Unit 1: International relations: the era of the Cold War, 1943–91
Chapter 1: How did the Cold War in Europe develop? 1943–56
Page 11.
1. Outline TWO ways in which the ideologies of the two superpowers differed in the years after
1945. (4 marks)
Sample answer: The USA had a capitalist economic system in which industry was privately owned
and controlled, with profits from a successful business going to the owner. In the USSR all industry
was owned, planned and run by the state.
Democracy in the USA meant that voters could choose who to vote from two or more parties, which
had different policies. In elections in the USSR there might be several candidates but they all had to
be members of the Communist Party, the only party allowed.
Comment: This answer would gain the full 4 marks. It provides two clear differences and develops
each one from each side.
Page 14
Explain why relations between the USA and the USSR had changed by 1946. (13 marks)
You may use the following in your answer:


the Iron Curtain
satellite states
You must also include information of your own.
Sample answer: The key Allies, the USA, USSR and Britain, met at Yalta in February 1945 before
Germany had been defeated. Their leaders, President Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill, got on well and
there was still a job to be done in winning the war. Yet by the end of 1946 relations between the two
superpowers, the USA and USSR, had deteriorated.
Even by the time of the Potsdam Conference, in the summer of 1945 the cracks were beginning to
show. An election in Britain had replaced Churchill by Attlee. Roosevelt had died and been replaced
by the much more anti-Soviet Truman. The war in Europe was over and the Allies had sharp
disagreements about what was to happen next. Stalin wanted to seize all German assets as
reparations and take them to the USSR. The other two were concerned at a repeat of the
consequences of the harsh reparations inflicted on Germany in 1919. The dropping of the Atom
Bombs on Japan in August alarmed and angered Stalin. He had not been told about this new weapon
and feared that the USA could use it on his country. The arms race began as the Soviets began work
on developing their own atom bomb.
However, the most important reason for the change in relations was the takeover of Eastern Europe
by the USSR. The Red Army had driven the Germans westwards through the last years of the war, out
of Russia and across Eastern Europe into Germany. These areas were still under heavy Red Army
control. Democratic elections in East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria, Albania and Romania were rigged
to produce Communist governments, amid violence and even killings. These countries were soon
‘satellites states’ because not only were they under Communist control, but the Communist rulers
were simply told what to do by Stalin.
This situation was described by Churchill as an ‘Iron Curtain’ in March 1946 (he had used the term
privately much earlier – in mid-1945). It was as if a curtain had been pulled across Europe and all
travel, trade and other links were closed off. Western allies feared that not only was Europe now split
into two halves, with no contact between them, but that the Red Army could continue their march
westwards and take over the rest of Europe. Greece seemed to be the next likely target and already
civil war had broken out there by 1946.
Comment: This excellent answer is worth the full 13 marks. It takes up the two bullet-points, but
provides much material outside them. It gives at least three reasons for the change in relations. It
links and prioritises these reasons.
Note that 3 extra marks will be awarded in this question for good spelling, punctuation and
grammar. This answer would collect all three.
Page 16
Give TWO reasons from Source A which show that the Berlin airlift made both sides in the Cold War
‘even more stubborn’. (2 marks)
Sample answer: The Berlin airlift made both sides in the Cold War even more stubborn because
Berlin remained exactly as it was. The USSR had failed in their aim of taking over Berlin, which
remained a capitalist, democratic island inside East Germany. The West could see that their links with
West Berlin could be cut by the Soviets any time.
Comment: This answer picks up the views of the two sides in the Cold War as outlined in the source
and so gets both marks. There is no need for a longer answer, or to bring in anything else.
Chapter 2: Three Cold War crises: Berlin, Cuba and Czechoslovakia c. 1957–69
Page 24
Describe the key features of the Prague Spring. (6 marks)
Sample answer: In the spring of 1968 the new Czech leader, Alexander Dubcek, began to make
changes to the tight Communist control that had gripped the country since 1948.
He put an end to the censorship of newspapers, radio, TV and the arts. This led to an outpouring of
criticism of the corrupt, stifling and incompetent Communist rule.
Czech citizens were allowed more freedom to travel and some political prisoners were released.
There was even talk of allowing other parties apart from the Communists.
All these changes were known as the ‘Prague Spring’ – Prague is the capital city.
Comment: This would get 5 marks out of 6. The answer doesn’t develop the points made: some
explanation of what had gone on before 1968 would make it clearer what the ‘Spring’ was all about.
