Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Explain how Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the Soviet Union and paved the way for the end of Communism.
One-way Mikhail Gorbachev was by adding more churches. He wanted others to talk about their society and figure out ways to make the society better after all the issue they went through. Gorbachev wanted more people to start talking about their society. Basically how they can make it better.
Glasnost =an official policy of the former Soviet government emphasizing candor with regard to discussion of social problems and shortcomings. During this, people talk about Soviet Union's issues like economy and political problems.
Peristrokia = Peristrokia was an idea to reform the economic system, and also the political system. This is how Mikhail Gorbachev paved the way to the end of communism for the Soviet Union.

The Collapse of Communism

The USSR and the U.S. were two nation who lead the world's superpowers during the Cold War. As the WWII ended, both the countries competed against each others. Even though they were racing each others with powers and armed with atomic weapons they did not get in to any actual fighting. The mere cost of keeping up with each other was high for both countries. So USSR could not keep on the track beacuse of financial problems.
This effected the whole country and their economy soon collapsed at the high price for competing with the U.S. Since their main source of money camed from Soviet Russia, all the countries they supported collapsed to. East and West Germans were startled wehn they were not allowed to croos the border. Many of them gathered in large groups, facing tear gas and bullets to try and cross the border, but to no aival.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid is a word created by the South African Bureau for Racial Affairs (SABRA). They argued about the policy of "separate development" of the races.
Nelson is such a hero beacause, he Fought for Unity and Liberation. He hold the future of Africa. Growing under the Apartheid system was tough and harsh. But, Nelson was a fighter. He became a lifelong warrior in the battle to free South Africa. He spent 27 years in the prison and became the symbolic body and blood of the anti-apartheid campaign.He was a man of peace, but he headed a guerrilla group that waged a campaign of violence.
During the 1950s Mandela played a key role in the ANC's non-violent campaign to undermine apartheid, South Africa's system of racial segregation, through strikes, civil disobedience, and demonstrations. After he was released by the white government, Mandela negotiated with the white government to end apartheid. Four years later he was elected president and served for five years.

African Independence

African Independence was a period when African colonies gained its independence from the European countries. During the mid 1950's the continent of Africa was being ruled by European countries, because the Europeans wanted the natural resources that were stored in Africa. Since Europe was weakened after WWII, it was easy for the Africans to gain Independence. After 20 years Africa was a whole different continent, because the colonies gained independence from the Europeans and went on to become independence countries. Controlling different colonies were to much to afford so basically, Europeans were planning to set Africa free.
All the educated people worked together and created a middle class and following the independence of many other nations. Africa had many leaders because there were so many provinces. These leaders were inspired by African-American leaders.They had Leopold Senghor, who leaded Sengal and later became president. Kwame Nkrumah became Ghana's first prime minister. Marcus Garvey was Jamaican born, but his goal was to lead Europeans out of Africa and have Africa ruled by Africans. Jomo Kenyatta led Kenya through a harsh independence. And many others. During the two major World Wars, the European countries weren't economically stabled enough to run a country hundreds of miles away.

"The Right Stuff"

How were the US and the USSR competing in the film "The Right Stuff"?
Both the countries were competing each others in different activities. At first, they showed how America was trying to break sound barrier. They kept this as a secret because they did not wanted Russia to know what was going on. Later when America found out that Russia launched the first rocket, America was mad.

Explain who was winning the competition.
The Russian were winning the competition because, there were 3 different activities. Russia was the first one to complete 2 activities than the American. They launched the first satellite and the rocket. America was behind only three weeks.

What scenes from the film will help you remember this Cold War event.
The part when people were selected for the astronaut mission, i was shocked and horrified. It took more than the will you had in your self. The experiment that was taken on the people were painful. You had to be strong, healthy and a college degree student. 7 people were able to complete this examination.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

What were NATO and the Warsaw Pact?
NATO is an organization that includes countries in Europe and North America.
The Warsaw Pact was formed as communist military alliance to maintain power over Eastern Europe.

Who formed these alliances and why?
The major reason for the formation of NATO was that the countries involved wanted a mutual defense alliance so that if one of them were attacked all of the other countries in NATO would come to their aide.
Warsaw Pact was created Russia and later joined by Bulgaria, Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, Republice of Hungary, Republic of Poland, Republic of Romania, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Members of the Warsaw Pact pledged to defend each other if one or more of the members were attacked.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

Schindler managed to save about 1100 Jews from being gassed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was a glorious and greedy German businessman who saved his workers from his factories. He was a Nazi but he was a good Nazi at the same time. His workers worked for free so he wanted to pay back to them.
Auschwitiz was the most powerful scene for a viewer as me. That place was where all the people were killed. Families were separated by sex. Males were on the right side and females were on the right side. The strong and healthy people survived. The weak were killed and thrown away. Since little kids were not able to work as much as the elder, they were killed too.
They did not had enough food and clothing. When there was shortage of food, the prisoners were left hungry.
The image of the little girl with the red coat with always stay with me. She was standing out so much with that little coat. She tried to runaway but she was caught and killed. She was so young to die. I don't think it's fair at all.

