Answer:
Question-Specific Scoring Guide
• One point for describing one piece of evidence that would support the Figes passage’s characterization
of Russia’s political culture prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.
• One point for describing one piece of evidence that would support the Figes passage’s interpretation of
Russia’s “new autocracy” in the 1920s and 1930s.
• One point for describing one piece of evidence that would undermine the author’s argument in the
passage that the “new autocracy” in Russia resembled the old.
Scoring Notes
To meet the requirement of “describe” in parts (a), (b), and (c), the response must offer a minimally accurate
description of a piece of evidence and some indication of how it relates to the task of the prompt. Although it is
not necessary for an acceptable response to offer an explicit explanation of the relationship between the
evidence offered and the task of the prompt, it must go beyond a mere mention or name-dropping (e.g., “Russia
had a history of tyrants in the Romanov dynasty” or “then Stalin happened”).
Possible acceptable responses for part (a) (not exhaustive):
• Russia’s lack of experience with democratic institutions (though the extent to which the Duma,
established after 1905, was “democratic” may be debated) prior to 1917 meant that its people were illprepared for the overthrow of the tsar or the Bolshevik takeover.
• The politically repressive nature of the tsarist government prior to 1917 gave democratic institutions
little or no chance to develop prior to the Revolution.
• Russia’s relative lack of economic and educational development prior to 1917 meant that the Russian
population as a whole was politically inexperienced and unsophisticated.
• Radicalization of the anti-tsarist opposition prior to 1917 meant that many opponents of the tsar were
not interested in democratic reform.
• Russia’s leaders were oblivious to “public opinion,” especially concerning a potential withdrawal from
World War I.
• Russia lacked mass-based political movements, such as those that led many other European states into
war between 1914 and 1916.
• The extent of women’s political participation and electoral suffrage lagged even further behind
Western Europe.
Additional notes:
• Responses that do not connect Russia’s historical experience pre-1917 to political institutions or to
“democratic culture” specifically will not earn the point. For example, some responses claim that
feudalism persisted in Russia until the Bolshevik Revolution, and others mention serfdom as an
economic institution, without addressing the political aspects of the prompt. Merely alluding to a policy
of Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, Nicholas I, or any other tsar will not earn the
point, unless it is directly related to the thwarting of a “democratic culture” in Russia.
• Note that “prior to the Bolshevik Revolution” should be interpreted as any period in Russian history,
including the months immediately prior to the Revolution.
