OxfordAQA International GCSE History (9245): Paper 2 Section A, Societies in Change — Revision Notes

These notes condense Section A of OxfordAQA International GCSE History (9245) Paper 2, the societies in change study. Because every question asks how people’s lives changed, the notes are organised as “groups and experiences” grids for each option, plus a technique sheet for the four questions (3 + 6 + 9 + 12 = 30 marks). Full explanations: Societies in change study guide. Practice: Societies in change practice questions.

Syllabus coverage

OXFORDAQA 9245, VERSION 1.1 – 3.2.1 SECTION A – choose one: 3.2.1.1 Life in Germany, 1919-1949; 3.2.1.2 Life in Russia and the USSR, 1914-1953; 3.2.1.3 Life in the USA, 1920-1968.

Technique sheet

Q	Marks	What to write
1	3	Three precise facts about the issue – no explanation needed
2	6	ONE way, fully explained: point, evidence, explanation of the effect
3	9	TWO ways or changes, each with its own developed paragraph
4	12	The given factor + at least one other, explained, then a judgement on which mattered more and why

Germany, 1919-1949: groups and experiences

Group	Weimar (1919-33)	Nazi (1933-45)	Post-war (1945-49)
Workers	Wages rose after 1924; unemployment soared after 1929	Jobs via public works and rearmament; unions banned	Ruined cities, food shortages
Farmers	Falling prices, debt	Promised support; mixed results	Shortages; land reforms in Soviet zone
Women	Vote, new jobs, “new woman”	Pushed to motherhood; later war work	Rebuilding (“rubble women”) in ruined cities
Jewish people	Full citizens, prominent in culture	Persecution, Nuremberg Laws, Final Solution	Survivors displaced
Elderly and savers	Ruined by 1923 hyperinflation		Refugees and expellees
Big business	Some gained from inflation	Profited from rearmament	Dismantling in Soviet zone

Dates: 1919 Spartacists; 1920 Kapp; 1923 Ruhr, hyperinflation, Munich Putsch; 1924 Dawes; 1929 Young Plan; 1933 Hitler Chancellor, Enabling Act; 1935 Nuremberg Laws; 1938 Kristallnacht; 1942 Wannsee; 1944 bomb plot; 1945 defeat and zones; 1948-49 Berlin Blockade; 1949 FRG and GDR.

Russia and the USSR, 1914-1953: groups and experiences

Group	1914-24	1924-41	1941-53
Peasants	War losses; seized land in 1917; requisitioning, then NEP	Collectivisation; kulaks deported; Holodomor	Wartime destruction; post-war farm stagnation
Industrial workers	Shortages; workers’ control; War Communism	Five-Year Plans, discipline, crowded cities	War production; rebuilding
Women	New legal rights after 1917	“New Soviet Woman”: factory work plus home	Soldiers, snipers (Pavlichenko), workers
Religious and ethnic minorities	Church attacked	Persecution, deportation, Russification	Deportations continue
Party and army	Bolshevik dictatorship	Purges of officers and old Bolsheviks	High Stalinism; Beria’s NKVD

Dates: 1917 abdication and Bolshevik revolution; 1918-21 Civil War; 1921 Kronstadt, NEP; 1924 Lenin dies; 1928 First Five-Year Plan; 1929 collectivisation; 1932-33 Holodomor; 1936-38 Great Terror; 1941 German invasion; 1945 victory; 1953 Stalin dies.

USA, 1920-1968: groups and experiences

Group	1920s	1929-45	1945-68
Middle class	Cars, consumer goods, shares	Lost savings; New Deal mortgage help	Suburbs, TV, prosperity
Farmers	Overproduction, debt	Dust Bowl; AAA support	Fewer, larger farms
African Americans	Jim Crow, KKK; NAACP, UNIA	Limited New Deal help; war jobs and service	Civil rights movement; 1964 and 1968 Acts
Women	Vote; flappers; Sheppard-Towner Act	Problems in Depression; war work	Feminist movement; Equal Pay Act 1963
Immigrants and minorities	Quotas 1921, 1924; Sacco and Vanzetti	Japanese American internment

Dates: 1920 Prohibition, 19th Amendment; 1921 quotas, Sheppard-Towner; 1924 National Origins Act; 1929 Crash; 1932 Roosevelt elected; 1933 banking crisis and Hundred Days; 1941 Lend-Lease; 1954 Brown; 1955-56 Montgomery; 1957 Little Rock; 1961 Freedom Rides; 1963 Equal Pay Act; 1964 Civil Rights Act; 1968 Civil Rights Act.

Worked example: question 2

Explain one way in which the Depression changed the lives of German farmers. [6]

“One way was falling incomes. After 1929 food prices collapsed, so many farmers could not repay debts and lost their farms to the banks. This made them desperate for change, which helps explain why many rural Protestant voters turned to the Nazis, who promised to protect farmers and blamed Jewish bankers.” One point, specific evidence, explained consequence.

Key terms

Term	Meaning
Hyperinflation	The collapse of the German mark in 1923, when prices rose so fast that savings became worthless
Volksgemeinschaft	The Nazi idea of a “people’s community” that put the nation before the individual
Kinder, Küche, Kirche	“Children, kitchen, church”: the Nazi ideal role for women
NEP	Lenin’s New Economic Policy (1921), allowing small private trade and ending grain requisitioning
Collectivisation	Stalin’s merging of peasant farms into state-controlled collective farms from 1929
Kulak	A better-off peasant; kulaks were persecuted and deported under collectivisation
New Deal	Roosevelt’s programmes of relief, recovery and reform from 1933
Jim Crow laws	State laws enforcing racial segregation in the southern USA

Exam traps

• Answering question 2 with two ways (only one is credited).
• Describing events with no named group.
• Forgetting the post-war part (Germany 1945-49; USSR 1945-53).
• In question 4, failing to compare factors in the conclusion.

Frequently asked questions

How specific should I be about groups? Name them as the specification does: women, workers, farmers, minorities, the young, and so on.

Can the same content answer different questions? Yes; for example, the Holodomor can support questions on peasants, collectivisation or Ukraine.

Self-test

1. What was the Rentenmark? The new currency of November 1923 that ended hyperinflation.
2. Who was Lyudmila Pavlichenko? A Soviet sniper used in wartime propaganda.
3. What did the Sheppard-Towner Act fund? Maternal and infant health care (1921).
4. When were the FRG and GDR created? 1949.
5. What was the UNIA? Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Official specification

OxfordAQA International GCSE History (9245) specification, Version 1.1, sections 3.2.1 and 4.4.2 – oxfordaqa.com.