BHIC 114 key facts: June 2026
- Course code: BHIC 114 (printed BHIC-114)
- Subject: History of Modern Europe-II (c. 1780-1939)
- Programme: Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History (BAHIH), core course, Semester VI
- Credits: 6 (three tutor-marked assignments, 30 per cent weightage; term-end exam 70 per cent)
- Units: 17 units on eGyanKosh
- Maximum marks: 100
- Duration: 3 hours
- Questions in the paper: 8 numbered questions, 14 answerable items (6 essays + 8 short-note options); attempt any 5, at least 2 from each section
- Expected length: about 400 words per essay, 200 words per short note
- Samples shown on this page: 2 (Q1 Marxian Socialism, Q5 New Economic Policy); all 14 in the paid file
BHIC 114 Solved Question Paper June 2026 gives you the official IGNOU term-end paper of History of Modern Europe-II with every question answered in exam-ready length. Read two complete answers below, see exactly which questions sit in the full file, and message 9899436384 on WhatsApp when you want all 14.
1. What the June 2026 Solved Paper Covers
BHIC 114 History of Modern Europe-II (c. 1780-1939) is a 6-credit core course of IGNOU's BA (Honours) History programme, studied in Semester VI. It follows on from BHIC 111 Modern Europe-I and tracks liberal democracy, Marx, Fascism, Nazism, Soviet socialism, empire, two world wars and the cultural revolts from Romanticism to abstract art, with short glimpses of the post-war world.
The June 2026 paper prints 8 numbered questions in two sections. Six are 20-mark essays and two are short-note sets with four options each, so the paper offers 14 answerable items. Our file answers all 14, so you can rehearse whichever five you plan to write in the hall.
Section I leans on politics and empire: Marxian Socialism, the Third Reich, theories of imperialism, and notes on Indian agriculture, semi-colonialism, imperial education and the Cold War. Section II moves to the Soviet NEP, 19th-century philosophy, Romanticism, and notes on Realism, Modernism, women's equality after 1939 and the collapse of socialism.
Every answer follows the 17 units of the official course material on eGyanKosh, so the facts and terms match what your evaluator expects to see.
2. Two Answers Solved in Full, Twelve Held Back
Here are two complete answers from the June 2026 paper, one from each section, written to the 400-word length the paper asks for. Question numbers and wording are exactly as printed on the official paper.
The main features of Marxian Socialism
Question 1: Discuss the main features of Marxian Socialism. (20)
Marxian Socialism is the body of ideas worked out by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) from the 1840s onwards. Engels called it scientific socialism to separate it from the utopian plans of Saint-Simon, Fourier and Robert Owen, who hoped to remake society through good example. Marx claimed instead to show how capitalism itself creates the forces that will end it.
- Historical materialism. In the 1859 Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, Marx argued that the economic base, made up of forces and relations of production, shapes the superstructure of law, politics, religion and ideas. History moves through modes of production (Asiatic, ancient, feudal, bourgeois) as productive forces outgrow old property relations.
- Class struggle. The Communist Manifesto (1848) presented history as a record of conflict between classes. Under capitalism society splits into two camps: the bourgeoisie, who own the means of production, and the proletariat, who own nothing but their labour power.
- Surplus value and exploitation. Building on Smith and Ricardo, Marx argued in Capital, Volume I (1867), that labour creates value. The worker is paid the value of his labour power but produces more than that; the difference is surplus value, the source of profit. Exploitation is therefore built into the wage system, not a matter of individual greed.
- Contradictions and crisis. Competition drives mechanisation and the concentration of capital in fewer hands. Small producers sink into the working class, and recurring crises of overproduction expose the system's instability while workers grow more organised.
- Revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Marx expected workers to seize political power. In the Critique of the Gotha Programme (1875) he described a transitional revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat between capitalist and communist society.
- A classless society. In the first, socialist phase people would be rewarded according to work; in higher communism, according to need. Since the state is an instrument of class rule, Engels argued in Anti-Dühring (1878) that it would wither away once classes disappeared.
- Internationalism. Because capital is international, Marx urged workers of all countries to unite. He helped found the First International in London in 1864.
