Russia and the Soviet Union has been developed especially for senior secondary students of History and is part of the Nelson Modern History series. Each book in the series is based on the understanding that History is an interpretive study of the past by which students also come to better appreciate the making of the modern world. Developing understandings of the past and present in senior History extends on the skills learnt in earlier years. Senior students will use historical skills, including research, evaluation, synthesis, analysis and communication. Students will rely on their knowledge of the historical concepts such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, significance, empathy, perspectives and contestability, to understand and interpret societies from the past. The activities and tasks have been written to ensure that students develop the skills and attributes required for senior History subjects. Russia and the Soviet Union incorporates recent historiography and a range of visual and text primary sources, enabling students to explore the transition from Tsarist autocracy to Stalinist dictatorship and victory in the Great Patriotic war in little more than 20 years. This text places particular emphasis on the causes and consequences of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and the nature of Stalin's rule.