As the Pizza Hut ad we watched today suggested, Mikhail Gorbachev’s leadership ushered in an era of increased freedom, opportunity, and hope for Soviet citizens, even as it fostered economic uncertainty, political instability, and the threat of chaos. For your final blog post, please choose a topic that gives you some insight on the collapse of Soviet communism and the social transformation that accompanied it.  There are two more modules (on 1985 and 1991) from Seventeen Moments in Soviet History that offer an array of topics ranging from nationalism, sexuality and youth culture, to the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl, the anti-alcohol campaign, and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact. Please also consult and use the Current Digest of the Soviet Press and cite the articles you use from this collection. Feel free to explore any other relevant topic from this period as well.  There are good suggestions for primary materials on the Soviet History Resources page. You could also use articles from Historical New York Times to compare the coverage of a particular event or issue in the US with the articles you use from the Current Digest.

Rock music, new modes of consumerism, expanding television and film offerings, and guitar poets shaped the Soviet seventies, as did the dissident movement, the campaign to clean up the Aral sea, and the invasion of Afghanistan.  Despite it’s reputation for “stagnation,” this decade was anything but boring! The next post is due after Thanksgiving, on Saturday, November 30. We will use the modules on 1973 and 1980 from Seventeen Moments in Soviet History.  Please also consult and use the Current Digest of the Soviet Press and cite the articles you use from this collection.  Feel free to explore any other relevant topic from this period as well.  There are good suggestions for primary materials on the Soviet History Resources page.

 

The second half of Chapter 13 in the Freeze text may be helpful as well. You may focus on an event, a development or an individual. Your post should use (and cite) primary sources (texts, music, or images). You may also use a particular image or primary document as a focal point for your post.

Generational struggles, the space race, crisis in Czechoslovakia, and the shift in leadership from Khrushchev to Brezhnev defined the Soviet sixties.  This week we will use the modules on 1961 and 1968 from Seventeen Moments in Soviet History.  Please also consult and use the Current Digest of the Soviet Press and cite the articles you use from this collection.  Feel free to explore any other relevant topic from this period as well.  There are good suggestions for primary materials on the Soviet History Resources page.

Chapter 13 of the Freeze text may be helpful as well. You may focus on an event, a development or an individual. Your post should use (and cite) primary sources (texts, music, or images). You may also use a particular image or primary document as a focal point for your post.

Dramatic changes in Soviet society, culture and politics followed Stalin’s death in 1953. This week we turn to the initial period of “De-Stalinization” and “The Thaw” and will use the modules on 1954 and 1956 from Seventeen Moments in Soviet History.  Please also consult and use the Current Digest of the Soviet Press and cite the articles you use from this collection.  The section of Freeze that is relevant here is the first part of Ch. 13, pp. 406-433)You may focus on an event, a development or an individual. Your post should use (and cite) primary sources (texts, music, or images). You may also use a particular image or primary document as a focal point for your post.

As Annemarie noted in her post about post-war cars, the Soviet people expected and deserved tangible benefits from their victory in World War II.   We will talk about the “Big Deal” in class (and you can decide for yourselves about the benefits and drawbacks of that particular system), but in cyberspace, the reward for having worked so diligently and well is a blogging holiday.  No guidelines this week. If you’d like to post, we’ll be happy to read and comment.  Otherwise, stay tuned for new guidelines on Wednesday,  Oct. 30.

This week we turn our attention to The Great Patriotic War (aka World War II) and the immediate post-war period.  Please use one of the modules from 1943 or 1947 in Seventeen Moments in Soviet History on-line archive. You may also use the module on Soviet Territorial Annexations from 1939.  You should consult  Ch. 12 in the Freeze text. If you are writing about something specific to the war, it would be worth considering William C. Fuller’s discussion on pp. 383-392 of Freeze about the reasons for Soviet victory. You may focus on an event, a development or an individual. Your post should use (and cite) primary sources (texts, music, or images). You may also use a particular image or primary document as a focal point for your post.  There’s plenty of action, drama, and complexity to keep us all engaged this week.  Не шага назад!

For this week’s post, please choose a topic from the 1934, 1936 or 1939 section of Seventeen Moments of Soviet History and use it to examine the political, social, economic and cultural dynamics of the Soviet thirties.  (Please save the module on “Territorial Annexations” for next week, as it is directly connected to World War II.) You should also consult second part of Ch. 11 (pp. 358-373) in the Freeze text. You may focus on an event, a development or an individual. Your post should use (and cite) primary sources (texts, music, or images). You may also use a particular image or primary document as a focal point for your post.

 

For this week’s post, please choose a topic in the “1929” section of Seventeen Moments of Soviet History and use it to examine the political, social, economic and cultural dynamics of the First-Five-Year Plan.  You should also consult the last section of Ch. 10 in Freeze (pp. 329-340) and the first part of Ch. 11 (pp. 341-357).  You may focus on an event, a development or an individual (starting with the 1929 module topics.) Your post should use (and cite) primary sources (texts, music, or images). You may also use a particular image or primary document as a focal point for your post.

If you choose “A New Way of Life” as your topic, you can incorporate insights from the film “Bed and Sofa” and related readings on the Seventeen moments site about gender relations after the revolution.

In any case, your post should help us understand the dynamics of rapid social, political, and economic restructuring in this period.