PERESTROIKA AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE USSR.

Catalog description

This course examines Mikhail Gorbachev's valiant yet unsuccessful efforts to "reconstruct" and modernize communism in the USSR by launching a sweeping series of reforms that unintentionally destroyed the Soviet Union, gave birth to fifteen independent countries, and ended the Cold War. In addition to covering these historic events, the course encourages students to explore critical subjects including the image and reality of socialism, the relationship between democracy and capitalism, and the manner in which imperial collapse altered national identities while transforming society, politics, culture, along with the daily life of ordinary men and women.