History Commons^™

The Death Of Glasnost And Perestroika, Matthew B. Zechiel

The Purdue Historian

This paper covers the rise, fall, and ultimate destruction of the twin policies of Glasnost and Perestroika in Russia as they existed under the regimes of Gorbachev, Yeltsin, and Putin. After ascending to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev attempted to liberalize the USSR through his policies of Glasnost and Perestroika. While these policies were not always followed under Gorbachev, it is clear that they were relatively successful at creating a freer society and state. However, these policies began to whither under Yeltsin, as the state, particularly the office of President, …

Jazz And Music Diplomacy In The Cold War, Mitch Rogers

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the Soviet Union in the 1950s, everyone jammed. While High Soviet officials worked their hardest to jam the incoming Voice of America and Music U.S.A. radio broadcasts, Soviet musicians and youth jammed underground to the hot swing .and blue harmonies of American jazz. Jazz, with its rebellious syncopations, rogue tunings, and egalitarian arrangements, connected with the Soviet people. Amicable cultural exchange between the two superpowers began only in 1958, and even then it only took place in small, mitigated steps. Knowing the Soviet proclivity for American music, American statesmen saw the opportunity to replace the stodgy, pedantic propaganda …

Creation Of The Evil Empire: How American Newspapers Molded Perceptions Of The Soviet Union, Mary Dickson

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Feelings of apprehension and mistrust toward the Soviet Union were very familiar to those born during the cold war era. However, many baby-boomers were probably unaware that as recently as 1945, the Soviets were considered comrades-in-arms American allies. This drastic change in perception had several causes by a number of ingredients. Predominant among these were media voices that tended to encourage fear of Soviet aggression, promote certain policy positions, reinforce negative stereotypes, and influence consumers' purchases; a review of relevant events covered by the American newspaper media in different areas of the United States revealed the changing attitudes toward the …

From Compromise To Confrontation: The American Secretary Of State James F. Byrnes And His Attempts To Mitigate Disagreements With The Soviet Union As The Cold War Began, John Karl

Comparative Civilizations Review

James F. Byrnes as United States Secretary of State pursued a policy based on compromise with the Soviet Union during the first year following the end of the Second World War. He was determined to use his political skill for engineering compromise in order to bring about an agreement with the Soviet Union which would lead to an era of peace. While the crucial question facing American policymakers in the wake of World War II was the creation of a new world order, a most important part of this question was the future of American-Soviet relations, the two nations that …

From The Stars To The Headlines: The Propaganda Of Yuri Gagarin, Peyton Edelbrock

The Purdue Historian

There were no haphazard decisions made by the Soviet Union when it came to choosing the first man to be sent to space. Months of training, careful planning, and well-hidden secrets eventually led to the decision of Yuri Gagarin. This led to the mass production of propaganda to spread, from Yuri Gagarin touring around the world to music being written about him, all centered around his trip to space and Soviet excellency. This propaganda still stands today in Russia, and its God-like idolization of cosmonauts is forever present.

The Atomic Bombing And Soviet Union’S Expansion In The Far East, Negar Nasrkhani

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

Traditionally it is argued that the Atomic bombs were dropped to end WWII as the best solution to save both American and Japanese lives. However, using primary and secondary sources, this paper argues that the A-bombs were dropped as part of the Atomic diplomacy to limit Soviet expansion in East Asia, and the war could have ended with limited casualties without the use of the A-bombs.

“An International Law With Teeth In It”: The Baruch Plan And American Public Opinion, Amir Rezvani

The Yale Undergraduate Research Journal

In 1946, Bernard Baruch, the American representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, introduced the United States’ proposal for international control of atomic energy, known as the Baruch Plan. It suggested a regime under which the United Nations would enforce an international ban on atomic weapons. The proposal, which stated that the United States would destroy its atomic arsenal only once the plan were fully implemented, was blocked in the United Nations by the Soviet Union. This paper argues that domestic public opinion played a significant role in the development, negotiation, and failure of the plan, but that the …

A Requiem For The Ussr: From Atheism To Secularity, Oksana Nesterenko

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

This article examines performance and reception of music of sacred tradition in the Soviet Union in the 1970s-80s, with the focus on two works composed in the genre of Catholic Requiem Mass, Alfred Schnittke’s Requiem (1975) and Vyacheslav Artyomov’s Requiem (1988). The article recounts the history of Soviet atheism that, as a result of state’s failure to eradicate religion, evolved into a form of secular modernity, and outlines the music culture in which Schnittke and Artyomov lived. The official reception of the two requiems, which changed dramatically within twelve years, illustrates the state’s changing attitude to religion from atheist, where …

Banking On Belgrade: Nixon’S Foreign Aid Policy With Yugoslavia (1970-1974), Robert 'Bo' Kent

Voces Novae

One of the Nixon Administration’s geopolitical innovations was its willingness to collaborate with communist regimes in order to advance mutual interests. This was demonstrated notably in the Balkans, wherein American policy makers furnished aid to the independent socialist state of Yugoslavia to counter Soviet interests in the region.

