Communism in Russia 1900–1940 notes

This section opens Topic 1: Communism in Russia 1900–1940. Before you judge Lenin or Stalin, you must know what communism claimed to be, how Karl Marx explained class struggle, and why Tsarist…

This section is the hinge of Topic 1: how 1917 ended the Romanov monarchy and brought the first socialist state. You must separate the unplanned February/March rising from the planned…

This section asks how the Bolsheviks held power after October 1917. Unpopular policies and a destroyed Constituent Assembly produced armed opposition. The answer is civil war (roughly 1918–1921)…

This section is about how Lenin kept control after civil war: a one-party vanguard, his twist on Marxism (Marxism-Leninism), and the New Economic Policy (NEP); a temporary capitalist compromise…

This section is source-based work on how Josef Stalin won the succession after Lenin, and how he reinterpreted Marxism-Leninism as Socialism in One Country. You explain causation in the power…

This section evaluates Stalin’s policies after he consolidated power: collectivisation, industrialisation through Five-Year Plans, and political terror in the 1930s. Argue aims, methods, intended…