http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeK6spOIVro&NR=1 Death of a Nation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK30k2WTxY0
http://youtube.com/watch?v=nCGNB47jJ0s&feature=related Wall Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmj_o1hjIbQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl3E-cwA6y8 Billy gets mad at the Soviets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhRu9yzlTRI Red Square
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jR-A4QFHZBA Watch this one
http://www.school-for-champions.com/history/start_fire_lyrics.htm - Lyric's
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2786786059639293312 - Joel's Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbwEsu7z6Jw Explain this Cartoon
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1982reagan1.html Evil Empire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do0x-Egc6oA&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=GEmlQJzw_w0&feature=related
http://lifeandhealth.guardian.co.uk/wellbeing/story/0,,2274010,00.html Ping Pong Diplomacy
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/krushchev-secret.html Krushchev
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKexf166TKk Cold War Videos made by AP Kids
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND4kDezFUk8&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB-0e7xEOSs&feature=related
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11 comments:
I watched the documentary on the Death of Russia, as well as the video of Billy Joel.
I thought the documentary was excellent. It really hit home for me. It was dramatic and realistic at the same time which was nice and it made me really care about what is going on in Russia today, which, I realized I had no idea about before this. It seems that the situation in Russia right now would be like the Ku Klux Klan having political power in America and was backed by the government. It is truly horrifying.
So after that nice and depressing (although,as I said, excellent) documentary, it was a bit of a relief to see Billy loosing his cool at the concert. It was just so ridiculous that I had to laugh out loud.
I just watched the Death of Russia video. I also watched part 2 of it. Russia right now is such a pirate victory for democracy. "We", being democratic citizens who believe in freedom, thought communism was evil. In many ways it WAS a true threat to American ideals and ways of life. However, we did not gain much by killing the USSR. Russians gained even less. The switch to capitalism is obviously hard. I think that people forget, though, that ANY change in government will be hard. The struggle from monarchial to communist Russia was no less painful to the country. I suspect Russia will eventually come back from the dead and be able to thrive in capitalism if it raises its birthrate. It will. The babies being born now are being born into a capitalist Russia. They will learn how to survive in it and they won't be burdened by the old practices of communism that they can't let go of like the current generation.
The second video I watched was Billy Joel. He was hilarious. He had every right to be angry at the Communists flicking the lights. The contrast between Billy Joel and Paul McCartney was really what hit me though. At least music is taking a turn for the better.
I watched all the videos but the the documentary on Russia (Death of a Nation) and the cartoon on Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev and the train really stand out. I'll start with the documentary and the very shocking information that it reveals. I went into watching the video with the knowledge of their dwindling population but I did not know of the various other problems they face and their contribution to their declining population. I did like one actions of the government and that was how Putin made sure the oligarch dropped out of the race and didn't gain more power. However, I find it sad that the government ignores an AIDS epidemic and treat the Turks in Russia as second class citizens. The narrator was right when he said it resembles Hitler's concentration camps and its frightening. The video in some ways made me feel bad for Russia and in other ways made me dislike the place due their treatment of their citizens. In the end I just hope order can be brought to their government and help to all their citizens. Overall, it was very interesting I actually watched all 6 parts.
Now on to the short cartoon that went over the fundamental differences of the leaders: Stalin, Krushchev, Brezhnev and Gorbachev. The cartoon is slightly humorous but it does a nice job of explaining each leader and in the end why each was ultimately unsuccessful. Stalin, of course, wants a violent solution and says to shoot the driver. This depicts his use of gulags and purges that filled his strict rule. Krushchev wants to rehabilitate the driver. This was Krushchev's wish for Russia but he was unsuccessful because he stopped the tight hold on the eastern bloc countries that Stalin had. Brezhnev wants to do nothing about the situation and simply listen to music. Brezhnev's pretty much did the same with Russia. He ignored it's problems and instead faced more uprising and enforced little new policy. Gorbachev, whose plan they all follow, has the opinion to get out and push the train. Gorbachev's suggestion, like his policy, was drastically different then the others but its impossible for them to push to stopped train.
Overall, I found all these videos very entertaining. However, these two gave numerous insights on the Russian society of today and how it got there.
I watched Death of a Nation and read the lyrics to Billy Joel's "We didn't start the fire" The documentary was truly shocking- I don't think many people in America realize that Russia is having such great problems rising back up after the fall of the Soviet Union. In class, we are always talking about Russian pride in "the homeland", but Russian citizens seem so dejected and without hope, that that pride seems to be gone. It's really awful that a communist country who preached the ills of capitalism for so long, is the one that is experiencing all the disadvantages to capitalism.
