O Level History: Depth Study C, Russia 1905-41 — Revision Notes (Cambridge 2147)

These notes condense Depth Study C of Cambridge O Level History 2147, Russia 1905-41. They follow the four key questions – the fall of the Tsar, the Bolsheviks in power, Stalin’s control, and Stalin’s economic policies – in a format built for Paper 1 Section B (one three-part question: 4 + 6 + 10 marks). See the Depth Study C study guide for full explanations and Depth Study C practice questions to test yourself.

Syllabus coverage

CAMBRIDGE O LEVEL HISTORY (2147), 2024-2026 – DEPTH STUDY C

1. Why did the Tsarist regime collapse in 1917?
2. How did the Bolsheviks gain power, and how did they consolidate their rule?
3. How did Stalin gain and hold on to power?
4. What was the impact of Stalin’s economic policies?

Timeline (Western calendar)

Date	Event
Jan 1905	Bloody Sunday
Oct 1905	October Manifesto
1906	First Duma; Stolypin becomes chief minister
1911	Stolypin assassinated
Aug 1914	War; defeat at Tannenberg
Sept 1915	Nicholas takes command of the army
Dec 1916	Rasputin murdered
Mar 1917	March Revolution; Tsar abdicates
Apr 1917	Lenin returns; April Theses
July 1917	July Days
Sept 1917	Kornilov affair
6-7 Nov 1917	Bolshevik seizure of power
Jan 1918	Constituent Assembly closed
Mar 1918	Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
1918-21	Civil War; War Communism
Mar 1921	Kronstadt Rising; NEP announced
Jan 1924	Lenin dies
1928	First Five-Year Plan; Stalin dominant
1929	Trotsky exiled; mass collectivisation begins
1932-33	Famine
Dec 1934	Kirov murdered
1936-38	Show trials; Great Terror

Key terms

Term	Meaning
Autocracy	Rule by one person with unlimited power
Duma	Russian parliament created after 1905
Soviet	Council of workers’ and soldiers’ deputies
Dual power	Provisional Government and Petrograd Soviet sharing authority in 1917
Cheka	Bolshevik secret police (1917)
War Communism	Grain requisitioning and nationalisation during the Civil War
NEP	New Economic Policy (1921): limited private trade
Kulak	Better-off peasant, targeted under collectivisation
Gosplan	State planning agency setting targets
Gulag	System of labour camps

Key question 1: why the Tsar fell – long and short term

Long-term	Short-term (war)
Autocracy unwilling to share power	Defeats, casualties, poor supplies
Poverty of peasants and workers	Nicholas as commander-in-chief (1915)
Revolutionary parties growing	Tsarina and Rasputin discredit the court
Duma ignored after 1905	Food and fuel shortages, inflation
	Army mutiny in Petrograd, March 1917

Why he survived 1905 but not 1917: in 1905 the army stayed loyal and the opposition was divided; in 1917 the army joined the revolution and almost no one defended the Tsar.

Key question 2: Bolsheviks

Why they won in November 1917: Provisional Government’s failures; Kornilov; Lenin’s slogans; Trotsky’s MRC.

Reds vs Whites:

Reds	Whites
Central area, railways, factories	Scattered round the edges
One leadership; Trotsky’s Red Army	Rival generals, different aims
War Communism fed the army	Linked to landlords and the Tsar
Propaganda: defending Russia from foreigners	Foreign help seen as interference

NEP: a success in recovery (grain, small trade) but a political retreat; Kronstadt showed why Lenin had to change course.

Key question 3: Stalin

Stalin’s advantages over Trotsky: General Secretary (appointments); Lenin’s funeral; Testament suppressed; alliances (with Zinoviev and Kamenev, then Bukharin); “Socialism in One Country” more popular than “Permanent Revolution”.

Control methods: Purges and show trials; NKVD and Gulag; cult of personality; censorship and rewritten history; socialist realism.

Key question 4: Five-Year Plans and collectivisation

	Successes	Failures and costs
Five-Year Plans (from 1928)	Huge rises in coal, steel, oil, electricity; new cities such as Magnitogorsk; stronger defence	Poor quality; few consumer goods; harsh discipline; false figures
Collectivisation (from 1929)	Grain for cities and export; state control of countryside; labour freed for industry	Kulaks deported; livestock slaughtered; famine 1932-33 killing millions

Groups: workers (discipline, some rewards); peasants (lost land, famine); women (jobs plus housework); minorities (Russification, deportations).

Worked example: a (b) answer frame

Explain why the Bolsheviks won the Civil War. [6]

Reason -> evidence -> link, three times: (1) geography – the Reds held Moscow and Petrograd and the railways, so they could move troops quickly; (2) leadership – Trotsky’s Red Army used discipline and former Tsarist officers, so it fought effectively; (3) White weaknesses – divided generals far apart, so they never co-ordinated attacks.

Key people

Person	Role
Nicholas II	Last Tsar; abdicated March 1917
Pyotr Stolypin	Chief minister 1906–11; repression and land reform
Grigori Rasputin	Influence at court during the war; murdered December 1916
Alexander Kerensky	Leader of the Provisional Government from July 1917
Lavr Kornilov	General whose failed march on Petrograd (August–September 1917) helped the Bolsheviks
Vladimir Lenin	Bolshevik leader; April Theses; led the November 1917 seizure of power
Leon Trotsky	Organised the seizure of power; built the Red Army; lost to Stalin
Joseph Stalin	General Secretary from 1922; sole leader by 1929
Alexei Stakhanov	Miner held up as a model worker in 1935

Exam traps

• Using “February” and “October” without knowing that 2147 says March and November.
• Thinking Lenin led the March Revolution – he was in Switzerland.
• Saying the Purges brought Stalin to power; they came after he had won.
• Giving only successes or only costs in a “how successful” question.

Frequently asked questions

What was the October Manifesto? Nicholas II’s 1905 promise of a Duma and civil rights, which split the opposition.

Why was Kronstadt important? Loyal Bolshevik sailors rebelled in 1921, showing Lenin that War Communism had to end.

Who were the kulaks? Better-off peasants whom Stalin blamed for grain shortages and removed during collectivisation.

Self-test

1. Which agreement ended Russia’s war with Germany? Brest-Litovsk, March 1918.
2. Who commanded the Red Army? Trotsky.
3. When did the NEP begin? 1921.
4. Whose murder in 1934 began the Great Terror? Kirov’s.
5. When did the first Five-Year Plan begin? 1928.

Official syllabus

Cambridge O Level History (2147) syllabus for examination in 2024, 2025 and 2026 – cambridgeinternational.org (Depth study C).