The Russian Revolution

This is a fully resourced and challenging unit of lessons which seeks to develop in students an understanding of both the complex events of the Russian Revolution and the political and economic concepts surrounding it. The unit was planned for a high ability year 9 class but could easily be used for 14-16 year olds or scaffolded for lower ability groups.

The unit starts with an examination of both Tsar Nicholas’ feudal Russia of the 1890s and Lenin’s communist Russia of the 1920s. It then examines all of the events in between - exploring the 1905 revolution, the causes and events of February Revolution, The October Revolution and the Russian Civil War. The unit ends with a lesson on Stalin’s rise to power and the unit could easily be extended to look at the terror of the 1930s and the USSR’s experience of WW2.

The skills focus of this unit is on the evaluation of historical interpretation and the unit contains two formative assessments to develop these skills.

This unit is part of a broader scheme of work that looks to develop in students an understanding of change through placing events on a spectrum of change. Therefore included is the introductory lesson to this scheme which gives students a framework to understand change. The unit can be used with or without this framework.

Also included is a zip folder to show how all documents should fit into folders.