Board: AQA | Option: 1E | Component: Component 1 (Breadth Study) | Assessment Objective: AO3
This option covers Russia from Peter the Great’s seizure of sole power to the death of Catherine the Great, examining how two dominant rulers modernised, westernised, and expanded the Russian empire while maintaining the autocratic system. Students assess the nature of Russian absolutism, the tensions between reform and tradition, and the limits of Enlightenment ideas in a serf-based society.
What this option covers
- Peter the Great: the Streltsy revolt, westernisation, administrative and military reform
- Peter’s foreign policy: the Great Northern War, Poltava, and Russia’s emergence as a European power
- The succession crises 1725–1762: the era of palace revolutions
- Elizabeth I of Russia: continuity and consolidation
- Catherine the Great: Enlightened Despotism, legislative commission, and the limits of reform
- The Pugachev Rebellion 1773–1775 and the response of the autocracy
- Catherine’s foreign policy: partition of Poland and expansion to the Black Sea
Key historiographical debates
- How genuinely ‘enlightened’ were Peter’s and Catherine’s reforms? Reform from above or westernised despotism?
- The Pugachev Rebellion: peasant revolution manqué or elite crisis?
- Catherine the Great: how far did gender shape contemporary and later historical assessments?
- The nature of Russian autocracy: how different was it from western European absolutism?
AO3 Interpretation Pack — coming soon
An AO3 Interpretation Pack for AQA 1E is in development. When complete, it will cover the major historiographical debates examined in this option, with named historians, paired comparison tasks built to AQA mark scheme logic, and provenance prompts for every debate. The first debate will be free and open to all.
