TAKE-HOME FINAL: SOVIET UNION AND RUSSIA

Spring 1998

Peter W. Petschauer

2. Review the most salient points of your class project and then discuss two things: one, what you perceive to be the most theoretically innovative aspect of it for the history of the Soviet Union and Russia, and two, what you would do differently if you could rewrite, recreate, the project.

3. First discuss the major points of the colleague’s project you reviewed for this class. Then show how this project might best be placed into the context of any major theory on the history of the Soviet Union and Russia.

4. It has been argued that the sort of dramatic modernization achieved in the Soviet Union after the 1917 Revolution could only be attained through violence. Based on your readings and your own insights, do you agree or disagree that the violence instituted by Lenin and Stalin was necessary to achieve modernization?

5. No doubt the war on the Eastern Front, that encounter between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany during WW II, was the most fierce and dramatic altercation of its kind ever. Based on your readings and class discussions, how could one argue that this part of the war could have been averted. Historically accurate information will do the trick here.

6. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it seemed as if the Soviet Union would be successful as a superpower and win the duel with the U.S. In order to bring about this standing, the S.U. had to make compromises in its political, economic and social sectors. Elaborate on these compromises and how they affected the S.U.’s ultimate future. Paul Kennedy is an author to have at least heard of in connection with this answer.

7. Please discuss the most significant reasons that lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union and then highlight the roles three forces played a leading role in this collapse.