Sample HSC Program: Twentieth-century Personality

PRINCIPAL FOCUS: Through the study of Alexandra Kollontai, students gain an understanding of the role of this personality in a period of national or international history.

Teacher introduces Alexandra Kollontai giving a brief overview of her life using photographs. Students are issued with the photographs and make mind map notes around them from the teacher’s presentation.

Teacher issues pairs of conflicting statements about different aspects of Kollontai’s career. (see end of unit). As students work through the unit, they find evidence to support the statements, then draw conclusions about which statements are most accurate. Ultimately students will select or modify the statements which reflect their own view.

family background and education

political activity prior to 1917

• 
  what qualities of character are evident?
  
• 
  at what point in her life did Kollontai become a political activist?
  
• 
  what political beliefs are evident?
  
• 
  her beliefs about the role of women in society
  
• 
  what experiences led Kollontai to become a Bolshevik?
  

the 1917 revolution and Kollontai’s role in it

establishment of the Bolshevik/Communist state

role of women in Bolshevik/Communist Russia

appointment as Commissar for Social Welfare

Students trace Kollontai’s role in their review of events of the revolution, from her part in Lenin’s return to Russia, her support of his plans for revolution to her appointment as Commissar in the Bolshevik Government

Students consider the question: What hope did the revolution offer women? Reading from texts and Kollontai’s own writings, student outline Kollontai’s views on the power of revolution to transform society.

Using photographs and written sources, students examine the composition of the first Bolshevik government.

Outline the role of the Commissar for Social Welfare in the Bolshevik government.

What problems did Kollontai face in (a) taking over from the Provisional Government and (b) providing for the needs of veterans?

role in the Zhenotdel

participation in the Workers’ Opposition

changing relationship with Lenin

writings on women and relationship

evaluation: for example visionary, naïve

Reading from texts and Kollontai’s writings on her resignation as Commissar, students write the resignation letter she may have written to Lenin explaining the reasons for her resignation.

Students consider the effects of the war and the civil war on women in Russia – and what Kollontai hoped to achieve for women through the Zhenotdel.

Using information from texts, students create an annotated diagram showing the structure of the Zhenotdel and the work it carried out among women. Students rate its success under Kollontai’s leadership.

Students research the Workers’ Opposition: Who were they? What were they opposing? How did they show their opposition? What were the results for Kollontai?

Working in groups, students create a graph to show Kollontai’s changing relationship with Lenin. Students should select key documents or photographs to illustrate the ‘high’ and ‘low’ points. Groups compare graphs.

What happened to Kollontai after 1921? Students construct brief timeline of Kollontia’s diplomatic career and the honours she was awarded. Was her diplomatic career the reason she survived Stalin’s purges?

All students read Kollontai’s autobiography and at least one other of her works. Students form groups to discuss Kollontai’s vision for women presented in each of the works chosen.

Students consider to what extent Kollontai’s vision for women was achievable in the context of her times.

Students evaluate Kollontai’s life by writing the obituary that should have appeared in Pravda after her death.

Students revisit the pairs of conflicting statements that were issued at the beginning of the unit about different aspects of Kollontai’s career. They indicate which statements in each pair are the most accurate on the basis of the evidence collected. Students choose one of these statements, or modify one, to answer as an HSC style response.