Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

In 1982, a man named Leonid Brezhnev died, and the Politburo (a leading committee of the Communist party) was trying to hold on to the powers of the communist states. However, Brezhnev's successors died after only a year in office. So, Mikhail Gorbachev, with the committee backing him up, became the new general secretary. However, he didn't agree with the original government laws, and decided to pursuit new ideas.

In 1985, he created a policy known as glasnost, which encourages Soviets to discuss ideas that will improve their society. Eventually, the policy reopened the churches, republished the books whose authors were banned, and released political prisoners from jail. In the same year, he introduced the idea of perestroika which allows the economy of the Soviet Union to reconstruct.

The Collapse of Communism

Communism in the eastern side on Europe started to collapse in the 1980s due to their rejection of communism. Democratic revolutions and reforms caused the whole Soviet Union to break up. In East Germany, the people forced the totalitarian government to step down and made the new president to allow free elections. On November 9, 1989, he gave orders to obliterate the Berlin Wall that separated the Western world from the Eastern world during the Cold War. On October 23, 1990, both sides of Germany united together once again.

On New Year's Eve in 1991, the whole Soviet Union collapsed, after the rest of the countries overthrew their communist leaders. However, there were still communist countries in the world. By the beginning of the 21st century, only the countries of China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam were still under Communist rule. They still needed to stimulate growth in the economy, so China, Cuba, Laos, and Vietnam reduced state control of the economy.

Nelson Mandela And Apartheid

Apartheid is a policy of the government in South Africa based on segregation that was made in the late 1930s and legislated in 1948. It was coined by the South Africa Bureau for Racial Affairs, or SABRA for short. Under the system, colored people did not share the same rights and privileges as the whites. Apartheid was used to segregate the blacks from the whites. For example, a black cannot marry a white, and vice versa. Plus, any blacks over the age of 16 had to carry identity documents with them. In the 1970s, the Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act revoked the South Africans's citizenship.

One man, Nelson Mandela, was a leading member of the African National Congress, a group in which they opposed the white government and its apartheid. However, the white government outlawed the Congress in 1960 and captured Mandela and sent him to jail in 1962. He spent 27 years as a political prisoner, and in 1990, President F. W. De Klerk released Mandela. He used his position to overthrow the apartheid and create a multi-racial democracy. In 1993, he received the Nobel Prize along with the president, and in 1994, he was elected for the 1st black president of South America. Because of his determination to overthrow the apartheid, he was known as a hero.

African Independence

Many African leaders supported independence of their country from Britain and worked hard to get it. In the 1940s, one of the leaders, Kwame Nkrumah, had led the Africans who live on the Gold Coast to independence. The British nominated more Africans to the Legislative Council. However, the Africans wanted elected representatives, not nominated ones. So, Nkrumah organized strikes and boycotts. Despite being apprehended by the British government, his efforts worked, became the first prime minister, and the country became known as Ghana.

Kenya also gained its independence from the British with the help of Jomo Kenyatta, who is a nationalist. Kenyan farmers were kicked out of their lands by the British, and some of them came together and made a group called the Mau Mau. Their objective was to frighten the British from their lands. Kenyatta opposed to the idea, yet he didn't stop them. He leaded the rest of the civilians to independence, and in 1963, they gained their independence.

Film lesson: The Right Stuff

In the film "The Right Stuff", the Americans tried to beat the Soviets in the Space Race. In the beginning of the film, people were trying to break the sound barrier. One person died trying to attempt the mission. Then, a person with a bad arm tried to break the sound barrier, and he succeeded. A person tried to tell the press, but another person said that the Soviets would find out and try to make it better and more advanced.

One day, the Soviets succeeded in making the 1st rocket. The Americans tried to make a rocket, but the 1st 8 tries failed. (I especially like the eighth attempt, when the rocket popped like a bottle of champagne. Hahahaha!) On the 9th attempt, they succeeded, but then the Soviets sent a man to space. So they decided to send a man, but then they went to send a monkey, just to make sure it's safe.

For me, the reminder of the Cold War in the film would be when the Americans tested the rockets. It was educational, yet it was funny. That scene would totally remind me of the Cold War.

NATO and the Warsaw Pact

NATO, otherwise known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, is an alliance organization that was created on April 4, 1949 by the United States, Canada, and Western Europe (a total of 12 nations). According to the North Atlantic Treaty, they will protect each other from the spread of Communism as long as the countries cooperate each other. After the fall of Communism, NATO turned from a military organization to a political organization.

The Warsaw Pact is a Soviet version of NATO. Like NATO, it promised the Communist countries from Western attacks if they cooperated each other. The Soviets saw NATO as a threat, so 6 years later (on May 14, 1955), they created the Warsaw pact. However, it wasn't as powerful as NATO. After democratic revolutions erupted within the Warsaw Pact, it was labeled as "nonexistent" in 1991.

Film lesson: Schindler's List

In "Schindler's List", a man named Schindler saved some Jews from death camps like Auschwitz and placed them into labor. What I don't get is this: the whole screen is shown in black and white, yet there is a girl with a pink jacket. (Can anybody respond to the question as to why is that possible?) What really moved me in the movie is how the Germans burned the camp and the dying Jews. It really made me cry a little.

To tell you the truth, I really like the documentary better. The whole event is more accurate in the documentary than the movie. However, the documentary was gruesome. Plus, both of them demostrate the horror of being in the Jew's position in the Holocaust.