MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY

IGCSE History
Paper 2
2022 - CC 6

Question type: Surprise!

MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY
MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY
What is this all about...

The aim of these questions is for you to show you understand the
period being studied and how historians use sources. So, for
example:
• whether or not the events described in the source are surprising in the
context of the time.
• whether or not it is surprising that the creator of the source was saying
what they were saying in this place at this time.

MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY
President Kennedy visited West Berlin in 1963.

Wow! That wall looks great!

The Soviets really know how
to build solid, strong walls.
The barbed wire of the top is
really a special touch…

MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY
While the wall is the most obvious and vivid
demonstration of the failures of the
Communist system, for all the world to see,
we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your
Mayor has said, an offense not only against
history but an offense against humanity,
separating families, dividing husbands and
wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a
people who wish to be joined together.

President John F. Kennedy

West Berlin
June 26, 1963

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 Content Provenance

Nature – WHAT
kind of source is Origin –
Purpose – WHO
What it says – What it doesn’t it? WHERE and
created it?
Summarise and say – Use your WHEN the
(e.g. Speech, WHY was it
infer own knowledge source was
diary, gov created?
created?
document)

MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY
SOURCE A

We cannot take in earnest the assertions that the SDI would guarantee invulnerability from nuclear weapons,
thus leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons. In the opinion of our experts (and, to my knowledge, of
many of yours), this is sheer fantasy. However, even on a much more modest scale, in which the Strategic
Defense Initiative can be implemented as an antimissile defense system of limited capabilities, the SDI is
very dangerous. This project will, no doubt, whip up the arms race in all areas, which means that the threat of
war will increase. That is why this project is bad for us and for you and for everybody in general.

An Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev. Time Magazine. Sept. 09, 1985

MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY
Step 1
◦Analyse the CONTENT – What is the source
saying?
 Figure out the BIG MESSAGE

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Step 2
◦Analyse the PROVENANCE

◦ Nature – WHAT kind of source is it?  private / public?

◦ Origin – WHERE and WHEN the source was created?  what
was happening?
◦ Purpose – WHO created it?  perspective?
◦ WHY was it created?  persuade?
MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY
SOURCE A

We cannot take in earnest the assertions that the SDI would guarantee invulnerability from nuclear weapons,
thus leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons. In the opinion of our experts (and, to my knowledge, of
many of yours), this is sheer fantasy. However, even on a much more modest scale, in which the Strategic
Defense Initiative can be implemented as an antimissile defense system of limited capabilities, the SDI is
very dangerous. This project will, no doubt, whip up the arms race in all areas, which means that the threat of
war will increase. That is why this project is bad for us and for you and for everybody in general.

An Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev. Time Magazine. Sept. 09, 1985

MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY
Sample answer
I am NOT suprised by this source.
In this source Soviet leader Gorbachev is criticizing US President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.
Gorbachev says the SDI cannot "guarantee invulnerability from nuclear weapons" and will "whip up the
arms race in all areas" and it is "bad for us and for you and for everybody in general". This means he
believes the SDI is ineffective and will increase the arms race posing a threat to the whole world.
This is not surprising because when Gorbachev came to power in 1985 he inherited a failing Soviet
economy and he realised that the USSR could not afford to continue an arms race with the USA. He
wanted to discourage the USA to develop new military technology like the SDI, which was an anti-ballistic
missile program that was designed to shoot down nuclear missiles in space. Therefore, he gave an
interview criticizing the project.

YOU CONTINUE …
MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY
SOURCE B

Perestroika, which once again is returning our people to commonsense, has enabled us to open up to the world, and has restored a normal
relationship between the country's internal development and its foreign policy. But all this takes a lot of hard work. To a people which
believed that its government's policies had always been true to the cause of peace, we proposed what was in many ways a different
policy, which would genuinely serve the cause of peace, while differing from the prevailing view of what it meant and particularly from
the established stereotypes as to how one should protect it. We proposed new thinking in foreign policy.

Thus, we embarked on a path of major changes which may turn out to be the most significant in the twentieth century, for our country
and for its peoples. But we also did this for the entire world.

We want to be an integral part of modern civilization, to live in harmony with mankind's universal values, abide by the norms of
international law, follow the "rules of the game" in our economic relations with the outside world. We want to share with all other
peoples the burden of responsibility for the future of our common house.

Mikhail Gorbachev, Nobel Lecture (5th June, 1991)

MS ANISHA_IGCSE HISTORY