How to Write a History A Level Essay: A Guide to Essay Writing for OCR A Level History Russia and its Rulers
How to Write a History A Level Essay: Russia and its Rulers
Essay technique is crucial to humanities subjects. Mastering it at History A Level is key to boosting your marks and succeeding in your final exam. This guide will walk you through how to prepare and write a strong History A Level essay. In it, we cover key essay technique and how to meet the requirements of the mark scheme for OCR A Level History Russia and its Rulers, with advice specific to the challenging breadth question. Including example questions and further practice history A Level essay questions, this guide has everything you need to succeed.
Three Simple Ways to Score Top Marks in your History A Level Essay:
Answer the question: It may sound obvious, but it is crucial to answer the question that has been set. Make sure you understand the question and what it is asking you to do. Don't be tempted to write everything you know about a topic if it doesn't directly relate to the question. Stay focused and answer the question to the best of your ability.
Provide a clear argument: A strong history essay should have a clear argument that is supported by evidence. This means that you should have a thesis statement in your introduction that outlines your main argument, and your subsequent paragraphs should provide evidence and analysis to support your argument. Avoid simply presenting facts or repeating what is in the sources – instead, make sure you are providing a clear and persuasive argument.
Use Evidence effectively: Using evidence effectively is crucial to writing a successful history essay. You need to use evidence to support your argument, but it is also important to consider the reliability, relevance, and limitations of the sources you are using. Make sure you are using a variety of primary and secondary sources and that you are evaluating them critically.
How to prepare to write a History A Level Essay?
Study the exam specification
Make sure you are familiar with the exam specification for OCR A level History Russia and its Rulers 1855 to 1964. This will give you a clear understanding of the topics that may be covered in the exam and the key skills that you need to demonstrate.
Read the recommended texts
The OCR Russia and its Rulers 1855 to 1964 course includes a range of recommended texts, including primary sources and secondary literature. Read these texts carefully and make notes on key themes and arguments.
Understand the historical context
It's important to have a good understanding of the historical context of the period. This includes the social, economic, and political conditions of Russia during this time, as well as the international context and the impact of key events such as World War I and the Russian Revolution.
Practise essay writing
Practise writing essay questions on a range of topics covered in the course. This will help you to develop your essay writing skills and improve your ability to structure and articulate your arguments. See some questions you can practise your History A Level essays with at the end of this post.
Analyse the sources
When studying primary sources, make sure to analyse them carefully and consider the context in which they were produced. This will help you to develop a nuanced understanding of the period and the different perspectives of key individuals and groups.
How to Improve Your History A Level Essay Technique:
Plan your essay
Before you start writing, make sure you have a clear plan for your essay. This will help you to stay focused and avoid going off-topic. Start with an introduction that outlines your argument and the key points you will be making, then create a structured plan for each of your main points.
Use evidence
Your essay should be based on evidence from primary and secondary sources. Use specific examples and quotes to support your argument and show that you have done your research.
Analyse the evidence
It's not enough to just present evidence - you also need to analyze it. Explain how the evidence supports your argument and consider any alternative interpretations or perspectives.
Use historical terminology
Make sure you use appropriate historical terminology throughout your essay. This will help you to demonstrate your understanding of the topic and show that you are engaging with the historical debate.
Stay focused on the question
Make sure you are addressing the question throughout your essay. Avoid going off-topic or getting distracted by irrelevant information.
Write a conclusion that answers the question
Your conclusion should summarize your argument and answer the question posed in the introduction. Don't introduce new information or arguments in your conclusion. See below for a whole section on how to ace the conclusion of your History A Level essay.
Answering the Breadth History A Level Essay Question for OCR A Level History Russia and its Rulers
The essay question for this module is quite particular to OCR. Firstly, the breadth essay question always covers the whole period and asks the student to write thematically rather than chronologically. This does not mean that you need to include everything of relevance on a specific theme for the entire period, but rather that your answer should ‘helicopter’ through the period, based on a theme. Secondly, they lay a lot of emphasis on something that they call ‘synthesis’. ‘Synthesis’ means that you should make comparisons and links between disparate periods throughout your answer and explain the similarities and differences over time. This should also be present in your conclusion but more on this later. You should take a thematic approach to ensure that the synthesis comes through, which means, rather than having paragraphs which assess one factor alone, sections should compare multiple factors according to a certain theme.
Otherwise, the normal rules of good exam technique apply. Make sure you assess both sides of a question, whilst making a strong argument. This means that you should not simply argue for, then against, then decide at the end that you agree with one side, rather you should explain why the side that you don’t agree with, despite the points made in its favour, are not convincing. Evidence should always be used that is relevant to the question and explanations should make explicit the significance of the evidence to the point that you are arguing.
