Sample Preliminary Program: Case Study List A

TARGETED OUTCOMES

P2.1 identify forces and ideas and explain their significance in contributing to change and continuity in the study

P3.2 locate, select and organise relevant information from different types of sources

P3.4 identify and account for differing perspectives and interpretations of the past

P3.5 plan and present the findings of historical investigations, analysing and synthesising information from different types of sources

P4.1 use historical terms and concepts appropriately

P4.2 communicate a knowledge and understanding of historical features and issues, using appropriate and well-structured oral and written forms

STUDENTS LEARN ABOUT:

Key features and issues of the modern world

• 
  political, economic, social and technological features of the selected Case Study
  
• 
  forces for change that emerged in the period of the selected Case Study
  
• 
  the nature of the political, social, economic and technological change that occurred in the period of the selected Case Study
  
• 
  the impact of change on the society or period of the selected Case Study
  

SELECTED RESOURCES

Cracraft, J, (ed.), Major Problems in the History of Imperial Russia, D.C. Heath, Lexington, Mass, 1994

Hite, J, Tsarist Russia, 1801–1917, Causeway, Ormskirk, 1989

Chubarov, A, The Fragile Empire: A History of Imperial Russia, Continuum, New York, 1999

Kochan L, The Making of Modern Russia: from Kiev Rus’ to the collapse of the Soviet Union, Penguin Books, London, 1997

McCauley, M, Octobrists to Bolsheviks: Imperial Russia, 1905–1917, E. Arnold, London, 1984

Waldron, P, The End of Imperial Russia, 1855–1917, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1997
Internet resources

http://www.dur.ac.uk/~dml0www/Russhist.HTML

(This Durham University site contains all key documents relevant to this period).

Students learn about: Nicholas II as autocrat

Students examine pictorial evidence of society in Russia, pictures of the royal family juxtaposed with Russian peasants; palaces with villages; food and clothing of rich and poor.

Teacher exposition to trace the influence of liberalism in Russia from the French Revolution to the reign of Alexander II including the 1825 Decembrists’ Revolt and the 1861 Edict of Emancipation of the Serfs.

Teacher outlines the economic, political and social consequences of the Edict of Emancipation.

Students define autocracy and identify the autocratic features of tsarist government.

Students view documentaries on Nicholas and relevant extracts from the film Russian Ark.

Students compile a glossary of terms such as autocracy, Slavophile, Russophile and place on classroom wall.

Using information from the film and a range of other sources, students investigate the question: ‘Was Tsar Nicholas an autocrat?’ Students consider his personality, his role as ‘father of Russia’, his immediate family history and assassination attempts on him; Tsarina Alexandra’s personality. Why did the people revere Nicholas? Revisit these questions later in the unit.

Using sources students investigate political opposition to the tsarist regime: their various reform agendas, the impact of the Russo–Japanese War of 1904 and the Revolution of 1905 and Nicholas’ role in these. Students highlight the key ideas in each paragraph of the sources and report their findings to the class.

Students learn about: Political, social and economic grievances in early C20th Russia

Using a range of sources, students identify features of tradition and change in Russian society. The class discusses the impact of tradition on Russia’s ability to change.

Students work in pairs to identify groups in society who had grievances against the government, using mind maps to categorise political, social and economic grievances.

Teacher uses diagram to explain the structure of government, including the composition and role of the duma.

In groups, students research one of the political parties in Russia at this time. Each group prepares a speech and a poster reflecting their party platform for presentation to the class.

Teacher exposition on the role of industrialisation and urbanisation in the growth of political opposition. Compare this with the conservatism of the countryside. Add concepts and definitions to the class glossary.

Students learn about: the failure of the Tsar to address the problems of Russia

Students construct a table recording main problems facing Russia at this time and the consequences of these problems.

Students write a letter to a friend living outside Russia to report on developments within Russia, from the perspective of one of the following: eg a student, a revolutionary, Stolypin, Witte, Lenin, Trotsky. Students peer assess the letters for historical accuracy OR

Students contribute articles from different perspectives to a newspaper published outside Russia. Teacher assigns students a particular year, eg 1912, and the type of newspaper a particular group of émigrés or revolutionaries would produce. In writing the articles they would report on their political/economic grievances etc.

Students develop a timeline showing the peaks and troughs in Nicholas’ popularity, highlighting and annotating significant events.

Students debate the question: ‘Is it fair to place all the blame on Nicholas?’

Students learn about: The role of World War I in the fall of the tsarist regime

Students use information from texts to construct a timeline of Russia’s participation in WWI, 1914–1917.

Students use timeline and other sources to identify the tsar’s failures of leadership of Russia’s war effort.

Students examine reactions of various groups within Russia, eg soldiers, workers, peasants, revolutionaries, nobility, to the worsening situation.

Students read about the abdication of the tsar and use their knowledge of the situation in Russia at this time, to discuss possible alternative outcomes for these events.

Students choose one of the following activities to demonstrate their understanding of these issues and developments:

• 
  report by a major ally, eg Great Britain, about Nicholas’ abdication and Russia’s withdrawal from the war
  
• 
  spoken or written assessment of the problems caused by the war from the perspective of one of the following:
  a revolutionary, a member of the 1915 Duma, a serf, a young woman worker, a noble, member of the intelligentsia
  

• 
  a political cartoon or comic strip showing the reaction of a specific group to the tsar’s abdication.