Jenni, you may safely stop at 1941 as the syllabus states. When the revised syllabus came in a couple of years ago the national studies of Germany and Russia were shortened so that they stopped at the point they entered WW2 (ie 1939 and 1941 respectively). You will see that the  domestic war years for each of these two studies are now incorporated in the new International Study in Peace and Conflict entitled 'Conflict in Europe', under the section 'Civilians at War'. So if you really like your Russian history and you want your students to see how Uncle Joe Stalin rallies the folks in wartime (having slaughtered a good number of them in peacetime!) you can follow the Russian National Study with 'Conflict in Europe'. That, of course, is entirely up to you.