Page 24
How useful are Sources B and C as evidence for the reasons for the Prague Spring? (10 marks)
Sample answer: Both sources give different evidence for the reasons for the Prague Spring, which is
useful, although there are also limitations to each.
Source B is useful because it tells us how fed up the speaker was with the Communists who had run
Czechoslovakia since the soviets had put them in power in 1948. He calls them ‘obedient’ and
‘mediocre’, ‘those who didn’t want to cause trouble’. The Prague Spring was supported by many
artists and intellectuals and this source makes it clear how irritated they were by these people who
imposed censorship and stifling control. However, this person was a reformer, speaking at a meeting
at the height of the Prague Spring in March 1968, full of the optimism of the moment.
Source C gives slightly different reasons. The speaker refers to Nazi control of Czechoslovakia from
1939 to 1945 and says it was ‘not a happy time’. Unlike Source B, the speaker does reject socialism,
but he or she wants a socialist system, which is ‘more honest, more humane’. Socialism with a human
face was one of the slogans of the Prague Spring. However, this person is talking to the BBC and
speaks good English, so probably belongs to the intellectuals, like the speaker in Source B.
Comment: This developed answer would get 10 marks. It deals with both sources. It comments on
their content – what the speaker says – and gives good historical context for these views. It also looks
at the caption to comment on the nature, origin and purpose of each, bringing in some limitations on
the usefulness of each source.
Page 30
Explain the importance of THREE of the following in the collapse of the USSR:




Gorbachev
Glasnost
Perestroika
Boris Yeltsin. (15 marks – 5 marks for each of your chosen three items)
Sample answer: The collapse of the Soviet Union was due most of all to Gorbachev’s policies. He had
introduced changes in the Soviet Union to bring more freedom, in the economy and in people’s lives.
The soviet satellite countries then wanted the same freedoms and he could not stop non-Communist
governments being set up across Eastern Europe. He sent in troops to Latvia and Lithuania but they
became independent anyway. Then, in 1990, the states of the Soviet Union, starting with Ukraine,
declared their independence. Gorbachev did not want this to happen but could not stop the collapse
of the USSR, which he eventually announced in December 1991.
Comment: This answer would get all 5 marks. It demonstrates good factual knowledge, but ties this
to the key word in the question: ‘importance’.
Unit 2 Modern World Depth Studies
Chapter 4: Germany 1918–39
Page 32
Describe the events which led to the setting up of the Weimar Republic. (6 marks)
Sample answer: By the autumn of 1918 it was clear that Germany had lost the war. Their troops
were gradually retreating. Many were beginning to desert and go home. There was starvation back
in Germany as a result of the food blockade imposed by the British navy. Peace was badly needed.
The Allies offered to make peace but one condition was that Germany should have a more
democratic constitution. The Kaiser refused.
Sailors in Kiel mutinied, followed by socialist revolutions in several cities. As Germany collapsed into
chaos the Kaiser abdicated. The Reichstag declared a republic and made an armistice. A democratic
constitution was drawn up, with Ebert as Chancellor and elections were held in January 1919. The
communist revolutionaries in Berlin made the city unsafe and so the first meeting was held in
Weimar, the town giving its name to the new government.
Comment: This answer shows a good sense of the chronology and of the various threads that came
together. It would earn the full 6 marks.
Page 42
Explain the changes brought in by the Nazis to the position and role of women in Germany in the
years 1933–1939. (8 marks)
Sample answer: The Nazis were an almost completely male party. They had traditional ideas about
what the position of women in society should be. A woman’s role was to be a wife and mother, to
give birth to and raise future Nazi citizens. The freedom and equality that the Weimar Republic had
begun to encourage after 1918 were seen as damaging. As soon as they came to power the Nazis
introduced a marriage loan scheme. A couple received an interest-free loan on marriage as long as
the woman did not work until it was all paid off. There were also medals for motherhood, with gold
for mothers who had produced eight children.
Many married women had to give up their jobs and employers were told to always prefer male to
female job applicants.
However, by the late 1930s, there was a shortage of labour. Factories were keen to hire women
workers and women were keen to earn their own money, and the proportion of women in work
increased.
Comment: This is good description of the lives of women in Nazi Germany, but the focus of the
question is on change. Some changes are described, but more could have been made of what was
different after 1933 against what women’s roles were before; 6 marks.
Chapter 5: Russia 1914–39
Page 46
Explain the effects of the First World War on Russia by the beginning of 1917. (8 marks)
Sample answer: Russia’s disastrous performance in the First World War deeply affected the country.
