Mikhail Gorbachev and the Collapse of Communism

Well the Collapse of Communism happened when the president of Russia was Mikhail Gorbachev. His polices/reform was that Communist strictures was clam, he would of relaxed the rules of communism and also with the reform policies of "glasnost and perestroika" Glasnost meant for openness and Perestroika meant for restructuring. Mikhail Gorbachev wanted to communism to be gone as the government. He noticed that Communism was working out well, for example people would have to wait in lines, long lines, in the store just for toothpaste. And he notcied how captlism countries would have an more choice for stuff. For example, people in Communism countries would have to get the same thing, like an dishwasher is an good example. In the US their was like 10 dishwashers to pick from which meant variety and in communism countries their was only one to pick. So people had nothing new. Mikhail Gorbachev wanted change. He even got regular people to help him out with ideas to change the government. The first thing he decided was to give free elections to people. Mikhail Gorbachev didn't like communism, and wanted change but it wasn't easy because its hard for an communism country to began having an government capitalism. It wasn't easy because they didn't know how an capitalism country is suppose to run, Mikhail Gorbachev and his society didnt know how to run the new government. And it been 25 years from now and Russia still has problems with an capitalism goveremnt. But when Mikhail Gorbachev began the capitalism country, America started to like Russia now, because they weren't communism anymore. So thanks to Mikhail Gorbachev Russia changed their government in an big time.

The Collapse of Communism

Well the collapse of communism, started to happen when Eastern bloc are as you can say Warsaw Pact because it was form by Warsaw Pact. Eastern Bloc started to reject communism. After awhile, alittle bit to the end, the breakdown of the Soviet Union happened by reforms and democratic revolutions. And in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the Soviet Union and he relaxed Communist strictures with the reform policies of "glasnost and perestroika". And next thing you would know the Soviet Union did not involve nations, for example Poland, East Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechslovakia and more countries abandoned the communism government. And in East Germany, people forced that the old Stalinist government to no longer exist and then the new president of East Germany decided to agree on free elections and also on November 9, 1989 the President of East Germany wanted to have the demolition of the Berlin Wall. After awhile the USSR didn't exist anymore and now became as Russia.

Nelson Mandela and Apartheid

Apartheid was an Racial-segregation policy in South America and was an policy in the government from 1948 to 1994. People that were considered as non-whites did not have the same right as those who were white. Non-Whites didn't have many rights for them, they couldn't vote. Their was public bathrooms for them, so their was separated bathrooms for white and non-whites. Not only bathrooms, their was also diners and water fountains and more. The word "apartheid" happened in the late 1930's by South of America Bureau for Racial Affairs (SABRA), which was for separation. This first started in the 1948 by the Afrikaner National Party.It would get worser because more ideas about separation was happening. For example there couldn't be mixed marriages or sexual relations between individuals of different race. Then non-whites had their own school, and about 5 universities banned non-white kids from them, so alot of separation was happening and people were racist. Nelson Mandela was very important because thanks to him freedom happened, non-whites not their rights back. Nelson Mandela was in prison for a very long time about 27 years, he went out of prison in February 11, 1990. Nelson Mandela thought this wasn't right, he didn't like the Apartheid Law. Nelson wanted this law to be over so he had strikes for example, he would have non-violent strikes and civil disobedience and more.But one thing we knew has that he did it in non-violent ways, which was an very smart idea. Nelson Mandela was an important person or as they call him an hero because he won Independence and rights for non-whites.

African Independence

African Independence changed Africa alot. From the 1955 to 1975, Africa changed alot. In the 1955 Africa was controlled by the British Colony. Almost every country in Africa was ruled by British but only Libya, Egypt, Ethiopia, and also some of South America were not ruled from them. Africans were French Speaking and West Indians began to express their growing sense of black consciousness and pride of Africa. Africans had an Negritude movement, this was an movement to celebrate African Culture, heritage, and values. This movement was viewed the black experience as unique. After the World War II, many European countries were ready to transfer their governments to Africa. One person that was their way to Independence was Ghana. The British colony of the gold coast were the first African colony south of Sahara to win Independence from British. African Americans wanted to have freedom, they didn't want to be controlled. Another important leader that help won Independence was Kwame Nkrumah, he has a former teacher who spend most of his time studying in Untied States. He was wanted to work the Gold Cast to Independence from the British Kwame would organized strikes and boycotts, and this would of happened alot of times. Kwame would be imprisoned by the British Government many times. But thanks to him, they received Independence from British in 1957 and the west coast took the name Ghana. During this Independence people were celebrations about Nkrumah. Nkrumah was the first prime minster and later the president of Ghana. Thanks to him, their was new roads, new schools, and expanded and started new things. Cecil Rhodes was the leader and person how was trying to get British Governments in Africa, he was also racist, he thought that British was the best and the first race and best. And an very important leader was Jomo Kenyatta, he would study very hard and gain alot of education. He became as a carpenter but still wanted to learn about politics which he did. When Europe wanted to invade his home town which they did, he realized and noticed that the British were treating them bad, and he also realized that British wanted to make Africa into an communism government.Jomo Kenyatta tried is best to win freedom but they put him in jail for about 7 years. But when he got, Africa won their Independence and Jomo became the president of Kenva because thanks to him he had influence on Europe. So Africa did change if you look at the map from 1955 to 1975, they won Independence and their was more new countries from the Independence they won.