I remember last year in AP US reading the lyrics to "We didn't start the fire" and it's even cooler now that I know more references that were made in the song. It's a great way to push all of the events and people during the cold war era into one song, and I think it's awesome to be able to look at the lyrics and know what Billy Joel is referencing
soooo I watched bits and pieces of a lot of these videos. I watched Ronald Reagan's speech about the Berlin Wall. That was very motivating, he was a great speaker! Impressive. I started watching that music video about the Berlin Wall, they dropped the f-bomb that was nice. I also watched the AP student's video on the Space Race. I don't know why, but it seems so weird to me that at one point we weren't the leading nation in technology, even though that is what is happening today. I also started watching the video on the Cold War as a review, which was a wake-up call, I have some reviewing to do let me tell you. Of course I had to watch Billy Joel freak out, hilarious. I remembered doing something with "We didn't start the fire" last year so in AP US so i skipped that one. That song is just such a good record of the times, good stuff.
I started by watching the first "Death of a Nation" video, then found myself watching all 6. I found the documentary to be not only surprisingly professional but informative and interesting. In class we talked about the negative birth rate in Russia, but i didn't know how the country's population problem will lead to it's downfall if the government doesn't do something about it. I wasn't expecting women to have such a large role in the documentaries and the population issues in Russia. I surprised that the main problems Russia is not facing are interconnected. The fact that they're not doing anything about the HIV epidemic, unhealthy habits, unemployment, and corruption among businessmen and countrymen proves how backwards Russia is. Communism has remained dormant for over a decade to be replaced with nationalism, democracy, and capitalism. Seeing as these reforms have failed its no wonder the older generation wants to return to communism and old ways. If Russia continues to disregard the problems of society and the government, then the young generation will be unable to safe Russia.
I watched the video with billy joel tweaking out, the Berlin Wall video, the Cold War video by the AP student, and i read about ping pong diplomacy.
For starters billy joel was absolutely hysterical. Personally, i think it was a little outrageous, but i suppose the Soviets had it coming to them with all the light flickering and such.
The Berlin Wall video showed pictures of the people in Germany and when it fell. You can see the emotions of the people through the pictures which makes the video interesting because you can get a glimpse of what it was like for the Germans.
Next i watched the Cold War video which was basically an overview of what we learned in class with some cartoons added in here and there.
I thought Ping Pong diplomacy was an interesting way to become friendly with China again. I learned a little about this in far Eastern Studies and i thought it was cool how the US and China began speaking to each other friendly again through ping pong.
I read the article about krushchev's secrets. Although i've already been informed about Kruschev's ideas of Destalinization, it was interesting to see exactly what he said. He focused on all the brutal things that Stalin did. It was also interesting to see how he compared stalin to lenin and explained about how lenin only used force when it was necessary and that stalin used force even when it wasn't. It just really shows how Stalin was an totalitarian.
I watched the "we didn't start the fire" with images video, the Billy Joel going crazy video and the video about USSR confrontations. I felt that the images to associate with the people or event definitely helped. I was also surprised by how many of the things listed in the song I knew about, or had at least heard of. I just watched the Billy goes crazy video to see how crazy he got: he got pretty crazy! The ways that the USSR confronted the people that it ruled was strange to me. From the images it looked like they always used brute force to control their subjects through fear. Each of the videos I watched was helpful in its own way.
I watched the Death of a Nation video on Russia and found it shocking. The documentary was really well made and revealed a lot about how poor the standard of living is in Russia that you can't understand from simply reading about it. What was most surprising to me was the statistic about Russia possibly losing half its population by the year 2050 though. Its strange to think that the death rate there is high enough to make it seem as if the country is at war. I also got a chance to watch a lot of the other videos; the cartoon about how all the communist leaders' ideas failed was brutally honest and I enjoyed watching Billy Joel and Paul McCartney performing. Joel definitely was just in flipping out during his show and I'm sure it only helped the audience get more excited. I took a lot from all of these clips, but the documentary on the death of Russia was easily the best.
I watched the video on the fall of the berlin wall. I thought it was very interesting to watch a video on an important date in history. This marked the beginning of Germany trying to reunited after being split for so many years. I also watched the video of billy going crazy and i thought it was cool to see someone like him to go crazy at the concert. It was really crazy and funny at the same time.
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