisation in the Soviet Union? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: The brigades arrived in winter with lists. They knew how much grain each household should have produced because the figure had been decided in an office in Moscow, and when the sacks did not match the paper they searched the floors and the thatch. What they found went to the railhead and out through the Black Sea ports, and the men who signed the export licences had the reports on their desks. From an account of Soviet agriculture, written by an American historian in 1986. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 1 = 6 marks)
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about Stalin's victory in the leadership struggle? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: The post nobody wanted was the one that mattered. As General Secretary he signed the appointments, kept the files and decided which delegates travelled to which congress, and by the time his rivals understood what those powers added up to the congress that would have removed him was already full of men he had promoted. Trotsky had the reputation, the army behind him in memory and the better pen. He also had almost nobody in the provincial secretariats, and he did not think it worth finding out who they were. From a study of Soviet politics in the 1920s, written by a British historian in 1996. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 2 = 6 marks)
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about the purges of the 1930s? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: The trials in the Hall of Columns were the part the world was allowed to see, and they were the smallest part. Foreign correspondents sat through confessions delivered in complete sentences and wrote that the accused seemed sincere. In the same months the operational orders went out to the regions with numbers attached — so many for the first category, so many for the second — and local officials wrote back asking for the quotas to be raised. Nobody reported those letters, because nobody outside the building had seen one. From a study of Stalin's Terror, written by an American historian in 2007. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 3 = 6 marks)
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about the reasons for Soviet survival in the years 1941–42? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: The armies that were destroyed in the first four months had been destroyed before, in 1937, by their own government. What replaced them was not a better army but a bigger one, and behind it more than a thousand factories were taken apart, put on trains and rebuilt beyond the Urals in a winter. The order of July 1942 forbade retreat on pain of death, and it was obeyed. Sentiment about the Great Patriotic War tends to leave out how much of the resolve was compulsory. From a history of the Eastern Front, written by a British historian in 2006. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 4 = 6 marks)
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(6)What
What impression does the author give about the position of women in the Soviet Union in the 1930s? You must use Extract A to explain your answer.
Extract A: She could qualify as an engineer, and did, in numbers no Western country came near. She could also be prosecuted for an abortion after 1936, was expected to produce children for medals, and came home from the plant to queue because nobody had built the communal kitchens the pamphlets of 1919 had promised. The revolution had opened the professions and had not touched the second shift, and the state discovered in the 1930s that it wanted both her outputs. From a social history of the Soviet Union, written by a British historian in 1999. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 5 = 6 marks)
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(8)Explain
Explain two effects of collectivisation on the Soviet Union in the years 1929–41.
(Total for Question 6 = 8 marks)
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(8)Explain
Explain two effects of the leadership struggle in the years 1924–29 on the Soviet Union.
(Total for Question 7 = 8 marks)
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(8)Explain
Explain two effects of Stalin's economic policies on living and working conditions in Soviet towns in the years 1928–41.
(Total for Question 8 = 8 marks)
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(8)Explain
Explain two effects of the purges of the 1930s on the Soviet Union.
(Total for Question 9 = 8 marks)
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(16)How
'Stalin's economic policies in the years 1928–41 were a success.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. • the Five-year Plans • collectivisation
(Total for Question 10 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
'The purges of the 1930s were carried out mainly to remove threats to Stalin personally.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. • the murder of Kirov (1934) • the Moscow show trials
(Total for Question 11 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
'Stalin became leader of the USSR by 1929 mainly because of his control of the party machine.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. • the powers of the General Secretary • the weaknesses of Trotsky
(Total for Question 12 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
'The main reason the USSR was able to defeat Germany was the strength of the Soviet economy.' How far do you agree? Explain your answer. • the evacuation of industry • the Five-year Plans
(Total for Question 13 = 16 marks)
Have them marked, then defend the answer
Practice tells you the mark; teaching it back tells you whether you understand it. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it.
- Mark these questions — 13 questions, marked on Incandio against the authored scheme, with the mistake you actually made named.
- Teach it — explain dictatorship and conflict in the USSR, 1924–53 to Ember, an AI pupil who does not have it yet and asks the awkward question.
- Defend it — three rounds against the mind with the strongest claim on it, marked against descriptors you can read first.
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Back to the option
- Dictatorship and conflict in the USSR, 1924–53 — Option 5: the leadership struggle, 1924–29; five-year Plans and collectivisation; purges, show trials, the cult of Stalin and the revision of history; Life in the Soviet Union, 1924–41; the Second World War and after, 1941–53.
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