Film Lesson: The Right Stuff

The movie "The Right Stuff" was actually not a bad movie. This movie was in the setting of the Cold War. I liked it because it showed the airplanes and the tries of launching the American Space-Shuttle to Space. And at the same time, it was also funny. The movie was about the Untied States (US) competing with The Soviet Union (USSR) to see who will go to space first. In the beginning of the movie you see how test pilots are trying out the plane that is fast as the speed of lighting. They want to see if they are able to fly it in a high altitude and see if it was enough power to get in the moon. One test pilot die from the test drive in the movie. The space race took a long time in the progress because it wasn't easy to create a space shuttle and shooting it in the moon. The US was the first one to send somebody to the moon. But here is the catch, the US send a monkey to space first not an person. They didn't want to risk a person life, so they thought sending a monkey to space would be safer. But next thing you know, two or three weeks later the Russians succeed by sending a Person to space. And countries and people started to make fun of the United States because we send a monkey into space and not a human. But Untied States didn't give up on the Race. They kept on trying and doing more tests, and next thing you know we were able to circle around the globe once and then three times around it and next thing you know we were able to circle around the globe 10 times. And that is when we were getting ideas about sending a person(human) to the moon. And that is how we won the race. By beating the Soviet Union in the race that we send a person to the moon. So Untied States won right their in the race.

My Favorite scenes of the movie "The Right Stuff" was when the test pilots were in the plane and you see the view in first person mode. You see all the clouds and how the planes turn around, so I thought that was cool. This is another favorite part, is when United States is trying their best to make a Space Shuttle. And you see how the Untied States were failing. But they kept on trying. And the cool thing was that it was real recording taken in the past. Some parts were actually funny how Untied States were failing on the goal to send a space shuttle to the moon. And you also see how the Untied States would give medical and physical exams on the test pilots, to see if they would be right for the job. So this movie was inserting and funny at the same time. I enjoyed the movie, it was great.

NATO and The Warsaw Pact

NATO is alliance between countries in Europe and North America. The reason of the formation of NATO was that they wanted countries involved wanted a mutual defense alliance so if one country was being attacked then all of the rest countries in NATO will come to their aide, which means help them out in a any way. By providing supplies or going to war with them as alliances. The NATO also helped if a country had economic problems. For example after World War 2, alot of countries faced unstable economics, so for NATO all the countries in it would help each other with their economics under the Marshall Plan. Thanks to this the countries this helped them by rebuilding more quickly and get them in good terms of their state. NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO Major reason was defense. And it was a important thing also about NATO. The NATO was just formed by countries that came up with this idea.

The Warsaw Pact was mostly the Soviet Union involved and its satellite countries. They made the Warsaw Pact to be a response to the NATO. Warsaw Pact was mostly countries in Europe. The Soviet Union wanted to dominated the alliance,which they did. The Soviet Union kept military personal in the other countries of he alliance and kept them running in a government that was socialist. The Soviet Union did this plan because they wanted to strengthen their country and the satellite countries. Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolay Bulganin over took this plan after they got power. This happened in the year 1955. But 20 years later the Warsaw Pact was renewed in 1985. The organization was then weaken badly in the 1980's. The countries that had the military personal had to withdraw them. After that countries started to get out of the Warsaw Pact and later on their were only six countries more that deiced to get out of the pack too. And the Warsaw Pact was just getting smaller.

Schindler's List

In the movie "Schindler's List" the movie illustrated the Holocaust really good, it showed how life was for Jews during the Holocaust. In "Schindler's List" the movie had graphically scenes of Jews dying in the Holocaust. Their were scenes were some Jew got shot in the head or murdered on the spot. In the movie "Schindler's List" you will get the right and well defined picture of how the holocaust looked and was. In the movie you will see how Jews were treated and the Jews only worked and if they didn't they would be killed on the spot or gassed or burned. Only the healthy people would work, because the Germans wanted young and healthy people to work in the labor camps because they wanted to them work and help them in the factories to manufacture new things for the army as a example. Old people or retarded ones and little kids would die first because like i said the Germans wanted fast workers and the Germans also wanted to stop the race of Jews. So they killed kids so the race will stop from producing. The most powerful scene for me in the movie "Schindler's List" was when the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto, because you see how people were screamed at and had to pack up things they could carry, which was mostly taken from them later. But it is terrible because you had to see the Jews leave their house which they had a lot of memoirs. They also killed some Jews during this the Germans. And what was inserting was how Jews tried to hide from the Germans in the ghetto, because the hiding spot were amazing, some hided in the floor and some hided even inside a piano. But the sad thing was that later on the day the Germans found their hiding spots and most of them died. Another part that shocked me was when the Germans were doing the Heath checkup on the Jews. And while the people were busy getting tested, the Germans wanted to take away the kids somewhere else in trucks and you see how the mothers and fathers chased for their kids but the parents mostly got pushed off and the amazing part was that some of the kids tried to hide in the camps, and you see one little boy was no spot to hide and jumps to the toilets so he can hide. In the movie "Schindler's List" i will never forget the scenes because they are still stuck in my head. One part that got my eye in the movie "Schindler's List" was the little girl in the pink coat, because you see her in the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto and she is alone and somewhere in the middle where the Germans plan to do the "Final Solution" and you see the same little girl in her pink coat but only burned and died. That is what caught me eye in the movie. I think that the movie "Schindler's List" is most powerful and you will learn alot from that movie about the Holocaust, becasue you will see how Jews were treated and what they had to live threw.