Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev opened up the Soviet Union by adding more churches. Gorbachev wanted more people to start talking about their society. Basically he started to make things better. One of his ideas was called glasnost. Glasnost was established in 1985. Glasnost is when the people talked about Soviet Union's issues, such as economy and political problems. Gorbachev wanted his people to come together and be open about their society, he wanted to hear their opinions too. Another one of Mikhail Gorbachev's ideas which was created was called 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

Communism failed in Eastern Europe and the U.S.S.R because nobody believed in it anymore after Stalin. Also not many people were living happily and they were basically struggling to survive.
At first they tried to knock down the Berlin wall to make a private road for people that would like to go to the other side of the wall.Next, they decided to make several border crossings so more people could travel across. Some people came to the wall with rock hammers to gather souvenirs of the wall. Soon, hundreds of people stormed the wall. They came with sledgehammers and attacked the graffiti-coated structure till they knocked it out.

In 1991 the Soviet Union split up to many different countries. It become a Democratic Nation as well as all of the other parts that split up. They even changed the red hammer and it became the original flag with with three stripes. In conclusion America won the Cold War because Communist proved to be unsuccessful.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid was used in South Africa for many years. Apartheid is a social policy or racial segregation involving political and economic and legal discrimination against people who are not White. It was basically what was going on in America where all the colored people were separated from the white people. This was going on in South Africa from 1948 to 1990.

Nelso Mandela was such a hero because Mandela along with 150 others were arrested on December 5 1956 and charged with treason for speaking out against Apartheid. He also fought many violent acts to gain freedom in South Africa. He then was in jail for a very long time because of committing treason.

He is loved by many people including the people who wrote these articles and sites because he stood up for what he believed in and did a lot to free his people. He took the pain mentally and physically by being in prison and by getting beat up by the people in charge in South Africa. He was a brave and courageous man.

African Independence

Africa changed in the 20 year period from 1955 to 1975 by it becoming more educated. During the two major World Wars, the European countries weren't economically stabled enough to run a country hundreds of miles away.

Some of the African leaders to gain independence Kwame Nkumah. He used techniques such as Jazz and Negrative movement. The Negrative movement was a way to make the African people believe that they can be independent and also it gives them pride and something to raise there spirits.

Some of the leaders that freed countries are Fulbert Youlou who helped Congo get its independence, another leader was Kwame Nkumah who helped Ghana get its independence. Jomo Keneyyta helped Kenya get its independence also. These are all important people to African people.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

The United States and the U.S.S.R were competing in the movie "The Right Stuff" to get Mach 1, which was the faster then the speed of sound. The first person to do that was an American pilot, the competition had only begun. The next competition the U.S and the U.S.S.R had was the first person into space and the U.S.S.R came out on top, the U.S. was always playing catch up to keep up.

The scenes that will help me remember the Cold war are the pilots and all of the rockets trying to fly up but failing. Another scene that will help me remember the Cold War is when the United States pilot broke the Mach 1. The last very important scene that i will remember is when the Russians sent the first man into space and the United States pilot said at least well be the first free man in space.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO is an organization that the countries in Europe and North America formed to try to stop communist nations. One major reason that NATO was formed because  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, just like as if World War I.

 The Warsaw Pact consisted mostly of the Soviet Union and other Communist countries.  It was supposed to be another mutual defense alliance like the one that NATO had, and was created in response to it.  The Soviet Union was the biggest and most powerful country in the alliance.  The Soviet Union kept part of their military in the other countries in the alliance to make them socialist nations.  

The countries involved in NATO were Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and the United Kingdom, later followed by the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

The Warsaw Pact included Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovak, Hungary, Poland, Romania, West Germany, and the USSR.

Film Lesson: Schindler's List

Schindler's List illustrated the Holocaust in a very unique way. It was different from "Night and Fog" because it didn't illustrate most of the areas were there were camps just one camp in Poland. The scene that was most powerful was when the Nazis went to the ghetto and they cleared all the homes. One other powerful scene that affected me was when all the little kids were getting sent away and when the little kid went into the toilet, it was really sad and disgusting.

The images from the movie will stay in my mind forever is when all of the dead bodies are getting burned that made me get the goosebumps. Another scene that was really sad was when they were killing everybody and all of the little kids were crying watching their loved ones getting shot that was a really sad moment in the movie that would probably be in my life and my mind forever.