Essays on Mikhail Gorbachev

The end of the Second World War saw the escalation of the rivalry between the United States and the USSR over world dominance. The supremacy battles were caused by differences in political ideologies and the economic development thus leading to the cold war. The totalitarian regime of the Soviet Union held many nations in Eastern Europe together for almost 70 years. According to Prados (2011), the disintegration of the USSR brought caused political and economic instability in addition to civil unrests in separate member states. The collapse of the USSR on December 8, 1991, hampered the coordination of the ...

Modern international relations have significantly increased the influence of American presidents. Three in particular served with similar events playing out: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Barack Obama. The terms of these presidents were denoted by tumult in Iran and a resurgent Russia, and as far as foreign policy is concerned, their legacies may not be pristine. Jimmy Carter faced significant challenges in regards to Iran, whose revolution in 1979 instilled a theocratic regime devoted to Islamic law. The Ayatollah blamed the West for many of the region’s issues and when Carter allowed the deposed Shah to receive medical ...

The Cold War alludes to to an economic, military and political conflict involving the Soviet Union and the United States from 1945 to 1991. After the Second World War, changes in general superiority led to complications which resulted in tensions between the two blocs. The United States was opposed to attempts by the Soviet Union to extend their territories hence leading into diplomatic tension, upgrading of security systems and proxy wars between the two great nations. The Soviet Union wanted to acquire Poland in addition to taking a share of Berlin. The then president of the United States, Harry ...

Currently, there are very harsh discussions about the role of Gorbachev in the history of the Soviet Union in the last years of its existence. Often he is regarded as a person who undermined the whole structure of this country. Very often, he is considered as a traitor in Russia. On the contrary, in the West, he is believed as a person who ended the Cold War. But nevertheless, the fact that harsh discussions about his person and role are going on is the best evidence that Gorbachev is an outstanding person with great contribution to the world history ...

Discuss the Rise of the States’ Decolonization, Independence/Secession Processes that succeeded in the Last Years as well as the Current Independence/Secession Processes going on in the World Now.

Historically, decolonization has been occurring in stages, from 1776 to 1991, designing the current global order of the states through revolutions. It is a term used to refer to the process of ending the colonial rule in all facets, including different political, economic, social, and cultural aspects of this process. For around 200 years, the colonial rule, represented by the European monarchs has impacted the relationship between similar and opposing forces ( ...

The focus of the Gorbachev's reforms was liberal, pro-Western. The aim of Gorbachev was to create a liberal, as he hoped, social-democratic opposition to weaken the position of the conservative apparatchiks and, thus, to avoid the fate of Khrushchev, as well as to avoid the forced resignation. Moreover, Gorbachev from the beginning considered the first free elections in the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR in March 1989 as a tactical move, aimed at the weakening of the position of the conservative party apparatus (Jha). Perestroika is the general name of the reforms and the new ideology of ...

President Reagan’s “Berlin Wall” speech that he delivered on June 12, 1987, was a mark in the history urging the people of Berlin and other Eastern nations to look within and support for freedom and peace opposing the Berlin wall. The speech made a huge impact on the gathering. President Reagan’s “Berlin Wall” speech that he delivered on June 12, 1987, was a mark in the history urging the people of Berlin and other Eastern nations to look within and support for freedom and peace opposing the Berlin wall. The speech made a huge impact on the ...

Of course, electing young politicians as well as old and experienced people is vital to keep the variety of representation, to provide diversity of views and to strike a balance between experience and initiative. However, when trying to answer the posed question unequivocally I must admit that I would prefer to say that we need to elect young politicians rather than old experienced ones. Why is that? Well, there is quite a good number of reasons. First of all, young people politicians are children of their own generation, they have been brought up in the same world they are ...