Book Review: Red Famine: Stalin's War On Ukraine, Natalia Paola Crocco

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The article is a review of the book "Red famine. Stalin´s war on Ukraine" by Anne Applebaum. The book takes a tour of the process of artificial famine that Ukraine suffered in the early 1930s by the Soviet Union, its historical background and its consequences today.

Father Ciferni Takes The Chair

St. Norbert Times

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Japan's War On Three Fronts Prior To 1941, Shaohai Guo

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

This paper argues that Japan fought a three-front war prior to 1941. Japan not only fought China in the Second Sino-Japanese War, but conducted military operations against the Soviet Union. The third front occurred within Japan, as military factionalism prevented Japan from focusing on either China or the Soviet Union. By 1941, weakened through years of war, Japan focused their attention on French Indochina. This ultimately led to U.S entry into World War II.

A Call For Transparency

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The Failure Of Soviet Orphan Policies, 1918-1939, Stephen Wong

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

The soviet government is the first in the world that proclaimed to transform orphans. The essay will compare the soviet experiment in two distinct periods: period from 1917 to 1926 and the period under Stalin in the 1930s. The first period has produced large war orphans but Soviet government has made enormous effort to accommodate them. However, the Stalin’s reign under the 1930s has failed the experiment as children and orphans become victims of Stalin’s Terror.

Meet The New Villain, Same As The Old Villain: The New Cold War In American Tv, Film, And Video Games, Declan Cronin

Of Life and History

In 1966, the lovable crew of the Спрут landed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Hollywood’s rendering of these Russians in The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming would prove to be the exception to the rule in Western media for years. A staple of Western entertainment since the mid-20^thcentury, Russian adversaries have not faded from the limelight in the post-Cold War era. Rather, Western portrayals of Russian antagonists have largely continued to reflect contemporaneous states of Western-Russian relations. By studying Russian portrayals in Western media (namely television, film, and 21^stcentury video games) within their historical context, …

A Race To The Stars And Beyond: How The Soviet Union’S Success In The Space Race Helped Serve As A Projection Of Communist Power, Jack H. Lashendock

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

In the modern era, the notion of space travel is generally one of greater acceptance and ease than in times previously. Moreover, a greater number of nations (and now even private entities) have the technological capabilities to launch manned and unmanned missions into Earth’s Orbit and beyond. 70 years ago, this ability did not exist and humanity was simply an imprisoned species on this planet. The course of humanity’s then-present and the collective future was forever altered when, in 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched the world’s first satellite into space, setting off a decades-long completion with the United States …

"Why, If Things Are So Good, Are They So Bad?" Magnitogorsk, Stalin’S Five-Year Plan, And American Engineers, 1928–1932, Landen J. Kleisinger

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

This article focuses on Magnitogorsk, the Magnetic Mountain, the practical and symbolic crux of Stalin’s Five-Year Plan. To Stalin, the Magnetic Mountain and the instant industrial city of Magnitogorsk would help materialize the radical dream of the Soviet Union and eventually save it from invaders from the west. American involvement in early Soviet technological expansion has been historically hidden and ignored by American’s and Soviet’s alike. This article argues that while Stalin called for industrial expansion to outstrip the West, paradoxically it was Western engineers that made his progress possible.

The Socialist World In The Second Age Of Globalization: An Alternative History?, James M. Robertson

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

The history of the Second Age of Globalization (from 1945 through to the present) has traditionally been told through the lens of either the industrially advanced First World, or, more critically, the developing countries of the Third World. Less is known about the experience of globalization in the so-called “Second World”, the socialist states of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European satellites. The following review essay draws on recent work in the history of globalization to show that, contrary to long-held assumptions that socialism was an autarkic system that cut countries off from the wider world, post-war socialist countries …

Peasants And The Great Leap Forward, Marissa Warren

Undergraduate Research Journal

Countries following Marxist ideology have typically showed a disinterest of the peasantry and sometimes even outright hostility. When it came to revolutions within these Marxist countries, the peasantry was typically forced following their government’s demands. These countries used their peasantry, always on the government’s own terms. That is, they never asked the peasantry what could be done for them, but rather simply demanded the peasantry follow them. China, prior to the “Great Leap Forward,” suffered through a civil war, putting a new Party in charge of the government. This government chose to include peasants in their revolution and promised them …

Crimean Tatars From Mass Deportation To Hardships In Occupied Crimea, Karina Korostelina

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The article begins with a description of the deportation of Crimean Tatars. It provides a brief review of the Nazi Occupation of Crimea, examines the negative images of Crimean Tatars published in Soviet newspapers between 1941-1943 and the explicit rationale given by the Soviet authorities for the deportation of Crimean Tatars, and reviews the mitigation of hostilities against Tatars in the years following the war. The article continues with accounts of the attempts to repatriate Crimean Tatars after 1989 and the discriminative policies against the returning people. The conclusion of the article describes current hardships experienced by Tatars in occupied …

The Decision To Invade: Stalin In 1950, Elliot Estebo

Ex-Patt Magazine

Examining the past and recently discovered Soviet-Era documents to determine how Stalin came to the decision to invade.