Let’s look at this question together from the OCR A Level History Russia and its Rulers paper:
Assess the view that the October Revolution of 1917 changed the Russian government more than other events in the period 1855-1964.
A great structure for answering this question would be a thematic approach like this one:
Paragraph 1: Censorship
Paragraph 2: Central government
Paragraph 3: Secret police
You want to avoid answering it by focusing on individual events:
Paragraph 1: the October Revolution
Paragraph 2: the October Manifesto
Paragraph 3: Destalinisation
To do this would mean that you would not be synthesising the whole period in your paragraphs as in each section you would only be discussing a specific event, furthermore you would not be drawing comparisons between different periods, or at least, this would be far harder to do. Whereas, with a thematic structure, you are much more able to make broader comparisons across the whole period as you are not confined by a specific event or time period. This allows you to synthesise the period more easily. For example, you could compare the effects of the October Revolution on central government with those of the October Manifesto, Destalinization etc.
Take a look at this paragraph from a model answer. Notice where the student has made good comparisons across the period, exploring similarities and differences over time:
The October Revolution can be considered a key turning point in its impact on the role of the secret police in Russian politics. Though a secret police force had existed prior to this point, indeed the tsarist Okhrana was responsible for 32,000 summary executions during its existence, Lenin’s cheka set the precedent for using the secret police force to spread political terror, which came out of a need to establish control during the Civil War. Unlike the Okhrana, which generally tried to infiltrate revolutionary groups secretively, the cheka executed indiscriminately at times to bring areas of Russia under political control, as, for example at Pensa, where 100 Kulaks were hung in full view of the surrounding areas. The October Revolution thus introduced the secret police as a political tool of terror, to be used on all Russians, which was taken to its extremes in practice by Stalin, under whom the NKVD killed 330,000 party members between 1934 and 1938 alone. Although Stalinism in many ways brought changes unseen previously, particularly in that he used the secret police so much more extensively than Lenin, and to target the Bolshevik Party, rather than, as both the Tsars and Lenin had done, targeting opposition parties alone, the concept of political ‘terror’ was introduced by Lenin and the October Revolution. Khrushchev’s reversal of Stalin’s policies might therefore be seen as a more significant change. He, like all other leaders of this period, used the secret police for the same purpose: to remove opposition movements, but he significantly curtailed their powers, radically curtailing the execution rates of high Stalinism. His secret police forces, the MVD and KGB, like the Okhrana, were more involved in surveillance work, and punishments tended to be more lenient. Nonetheless, that Khrushchev’s secret police force was far better funded, equipped and active than any Tsarist secret police force had been is the inheritance of the October Revolution. The broadening of the secret police to play such an important role as a political instrument was something begun by the necessities of the October Revolution, which, even if Stalin’s changes went far further, consolidated them as this type of institution.
How to Conclude a History A Level Essay?
The conclusion of your History A Level Essay should draw together your arguments but without the evidence. Conclusions should be ‘synthesised’ too, which means that they should highlight the nuances of the period.
Compare these two example conclusions:
A: Overall, the October Revolution of 1917 was the most important change to the government of Russia in this period. Although other events, such as destalinization, and the October Manifesto were significant, they did not change the political structure to the same extent.
B: Overall, the October Revolution of 1917 spelled the most significant change for the ideology of government in the basic sense that a theocratic, monarchical government was replaced by a communist dictatorship, which survived until 1991. Nonetheless, Lenin’s government, for all its promises, was, like that of the Tsars, a superficially democratic, repressive state, relying on a secret police force to impose its will. It was only with Stalin that the power of the state grew beyond anything resembling the governments of Lenin or the Romanovs. Still, the October Revolution created the basis on which Stalinism could build, particularly the use of state terror, and intra-party discipline. It also set up institutions and imagery that would survive through Khrushchev’s rule, whether this was the memory of Lenin himself, the Politburo or the value of propaganda and literacy.
Which one does a better job of synthesising information from across the period and highlighting some of the nuances the essay has drawn attention to?
Of course the answer is answer B. Answer A simply states that the October Revolution was more significant than the other events. Given the scope of this paper, things will never really be that simple. Instead, try to conclude in what ways, comparatively, the October Revolution was the most important, and in what ways it wasn’t, remember in all your essays you are arguing about extent, which means define your argument precisely: where do you draw the line for its significance?
More Practice History A Level Essay Questions: OCR A Level History Russia and its Rulers 1855 to 1964
‘War brought about more change in the period before 1917 than after.’ How far do you agree?
You might want to think about different kinds of change: economic, political and social
‘The people of Russia frequently experienced food shortages in the period from 1955 to 1964 as a result of government policies.’ How far do you agree?
What other potential causes of food shortages were there?
‘The wars that Russia fought in the years from 1855 to 1964 always hindered economic development.’ How far do you agree?
What are examples of economic development?
Are there any ways in which wars also drove economic development?
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