Mikhail Gorbachev, the first and the only president of the USSR could go down in history as the greatest reformer. Several times the fate of Gorbachev gave him a historic opportunity to preserve the country and bring it to a new level, but Gorbachev could not do it because of an enormous amount of external circumstances and, above all, his unwillingness to fulfill the mission of the head of a state. Being a very good person by nature and on the top of the pyramid at a crucial moment in the history of Soviet Union, Gorbachev led so called ...

Position Paper on Thinking about Music, and Social Change

Wind of Change I follow the Moskva

Down to Gorky Park

Listening to the wind of change An August summer night Soldiers passing by Listening to the wind of change

The world is closing in

Did you ever think

That we could be so close, like brothers

The future's in the air I can feel it everywhere

Blowing with the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment On a glory night Where the children of tomorrow dream away in the wind of change

Walking down the street

Distant memories Are buried in the past forever I follow the Moskva Down to Gorky Park Listening to the wind of change Take me to the magic of the moment On a glory night

Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams

With ...

Introduction

Russia is a super power that lies on the eastern part of Europe. The country is known for its diverse population, economy, climatic patterns and culture. Currently, Russia is a European nation with a very diverse economic setting. However, the major economic sectors found in the country include sale of primary commodities such as oil, gold and timber. It also engages itself in the sale of id raw materials. The country has is also endowed with vast natural resources. For instance, its population is quite developed and well educated and this forms a great industrial base. This plays a ...

Sergio E. Avilés’ Einen Koffer is only six minutes long, but it is an effective film with a strong message. The film depicts a Mexican man, hoping to cross the border between Mexico and the United States in the hopes of rejoining his family. He is walking along the large wall that separates the two countries, with a recording of President Ronald Reagan’s 1987 “Tear Down this Wall” speech playing in the background. Comparing the two scenarios of the immigrant’s situation and Reagan’s speech is largely what makes this short film so powerful. The man ...

The 1980s were a challenging time for the Soviet Union. Industrial stagnation, inefficient economy, low quality and deficit of the consumer goods undermined ideological pressure of the Communist Party, already entered into a deep crisis. The conflict between economic and technological growth needs and the current administrative-command management system was exacerbated. The country leaders have made ​​decisions aimed at overcoming the dictates of departmental bureaucracy, at developing economic methods of management. However, these solutions remained on paper. The USSR were in need of structural political and economic reforms.

Politburo (Executive Committee) members leading the regime for many years were approaching a ...

The political concept of realism dates back to the 17th century and is associated with historic figures such as Hobbes and Machiavelli. Its main premise is the international community is always in a state of anarchy because each nation determinedly pursues things for its self-interest, whether it be for financial, political or social resources. Idealism is the complete opposite of realism. A political idealist would focus more on the individual and an international politics, would view the world as composed of many different groups, organizations and people that can all come together through cooperation and mutual respect. Woodrow Wilson and ...

- Fall of the Berlin Wall. This event was of enormous importance in the fall of the Soviet Union. It was a sudden and entirely unexpected event that showed the world how badly Germany wanted reunification and how quickly that could be achieved. The wall fell on November 9th, 1989; the country was officially reunified on October 3rd, 1990, less than a year later.

- The Solidarity movement. The Solidarity movement started in Gdansk, Poland, in 1980. Led by Lech Walesa, the Solidarity trade union would eventually have more than 1/3rd of the country’s workers as members. The Solidarity members ...

[The Name of the Class (Course)] [Professor's (Tutor's) Name] [The Name of the School (University)] [The City and State where it is located] [The Date] At the present time, much emphasis of the discussion over the system of the international relations is on the topic that it is unjust at its root and, as a result, promotes under-development. Throughout the history of human development and the world system formation, "the natural systems that have supported human life on the planet are being stretched, some to breaking point. What science has been telling us for decades ...

Essay for Exam Chapter 25

World War II had left huge sections of Europe, especially Eastern Europe devastated. Many belonging to these states believed that communism and Joseph Stalin’s USSR was the much sought answer to their woes. Stalin used this to his advantage and built a communist buffer zone by seizing territories. This led to the fall of an iron curtain separating Eastern Europe from their western counterparts and the formation of the Soviet bloc. The cold war that resulted saw enormous changes in the social, economic and cultural life of people in both Western and Eastern Europe. Welfare states emerged to protect ...