"They Are Just Like Us": The 1960 Winter Olympics And U.S.-Soviet Relations, Joe Schiller

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

My research examined American attitudes towards the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc at the 1960, Squaw Valley Winter Olympics. This includes the press‟ prevailing attitude in its depictions of American and western European athletes, versus those of Eastern European athletes. Parallels between these and the 1980 Lake Placid Winter Games are of especial import; a Cold War era Olympics, on American soil, pitting American capitalism against Soviet communism, where the underdog Americans score an ice hockey victory over the Soviets en route to a gold medal. In 1980 the ice hockey competition was highly politicized, and historians have devoted …

“Missouri Through Soviet Eyes”, Ilya Ilf, Yevgeny Petrov

The Confluence (2009-2020)

In 1935, Russian satirists Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov bought a Ford and drove across the United States and back; their observations shaped the ideas of Russians about the United States for some three decades. One of the places they visited was Hannibal, Missouri. Here is their account, including their own photos.

A Brief Research On 1936 Soviet Constitution Under Joseph Stalin, Jingyuan Qian

The Macalester Review

The mission of this paper is to examine the Soviet Union's first constitution in 1936. It attempts to analyze how the social and economic conditions presented in USSR, as well as the personality of Joseph Stalin, stimulated the need to make a constitution. It also attempts to evaluate the influence of this constitution in the contemporary Soviet Society. I would like to thank Prof. Weisensel for his kind review and precious suggestions on this research paper.

The Struggle To Create Soviet Opera, Miriam Grinberg

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

It is opera, and opera alone that brings you close to the people, that endears your music to the real public and makes your names popular not only with individual small circles but, under favourable conditions, with the whole people. – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, premier composer of symphonies, ballets, and operas in Imperial Russia in the mid- to late 1800s.

Tchaikovsky made this remark while living under a tsarist regime, but the pervasive, democratic, and uniting qualities of opera that he so vividly described appealed to an entirely different party: the Bolsheviks. Rather than discard the “bourgeois” remains of the …

Totalitarianism: The Case Of Turkmenistan, Hayden Gore

Human Rights & Human Welfare

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Saparmurat Niyazov, the former First Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkmenistan and self-styled “Turkmenbashi” (Father of All Turkmen), became the country’s first president, quickly fashioning Turkmenistan into one of the most repressive regimes in the world. Declared president-for-life after a dubious parliamentary election in which he selected all of the candidates, Niyazov has created a Stalinistic personality cult to glorify his image and to solidify his control over the state. His “reforms” have outlawed political dissent, marginalized ethnic and religious minorities, gutted the public health system, and enforced a campaign …

The Roma: During And After Communism, Florinda Lucero, Jill Collum

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The Roma are an interconnected ethnic and cultural group that migrated out of India more than ten centuries ago. In the Czech Republic, they may have been present since the 15th century. Although relations within Czech lands began honorably, they quickly disintegrated into enmity and within a century Czechs could kill the Roma with impunity. Legislation restricting Roma movement came about in 1927 with Law 117: the “Law on Wandering Gypsies,” which stated that the Roma were now required to seek permission to stay overnight in any given location. In the run-up to World War II, parallel restrictions to those …

Pope John Paul Ii, The Assassination Attempt, And The Soviet Union, Daniel C. Scotto

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

“The attempt to murder the pope remains one of the century’s great mysteries,” wrote Carl Bernstein and Marco Politti in their 1996 biography of Pope John Paul II. Indeed, the mystery has remained unsolved since the pope was shot and wounded on May 13, 1981. A recent investigation concluded that the Soviet government was the perpetrator, but the situation should be examined in a broader historical context. What actually happened on May 13, 1981? Was it the sole decision and action of Mehmet Ali Agca, who was expressing his opposition to “Western imperialist policies,” as he had written in a …

The Alliance Against Disarmament: The Atomic Energy Commission, The National Security Council, And The Joint Chiefs Of Staff, Mary D. Wammack

Psi Sigma Siren

Of the discussions that took place at the highest policy levels during the administration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, those concerning the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the arms race with the Soviet Union were among the most urgent and, perhaps, the most consequential in their failure. In the United States, members of the Eisenhower cabinet and other agencies and departments analyzed and addressed the consequences of various diplomatic proposals. Throughout that assessment phase, the National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Atomic Energy Commission joined in steadfast opposition to arms limitations. On the international plane, the …