Mikhail Gorbachev and the collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev was born March 2, 1930. Mikhail Gorbachev opened the Soviet Union and paved the way for the end of Communism by adding more churches. Gorbachev wanted people in the society to find ways to make their society better. His idea included Glasnost. Glasnost occurred in 1985 in which he encouraged Soviet’s citizen to find ways to improve their society, which included economy and political problems. To improve and open the Soviet Union he wanted to hear people opinion and how they can make their society better. Another idea he used was Perestroika. It was an idea to change economic and political system.

Collapse of Communism

During 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union. The cold war had ended. The Diplomats finally had the chance to enter the Soviet Union without military support. When Communism fell, there was less of a need for concern about nuclear destruction.

Communism proved to be a weaker economic system than capitalism and it eventually collapsed. One reason the collapse of communism occurred was that communism treated everyone the same, so everybody gets paid the same amount for different types of jobs. This was not fair for the people who had better jobs because they get paid the same as people working below them. Another reason collapse of communism occurred was people started to go against it.

The Berlin wall, an enormous formation dividing East and West Germany. East Germany was a Communist and disallowed anyone to cross. The Wall eventually came down, on November 9, 1989. After 28 years, east and West Germany could finally form new diplomatic relations. When the Berlin Wall came down this was the sign that showed that Collapse of Communism had happened. The collapse of communism changed the world because after the wall came down the people can go visit their family in East or West. People got paid based on their jobs.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid was a policy, which occurred during the year 1948 to 1991. Apartheid means that when people are being discriminated based on their skin color. This was one of the major problem because most of the people had the same jobs however people used to get paid differently because of the color of their skin. However there was one man who was there to fight the right and independence, he was called Nelson Mandela. The reason he was considered a hero was because he was fighting for freedom and to keep peace in. However the people thought that he might start a revolution so before he does they sentenced him to life in prison. After 27 of imprisonment he was freed. Nelson Mendela was given a Nobel Prize and soon he was elected for President of South Africa.

African Independence

Africa changed so much in the year of 1955 to 1975 because there were more colonies during 1955 then in 1975. In 1955 most of the colonies were controlled by the British. Africa had a non-violence leader called Kwame Nkrumah. He protested and refused to go against the British to get independence. Kwame wanted to make Africa like the United States. He provided people with health, welfare and economic growth. The leader in Africa wanted to industrialize however they couldn’t because they did not have enough money to improve Africa’s industrialization. Another reason they couldn’t industrialize was because most of the leader were corrupted.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

Cuban Missile Crisis was a decision to all the Soviet Union to have base nuclear missiles in Cuba. This event was the closest the US got into a war. The United States challenged the Soviet Union and they want the Soviet Union to remove the missiles. President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev told the Soviet to leave the island and take their missile with them before both the USA and USSR destroy the world with their nuclear weapons; because of these people the war was prevented.

I think that President John F. Kennedy and Premier Nikita Khrushchev did the right thing by telling the Soviet to leave because if they didn’t there would be another war just like WWII and their would be million of people dying because of the toxic of the missiles and it would be bad for the world because the toxic would be spreading around the world. I think that after United States launched an atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, other countries got scared and they wanted to be prepared with a backup plan. As a result to this the Soviet Union installed missiles in Cuba 90 miles off the coast of United States.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is an intercontinental defense alliance between the United States, Great Britain and other countries, which formed in 1949 as a response to spread communism. They made this organization as to have mutual defense for example if one country attack another then the NATO would come and help them.

Warsaw Pact was an organization similar to NATO, which took place in Central Eastern Europe. This was also called as Treaty of Friendship. This treaty was created on May 14, 1955 in Warsaw Poland.

United States joined the organization to prevent from Russia attacking them because if Russia and United States both have a nuclear war between each other then both of these countries will affect the environment in huge way because after they nuke each other the toxic of the missile will go to the atmosphere and spread throughout the other countries.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

The film "Right Stuff" was about US and USSR and how they were competing with each other. The USSR send a satellite into space which led to the US breaking the sound barrier. Later on the US realized that the USSR has rocket.

The US felt embarrassed so they were looking for the best of best pilot to go to space. They were training them to see if they are capable of what it takes to go to the space.
The US did so many tests to launch a Rocket but it was unsuccessful. However they tried and tried and hopefully they accomplished. The US sends a monkey into space. however the USSR sends a man into space. The US wanted to build a rocket that will be faster than Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union was winning during the competition because there were the first to launch a rocket, a first to launch a satellite called sputnik, which made the US so mad. The scene from the movie, which reminded about the cold war, is when there were training the people so they can be tough and strong to go to the space. Another scene was when they heard the news that the Russian (Soviet Union) launched sputnik. The US wanted to be the top of the world by beating the Soviet Union in their own game but there plan backed because the Russian were always ahead.

