DSE History | The Russian Revolution and the Soviet state

DSE History | The Russian Revolution and the Soviet state — lesson-prep guide for tutors

2026-11-02

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary History

Most students remember the words October Revolution but cannot say what February achieved and what October changed. This lesson puts the two revolutions, the civil war and the Five-Year Plans on one timeline.

Objectives — Students can: (1) explain the 13-day gap between the old and new calendars and why a revolution dated October is remembered on 7 November; (2) separate what February solved (the Tsar) from what October solved (who governed); (3) use steel and coal output to describe the Five-Year Plans and name the price paid in agriculture and in political terror.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
First World War	Which side did Russia join in 1914?	The Allies, with Britain and France, against Germany and Austria-Hungary
Calendars	How far apart were the Russian and Western calendars in 1917?	13 days, because Russia still used the old style
Command economy	What does the phrase Five-Year Plan actually mean?	The state sets output targets and allocates resources, rather than the market

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-5 min	Opening question	Write 1917 had two revolutions and ask which ruler each one removed	Vote, and say which one they remember
5-15 min	Prerequisite check	Three quick items: wartime alliance, calendar gap, planning	Written answers, marked live
15-37 min	Three-part script	Teach February, October, then Stalinist industrialisation	Recap each part as solved-and-left-behind
37-49 min	Question walk-through	Model four questions, each with cause, process, result	Copy and rewrite one themselves
49-55 min	Independent practice	Circulate; ask only whether a sentence is a cause or a result	Do three items and self-mark
55-60 min	Exit check	Collect answers and count misses aloud	Written, no talking

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Part 1: war, food and the February days

Russia entered the war in 1914, mobilising about fifteen million men. The front needed rifles and food, and the factories lost workers. By early 1917 the bread queues in Petrograd were being photographed. In February, by the Western calendar March, strikes and demonstrations spread, the garrison refused to fire, and Nicholas II abdicated in March, ending three hundred years of Romanov rule. The distinction students must hold: February was a spontaneous street uprising whose result was that the Tsar was gone, but the Provisional Government stayed in the war while the Petrograd Soviet existed alongside it, giving dual power. The Provisional Government did not fall for ideological reasons; it fell because it would not stop fighting.

Why was Russia still at war after February, and how did that help the Bolsheviks?

Scene 2: Part 2: October and the civil war

Lenin reduced the programme to three words: peace, land, bread. Once the Bolsheviks held a majority in the Soviet, they seized power in Petrograd on 25 October old style, which is 7 November new style, taking the Winter Palace and removing the Provisional Government. The date deserves a sentence of its own: the calendars were 13 days apart in 1917, so a revolution called October happened in November, and students who write only October confuse it with February. Seizing power is not the same as holding it. Civil war followed, with White armies backed by Britain, France and Japan, and the Reds won through Trotsky s organisation and control of the railways. The USSR was formed on 30 December 1922. The war wrecked agriculture and produced famine, which explains why later policy was obsessed with controlling grain.

October settled who governed. Why did fighting continue for years afterwards?

Scene 3: Part 3: plans, collectivisation and the price

The first Five-Year Plan began in 1928. The state set the targets, moved the resources and put heavy industry first. The numbers show the direction: Soviet steel rose from about 4.3 million tonnes in 1928 to about 17.7 million in 1937, roughly 4.1 times, and coal from 35.5 million tonnes to 128 million, about 3.6 times. In the same years collectivisation forced peasants into collective farms and the state bought grain cheaply to export for machinery. The result was the famine of 1932 to 1933. The purges of 1936 to 1938 removed real and imagined opponents. Train one sentence: industrial output rose, and it was paid for in agriculture and in lives. Both halves are needed for a full answer.

Can you give one figure and one event for the achievements, and one of each for the cost?

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Causation: why 1917	Why did revolution break out in Russia in 1917?	(1) Long-term: autocracy, backward agriculture, concentrated factory workers; (2) short-term: war casualties and food shortage; (3) trigger: strikes and the garrison mutiny; (4) rank the factors.	Example: structure is the long-term cause, the war is the short-term one.
Comparison: two revolutions	Compare the February and October revolutions.	(1) Two columns: aim, agents, result; (2) February removes the Tsar and leaves dual power; (3) October gives the Bolsheviks power and exits the war; (4) one sentence on continuity.	Example: February opened the door, October decided who walked in.
Data description	Describe the change in Soviet steel output, 1928 to 1937.	(1) Read start and end values; (2) compute the multiple; (3) describe the average direction, not a constant rate; (4) add one limitation about official statistics.	Example: 4.3 to 17.7 million tonnes, about 4.1 times.
Evaluation: Stalinist industry	Was Stalinist industrialisation a success?	(1) Choose a criterion: output, living standards, state survival; (2) two pieces of supporting evidence; (3) one counter-example; (4) conclude on the criterion.	Example: success by output, heavy cost by rural standard of living.

Sanity check (teach this): Reasonableness check: 25 October old style against 7 November new style is a 13-day gap, which a date subtraction confirms; a student who writes about one month has only remembered the month name. 1917 to the founding of the USSR in 1922 is five years, and the civil war fills exactly that span, so narrative and dates must agree. Steel from 4.3 to 17.7 million tonnes is 4.12 times; spread over nine years that is about 1.17 times a year, so a student who says four times a year has confused compound growth with a total multiple. Coal must be converted to the same unit first, or the answer is off by ten thousand.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
25 October 1917 old style falls on which Western date, and how many days apart are the calendars?	7 November 1917, a gap of 13 days.	Watch for an answer that gives a month instead of a date.
What did each revolution remove?	February removed the Tsar and the monarchy; October removed the Provisional Government and gave power to the Bolsheviks.	Watch for the two revolutions collapsed into one event.
Steel rises from 4.3 to 17.7 million tonnes: by what multiple?	About 4.1 times, roughly 1.17 times a year across nine years.	Watch for a percentage increase reported as a multiple.

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Merging the two revolutions	Writing that the October Revolution overthrew the Tsar.	February removed the Tsar. October removed the Provisional Government. Two revolutions, two targets, never one sentence.
No date conversion	Writing that the October Revolution happened in October.	Russia used the old calendar, so old-style October is 7 November. Write both dates and the examiner sees you know why.
Output with no cost	Writing that the Five-Year Plans succeeded because steel rose fourfold, and stopping there.	Numbers need a price tag. Part of the industrial investment was squeezed out of the countryside through cheap grain purchases.
Civil war left out	A timeline jumping from 1917 to the USSR in 1922.	Those five years were civil war with foreign intervention. Without it you cannot explain collectivisation.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Secondary History chapter index: finish the three items here, then continue into the origins of the Cold War chapter — Practice 1-3 on this page

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
On which Western date did the October Revolution take place, and what is the calendar gap?	7 November 1917, a gap of 13 days	Missed: reteach Part 2
What was the immediate result of the February Revolution?	The Tsar abdicated, the monarchy ended, and dual power appeared	Missed: reteach Part 1
Which sector did the Five-Year Plans prioritise?	Heavy industry: steel, coal, machinery	Missed: reteach Part 3

09 Tutor FAQ

Which year group is this for?

S6 History, the twentieth-century conflict and cooperation unit. S5 classes that have finished the First World War can start here.

Must students memorise the output figures?

They need the direction and the order of magnitude: steel about four times, coal about three and a half. When the paper supplies data, the skill is computing the multiple.

Is there practice attached?

The homework row links to the Secondary History index, so this chapter can run alongside the origins of the Cold War for a continuous 1917 to 1945 line.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.