Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev was elected president of Russia at the age of 54. When he became voted as the newest leader, he had no intention of continuing Stalin's "useless" way of rule. He decided to pursue new ideas. He wanted to encourage the citizens to give him new ways of improving their society. Because of this, many new changes were made. The government was very unfair to its people.

Glasnost was a policy that created by Mikhail it means "openness". It was meant for the citizen of Soviet Union to see how they can make their society better. The policy brought a lot of changes to the society.

Peristrokia was the idea of economic reconstructing. Mikhail wanted to find new ways to revive the Soviet economy. They were also able to open up their own small business .

The collapse of Communism

Communism in Eastern Europe collapsed because there was no support, economical issues and political downfall. The USSR collapsed because Stalin put all his money into defensive arms and none for the country itself. Most communism had no money and they had a lot of competition, and socialism failed. It did change the world because it was a huge relief, and almost every country under communism turned into capitalism.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

The apartheid was a racial segregation policy in South Africa. It was very similar to the one in USA. They were segregated from 1948-1990. The policy stated that white people were above everyone else and can vote, while the "Bantu" ,which is everyone else that is black mixed or Indian, is not able to do these things. And so Nelson Mandela was put into jail because of this. Nelson Mandela fought for the independence of South Africa. Mandela was in the ANC fight to promote non-violence methods to gain freedom and justice. He also tried to stop the Apartheid. He was considered a hero for these things. Mandela was in jail for 26 years but then got out and wrote a book called "Long Walk To Freedom". The book was about his struggle to overcome segregation and gain freedom. He still continued to fight for his country and his people admired him for that. When the elections came in 1991, he was elected over the other candidate with 61% of the votes.

African Independence

After the World War II, numerous African Nations disliked living under European Control. Europeans exploited African resources many times. As a way to depart from this torment from Europeans, Ghana gained independence in 1957. Though the people of Ghana were happy for finally being independent, they were very unprepared. Living under European Rules for over 20 years, many African Nations such as Ghana didn't have much knowledge about Government, hence the change. Some notable leaders who lead their nations were, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya,Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, and Nelson Mandela of South Africa.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

The movie "The Right Stuff" was a competition between the United States and Soviet Union or US and USSR. They both wanted to get to space first. The two countries wanted to be bigger and better technology and to be superior. when one country does something the other country have to try to top them. Russia sent the first satellite into space United States wanted to top that and sent a monkey to space. A few week later Russian sent a man into space. Sending a man to space top everything else that the United States did.United States tried to top that off and they sent a man on the moon. The scene from this cold war event was when America tried to sent a rocket to space they failed and then they finally got it.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

North Atlantic Treaty Organization also called NATO was formed by United States, Canada, United Kingdom,and ten western European nation in 1949.NATO is a defensive military alliance formed to help any of the 10 western European countries from being invaded by the Soviet Union.
The Warsaw Pact is a military alliance formed in 1955 by the Soviet Union, Poland East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. The reason why the Soviet Union made a Pact because they view NATO as a threat.

Film: Schindler's List

Schindler list was a great movie. The movie showed how the holocaust was and what happened. From before they were sent to Ghettos, to how they were liquidated, to where and how they hid, to what happened to them in the camps, and even how they were killed or what they were killed for. The images that stuck into my head were when they were liquidated form the Krakow ghetto. I clearly remember a little girl with a cute pink jacket on walking around by herself. She runs into a house and crawls under the bed. I also remember a guy who was taped to the top of the bottom of his bed. They completely flipped over the bed and shot him over 100 times. That is unbelievable. I think that Schindler list was way more powerful than Night and Fog. Although Night and Fog had some very gruesome pictures, Schindler's List showed how those pictures came about. And while Night and Fog didn't talk about those who didn't die or those who never went to the camps, Schindler list did.