The course is split into two historical areas: a breadth study on seventeenth century Stuart Britain and the ensuing crisis of the monarchy, and a depth study on the Russian Revolution and subsequent Bolshevik regimes of Lenin then Stalin. In Year 12, the Russia course focuses on the origins and causes of the Russian Revolutions of 1917, the Civil War, and the establishment of a communist Bolshevik state headed by Lenin. It ends with the study of Stalin’s ascent to power and the beginnings of his totalitarian dictatorship in 1929. Year 13 continues the study of Stalin’s dictatorship focusing on how his regime transformed the Soviet Union from a backward failing state to a modern superpower. It deals with the social and economic policies that activated these changes, as well as the draconian methods of control that enforced them. The course closes with a look at how World War Two impacted the Soviet Union.