AQA A Level History Breadth Study: Tsarist and Communist Russia, 1855-1964 June 2025 question paper 7042/1H

Using your understanding of the historical context, assess how convincing the arguments in these three extracts are in relation to the reasons why Alexander II carried out a programme of domestic reforms.

‘The collapse of the Tsarist state in 1917 was due to the personal inadequacies of Tsar Nicholas II in the years after 1894.’

Assess the validity of this view.

To what extent were the Leninist and Stalinist regimes, in the years 1917 to 1945, dependent on fear and terror?

‘Life was much easier for the Soviet people under Khrushchev, in the years 1953 to 1964, than it had been under Stalin, in the years 1945 to 1953.’

Assess the validity of this view.