GCSE
HISTORY B
Unit 2: Stalin’s Dictatorship: USSR,
1924 – 1941
Schemes of work
Schemes of work are suggestions and ideas about how you
might deliver GCSE History. You can use these suggestions,
adapt them to better suit your students or use your own
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This Scheme of work offers a number of teaching suggestions for lessons to be planned around. It
should be used in conjunction with the content laid down in the Specification and the Resource list. It
is not prescriptive but could be used to inform a school/college’s approach and scheme of work. The
school/college’s scheme of work would take account of the ability of its students, its resources and
style of teaching and learning.
The teaching suggestions are indicative of a way of approaching the content. It does not necessarily
represent the way the content will be treated in the examination paper.
Key question
To what extent had Stalin become a personal dictator in Communist Russia by the
end of the 1920s?
Outcomes
Teaching suggestions
To understand and explain:
• the situation after the death of
Lenin
• Stalin’s and Trotsky’s claims to
power
• Communist rule in the later
1920s
• the power struggle between
Stalin, Trotsky and others
• the emergence of Stalin as
sole ruler of the USSR.
Study the death and funeral of Lenin; analyse why so many
people queued to see his body; his reputation as seen in
European obituaries.
To understand:
• some aspects of causation
and consequence
• some elements of source
evaluation
• the importance of analysing
different interpretations in the
study of an historical event.
Research the background of Stalin and Trotsky before January
1924 – what had they contributed to the emerging USSR?
Research Stalin’s use of the funeral to add to his reputation.
Investigate Lenin’s Last Testament – what it said and why it was
not published.
Investigate the differences between Stalin and Trotsky in terms of
background, character, policies, etc. Show these in tabular form.
Hold a class debate on who was better qualified to succeed
Lenin.
Study the developing censorship and propaganda in the later
1920s; study the Communist system of government and the role
of the secret police. Investigate the role of propaganda, including
posters.
Devise a chart to show how Stalin defeated Trotsky by using the
other contenders, and then defeated them.
Analyse the reasons for Stalin’s success in becoming sole ruler.
Discuss which factors were most important and why.
Investigate different interpretations of the USSR in the 1920s.
2
GCSE HISTORY B UNIT 2: STALIN’S DICTATORSHIP: USSR,
1924 – 1941
Key question
How did Stalin reinforce his dictatorship in the 1930s?
Outcomes
Teaching suggestions
To understand and explain:
• how the Communist Party
controlled the government
• the reasons for and extent of
the Purges
• the cult of personality and its
consequences.
Study the structure of the Communist government.
To understand:
• some aspects of causation
and consequence
• some elements of source
evaluation
• the importance of analysing
different interpretations in the
study of an historical event.
Investigate the show trials and the Great Terror.
Analyse the Constitution of 1936; draw a table in two columns
– one giving reasons for arguing it was democratic, the other for
arguing that it was not.
Research what happened in the Purges.
Investigate the evidence surrounding the murder of Kirov.
Analyse the consequences of the Terror for the armed forces of
the USSR.
Find propaganda paintings, posters, poems, speeches, films, etc
to illustrate how Stalin was glorified.
Listen to Russian music praising Stalin, eg by Prokoviev; analyse
the text to see how Stalin is shown as godlike.
Research the construction of the Moscow Underground and how
this glorified Stalin.
Analyse the methods used to make the propaganda effective.
Compare this with the ways in which the Romanovs were
presented to the Russian people before 1917.
Investigate different interpretations of life in the USSR in the
1930s.
Investigate the use of secret police and informers; discuss in
groups what effects that would have on communities within the
USSR.
Read factual accounts of life in labour camps.
Discuss why Stalin’s government felt that it had to resort to these
brutal methods.
3
Key question
To what extent did Stalin make the USSR a great economic power?
Outcomes
Teaching suggestions
To understand and explain:
• the economic situation
inherited by Stalin
• the reasons for and
achievements of
Collectivisation
• the reasons for and
achievements of
Industrialisation.
Investigate how much the Soviet economy was improving under
NEP; the reasons for this.
To understand:
• some aspects of causation
and consequence
• some elements of source
evaluation
• the importance of analysing
different interpretations in the
study of an historical event.
Investigate the mass famine – causes and extent.
Discuss the reasons why Stalin wanted rapid modernisation in the
USSR – economically, politically and personally.
Discuss why most peasants were angry at proposals for
collectivisation.
Investigate the process of collectivisation and how many peasants
tried to oppose it.
Investigate, using statistics, how much agricultural production
improved during the 1930s.
Discuss why official Soviet statistics may not be reliable.
Investigate the state of industry in the USSR in the late 1920s and
why Stalin wanted rapid modernisation.
Research the statistics for key industries in the first three Five Year
Plans, both targets and output; use these figures to evaluate the
extent of industrial growth.
Study Soviet propaganda posters about collectivisation and
industrialisation to see how the citizens were enthused about
Soviet policies.
Research life in the new industrial cities such as Magnitogorsk to
see the realities of industrial development.
Compare different interpretations (Soviet and Western) of life in
the USSR in the 1930s.
Construct a table to show the economic, political and social
consequences of Stalin’s economic policies.
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