Eduqas GCSE History: Component 2 Option 2C — The Development of the USSR, 1924-1991

What is included

What this course covers

• Topic 1 — The rule of Stalin

  • 1.1 – The leadership contest
  • 1.2 – The ‘Cult of Stalin’; use of propaganda and censorship
  • 1.3 – Use of control and terror

• Topic 2 — Changing life under Stalin

  • 2.1 – Collectivisation and de-kulakisation
  • 2.2 – Five Year Plans and work practices; modernisation of industry
  • 2.3 – Changing role of women

• Topic 3 — Impact of the Second World War

  • 3.1 – Preparations for war and Operation Barbarossa
  • 3.2 – Leningrad and Stalingrad
  • 3.3 – Post-war reconstruction

• Topic 4 — Cold War relations, 1945-91

  • 4.1 – Causes of post-war tensions; Warsaw Pact and NATO
  • 4.2 – The arms race
  • 4.3 – ‘hot-spots’ - Berlin, Cuba and Afghanistan
  • 4.4 – Relations in the 1980s – ‘Second Cold War’

• Topic 5 — Political developments, 1953-85

  • 5.1 – Khrushchev and de-Stalinisation
  • 5.2 – Industrial change and agricultural reform
  • 5.3 – The Brezhnev years; leadership changes, 1982-85

• Topic 6 — Political reform under Gorbachev

  • 6.1 – Economic reconstruction and perestroika
  • 6.2 – Glasnost and democratisation
  • 6.3 – Improved relations with the West

• Topic 7 — The collapse of communism and the break-up of the USSR

  • 7.1 – Unrest in Eastern Europe
  • 7.2 – Rise of nationalism within the USSR
  • 7.3 – The role of Yeltsin and the end of Communism

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