Introduction

Glasnost, or openness was, alongside perestroika, part of Gorbachev’s attempt to restructure USSR in order to avoid the imminent economic crisis he feared, but also, as a personal ambition to bring Russia in line with the Western superpowers. Although his reforms were necessary and well-received by the people, the Soviet system itself did not pass the democratization test, and broke into pieces only five years after the implementation of Gorbachev’s double strategy. Glasnost had a major role in destabilizing the Soviet Union, as this paper will further show. Being intended to regain the trust of the people, but also, ...

The development of Russia had many historical turning points. These changes were mainly connected with such political figures as Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin. The Soviet economy depended on mostly political decisions but not economic programs. Although the basic economic system in Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev eras remained unchanged, there were some peculiarities in these periods. The effect of Stalin’s policy had a profound impact on people and the state. In 1928, the Communists instituted the first Five-Year Plan. It dealt with such aspects of development as an industry, consumer goods, agriculture, transportation, communications, health, education, and ...

American Foreign Policy on the Cold War and Modern Russia

History has long portrayed the United States and Russian Federation (or the former Soviet Union) as bitter rivals since the time of the Great Wars and the onset of the Cold War. Both became the leader of the West and the East as the world’s superpowers in the Cold War, with one becoming the de-facto leader of the international community and the other becoming a silent entity in the European region. For years, both countries remained in conflict in several aspects within the international arena and in the side of the United States, their foreign policy had indicated some ...

Introduction

Chernobyl is a town in Ukraine which is widely known for the infamous Chernobyl Disaster. The Chernobyl disaster was a massive nuclear accident that occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine on 26th April 1986. The Chernobyl Disaster was characterized by a massive explosion of fire which released large quantities of radioactive substances into the atmosphere which spread over large areas of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and parts of Europe. In the disaster, 31 people died immediately and after a short while but thousands of other people have been affected by cancers, deformities and other long-term effects of the ...

International relations

U.S. Foreign Policy during the Reagan & Bush Sr. Years There are 2 periods in foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan's administration, both associated with his presidential terms. In the first half of the 80s, Reagan pursued a rehabilitation program for US military superiority in the world, the revival of the power of military-industrial sector. Not surprisingly, the US foreign policy of the period was determined by power approaches of solving problems of international life. This was especially evident after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, martial law in Poland in 1981, as well as in connection with the ...

The Cold War was a global confrontation between the two military and political blocs led by the Soviet Union and the United States, which did not come down to an open military conflict. The concept of the "cold war" appeared in journalism in 1945-1947 and gradually stuck in the political dictionary. After the Second World War, the world was actually divided into the spheres of influence of two blocks with different social systems. The Soviet Union and the United States have sought to expand their spheres of influence. But the rough equality of forces between the blocks, and then ...

Anti-communist revolution of 1989 which is sometimes referred in Western countries to «Autumn of Nations», was a wave of regime change in Central and Eastern Europe in the autumn of 1989. During several months this waves have removed pro-Soviet communist regimes. In the Western countries this event is compared with «Spring of Nations» in 1848. Epochal events of the late 1980s and early 1990s were the main reason of collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. In 1989-1991 system that was held on violence, coercion, usurpation of civil liberties, has fallen so fast and landslide that there ...

Did Beatle­-Mania’s influence on Soviet teenagers contribute to the fall of the Iron Curtain? An argument can be made that Gorbachev’s opening up to the West through glasnost and perestroika was the final nail in the coffin of the Soviet Union. However, due to the overwhelming evidence of an underground musical movement amongst the Soviet youth, the demands of a disillusioned youth were the catalysts for these reforms. With this taken into consideration, a major change in the political landscape of Russia’s domestic and foreign policy may be observed through three stages, initial distribution, Soviet push back, ...

