Watch: "The Wall Comes Down"
Read: "Three Days in Foros" (Optional)
Read: "The August Coup"
____________________________________________________
Please select a document (1-9) from "The August Coup" and sign up in the comments section. Two students may share a document. If you decide to share a document, please be sure to discuss the assignment with your co-presenter before you prepare your research, as you will be presenting together.
Presentation Guidelines:
1. Summarize the document.
2. Find one interesting quotation from the selection, share the quote, and explain it.
3. Explain the importance of your document and its relationship to the fall of communism.
4. Sum up your findings and describe what you learned from reading the document.
5. If you share a dialogue document, your quote should include portions of the dialogue read together with your partner.
Note: Your presentation should use note cards. These will not be handed in.
Please select a document (1-9) from "The August Coup" and sign up in the comments section. Two students may share a document. If you decide to share a document, please be sure to discuss the assignment with your co-presenter before you prepare your research, as you will be presenting together.
Presentation Guidelines:
1. Summarize the document.
2. Find one interesting quotation from the selection, share the quote, and explain it.
3. Explain the importance of your document and its relationship to the fall of communism.
4. Sum up your findings and describe what you learned from reading the document.
5. If you share a dialogue document, your quote should include portions of the dialogue read together with your partner.
Note: Your presentation should use note cards. These will not be handed in.
50 comments:
The coursepack mentioned something about a "presentation on documents 1-9." Do we still have to do that?
@Ryan, yes I'll add more details shortly.
Uh...in order to read the "Three Days in Faros" document, I need to make some account with foreignpolicy.com. Is there somewhere else I can find the story?
It works fine for me, Nate. There's an X on the thing that asks for a subscription that you can click to close it.
Well, it works for me when I'm not signed into the blog. Problem solved.
One more question: This may be obvious, but are we supposed to read the links off "The August Coup"(Document 1, Document 2, etc.)?
I think those are what we'll be doing the reports on.
Can I have document 6? If someone wants to join my team, I'm cool with that.
If it works, I'll be with Marc. And if he wants me.
I'll do document 2
I'll do Document #8.
I'll do document 7.
I'm having the same trouble that Nate did with the "Three Days in Foros". I have tried multiple times to go to the article without being logged in with the blog and it won't let me without making an account. And I know this sounds crazy but there is not box to x out of it. What do I do?
I'll do document threeeeeeeee
I'll do document 2 with Jessica
oops that's Jacqui...don't know why it says anonymous
I will take document 7.
I will do Document 4
I will do 5.
p.s do we need to do a journal?
pp.s I would be okay with having a partner.
ppp.s When I asked about journals I meant "extended blog post."
@Robert Yes
Well, in that case...
My thoughts for this week’s readings/videos are these: First off, the feeling of the videos and readings were far different than anything else. All throughout this semester, we’ve read about the Cold War and the conflicts between the USA and the USSR. Vietnam. Korea. Afghanistan. You get the picture. Finally, it ends. With the fall of the USSR, the Cold War can be finished. Seeing the people in “The Wall Comes Down” was pleasing. At the beginning, there was that lady talking about how they were being watched. Their movements, words, everything (little Big Brother feeling there). But then the attitude changes when the people pass from East Germany into West Germany. West Germans are there to greet them, people are free, the walls are falling…after reading and seeing so many defeats and acts of oppression, this feels like a victory to me. It shows that, even in the darkest of times, you can still have hope. What I also thought interesting was this: In my document, you have George Bush telling he will do what he can to help Yelstin defeat Communism. His last words are pretty neat: “Good luck and congratulations on your courage and commitment. We sympathize and pray with you. All the American people support you. What you're doing is absolutely right.” After being enemies with the USSR for a long time, American can now be allies with Russia again. I just found it interesting how old enemies could become allies.
It was really interesting this week to read about the fall of communism. I had never heard about Boris Yeltsin or the failed KGB coup. Something that I kept noticing was how the people drove communism to an end. The government did allow it to happen. But it was the "strength in numbers" that ended it. There were so many East Germans who were willing to be killed or injured during a protest that it was hard for the government to keep them under control. And when they gathered at the checkpoints between East and West Germany there were just so many people who were there and fed up with things that the guards gave in. I also noticed that in the USSR during the failed coup. Yeltsin asked for the support of the people and so many support him that they kept the coup from succeeding. The resistance of the people really shows how communism did not work.
I'll take Document 2 please. It's a short one, so I'm happy to and prefer to do it by myself.
"The use of force had discredited itself completely. It was no longer possible to stabilize the world by military methods." I found this quote from Gorbachev interesting because the military was responsible for maintaining much of the control over the people. Now it seems people are getting more freedom and we're entering a more familiar era of history where Russia and the U.S. are more similar. I was impressed with Gorbachev because he took a big step against the social norm for his country and for the role he played in changing Russia into a less Communistic nation. Also being a world leader who was put under arrest during a coup is a tough situation, and he appeared to handle it well.
I also enjoyed getting a glimpse into what Gorbachev was like. Document 2 says, “It may be a long time before another such figure appears in Russia to catch the imagination and personify the hopes of foreigners. And Moscow already resounds to the keening of liberal intellectuals who now regret that they did not support Gorbachev while he was still there.” It’s cool to see the impact Gorbachev made and some of the respect he received. A leader's character is important and his decisions affect many.
This week's reading was pretty much all new to me, I had never heard of the KGB's coup before. One thing I thought was interesting about the reading was the part about Chopin. “Here Chopin is not music. It's a diagnosis. They always play it to calm us down.” I thought it was interesting that they played Chopin and everyone knew exactly what it meant. I also thought it was interesting how one person made such a difference in the outcome of the coup. I wonder if the whole thing would have worked if Boris Yeltsin had been arrested.