Film Lesson: "Schindler's List"

“Schindler's List” is a Hollywood version movie based on the holocaust and how the Jews were treated and how they were killed. This movie demonstrates how the Jews went from the ghettos to the concentrated camps and how the Nazi find different ways to kill them the Jews. This movie is about 195 minutes long so it is packed with a lot of information and details about the holocaust. This movie is not as much as effective as “Night and Fog” because in this film Nazi were killing the Jews for interest and because they were bored.

This movie focuses on the young children and how they didn’t have the ability or the skills to work so were separated and taken away and later be killed. One thing I noticed about this film is that this entire movie is black and white however you see a small Jewish girl wearing red. I believe that the director portrait this effect to show how the lives of the children didn’t matter to them. They just wanted to kill the Jews and be done with it because they knew if they leave someone behind they can reproduce.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

Night and Fog was a documentary about Holocaust. This movie was filmed in 1955. Night and Fog illustrated the lives of the Jews and how the German treated them. My reaction to night and fog was that it purely showed that German treated the Jews so cruelly and brutally. The German’s put the Jews in concentration camps and tried many ways to kill them. One way they try to kill them is by shooting them. Another way is by killing them with gas. Most of the Jews worked for the Nazi.

This was an advantage for them because they didn’t get killed right away. The Nazi took almost everything the Jews had from their jewelry to their hairs to their shoes and left nothing for them. This film is different from “Schindler's List” because this movie took place almost about 10 years after the holocaust occurred. Another way that it showed the exact thing that happened to the Jews they didn’t add much details like the Hollywood version. This film is more effective because they went straight to the point and give as much details they can about the Holocaust.

The Treaty of Versailles (Ended WW I)

Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty that legitimately ended World War I. After the World War I ended Germany was blame for the causes of World War I. The treaty of Versailles affected Germany because Germany faced many problems such as they were blamed for world war I which was not fair because there was more countries that took part in world war I and Germany was the only one to be blamed.

Another way the treaty of Versailles affected Germany was that Germany lost many of its land and people, and Germany had to pay billions of dollars for the cause of WWI. Germany also paid for the damages that happened during World War I. Also they broke Germany in half because Germany used to be the once a powerful country and second largest industrial power in the world. During the treaty of Versailles Germany also lost 16% of its coalfields and half its iron and steel industry.

I believe that Treaty of Versailles was a bad turning point for Germany because they faced a lot inequality for something not only they did. They were also forced to accept the guilt for starting the war.

Many historians believed that treaty of Versailles led to the rise of Fascism and Adolph Hitler, I believe that the historians were right because treaty of Versailles didn’t stop World War I it started another war, which was called World War II.

Mustaf Kemal (Ataturk) and the Modernization of Turkey

Mustafa Kemal was born on March 12, 1881 in Salonika, Ottoman Empire. He was the military and political leader who changed the Ottoman Empire into a modern country, which we now call Turkey.

He fought for his countries independence against all odds. He wanted to modernize Turkey because he wanted the people to live happily, equally and with dignity. Also he wanted to lead his country without crumbling it. He also wanted Turkey to have a brave new future by making the country, government and the education more secular. The word secular means not religious.

Secular was one of the major roles that played during the modernization because people could practice any religion they wanted to. Also he made some reforms on turkey by eliminating the old tradition and adapting new ones.

Film Lesson "Gandhi"

Gandhi was one of the famous people in history who people mostly forget about because they forget the things he did for India independence and they forget that he risks his life in order to do that. Gandhi helped the people of India by civil disobedience.

According to the film Gandhi, he helped India in many ways. One way Gandhi helped India’s independence is that he told the Hindus and the Muslim to practice non-violence. He told them if the British hit and beat you, you do not fight back because Gandhi said, “Eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. So people began being non-violence, which really helped the India in independence.

Another way Gandhi helped India’s independence is that he and his followers walked for about 240 miles around the coastline and made their own salt because they didn’t want to get salt from the British and they didn’t wanted to pay tax to them.

The non-violence philosophy that Gandhi used repeatedly was very effective to his fight for independence because it showed that he was the better man and since he was not fight the British that made the British looked bad. The British keep arresting Gandhi so that will stop him down. However their plan backed fire because the more times he goes to jail the stronger that makes him in the independence movement.

Do you think India's Independence was all about Gandhi? Or do you think it would have happened anyway?
From my opinion and facts from the movie I believe that Indian independence was all about Gandhi because he showed the Indians how to stand up for themselves and how to practice civil disobedience.

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