Several people influenced and changed the world significantly through different ways in scientific disciplines, economically, and politically. The influence of these figures expanded beyond the limits enforced by the individuals by the current society. Majority of the people who exerted great influence upon the world lived a long time ago, although there were others from the 18th century that had a great impact in shaping the word. Their achievements are very notable and amazing that within the period that they implemented them, the influence is felt to date and continues to be significant. The discussion below identifies a few examples of such ...

It is important to observe the times when allegations of witchcraft happened to understand the stories of the Salem witch trials. In January of year 1692 in Salem Village, Reverend Samuel Parris’ daughter and niece became ill. When they did not get well, William Griggs, who is the village doctor, was called. Griggs’ findings of bewitchment caused the power that would eventually become grounds for death punishment by hanging of nineteen women and men. Aside from that, a man was then crushed to death, and seven other men died while in prison, and the lives of many people were ...

Abstract

This paper is on the topic of origins of the Cold War between The United States and The UUSR. The first section of this paper will discuss the origins of the Cold War. The second section of this paper will discuss who started the Cold War and the important events, individuals and ideas that shaped the development of the Cold War. The third section of this paper will discuss the influence of parties to share American policy towards the conflict. The final section of this paper will discuss if the cold war was fought at home or abroad.

Introduction

The ...

Following the American Psychological Association’s Guidelines

Abstract This paper is on the topic of human rights. It begins by defining human rights. It also mentions important people throughout the history of human rights’ development. The paper speculates on how different countries handle human rights and the violations therein. Finally, the paper assesses what the causes, effects, and solutions are to each country having its own human rights policies.

Part I

Heading: Definition and meaning - Human rights are a more understanding and definition ensuring that humans are allotted basic rights, such as the right to life.

Heading: Historical landmarks/people in Human Rights Development

- Abraham Lincoln – fought a war in order to free the ...

DID RONALD REAGAN END THE COLD WAR? Did Ronald Reagan end the Cold War? Since the end of the Second World War, it was certain that a clash between the two remaining superpowers would be imminent since Europe is currently in a state of disarray. Both the Western and Eastern Blocs, led by the United States and the Soviet Union respectively, had felt threatened over the other’s interest in the still recovering Europe and the right to be known as the only superpower standing. The resulting clash paved the way to the Cold War of 1947-1991, arguably the ...

The year 1981 marked the foundation of Reagan government, the last Cold War administration in the United States of America (Garthoff 5). The vintage was the most vocal anticommunism crusader in the last two decades. The new administration seemed to be reluctant on soviet leadership and it ignored its large share responsibility. Carter administration had developed into the resultant bipartisan policy of the United States. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the Marxist rule and the end of Cold War marked the beginning of a turning point and a historical divide. The new era grounded America-Russia relations and dealings with ...

The disintegration of the Soviet Union was triggered by several events. These events weakened the Soviet bloc and gave some of the members in the union freedom to quit the union. The death of Yuri Andropov, Leonid Brezhnev, Constantin Cherenkov and Stalin contributed significantly. These leaders were hardliners who insisted on the existence of the union. They even forced some of the members who wanted to quit the union to stay. Their death signaled the start of a new era as the disintegration started. Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, and his attempts to change communism gave some members freedom to ...

The development, course and end of Cold War is arguably, among the most fascinating topics in modern history judging from the considerable amount of historical literature and research. Although multiple causes have been advanced, Cold war has its roots in the breakdown in relations between the two major players; the US and Soviet Union during the period 1945-1950. Hypothetically to understand how Cold War developed, the causes of Cold war must be looked into on the basis of their relative importance so as to come up with differing perspective of the origin in relation to the events during the ...

The Cold War of 1947 could be considered one of the most peaceful yet chaotic war in history as two of the most influential nations tried to dominate the other through tactical and superior means. With the threat of the Nazi-led Germany eliminated by a temporary alliance, the USSR and the US remained as the two superpowers in dominance in the globe. The USSR tried to solidify its dominance by creating the Eastern Bloc filled with satellite states supporting the country. The US aided in the recovery of the Western European countries through the Marshall Plan. Eventually the US created ...

The cold war came to an end in 1989 because of several reasons. The cold war had lasted almost four decades and its effects had been felt worldwide, most notably the alignment of many world countries to either the capitalists or the socialist blocks. The main rivals in the cold war, the United States and the Soviet Union had engaged in this war of ideology for so long that many world countries in Europe had been divided between these two blocks. The worst affected nation was Germany, which had ended up being split into two nations because of the ...

Taking a brief political look on matters around the world, Russia is one of the countries that have been affected by various political sways that have even affected its governance, especially in the 20th century. One of the major reasons being the fact that it is the largest country across the world, achieving a stabilized political stand over the years hasn’t been easy for it, as it has been through attempted coup de tats, authoritarian and dictator leaderships and even bureaucracy in its rule of administration. Over years, different approached have been used in pursuit for political liberalism. Achieving ...

Why Did the Soviet Union Collapse?

Collapse of the Soviet Union resulted from the processes of system disintegration, which took place in the public and political sphere of the Soviet Union, which eventually led to the end of the USSR on December 26, 1991. As a result, 15 independent republics appeared on the world arena. In this paper a short overview of the USSR history will be presented along with the possible reasons for the Soviet Union collapse and description of the collapse process. USSR inherited a large part of the territory that the Russian Empire possessed, as well as its multinational structure. Between 1917 and 1921 ...

The Russian Empire

Russia had a vast empire until 1917 when the Romanov royal family was overthrown and executed with the resultant imposition of Communist principles. Still the empire was at best loosely defined in places and the Russians were mostly composed of serfs with little or no civil liberties at all for several centuries. In fact, serfdom was the predominant political consideartion in the days of catherine and Peter the Great when vast sums of money were spent to embellish and build massive royal palaces as well as the building of great cties such as St Petersburg.

Serfdom created a situation where most ...

Introduction

I suppose that the collapse of the Soviet Union being inevitable or not actually relies on what one thinks to know regarding the collapse, however it is a memorable topic nevertheless of an extremely appealing part from Foreign Policy that I considered would be of some interest. It is also a debatable issue to really what happened to this country to the influence of Reagan as the president of US at that time. Fundamentally, one may argue pointing that the Soviet Union did not collapse owing to Western forces or inner financial and political fall down. They would indicate that ...

Cold War Timeline

1945 August 9 A bomb is dropped in Nagasaki, destroying the city and killing 70,000 people. This marks the end of world war two (Painter, 1999).

August 15 The Japanese surrender and this make the Russians involvement in the war unnecessary. The Russians further assert that the use of the bomb was to intimidate them. Hence this marks the commencement of the cold war (Painter, 1999).

Women start losing their industrial jobs due to the increase in the number of service men who return from the war (Bianchi & Daphne, 1989).

1946 February 22 ...

Book Review: The Cold War by John Lewis Gaddis

Introduction

The eventual collapse of the agreement between the USSR, Britain and the United States in 1945 after the end of the World War II set the platform for the cold war. An anti-communist policy, commonly called the Truman doctrine, declared in 1947 by President Truman of the USA spoke clearly of the atmosphere that would prevail (Gaddis 30). The resulting tension between the communist and capitalist ideologies is what came to be known as the Cold War. Since it never resulted into armed confrontation or “blistering” conflict it was referred to as the cold war. Therefore the Cold ...

Mikhail Gorbachez is a well known former and last President of former USSR. He was the Secretary of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (1985-1991) and the last President of USSR since 1988 to his resignation and the dissolution of USSR in 1991. He is a holder of a Nobel Peace Prize (1990) for his work in the peace process. Together with Bill Clinton, he received a Grammy Award for the Best Spoken Word Album for Children in the recording of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. In 1995, he released his autobiography in Germany and in the United States of America in ...