Although Russia had the largest army in Europe it had suffered massive defeats at Tannenberg and
Masurian Lakes by September 1914; 170,000 soldiers had been killed. By 1917 hundreds of square
miles of Russian territory had been lost. Most Russians could see that these resulted from
incompetent officers, and shortages of guns and medical supplies through corruption.
Back home the war brought economic chaos and misery for the Russian people. Supplying the army
meant that prices of food and fuel in the cities had risen but wages had not kept pace. With so many
peasants and horses taken from the land for the army, agricultural production fell, driving prices up
even further. The transport system proved unable to get food to the starving people in the cities.
These terrible results could all be put down to the faults of the Tsarist system. When things went
wrong the only person who could be blamed was the Tsar, but Nicholas was incapable of dealing
with the situation. In 1915 the Tsar went to the front to take personal control of the war. Not only
could he not prevent further defeats, but this left his unpopular wife, Alexandra, in control, power
that she used unwisely, promoting her favourites and relying too much on advice from the crazy holy
man, Rasputin. The war brought Russia to revolution in March 1917.
Comment: This answer produces three main results. More could have been said in each one, but this
is only an 8-mark question and these paragraphs are quite enough. Three good descriptions of Russia
in 1917 would receive 7 marks, but this answer refers all the time back to the results of the war,
winning the full 8 marks.
Page 57
What can you learn from Source A about the reasons for the success of the Bolshevik takeover in
October 1917? (4 marks)
Sample answer: We learn from Source A how important Lenin and Trotsky were in the success of the
Bolshevik takeover of Russia in October 1917. Trotsky provided ‘careful planning’ and organisation,
timing the attack across the city of Petrograd. Lenin fired up the Bolsheviks with ‘simple slogans’,
‘vitality and enthusiasm’. Their revolutionary zeal was also successful because of the ‘weakness of
the Provisional Government’.
Comment: Two good, explained inferences are all that is needed for 4 marks and this answer has
selected good quotations in support.
Chapter 6: The USA 1919–41
Page 59
Explain why the USA experienced an economic boom in the 1920s. (8 marks)
Sample answer: There were two main reasons for the 1920s economic boom in the USA. The first
was that the USA was untouched by the destruction of the First World War, which had left pre-war
rivals, like Germany, France and Britain, struggling to recover. During the war, which the USA had
only entered in 1917, they had taken over the markets of European countries. They had also made
money selling arms and ammunition. US industry therefore started the 1920s already beginning to
boom.
For these reasons, US industry had the capital to invest in adopting mass production techniques, such
as assembly lines, time and motion analysis, all known as ‘Taylorism’. This was applied to
manufacturing consumer goods, like washing machines, vacuum cleaners and especially cars. A rising
standard of living in the USA gave it a huge home market for these goods and these new production
methods meant they could be produced quickly and cheaply to meet it. As wages increased, so they
fuelled the economic boom.
Comment: Two good reasons for the boom are given, with developed explanations. Note how the
two are linked at the beginning of the second paragraph, earning the full 8 marks.
Page 63
Was the weakness of the US economy the main reason for the Wall Street Crash? You may use the
following in your answer:


Over-production of food
Foreign competition
You must also include information of your own (13 marks, + 3 marks for SpaG)
Sample answer: The Wall Street Crash of October 1929 revealed weaknesses in the US economy, but
there were other reasons that turned the crisis into a disaster.
Behind the obvious features of the 1920s boom – the industries that prospered, the cars on the roads,
the gadgets in the homes – there were problems. The economy was lop-sided: some basic industries,
such as coal and textiles, did not experience a boom. The high US tariffs, which protected US industry
by making foreign goods expensive, had been met by high tariffs abroad as other countries
retaliated. This meant it was difficult for US industries to export.
Industrialists liked low food prices because they could pay their workers low wages. Farmers were
therefore encouraged to produce more by using efficient farming methods. However, they found it
difficult to export their excess produce and received only low prices for their hard work.
The boom was not equally spread: many Americans did not take part, but survived on low wages.
Black Americans and farmers particularly lost out. The home market was therefore not as big as it
might have been and the export market was closed.
Alongside these serious deep-seated weaknesses in the US economy there was another set of reasons
for the Crash, to do with the way the stock market was allowed to work. As business boomed, share
prices had risen too. This encouraged investors to buy shares, wait a bit and sell them at a profit,
making easy money. Some borrowed money to buy shares, paying it back out of their gains.
