AQA A Level History Depth Study: The Crisis of Communism: The USSR and the Soviet Empire, 1953-2000 (A-level only) June 2019 question paper 7042/2T

With reference to these sources and your understanding of the historical context, assess the value of these three sources to an historian studying life in the Soviet satellite states in the years 1956 to 1961.

‘There was no improvement in the lives of ordinary people in the USSR under Brezhnev.’

Assess the validity of this view.

How successful was Gorbachev as leader of the USSR in the years 1985 to 1988?

‘The problems in Romania and Bulgaria in the years 1980 to 1989 were mainly caused by a lack of political reform.’

Assess the validity of this view.