The Collapse of Communism

Communism started to collapse in Eastern Europe around the 1980s, this was because people started to reject communism, they were tired of it and the rules that they had to obey. Most people rejecting communism the Soviet Union broke up and were able to bring back the Western and Eastern side of Germany. Many countries were finished with Communism and converted into a democratic country. Communism also collapsed in the USSR, many people were being rebellions and not following the orders and the USSR government couldn't stop them anymore. Nothing went right anymore for the communist countries and just stopped being communist. In 1991 the Soviet leaders were no more and overtrown by their own countries. With the new leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev communism was gone from their countries and people had the right to say what they wanted. With this collapse of communism it doesnt mean there are no more countries with communism, there still like China, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. These countries still run with a communism government but lowered the control of the state econmomy.

Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Mikhail Gorbachev found a way to end communism, by this people just loved the way how he knew his way in politics and yet was so young for his age. He knew his way through politics and knew what was right from wrong and still didn't like or accept communism. By the time he was 54 he was voted as Soviet leader. In his times Joesph Stalin was still going on about communism, nobody was suppose to go against him or if they did they were put in jail or killed. Once Mikhail Gorbachev became the new leader he wanted to finish the whole communism and wanted to give his people the right they deserve. Mikhail accepted new ideas from the people on how to change the society to make it better for them. With communism, there were suppose to be no economic problems because everyone was paid the same and equally; even with this nobody liked the idea. Now that Mikhail changed that the people were now able to complain about the problems and what they would want to change. He brought the things that were banned from the society before and brought them back into the society. He took innocent people out of jail, released books that were banned and opened churches so that the people could follow their religion. This is how Mikhail Gorbachev paved the way for the end of Communism.

A policy that Mikhail Gorbachev had created is the Glasnost. Glasnost which means openness which allowed the people from the Soviet Union say what they need to say. What the citizens would have said were to improve the society. Peristrokia allowed people to open up their own bussniess and gave the local managers more control over their factories and farms. Gorbachev wanted the people to be happy and to give them thier fair rights.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

The Apartheid is a racist segregation in South Africa where the people who weren't white would not have the same privilege as the white people had. This was a policy in the government from 1948 until 1994. Even if you were a mix of white and another race, the government still wouldn't have given an exception and give you what the white people get. The white people had it easy while the other race didn't get much. Africa is the home of Africans but the white people took over and made it theirs.

Nelson Mandela was a hero and still is one to the Africans because he was one of the leaders that fought for his people's right. Nelson wanted to fight for Africans could have their independence and their rights, so they would not be treated as seconds. Africa is their country, Nelson Mandela and all the Africans believed that they should be given rights and were allowed to do anything, which is true. Since the white had more power, they didn't care what they thought but Nelson Mandela didn't let that get to him and fought to get his people their rights. Even while sentenced in death he still gave hope to others and didn't give up on giving his people what they deserved. He was a strong leaders like all the other leaders out there that never gave up and fought for what they wanted without backing down. Nelson Mandela wasn't just admired by the people of Africa but also admired by the authors of the article. This is because Nelson Mandela is an inspiration for them, because they see how Mandela never lost any hope for getting what him and his people wanted.

African Independence

Africa has changed plenty over the past 20 years. During 1955 Africa had no independence and were being controlled by European nation. The Europeans would come into Africa with the Africans having no say what so ever. It wasn't fair that the European nation takes over Africa and making it theirs, but they didn't care and just took everything from Africa and made it theirs. By 1975 the Africans were tired of it and fought to gain their independence, yet there were few who didn't mind because the Europeans gave them new things and made Africa better. There was still the ones who hated it because it was their country and had no say into whether they allowed the Europeans to come into their land and take their natural resources. They still fought for their independence and were able to get it. Some of the leaders who fought for Africa's independence would have to be Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and Nelson Mandela of South Africa.

Film Lesson: "The Right Stuff"

"The Right Stuff" was a competition between the the US and the USSR, the United States were the US and Russia was the USSR. They both wanted to get to space first but there was only one winner and this movie told us who was the winner. Both countries wanted their technology to be superior and after one country did something big the next must be even bigger. First the United States broke the sound system but they didn't want to say anything about it. Later on Russia sent the first satellite into space, and the United States wanted to beat them so they sent a monkey into space because they didn't want to hurt anyone. By beating that Russia had sent a man into space a few weeks later. That was big to everyone, bigger than sending the monkey into space. So to beat that the United States sent a man into space as well but he was the first man to go to the moon. The scene that would help me remember the Cold War event is when they were in the conference room trying to figure out how to beat the Russians. How the Americans would show what the Russians were doing and how the Americans really wanted to be ahead. That scene was unforgettable because it would show that the Americans were informed and would think about how to beat the Russians.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was an alliance organization of the United States, Western Europe and Canada. All of the 12 nations had agreed to protect each other so that communism would not spread further more. NATO did not want the idea of Communism going to other countries and taking over the world so for that to happen NATO made sure that the other countries would disagree with communism. The Warsaw Pact is a soviet version of the NATO which would promise that they would protect the Communist countries from the Western attack. The Soviet's created the Warsaw Pact because the Soviets were scared of the NATO.

Film Lesson: "Night and Fog"

"Night and Fog" was also a powerful movie because it showed us actual photos of what had happened in the concentration camps. This was a documentary, this showed us what really happened and how it had actually went on. The documentary described to us what took place during the holocaust. This was very much powerful because it was very real and showed me how the holocaust really was. I would just hear and read stories but never really watched anything and watching this wasn't anything happy it was depressing to see the photos that were being shown. "Night and Fog" can very much compare to "Schindler's List" because they both showed very well how the holocaust was and it wasn't anything easy to watch. Both showed how the people were treated and how the Jews were unhappy but who wouldn't be unhappy with how they were being treated. I believe the Hollywood version illustrated the Holocaust much better because even if it was acting it showed how it had happened and how they fought to live and tried hard. The Hollywood version showed how the Jews would hide so they won't be taken away. Yes, the documentary version was powerful but the Hollywood version had something that would express so much more. It felt so real but at the same time it didn't, I just couldn't believe that this had happened to innocent people. The holocaust was just depressing and watching both versions explained and let us know how people were being treated. Now hopefully nobody would have to go trough this.