Examiner’s Specific Advice

This question is testing several skills and also your knowledge of the topic. It is not a source-based question. Because the question is on a fundamental topic, you are expected to know the main details of the theme, in this case the results of the First Five-Year Plan in the USSR. You are also being required to provide a historical explanation and make a substantiated judgement about the impact.

As always with an essay-type question, relevance is the key – your answer can be reasonably concise as long as you address the precise question. Relevance is more important than elegance of style – do not over worry about presenting your work with neat introductions and conclusions, especially if you are writing under examination conditions.

The key thing is not to narrate and describe, but keep the precise question in mind: to what extent was the First Five-Year Plan effective in both industrialising and modernising the USSR?

Most importantly, do make a judgement and back it up with evidence, either with a concluding paragraph or throughout the essay.

You might find it advisable for an essay-type answer of this sort to have a plan, since you will almost certainly be writing several paragraphs.

Exemplar Question

2 (04) ‘The First Five-Year Plan (1928–1933) succeeded in turning the USSR into a modern industrial state.’
Explain why you agree or disagree with this view.  [24 marks]

Plan

• Introduction – the Soviet economy in 1928
• Motives for the Plan
• Successes and failures of the Plan
• The economy in 1933
• How modernised and industrialised was the USSR?
• Conclusion

View Exemplar Answer 1

View Exemplar Answer 2