All this depended on a rising market. By the late 1920s some people could see the weaknesses in the
US economy described above and began to sell shares. As prices dipped, confidence disappeared and
panic arose. Shares were sold at rapidly falling prices, bringing about the ‘Great Crash’.
Comment: This answer takes up the two given bullet-point items and develops them, which would
earn 9 marks. The candidate then adds the section on shares, bringing the score up to 11. Some links
are made, but not as well done as they could be, giving 12 out of 13.
Unit 3. Modern World Source Enquiry
Chapter 7: War and the transformation of British society c. 1903–28
Page 73
1.
What can you learn from Source A about the activities of the suffragettes? (6 marks)
Sample answer: Source A suggests that suffragette protest became much more violent in 1913, with
all kinds of attacks of property: the source mentions ‘Churches, public buildings and residences’. The
writer, who was Speaker of the House of Commons at the time, accuses them of ‘bombings’ and
assaults on people and his exaggeration shows how horrified many people were. He also points out
that these actions were against the law and counter-productive as their support among the male
Members of Parliament actually declined.
Comment: This answer does all that is necessary for the full 6 marks. It makes two inferences from
the source, supporting them with well-selected quotations.
Page 73
2.
Use Source A and your own knowledge to explain why the suffragettes had failed to win
votes for women by 1913. (10 marks)
Sample answer: The suffragettes always had a difficult task. They had to persuade an all-male
Parliament to give women the vote. The suffragists of the NUWSS had been campaigning for years,
legally and calmly, to change men’s views towards giving women the vote. Attitudes towards women
were changing, but slowly, and most people had formed their views of women’s roles back in the
nineteenth century, in Queen Victoria’s reign. The Victorian view was that a woman’s place was in
the home, bringing up children and supporting their husbands. Women were pure and gentle and
politics was too rough for them. Others believed that women were too emotional, incapable of
making their minds up. Others again pointed out that women do not fight in the army to defend the
country, so have no right to vote for the government that rules it.
More seriously, the Liberals, who were in power from 1906 onwards, feared for their support if
women had the vote on the same basis as male voters. At that time, only those with property or who
paid regular rent could vote, meaning those who were better off; 40% of men didn’t have the vote
either. The Liberal fear was that giving the vote to women on a similar basis might give more votes to
the Conservatives.
The WSPU (Women’s Social and Political Union), known as the suffragettes, were formed in 1903 out
of desperation at the failure of this long struggle. Ten years later they had still failed, so turned to the
more violent tactics described in Sources A – although all their attacks were only on property: any
‘attacks’ on politicians were only verbal. It was to be the First World War that totally changed
attitudes towards both male and female franchise.
Comment: This answer has two good, well-argued reasons, supported by plenty of information
beyond what is in the source. The paragraphs could be better linked, so this answer is given 9 marks.
Page 77
Study Source B. What was the purpose of this representation? Use details from the photograph and
your own knowledge to explain your answer. (8 marks)
Sample answer: This photograph was taken by a British photographer on Day One of the Battle of
the Somme in 1916. This was a major British attack, designed to break the deadlock of trench
warfare and also to relieve the huge German pressure on the French fortress at Verdun. After five
days of artillery bombardment, 200,000 British soldiers advanced along a 30 km front.
The purpose of this photograph was therefore to show that the British attack had succeeded, that the
German lines had been over-run and that they were in retreat. The photograph shows a smashed
German trench, with a dead soldier, discarded weapons and broken ramparts. Everything gives a
sense of defeat, death and destruction. We presume the rest of the German soldiers who manned
this trench have retreated or been killed.
We cannot assume that this is a genuine photograph. Photographs can be set up, or taken
somewhere different from where it purports to be. The position of the dead man, the weapons and
the section of wire is designed to look ‘natural’. Propaganda is an important part of warfare and
photographs like this would help to stiffen morale among the troops and to assure people back home
that General Haig was doing well and that the war was being won. In fact the attack on the Somme
did not make the breakthrough that was intended.
Comment: This answer combines the elements of a good answer: it analyses the source, it shows
good detailed knowledge of the context and addresses the issue in the question, which is about its
purpose: 8 marks.
Chapter 8: War and the transformation of British society c. 1931–51
Page 92
Source B suggests that there was a ‘Blitz Spirit’, which helped keep up British morale in the face of
nightly bombing raids. Use your own knowledge, Source B and any other sources from other
textbooks that you find helpful to explain your answer. (16 marks)
NOTE: in the examination candidates are directed to at least three sources to use in their answer.
This Revision Guide is designed to focus on key information to revise and question styles to practice.