Conclusion. Lenin (1913) traced Marxism to three sources: German philosophy (Hegel's dialectic and Feuerbach's materialism), British political economy and French socialism. Revisionists such as Eduard Bernstein later argued that capitalism was adapting rather than collapsing, yet Marxian Socialism shaped the Second International (1889) and the Russian Revolution of 1917.
A critical essay on the New Economic Policy
Question 5: Write a critical essay on the New Economic Policy (in Russia). (20)
The New Economic Policy (NEP) was announced by Lenin at the Tenth Congress of the Russian Communist Party in March 1921 and lasted until 1928, when the grain crisis and the First Five-Year Plan ended it. It replaced War Communism with a mixed economy: the state kept the commanding heights while peasants and small traders returned to the market.
Background
Under War Communism (1918-1921) the Bolsheviks requisitioned grain, nationalised almost all industry and banned private trade. Output collapsed. Peasants rose in Tambov, and in March 1921 the Kronstadt sailors, once loyal to the revolution, revolted. Lenin accepted that a retreat was needed to keep the worker-peasant alliance alive.
Main features
- A tax in kind replaced requisitioning, so peasants could sell their surplus.
- Private trade and small industry were legalised, giving rise to the trader class called Nepmen.
- Large industry, banking, foreign trade and transport stayed with the state, organised into trusts run on commercial accounting.
- Foreign concessions were invited.
- A new currency, the chervonets (1922), helped stabilise money by 1924.
Achievements
The NEP ended the famine of 1921-22 and revived the economy. By about 1926-27 farm and factory output had roughly returned to pre-war (1913) levels, and the market link between town and village was restored.
Weaknesses
First, the scissors crisis of 1923 saw industrial prices rise far above farm prices, so peasants held back grain. Second, urban unemployment stayed high and the visible wealth of Nepmen and richer peasants (kulaks) angered party members. Third, recovery used existing plants; the NEP could not easily fund rapid industrialisation. This sparked the debate between Bukharin, who favoured gradual growth with the peasantry, and Preobrazhensky, who wanted surplus extracted from agriculture.
Politics and end
Economic relaxation came with political tightening: the same 1921 Congress banned factions inside the party. When grain procurement fell in 1927-28, Stalin turned to emergency seizures, launched the Five-Year Plan in 1928 and forced collectivisation from 1929, closing the NEP era.
Critical assessment. Historians remain divided. Some, following Stephen Cohen's study of Bukharin, see the NEP as a workable, less violent road to socialism. Others argue that its dependence on peasant goodwill made fast industrialisation impossible. On balance, the NEP was a successful short-term rescue whose built-in contradictions between market and plan made it fragile.
3. Questions Answered Only in the Full File
The 12 items below are listed exactly as printed. Their answers are not on this page; they are in the complete solved file.
Section I
Question 2: Write an essay on the nature of state and society during the Third Reich. (20)
Question 3: Briefly discuss the theories of imperialism. (20)
Question 4: Write short notes on any two of the following in about 200 words each. (10 + 10)
(a) Impact of British rule on agriculture in India
(b) Emergence of semi-colonialism
(c) Education and language as tools of imperial ideology
(d) Beginning of the Cold War
Section II
Question 6: Discuss the main features of philosophical thought in Europe in the nineteenth century. (20)
Question 7: Examine the nature of Romanticism. (20)
Question 8: Write short notes on any two of the following in about 200 words each. (10 + 10)
(a) Realism
(b) Modernism
(c) Gender and women's equality (post-1939)
(d) Collapse of socialism
4. Unit-Wise Syllabus
BHIC 114 has 17 units on eGyanKosh, running from Liberal Democracy (Unit 1) to the ideologies of race, class and gender (Unit 17). The table shows the themes in each unit and where they have surfaced in official papers and the assignment.
