AS-LEVEL
HISTORY
Unit HIS2L
Report on the Examination
Specification 2040
June 2016
Version: 1.0
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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – AS HISTORY – HIS2L – JUNE 2016
Unit HIS2L
Unit 2L: The Impact of Stalin’s Leadership in the USSR, 1924–1941
General Comments
The quality of the response varied widely. The best answers were impressive, providing balanced
judgements, supported by extensive selected evidence and confidently expressed. At the other
extreme was a substantial minority of scripts that were marred by inadequate knowledge and very
poor skills of written communication. In between, were many worthy responses that were
undermined by excessive haste. Sometimes, students need to consider that less can be more; that
conciseness is a virtue and that a controlled answer is invariably more successful than one done in
a frantic rush.
Question 1
01
Answers to this question, comparing Khrushchev’s 1956 speech with the views of a modern
historian, were very mixed. Those students who set out a direct comparison, backed by
selected and integrated evidence, did well; but those who tried to rely on literal paraphrase of
the sources, with a comparison added after the event, did not. There were all too many
answers in which the ‘pairs’ of evidence put forward did not relate to each other at all.
02
Many answers to this question, on the importance of Terror in strengthening or weakening
the USSR by 1941, encountered similar difficulties to Question 01. A literal approach to the
sources resulted in the paraphrase of much irrelevant material. Treating each source one by
one can indeed be an effective approach to such questions but only if the evidence is
purposefully applied to answering the specific question. A number of high-quality answers
began with a trenchant judgement on the strengths and weaknesses of the USSR on the eve
of the Great Patriotic War and then integrated the source-evidence to fit their argument.
Question 2
03
Answers to this question, on the reasons why Lenin’s Testament was not published, were
based on sound knowledge but too often relied upon extensive description of events rather
than direct explanation of the reasons why the Communist leadership held back.
04
Most students responding to this question, on the importance of Stalin’s popularity for his
success in consolidating his political power by 1929, were able to deploy extensive
knowledge of a range of other factors besides Stalin’s ‘popularity’. Too often, however, this
knowledge was deployed in a rigid, pre-prepared fashion, without being sufficiently adapted
to the specific question. The best answers showed analytical skill in defining the precise
nature of Stalin’s support within the Party, especially how he was able to establish a strong
power base due to the loyalties of those whose careers depended on loyalty to the man who
had appointed them.
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REPORT ON THE EXAMINATION – AS HISTORY – HIS2L – JUNE 2016
Question 3
05
Answers to this question, on the introduction of the First Five Year Plan, were generally
good. The main weakness of less successful answers lay in an uncritical tendency to include
descriptive material on forced collectivisation.
06
The response to this question on the improvement of the industrial economy by the end of
the First Five Year Plan in 1932, were generally full, and balanced. Too many answers,
however, were tempted to stray well beyond 1932, including irrelevant material on the later
1930s.
Mark Ranges and Award of Grades
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Converting Marks into UMS marks
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