Terry Fiehn is a former advisory teacher in London. He has been a consultant on SHP's GCSE books for the past two decades. Chris Corin was formerly Head of History at Worthing Sixth Form College and is an experienced assistant examiner with a major awarding body.

SECTION 1: WHY DID THE TSARIST REGIME COLLAPSE IN 1917? 1. What were the challenges facing the tsarist regime at the end of the nineteenth century? 2. 1905 3. Could Tsarism have survived? 1906-1917 SECTION 2: WHY WERE THE BOLSHEVIKS SUCCESSFUL IN OCTOBER 1917? 4. Was the Provisional Government doomed from the beginning? 5. Was the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917 inevitable? SECTION 3: THE CONSOLIDATION OF THE BOLSHEVIK STATE 1917-24 6. How did the Bolsheviks survive the first few months in power? 7. How did the Bolsheviks win the Civil War? 8. How was the Bolshevik state consolidated between 1921 and 1924? SECTION 4: FROM LENIN TO STALIN 9. How significant is Lenin's contribution to history? 10. How did Stalin emerge as the sole leader of Russia? SECTION 5: HOW DID STALIN TRANSFORM THE ECONOMY OF THE USSR IN THE 1930S? 11. Why did Stalin make the Great Turn? 12. Was collectivisation a success? 13. How well planned were the Five-Year Plans? SECTION 6: HOW DID STALIN CONTROL THE USSR? 14. How far was Stalin responsible for the Great Terror? 15. The cult of the personality SECTION 7: SOVIET SOCIETY IN THE 1920S AND 1930S 16. Were Soviet culture and society transformed by the October Revolution? 17. Culture and society in a decade of turmoil SECTION 8: FROM PARIAH TO SAVIOUR: THE SOVIET UNION AND EUROPE 1921-1945 18. Alone in a hostile world: how did Soviet foreign policy develop between 1921 and 1941? 19. How was the Soviet Union able to turn disaster into victory in the Great Patriotic War? SECTION 9: STALIN'S FINAL YEARS AND CONCLUSION 20. Stalin's final years 1945-53 21. Conclusion