| Unit | Unit title | Key themes and where they were asked |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liberal Democracy | Widening of the vote in 19th-century Europe; parliamentary rule and civil liberties; limits of liberal economics |
| 2 | Early Socialist Thought and Marxian Socialism | Saint-Simon, Fourier and Owen; historical materialism and surplus value; Jun 2026 Q1 (Sample 1) |
| 3 | Counter Revolution-I: Fascism to Conservative Dictatorship | Mussolini's rise and the Italian Fascist state; authoritarian regimes of interwar Europe; Dec 2023 Q4(c) |
| 4 | Counter-Revolution-II: National Socialism in Germany | Collapse of Weimar democracy; Nazi party, propaganda and terror; Jun 2026 Q2 and Dec 2023 Q2 |
| 5 | The Socialist World-I | 1917 revolutions and War Communism; New Economic Policy (Jun 2026 Q5, Sample 2); planning and industrialisation (Dec 2023 Q3) |
| 6 | The Socialist World-II | Collectivisation and peasant resistance; the Soviet system after the plans |
| 7 | Colonialism and Imperialism | Colonialism versus imperialism; economic theories of empire (Jun 2026 Q3); phases of European expansion |
| 8 | Patterns of Colonial Domination-I | British rule in India; land revenue and agrarian change (Jun 2026 Q4(a)); the drain of wealth debate |
| 9 | Patterns of Colonial Domination-II | Semi-colonial control in Latin America (Dec 2023 Q8(a)); colonial rule in Africa (Dec 2023 Q4(d)); informal empire |
| 10 | Cultural Dimensions of Imperialism | Education and language as imperial tools (Jun 2026 Q4(c)); drugs and empire; the civilising mission |
| 11 | Two World Wars | Causes of the two world wars; the 1919 peace settlement; total war and mobilisation |
| 12 | The Crisis of Capitalism | The 1929 crash and the Great Depression; state responses and protectionism; Dec 2023 Q6 |
| 13 | Glimpse of Post-War World-I | Origins of the Cold War (Jun 2026 Q4(d)); Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan of 1947; NATO in 1949 |
| 14 | Glimpse of Post-War World-II | Gender and women's equality after 1939 (Jun 2026 Q8(c)); globalisation (Dec 2023 Q8(b)); decolonisation |
| 15 | Cultural and Intellectual Developments Since 1850 | Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) and science after 1850; 19th-century philosophical thought (Jun 2026 Q6) |
| 16 | Creations of New Cultural Forms: From Romanticism to Abstract Art | Romanticism (Jun 2026 Q7); Realism in art and fiction (Jun 2026 Q8(a)); Modernism and abstraction (Jun 2026 Q8(b)) |
| 17 | Culture and the Making of Ideologies: Race, Class and Gender | Ideology of class (Dec 2023 Q8(d)); ideology of race; constructions of gender |
Read the units in clusters rather than in order. Units 2, 5 and 6 form the socialism story, Units 7 to 10 the empire story and Units 15 to 17 the culture story. If you still need the course books, our BHIC 114 Study Material page lists what to read first.
5. Question Paper Pattern and Marks Split
The paper gives 8 questions in two sections; you attempt any five, at least two from each section, for 100 marks in 3 hours. All questions carry equal marks, so a pair of short notes is worth exactly as much as one long essay.
| Part | Questions | Type | Marks | Expected length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Section I | Q1 to Q3 | Long essays | 20 each | About 400 words |
| Section I | Q4 (choose 2 of 4 notes) | Short notes | 10 + 10 | About 200 words per note |
| Section II | Q5 to Q7 | Long essays | 20 each | About 400 words |
| Section II | Q8 (choose 2 of 4 notes) | Short notes | 10 + 10 | About 200 words per note |
| Whole paper | Any 5 of 8, at least 2 per section | Mixed | 5 × 20 = 100 | 3 hours in total |
Three hours for five answers leaves about 36 minutes each. The short-note sets reward students who know precise dates and names, while the essays reward a clear argument. The same two-section layout appears in other BAHIH courses such as BHIC 101 and BHIC 111, which you can compare in our BAHIH Question Paper collection.
