Russia & the USSR is a core part of GCSE History. Revise the key concepts and common mistakes below, then lock them in with the free games.
1905 RevolutionUprising triggered by Bloody Sunday massacre; forced Tsar Nicholas II to issue October Manifesto promising Duma.
February Revolution 1917Strikes and mutinies in Petrograd forced Nicholas II to abdicate; Provisional Government took power.
October Revolution 1917Bolshevik seizure of power in Petrograd led by Lenin and Trotsky; stormed Winter Palace, overthrew Provisional Government.
War Communism1918-21 policy nationalising industry and forcibly requisitioning grain to win Civil War; caused mass famine.
NEP 1921New Economic Policy under Lenin allowing small private trade and ending grain requisitioning; restored agricultural output.
Five-Year PlansStalin's industrialisation programme from 1928; rapid heavy industry growth at huge human cost in gulags.
Civil War 1918-21The Reds defended the revolution against the Whites and foreign intervention; Trotsky's Red Army and control of the centre secured Bolshevik victory.
New Economic Policy 1921Lenin's retreat from War Communism, allowing peasants to sell surplus grain and small businesses to trade, after famine and the Kronstadt rising.
CollectivisationFrom 1928 Stalin merged peasant farms into collective farms (kolkhozy) to control grain; 'kulaks' were deported and famine struck in 1932-33.
The Great TerrorStalin's purges of the 1930s: show trials of Old Bolsheviks, mass NKVD arrests, the Gulag camps, and the decimation of the Red Army officer corps.
Impact of the First World WarMilitary defeats, food shortages and inflation by 1917 destroyed faith in Tsar Nicholas II, who had taken personal command of the army in 1915.
Bloody Sunday 1905Tsarist troops fired on Father Gapon's petition march to Winter Palace; around 200 killed, sparked 1905 Revolution.
April Theses 1917Lenin's programme on return from Switzerland: 'peace, land, bread' and 'all power to the Soviets'.
Kronstadt Mutiny 1921Naval base sailors' revolt against Bolshevik rule; brutally crushed by Trotsky, prompted NEP.
Questions where students often pick the tempting wrong answer — make sure you know the right one: