The Soviet Union was very concerned about its security after having been invaded and almost defeated twice in the twentieth century. It felt vulnerable being surrounded by hostile democratic states and preferred to have smaller communist states protecting it, thus the Iron Curtain descended. The Iron Curtain refers to an imaginary barrier through Europe that …
This essay concentrates on two representatives of the dissident movement in the Soviet Union in the 1960s and in the 1970s–Andrei Sakharov and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The essay introduces the history of the dissident movement in the Russian Empire under the Tsars and in the Soviet Union under various leaders, mainly under Nikita Khruschev, Leonid Brezhnev …
Nikita Khrushchev The phenomenon of Nikita (Sergeevich) Khrushchev, an eccentric and energetic leader of the Soviet Union, shook the world up in the 1950s. He was appointed as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and became a formal head of the country in 1953, right after the hard times and …
The Collapse of the Soviet Union (Cold War – 1991) Introduction The Cold War, the Soviet’s failure to match technological advancement, and the arms race are seen as the major contributors to the collapse of the Soviet Union which happened in 1991. There have been several arguments and contentions which are attributed to this fall. …
Introduction In the late 1991, the world was amazed at the fall of one of the most powerful countries in the world. The Soviet Union disintegrated into 15 states which marked the ultimate end of cold war. The western countries considered the collapse of the Soviet Union as a major step towards the realization …
Reagan first used the phrase ‘evil empire’ referring to the Soviet Union, in March, 1983. Many though agree that the phrase was first used in 1982 when Reagan criticized totalitarianism, highlighting the ultimate fate of communism as a failure. Many took an aggressive stance against the Soviet Union, including Britain’s Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, challenging …
Everett’s statement ‘European cinema is not a monolith, but a series of expressions of different ways of questioning and portraying itself and the world’ (Everett, 5) demonstrates that the whole European cinema can hardly be defined since not only the gap between Central Europe and Western Europe but also the notable national identities create various …
Joseph Stalin ruled the Soviet Union from 1924-1953. Many political, social and economic changes occurred during this period. Joseph Stalin was a follower of Communism. He was actually thrown out of school for studying Marxism. Joseph Stalin was a communist. Stalin had rose to power by physically getting rid of his rivals. Joseph Stalin had …
The Cold War in the 1980s was driven by Reagan’s policies and attitudes towards the Soviet Union. In this period the implications of his policies and attitudes had a major impact on the United States and Soviet relations and created the path to the ending the Cold War. Reagan’s attitudes and policies were aggressive and …
