How did Stalin gain power and transform the Soviet Union through collectivisation, industrialisation and terror between 1928 and 1941?
Unit 2 Option (e.g. Y219 Russia 1894 to 1941): Stalin's rise to power after Lenin's death, collectivisation and the Five Year Plans, and the Great Terror and the consolidation of the Stalinist state.
An OCR A-Level History Unit 2 non-British period study guide to Stalin and the Soviet state from 1928 to 1941. Covers Stalin's rise to power after Lenin's death, collectivisation and the famine, the Five Year Plans and rapid industrialisation, and the Great Terror and show trials, with the two-part essay skills the paper rewards.
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What this dot point is asking
For the Russia option, the final phase is Stalin's transformation of the Soviet Union, 1928 to 1941. You study Stalin's rise to power after Lenin's death, collectivisation and the Five Year Plans, and the Great Terror and the consolidation of the Stalinist state. Unit 2 tests AO1, through a part (a) on significance and a part (b) ranking causes or consequences, so you need precise figures and ranked argument.
The answer
Stalin's rise to power
Collectivisation and the famine
The Five Year Plans
The Five Year Plans (the first from 1928) drove rapid industrialisation, directed by the planning agency Gosplan and prioritising heavy industry (coal, steel, electricity, machinery). Output of heavy industry rose dramatically, building the industrial base that would later sustain the USSR in the Second World War. The cost was immense: forced labour, appalling conditions, neglect of consumer goods, and unreliable statistics. The exam debate is whether the plans were a genuine industrial success or a human catastrophe, and the strongest answers judge both.
The Great Terror
The Great Terror (1936 to 1938) escalated after the murder of Kirov (1934) and used show trials of Old Bolsheviks, mass arrests, executions and the Gulag labour camps, run by the secret police (the NKVD), to destroy real and imagined enemies. It purged the party, the army and society, securing Stalin's total dominance through terror and a pervasive cult of personality.
Examples in context
A model part (a) answer on the post of General Secretary would judge it as the institutional foundation of Stalin's rise (control of appointments delivered the crucial votes) while crediting his tactical manoeuvring and the appeal of "socialism in one country".
Try this
Q1. Assess the consequences of the Five Year Plans for the Soviet Union by 1941. [20 marks]
- What the marker wants. An AO1 essay ranking the consequences (rapid heavy industrialisation and the war-making base against the human cost, neglected consumer goods and forced labour), with precise evidence and a judgement.
Q2. What was the kulaks' fate under collectivisation? [2 marks]
- Cue. They were eliminated as a class ("dekulakisation"), deported or killed, as Stalin sought to destroy the better-off peasants and force the rest into collective farms.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of OCR exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
OCR H505 Y219 201910 marksAssess the significance of Stalin's position as General Secretary in his rise to power.Show worked answer →
The shorter part (a) of the two-part question (AO1), worth 10 marks, judging the significance of one factor.
Significance. As General Secretary from 1922 Stalin controlled party appointments, building a base of loyal officials (the "circular flow of power") that let him outmanoeuvre rivals in the votes that mattered.
Balance. His tactical skill (shifting alliances against Trotsky, then Zinoviev and Kamenev, then Bukharin) and the doctrine of "socialism in one country" also mattered, as did Trotsky's weaknesses. The top level judges the post as the institutional foundation of his rise while crediting his tactics.
OCR H505 Y219 202120 marksAssess the reasons why Stalin launched the policy of collectivisation from 1928.Show worked answer →
The longer part (b) of the two-part question (AO1), worth 20 marks, a ranked analysis of motives.
Economic. Collectivisation aimed to secure grain to feed the cities and to fund industrialisation by exporting grain, ending reliance on the unpredictable market of the NEP.
Political and ideological. It extended state control over the peasantry, eliminated the kulaks as a class, and pursued the ideological goal of socialising agriculture; it also strengthened Stalin's dominance after the defeat of Bukharin and the Right.
Judgement. The drive was economic in purpose (financing industrialisation) but inseparable from political control and ideology. The top level ranks these and judges, noting the catastrophic famine of 1932 to 1933 as a consequence.
Related dot points
- Unit 2 Option (e.g. Y219 Russia 1894 to 1941): the rule of Nicholas II and the problems of Tsarism, the 1905 revolution and its aftermath, the impact of war and the road to revolution.
An OCR A-Level History Unit 2 non-British period study guide to Russia from 1894 to 1941. Covers the rule of Nicholas II and the problems of Tsarism, the 1905 revolution and the Dumas, Stolypin's reforms, and the strains of the First World War that led to 1917, with the two-part essay skills the paper rewards.
- Unit 2 Option (e.g. Y219 Russia 1894 to 1941): the February Revolution and dual power, the failures of the Provisional Government, the October Revolution and the Bolshevik seizure of power, and the survival of the regime in the Civil War.
An OCR A-Level History Unit 2 non-British period study guide to the Russian revolutions of 1917. Covers the February Revolution and dual power, the failures of the Provisional Government, Lenin and the October Revolution, and how the Bolsheviks survived the Civil War through War Communism and Trotsky's Red Army, with the two-part essay skills the paper rewards.
- Unit 2 Option (e.g. Y221 Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919 to 1963): the consolidation of Nazi power, the machinery of the dictatorship through terror, propaganda and Gleichschaltung, and the balance of consent and coercion.
An OCR A-Level History Unit 2 non-British period study guide to the Nazi dictatorship from 1933 to 1945. Covers the consolidation of power through the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act and the Night of the Long Knives, the machinery of control through terror, propaganda and Gleichschaltung, and the debate over consent and coercion, with the two-part essay skills the paper rewards.
- Unit 2: the two-part question, managing the shorter part (a) on the significance of one factor and the longer part (b) on a wider analytical judgement, both testing AO1 under time pressure.
An OCR A-Level History Unit 2 guide to the two-part essay. Explains how to manage the shorter part (a) on the significance of one factor and the longer part (b) on a wider analytical judgement, how to time the answers, and the AO1 essay skills the non-British study rewards, with a worked example.
- AO1 essay skills: planning an analytical essay by decoding the command, selecting and ranking factors, organising thematically, and structuring towards a substantiated judgement.
An OCR A-Level History technique guide to planning the analytical AO1 essay. Explains how to decode the command word, select and rank the relevant factors, organise the essay thematically, and structure it towards a substantiated judgement, with a worked example transferable to every essay in the course.
Sources & how we know this
- OCR A Level History A (H505) specification — OCR (2015)