Film Lesson: Night and Fog

When i saw the movie "Night and Fog", i was shocked and terrified. The way all the Jewish people were treated was out of my imagination. How can you be so cold hearted like that?
Yes, i found the film as powerful as you did.
The way they punished the people and killed them without thinking about it was the same in the both movies. The Nazi's acted like they had so soul and heart. They were basically out of their mind when they killed all those people. I hope their dead souls hunts all the killer.
The documentary film illustrates the Holocaust more effectively. The thing in the movie are real and its not a made up thing.
All those dead bodies of the people mad be feel so numb. The movie was the documentary film about the Nazi concentration camps.They showed real place, people, harsh action, bodies. The end of the film, they show a scenes where mass of dead bodies were being bulldozed into the grave.

The Treaty of Versailles (ended WW I)

The Treaty of Versailles affected Germany at the end of WWI, as Germany was blamed for everything. Even though other countries were involved in the war, the treaty made Germany pay for all the destruction. 10% of the Germans property on the other side were taken over.
Some of the rules of the treaty were as follow:

1. German army – no conscription 100,000 man limit
2. Saar coal mining area controlled by France
3. Germany must pay reparations (money and/or goods) to the Allies
4. The league of Nations would be formed from Wilson’s 14 points
5. Allies occupy the west bank of the Rhine to French border for 15 years (would become a demilitarized zone)

I totally don't think it is fair. They just wanted some one to blame all on. There were other country that should have been part of the blame.
Some historians say that the Treaty of Versailles led to the rise of Fascism and Adolph Hitler
because when the country was going down after the treaty, they wanted some one to bring back the nation. Hitler was a great leader, and they all believed that he would help the nation to step up. But, they did not knew that he was a crazy man who would kill 6 million Jewish. Historians say this because Hitler had all the power to do what ever he wanted to. He basically wanted to take over the world. In a way, he almost achieved it.

Mustafa Kemal

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk is known as "The Father of Turkey". He was the president of Turkey for 15 years. Before that, he was a commander leader and because of his victories and his cultural and socio-political reforms, Turkey formed as a new nation. He believed that all the people were supposed to dress and live like the Europeans. He also established law which state proper clothing like shirt, pant, tie, hat etc. instead of that dress kind of cloth.
There was legal systems where everyone was was equal in front of the law. He improved the agricultural expansion, industrial growth, and technological advancement. His work was very impressive and helped the nation in many different ways.
Secular means to have reference to worldly things or to things that are not regarded as religious, spiritual or scared.

Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's real name was Mohandas K. Gandhi. He was called Mahatma (great soul). He was a lawyer who fought against the racial problems towards the Indians. When Gandhi was in South Africa, he purchased a 1st class ticket. But, he was told to move to the third class coach because he was Indian. Gandhi refused and he was kicked out at the next station. The massacre at Amritsar was the act which brought the independence soul from Gandhi. He told his follower not to use violence but civil disobedience. He told the Indians to stop buying goods from the British which would weaken the British government.
Gandhi weaved his own cloth and so did his followers. He took a step to stop the Salt Acts. During that time, Indians could only buy salt from the British. They also had to pay sales tax on the salt they brought. So, Gandhi and his followers marched on the sea cost. They were going to make their own salt. When his followers used any violence act, he would go for fasting until they stop it. He was a great leader. Gandhi wanted Muslims and Hindus to live in the same country, India. He was assassinated by an Indian who did not support the idea about Muslims and Hindus living together.
Indians Independence was not all about Gandhi. Since British was involved in the WWII, they lost many troops and had a huge financial problems. British could not take care about India. So anyway in the future, India was going to get their independence.

Cause of World War I

The primary cause of World War I was the anger the leaders had towards other countries that was supported by the nationalism of the European nations. The three major cause are as follow;
1.Nationalism was one of the major reason which lead to the war. The 4 countries from Europe, which are France, Germany, Austria and Russia were nationalistic about their own country. This brought hatred against each others. The movie we watched, showed how nationalistic they were. The first introduction part was very strong. There were kids from each country, residing poem about their nation.
2. Militarism was other reason which caused the war. Each country were improving in their military system. They demanded more power for their country. Germany was the strongest country with the military. Each country took side of each others. British and France worked together while Germany and Austria worked with each others.
3. The assassination of Sarajevo was the breaking point of Europe. Due to the assassination, Germany promised total help and support to Austria-Hungary who was forced to declare war on Serbia.