In regards to this week's video, it was very interesting to learn specifics about the Berlin wall. I was surprised to learn of Erich Honecker, and all the communist influence that was present in East Germany. I was even more surprised to see masses of east Germans cheering for Gorbachev. The flooding of the embassy was quite something to virtually witness too. I thought it was touching to see the East Germans reunited with West Germans. China on the other hand...
The fact that the Chinese military would fire on peaceful protestors utterly disgusted me. And I thought it was interesting to hear the German interviewees talk about how they feared the possibility of Chinese tactics being used in their country.
As for the August Coup in Moscow, I think the main thing that struck me was that there was a coup to begin with. Most of the coups we've studied so far this year occurred in small third-world countries. I found it rather shocking to think that such a thing would even be considered in a country as large and powerful as Russia. I suppose it's just another factor that points towards the end of the Cold War.
@Marc
I agree about Gorbachev! I enjoyed learning more about him. As far as communist leaders go, he seemed quite decent.
I to have not heard of any of this before. Thats partly why this year has been so awesome. Until this year I knew more about what happened centuries ago than what happened years ago. It seems odd to me that Americans (or at least homeschooler) don't know much about how communism ended, since America is proud to be a Republic (mostly). I found Yeltsin to be really fascinating individual. The efforts of one man on one day changed the lives of many. If a coup did not take place then the only other foreseeable way to end communism would have been war (though Gorbachev was trying). But due to the presence of mind of one individual a potential world war three was averted. One other thing that surprised me was that the KGB failed! I thought they were just a bloodthirsty version of the CIA that would stop at nothing to succeed. I guess It just says something more for Yeltsin that he seized the day so quickly Kudos for Yeltsin.
I thought they were saying Hanukkah for most of the video...so yea. anyway, it was really interesting learning about the cold war! and learning about the ending too. Sometimes that stuck out to me was the masses of people in the streets prepared to die for freedom. not soldiers but normal people. the destruction of the Berlin wall was super cool too because it was such a public display of unity. it was really nice to see.
I'll take document 7.
The downfall of the USSR was very different from what I was expecting. I was thinking it would be a revolution of the people, and in a way it was. I think the way Gorbachev went along with the growing unrest against the communist party was very wise. He saw the situation, and outwardly supported it. He said that reform was a good thing, and by supporting the people in their pursuit against total communism he gained some respect from the outside world. I think that this action on his part was very wise. A leader does not always have control, and a wise one will listen to what the world is telling him. He was willing to compromise his complete leadership in order to stay in power. I really was not expecting that from him or any Russian leader to be exact.
To contrast with him is the KGB. They were not willing to see communism slip from its elevated, but declining status and so took matters into their own hands. They wanted to force the way of communism on the people. They were going against the popular view and ended up paying for it in their failed coup.
This contrast really stood out to me as I read the articles and watched the documentary. The willingness to see Communism decline and the desperate attempt to keep it was such an interesting example of leadership. These are two different methods of gaining/staying in power. Neither method is guaranteed but both have worked in the past. Which is better? It depends on what you want the outcome to be.
@Marc:
Ditto what @Ian said.
I really was encouraged to learn that Gorbachev wasn't that bad of a dude.
@Marc:
Ditto what @Ian said.
I really was encouraged to learn that Gorbachev wasn't that bad of a dude.
This week's readings were definitely a nice break from the usual. We've read about so many lies, tragedies, and wars that reading about the fall of the Soviet Union was a breath of fresh air.
I actually found the transcription I'm doing a report on more interesting, though. (It's a conversation between president Bush and Gorbachev near the end of the fall of the Soviet Union.) It's incredible how amicable the two are with each other. They could simply be faking their friendship, but it seems that actually knew each other really well. Plus, this was in private, and they had no reason to lie to each other. Both welcomed peace with open arms.
I'll do document 8
A while ago I did a report on the Berlin Wall so I really loved watching the documentary this week. It was my favorite actually. I really loved watching how excited the people were to see the wall come down.
I wanna do 7
@ Ryan: Indeed. mmmmmmmmmm...
Gorbachev seems like the first Soviet leader that has not only appreciated democracy (or so it seems), but cooperated with it. While Khrushchev enjoyed the benefits of democracy while visiting the US, he was still a communist.
I think we see a similarity though, between these two leaders: both demonstrate that even the soviet leaders' views were sometimes at odds with the KGB. Khrushchev loved America, but the KGB wanted to use him for more strictly communist purposes. Similarly, when Gorbachev began to accept democracy, the KGB led a coup against him. Just an interesting thought.
@ Quinn: I'm already doing 7.
@ Max and Quinn, actually Ben signed up for document number 7 a while ago and I was going to join him.
Interesting how the Soviet Union wanted to make Germany suffer and pay in reparations for WWII towards the beginning of the Cold War, and towards the end, East Germans were inspired by the democratic-sympathizer and Soviet leader, Gorbachev. And throughout that period, from what we've studied, we see a gradual decline of communist-gusto in the Soviet leaders from Stalin all the way to Gorbachev, and a rise in more democratic/American (sort of redundant) sympathy.
I will take document number 3 :)
@ Mark: Oh okay. I'll do document 9.
I'll do document 6.
The mobs and protests remind me of those now going on around America.. I'm not saying that protests don't happen often, but that's what I was reminded of. Those who stayed behind from the move to West Berlin, fought extremely hard to get travel to the west, until they finally got the result they wanted. And the destruction of the wall was extremely gratifying (in my opinion) even though I have no ties with Germany at all -- this kind of reminds me of the ending of the Civil War.. A proverbial wall was torn down.
:3
Post a Comment