6. Topics That Keep Returning
Across the two official BHIC 114 papers we could retrieve, December 2023 and June 2026, seven topic areas appeared in both. Counts below come only from those two papers, so read them as a direction, not a guarantee.
| Topic | Unit | Dec 2023 | Jun 2026 | Times asked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| State and society in Nazi Germany | Unit 4 | Q2 | Q2 | 2 |
| New Economic Policy | Unit 5 | Q4(b) | Q5 (Sample 2) | 2 |
| Early socialist thought and Marxian Socialism | Unit 2 | Q4(a) | Q1 (Sample 1) | 2 |
| Semi-colonialism | Unit 9 | Q8(a) | Q4(b) | 2 |
| Realism in literature and art | Unit 16 | Q7 | Q8(a) | 2 |
| Cultural side of imperialism | Unit 10 | Q5 | Q4(c) | 2 |
| Intellectual life after 1850 (science, philosophy) | Unit 15 | Q8(c) | Q6 | 2 |
| Crisis of capitalism | Unit 12 | Q6 | — | 1 |
| Fascism in Italy | Unit 3 | Q4(c) | — | 1 |
| Soviet planning and industrialisation | Unit 5 | Q3 | — | 1 |
| Beginning of the Cold War | Unit 13 | — | Q4(d) | 1 |
Papers for June 2023, June 2024, December 2024, June 2025 and December 2025 could not be retrieved from IGNOU's servers for this check, so they are not counted. The recent assignment booklet also set Marxian Socialism, semi-colonialism in Latin America, the Cold War, Romanticism and women's equality after the Second World War.
Notice how socialist thought and the NEP returned in different forms: a short note in 2023 became a full essay in 2026. For more topic lists across courses, see our IGNOU Solved Guess Paper collection.
7. How Our Answers Are Written and Checked
Each BHIC 114 answer is drafted from the eGyanKosh units, matched to the word length printed on the paper and checked for dates before release. The aim is an answer you can understand, remember and reproduce in 36 minutes.
Every answer opens with a one-line definition, follows with numbered points and ends with a short conclusion or historians' view. Key names, texts and dates are in bold so revision is quick. British spelling is used throughout, which matches IGNOU's own course material.
Before writing, the team compared the June 2026 questions with earlier papers through our IGNOU Previous Year Question Paper archive, so that answers on repeated themes such as the NEP or Realism cover the angles examiners have already tested.
The review checks each date, each title of a text and each historian's name against the course units, and removes anything that cannot be traced to a reliable source.
8. Solved File Index: All 14 Items Mapped to Units
The full file solves all 14 items of the June 2026 paper; 2 are on this page and 12 are in the full file only. Use the unit column to revise the right chapter before you message us.
| Item | Topic | Section | Unit | Where the answer is |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | Main features of Marxian Socialism | I | Unit 2 | Sample 1 above |
| Q2 | State and society during the Third Reich | I | Unit 4 | Full file |
| Q3 | Theories of imperialism | I | Unit 7 | Full file |
| Q4(a) | Impact of British rule on agriculture in India | I | Unit 8 | Full file |
| Q4(b) | Emergence of semi-colonialism | I | Unit 9 | Full file |
| Q4(c) | Education and language as tools of imperial ideology | I | Unit 10 | Full file |
| Q4(d) | Beginning of the Cold War | I | Unit 13 | Full file |
| Q5 | Critical essay on the New Economic Policy | II | Unit 5 | Sample 2 above |
| Q6 | Philosophical thought in nineteenth-century Europe | II | Unit 15 | Full file |
| Q7 | Nature of Romanticism | II | Unit 16 | Full file |
| Q8(a) | Realism | II | Unit 16 | Full file |
| Q8(b) | Modernism | II | Unit 16 | Full file |
| Q8(c) | Gender and women's equality (post-1939) | II | Unit 14 | Full file |
| Q8(d) | Collapse of socialism | II | Unit 6 | Full file |
Unit mapping is our team's reading of the eGyanKosh unit titles. BHIC 114 is a theory course, so there is no practical record; this index replaces a practical file index.
9. Programmes That Include BHIC 114
BHIC 114 is a Semester VI core course of the IGNOU Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History (BAHIH). The official 2026-27 assignment booklet for the course is issued under the BAHIH programme by the School of Social Sciences.
Students in the IGNOU Bachelor of Arts (Honours) History meet BHIC 111 History of Modern Europe-I in Semester V and BHIC 114 in Semester VI. Treat the two as one long story: BHIC 111 covers industrial capitalism, the French Revolution and nationalism, while BHIC 114 picks up socialism, dictatorship, empire and culture.
