Planning for Assessment
Use a variety of media (e.g., video clips,
overhead images, computer slide show
presentations, primary and secondary accounts,
political cartoons) to demonstrate the collapse
of the Soviet Union (e.g., focussing on the fall of
the Berlin Wall and the Coup in Russia in 1991).
Explain to students that these two events did
not happen in isolation, and point out the
similarities (e.g., nationalism, economics). Also
point out the historical precedents for these
events.
• To go beyond a simple chronology of events,
provide students with some key definitions/
people that transcend the events in USSR and
its satellites, such as
− Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev
− Glasnost
− Perestroika
RESOURCES
"BBC: History: Cambridge Spies" Despite receiving much criticism for its overly romantic portrayal of the infamous four (Burgess, Maclean, Blunt and Philby), it essentially posed the question of why four young members of the British establishment should spy for the Soviets throughout the period of the Cold War. One of the best features of this site is the links to related BBC articles written by eminent experts such as Professor Archie Brown and Malcolm Brinkworth. Subjects discussed in the essays include the end of Soviet Communism. Links are also included to other BBC websites featuring espionage and the work of saboteurs, as well as the collapse of the Soviet Union, and a country profile of Russia.
Seventeen Moments in Soviet History provides commentary and primary resources relating to key events in the history of the former Soviet Union. A short essay introduces the year and a selection of newsreel clips; songs; audio material; images; and translated texts provide primary sources documenting the key moments of that year. The events covered include: the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917; the Kronstadt Uprising in 1921; the death of Lenin in 1924; the Liquidation of the Kulaks by Stalin in 1929; Khrushev's Secret Speech in 1956 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Voices from the Wall; personal stories about the fall of the Berlin Wall
This site has been created by the German Embassy in Washington DC. It is collecting personal eye-witness accounts of a key moment on the road to the unification of Germany: the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 and the collapse of communism in Eastern Germany. The site contains a series of reminiscences submitted by ordinary German citizens, plus a timeline of the historical events.
"The Berlin Wall" from the Newsmuseum is a small, interactive, online exhibition, offering an exploration of the differences in media freedom in East and West Berlin during the Communist era. The Newseum, is an interactive museum of news, formerly located as part of the Freedom Forum in Arlington, US. (The city was divided into four occupation zones in 1945, the East and West governed separately from 1949. The East German government commenced construction of the 27-mile long wall that divided the city of Berlin, its population, and services like the media). "The Berlin Wall" exhibition is noticeably biased towards a traditional US view of the fall of Communism, and specifically the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.
The Revolutions of 1989: New Documents from Soviet/East Europe Archives includes: declassified government documents, relating to international affairs and United States defence policy, which have been made available through the Freedom of Information Act -secret Communist party and Politbureau transcripts released by Eastern European government sources relating to Soviet Bloc reaction to the uprisings against Communism which occurred in 1989 and the Fall of the Berlin Wall - Lech Walesa and Solidarity in Poland, meetings of the Soviet leader Gorbachev with Hungarian reformers, and transcripts from the Czechoslovakian Central Communist Committee
The Cold war International History Project is a special programme of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. It was established in 1991 with the aim of making available over the Internet a 'virtual library' of government documents relating to the Cold war. In particular it seeks to make available documents from countries of the former Communist bloc. Users must complete a free registration form to enter the database.
Revealations from the Russian Archives is a special exhibit created by the Library of Congress from material held in their Russian archival collections, which include papers from the Central Communist Committee, the presidential archive and the KGB archive. It includes a selection of 25 full-text documents relating to Russian Communist party history and policy from 1917 to 1991. Topics covered include: the rule of Stalin, the secret police and gulag, collectivization, Soviet-American relations and the Cold War.
