[Russel Tarr]

I'm just about to start preparing a load of materials for the new IGCSE History Paper 2 option "The decline and collapse of Soviet control over Eastern Europe".

However, I'm stumped as to what date period to start with. The syllabus doesn't specify. Paper 1 has a cold War Topic reading:

Quote

How secure was the USSR's control over Eastern Europe, 1948-c.1989?
Focus Points
Why was there opposition to Soviet control in Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, and how did the USSR react to this opposition?
How similar were events in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968?
Why was the Berlin Wall built in 1961?
What was the significance of 'Solidarity' in Poland for the decline of Soviet influence in Eastern Europe?
How far was Gorbachev personally responsible for the collapse of Soviet control over Eastern Europe?

The last two questions are clearly directly related, but feasibly the "decline" could be traced right the way back to the Berlin Blockade. It strikes me as a little ironic that I always encourage my students to "define a clear time period in your essays and stick to it in your study" but the exam board aren't doing so...and with lesson time at an absolute premium there's a danger of having to cover every single feasible event right back to the Berlin Blockade

So to get to the point, the sorts of things I'm keen to hear about are:
1. At what date should the study begin?
2. Does East Germany count as East Europe in this context?
3. What are the main case studies you'll look at?

[Russell Courts]

I've been asking everyone about this for a while now and I think it would be very harsh of CIE to ask anything before Poland. I think that since, as you point out, the decline can be traced back to 48, the events of the 50s and 60s are more about the hanging on to control rather than the collapse. Usually the period this paper covers is quite tightly focused, which is what leads me to believe that it will be about the eighties. We will of course cover ourselves by pointing out that there is a slight chance that it will be on earlier events, but since we will have covered the content, it won't be the end of the world.

[Aaron O'Brien]

Russell Courts, on 29 October 2009 - 09:16 PM, said:

I've been asking everyone about this for a while now and I think it would be very harsh of CIE to ask anything before Poland. I think that since, as you point out, the decline can be traced back to 48, the events of the 50s and 60s are more about the hanging on to control rather than the collapse. Usually the period this paper covers is quite tightly focused, which is what leads me to believe that it will be about the eighties. We will of course cover ourselves by pointing out that there is a slight chance that it will be on earlier events, but since we will have covered the content, it won't be the end of the world.

on

Once the CIE '24 hour embargo' is up on the Oct/Nov. session paper is up I will PM you what P2 was on - my students have just sat it.

Regards, Aaron

[Russell Courts]

Oh no, is this going to make me look silly

[Russel Tarr]

Quote

Once the CIE '24 hour embargo' is up on the Oct/Nov. session paper is up I will PM you what P2 was on - my students have just sat it.

That would be great, thanks - I thought the Oct/Nov session was on the Spanish Civil War this year, clearly I was wrong on that one!

[Aaron O'Brien]

Russel Tarr, on 30 October 2009 - 02:57 PM, said:

Quote

Once the CIE '24 hour embargo' is up on the Oct/Nov. session paper is up I will PM you what P2 was on - my students have just sat it.

That would be great, thanks - I thought the Oct/Nov session was on the Spanish Civil War this year, clearly I was wrong on that one!

Hi, I couldn't see a way to attach the files through the PM function so I here they are via a standard post in PDF.
It was " How important was Solidarity" with the final 12 mark question asking whether the sources proved Solidarity was the main factor influencing events in Poland in the 1980s.

 p2p1.pdf (35.66K)
Number of downloads: 7  p2p2.pdf (29.62K)
Number of downloads: 13  p2p3.pdf (70.86K)
Number of downloads: 8  p2p4.pdf (63.44K)
Number of downloads: 6  p2p5.pdf (31.58K)
Number of downloads: 7

[Russel Tarr]

That makes sense, given that this is one of the key questions in Paper 1. The other one is on Gorbachev...I wonder what the IGCSE record is with regard to consistency or otherwise between Nov / June sessions...

[Aaron O'Brien]

Russel Tarr, on 02 November 2009 - 08:04 PM, said:

That makes sense, given that this is one of the key questions in Paper 1. The other one is on Gorbachev...I wonder what the IGCSE record is with regard to consistency or otherwise between Nov / June sessions...

Consistency....CIE....hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm


But seriously my pick for the next one on this topic would be the events of 1989 in some way - fall of wall, impact of Gorbachev [even if Gorbachev was referred in the Oct paper].

My students were largely happy with the paper. I had not gone into a great deal of contextual information about this topic as preparation for the paper really. I just identified five possible areas I thought could come up [Hungary 1956/Berlin 1961-2/Czechoslovakia 1968/Poland 1980s/events of 1989 with impact of Gorb's reforms] and used a few of the CNN Cold War videos/associated material and the relevant pages of Walsh. Most of the students felt they knew enough to get through the sources. Yet I guess proof of the pudding will be in January when results come out !!!

All the best, Aaron