If you are in another IGNOU history programme and see BHIC 114 on your hall ticket, check your own programme guide for the course status, then use this file in the same way.
10. How to Get the Full Solved Question Paper
Message 9899436384 on WhatsApp with the code BHIC 114 and the session June 2026 to get the complete solved file with all 14 answers. That includes the 12 answers not shown on this page.
Send three details in one message: the course code (BHIC 114), the session (June 2026) and your programme (BAHIH). Our team confirms them and shares the full file as a PDF, with the same structure you saw in the two sample answers.
The file covers the Third Reich, theories of imperialism, 19th-century philosophy, Romanticism and all eight short-note options, so you are not limited to the two topics shown here when you choose your five questions.
11. BHIC 114 History of Modern Europe-II FAQs
Quick answers to the questions BHIC 114 students ask us most about the June 2026 solved paper.
What does the Solved Question Paper June 2026 include?
It includes the official IGNOU June 2026 BHIC 114 paper with all 14 answerable items solved: six 20-mark essays and eight short-note options. Two answers, Marxian Socialism and the New Economic Policy, are shown on this page. The remaining 12 answers sit in the full file, which you can get by messaging 9899436384 on WhatsApp with the course code and session.
How many questions are in the paper and how many must I attempt?
The June 2026 paper prints 8 questions in two sections. Questions 4 and 8 are short-note sets where you pick two of four options, so the paper holds 14 answerable items in total. You must attempt any five questions, with at least two from Section I and two from Section II. Every question carries 20 marks, giving 100 marks in 3 hours.
Which answers can I read on this page?
You can read two complete answers here. Question 1 from Section I discusses the main features of Marxian Socialism, and Question 5 from Section II is a critical essay on the New Economic Policy in Russia. Both run close to the 400-word length the paper asks for. The other 12 items are listed as question text only and are answered in the full file.
How do I get the full solved file on WhatsApp?
Send a WhatsApp message to 9899436384 with the code BHIC 114 and the session June 2026. Our team confirms the details and then shares the complete solved file with you. It contains all 14 answers from the paper, covering the 6 essay questions and all 8 short-note options, including the 12 answers that are not shown anywhere on this page.
Which BHIC 114 topics repeat most in official IGNOU papers?
In the two official papers we checked, December 2023 and June 2026, seven topic areas appeared in both: Nazi state and society, the New Economic Policy, socialist thought, semi-colonialism, Realism, the cultural side of imperialism and intellectual life after 1850. Five other recent sessions could not be retrieved, so treat this as a pattern from two papers, not a five-year count.
How many credits does BHIC 114 carry?
BHIC 114 carries 6 credits, according to IGNOU's official assignment booklet for the course. As a 6-credit course it needs three tutor-marked assignments, which carry 30 per cent weightage, while the term-end examination carries 70 per cent. The course has 17 units on eGyanKosh and is a Semester VI core course of the BAHIH programme.
How long should BHIC 114 answers be in the term-end exam?
The paper asks for essay answers of about 400 words each and short notes of about 200 words each. Each essay is worth 20 marks, and each short-note question is split as 10 plus 10. With five answers in 3 hours, plan roughly 35 minutes per answer and keep a few minutes at the end to reread your dates and names.
Who wrote and reviewed the answers in this file?
The answers were prepared by Prateek Talwar and the Unnati Educations history team, then reviewed by Sheetal Kirola before release. Each answer was checked against the BHIC 114 units on eGyanKosh, against the word length printed on the paper and against the dates of key events, such as the 1848 Communist Manifesto and the 1921 Tenth Party Congress.
12. Who Wrote and Checked the BHIC 114 Answers
The BHIC 114 answers were written by Prateek Talwar and reviewed by Sheetal Kirola.
Prateek Talwar, founder of Unnati Educations, leads the IGNOU solved-paper series and prepares answers from the course units and the official term-end paper. Sheetal Kirola, Academic Head (M.Ed.), checks every date, text title and historian's name against the course units before release.