It does not therefore include a large bank of sources. In the answer below the candidate has drawn
on Sources 28 and 29 from the Edexcel GCSE Modern World textbook, page 355 in addition to
Source B on page 92 of the Revision Guide.
Sample answer: The Blitz was the massive German bombing campaign that started on London on 7
September 1940 and returned every night until 2 November, with occasional raids after that until the
middle of 1941. Other cities were also heavily bombed: Bristol, Liverpool, Hull, Coventry, Manchester
and Belfast. Although the targets were supposed to be industrial and military, thousands of civilians
were killed and many more injured and made homeless. The intention of the bombing campaign was
probably to so demoralise civilians that they would retreat to air-raid shelters, or flee from the cities
and not go to work, so crippling the British war effort.
The evidence from Source B suggests that there certainly was something like a ‘Blitz Spirit’, in which
people went on with their lives, helping each other and were filled with determination to fight on.
Source B supports this with the words ‘But it carried on’. The speaker in Source 28 gives a similar
impression, claiming that people ‘emerged with a faith in each other’ and mentions ‘friendship and
loyalty’. It is certainly true that the blitz did not destroy British civilian morale. Factories in bombed
cities were in production the next day, with every worker who could get there. The many stories of
mutual support, friendship and breaking down of British reserve and class distinction cannot all be
propaganda.
However, the sources for the Blitz Spirit have a number of problems. It was very important to the war
effort that civilian morale did not crumble. Newspapers were censored and bad news was
suppressed. This could weaken the reliability of Source B. Source 28 is an oral history published nearly
50 years after the blitz. The speaker is bound to have been affected by the stories of the ‘Blitz Spirit‘
told after the war.
Source 29 gives a different story. This unofficial and uncensored account calls press accounts like
Source B ‘grotesque’. People were ‘distressed’ and had ‘every excuse’ to be. It also brings in a class
issue, claiming that most of the homes destroyed and people killed were in the East End, around the
docks, the focus of the bombing, while the better-off parts of London, including government
buildings, did not suffer. There is evidence of many people getting out of cities at night, ‘trekking’ to
rural areas. Further, when the Allied bombing raids hit Germany later in the war, civilian morale did
not crumble either and, except right at the end of the war, industrial production did not suffer much.
In conclusion we can only say that the evidence for a ‘Blitz Spirit’ is contradictory, with different
stories and experiences from different people. This probably accurately reflects the real situation.
Comment: This answer has all the qualities of a top-level response. It is well-organised with
paragraphs setting out the argument logically, leading to a brief conclusion. Evidence is used in wellchosen quotations from the sources. This is then weighed for its contribution and set in context of
good factual knowledge: 16 marks.
Chapter 9: The transformation of British society c. 1951–79
Page 116
How reliable are Source D and E as evidence of teenagers in Britain in this period? Explain your
answer, using Sources D and E and your own knowledge. (10 marks)
Sample answer: The speaker of Source D describes the lifestyle of a better-off teenager in the 1960s.
He has a job and spare money - £10 went a long way at that time. He spends this money on records
(‘singles’), clothes and ‘going out’. Teenagers like him were a new and important market in 1960s
Britain, worth £850 million a year. There were new things to spend money on at that time– pop
music and young people’s fashion; 40% of all spending on records and 30% of all spending on
cosmetics was from teenagers.
It may be that he exaggerates, as he is speaking many years later about his teenage years. It is only
one person’s account and not all teenagers had well-paid jobs or lived in cities where there were lots
of opportunities to spend. However, this source is quite reliable as it seems to fit the wider picture.
Source E is from a newspaper article. The writer is probably trying to do what most newspapers do,
which is to reflect back the views that the paper’s - presumably older - readers want to read. It is
accurate in that teenagers did now have ‘high wages, first class working conditions and excellent
facilities in education.’ However, this is regarded as ‘pampered’ , probably because the readers did
not have these things and are feeling jealous. The source goes on to criticise teenagers’ books and
behaviour. It is interesting that this source is from 1949, some time before the teenage phenomenon
is said to start, and already they are being criticised. It is probably a reliable expression of hostile
attitudes towards teenagers and the first sentence reliably describes their conditions, but it is not a
reliable portrayal of them – the teenager in Source D doesn’t spend any money on books, for
example.
Comment: This answer analyses both sources, looking at them firstly from the point of view of
factual accuracy then secondly by examining their nature, origin and purpose through the important
information in the caption. To do the first of these means bringing in the factual context: if an answer
does not do this it can only score a maximum of 8 marks. This answer receives the full 10 marks.