Help with my history IA question

[leochavarry]

Hey, recently I've been struggling with coming up with a proper research question since history is my weakest subject. I've decided I want to do it about something related to Stalin but I am not sure yet, I have until 4th march to decide. After researching a lot of it I came up with The "Holodomor" in Ukraine which Stalin tried to cover it and clear his personality. My question is:

To what extent is the "Holodomor" from 1932 to 1933 in Ukraine a determining factor in explaining Stalin's cult of personality?  (I am taking SL)

Any suggestions would help me a lot, as I said, history is my weakest subject.

Thanks

[robmur]

Hi, I have a 7 in HL History to I think I can help you out here! The Holodomor is interesting and sure opens up a lot of possibilities! I like that you included to what extent, but I'm a little weary of a question that "explains" someone's cult of personality because I think that someone's cult of personality something that many modern day historians continue to struggle with! While I am not the most well versed on the Holodomor but in my readings I read that "Some scholars believe that the famine was planned by Joseph Stalin to eliminate a Ukrainian independence movement". This is very important because I think it suggests that the Holodomor was part of Stalin's consolidation of power. If I were you, I would look at that with the following question: "How significant was the Holodomor on Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power by 1941?"

 

With that in mind, my three body paragraphs would be: 1)The role the Holodomor played in Stalin's consolidation of power 2) The impact of Stalin's cult of personality in his consolidation of power 3) Maybe the impact of his social reforms (which you could argue helped endear himself to the general public) OR Stalin's use of force (in general). In order to find some sources (because you're going to want some historian's insight into the impact of the Holodomor), I would go the Wikipedia page titled "Holodomor". Scroll to the following footnotes (see below), click on them and read those sources. That should get you going. Hope this helps! If you have any questions lmk.