Uncertainty in history means that the available evidence does not settle a question. It matters in a Russia depth study because accounts written during revolution and civil war often come from people with strong aims, partial views or limited information.
This lesson follows supporting an explanation and draws on the source skills in evidence and source interpretation.
Why can good sources disagree?
Three types of disagreement are common.
- Different facts. The two sources report different numbers, events or outcomes.
- Different viewpoints. They agree on what happened but judge it differently.
- Different scope. They describe different places, groups or moments, so they may not conflict at all.
Before treating a clash as a problem, check which type it is. Many apparent contradictions are really type 3.
A routine for handling a disagreement
- State exactly what differs. One sentence.
- Check the setting of each source. Who made it, when, for whom and why?
- Look for corroboration. Does a third source, of a different kind, support either account?
- Write a calibrated conclusion. Say what the evidence supports, what it leaves open, and what would help.
A safe backdrop fact: during the civil war the Bolshevik government took grain from peasants for the army and the cities, a policy documented in standard accounts and often called requisitioning. Whether a given village agreed to it is exactly the sort of detail on which sources may differ.
Worked example
Invented practice source A, written by our team. From a report by a local official to a regional office, spring 1920: “The village handed over its grain quota in good order and without difficulty.”
Invented practice source B, written by our team. From a letter by a villager to a relative, spring 1920: “Men with rifles came and took the seed grain. We are afraid we will have nothing to plant.”
Question: What can historians conclude about how the village responded to grain collection?
Step 1, what differs. A says the quota was handed over without difficulty. B says grain was taken by armed men and the village fears a poor planting.
Step 2, setting. A is an official report, written for a superior, who may expect success to be shown. B is a private letter, written without an official audience, from someone affected.
Step 3, corroboration. Neither source mentions the other’s detail. Other evidence, such as records of grain collected or later reports from the same region, could help. With only these two, the conflict stays open.
Step 4, conclusion. “Both agree that grain was collected from the village in 1920. They disagree on whether it was given willingly. The official may have had reason to show success, and the villager may have been describing one event, so the question cannot be settled from these two sources alone.”
The mistake to watch for
One common slip is to choose a winner because a source looks official, and another is to give up.
Mistaken answer 1: “Source A is right because it is an official report.”
Mistaken answer 2: “The sources disagree so we can know nothing.”
Correction: status is not the same as accuracy, and disagreement does not erase what both sources share. Here they agree that grain was taken, and that is a safe starting point.
Check yourself
1. Two invented sources give the size of a crowd as “about two hundred” and “several thousand”. Name two reasons for the gap.
Show answer
They may describe different moments or places in the same event, or the writers may have had different purposes, such as wanting to show strength or weakness. The numbers may also be estimates by people with little means to count.
2. Source X says a harvest was poor. Source Y says it was good. Both are from 1921 but from different regions. Do they really conflict?
Show answer
Not necessarily. They may describe different regions, so the difference could be one of scope. You would need evidence that both describe the same area to call it a contradiction.
3. Write one calibrated sentence for the grain example in the lesson.
Show answer
For example: “Both sources show that grain was collected, but they disagree on whether the village complied willingly, and the evidence available cannot settle that.” Any sentence that names the agreement, the dispute and the limit is acceptable.
Where this leads next
Try all four skills together in the integrated practice set. For help reasoning about conflicting evidence in your own syllabus option, see our online one-to-one History tuition.