Some excellent Great Patriotic War podcasts from Dr Edwin Baker. To use this you will need to login to the HA student zone with username @andallthatweb and the password from your teacher. You can listen to the podcasts HERE

The Impact and Significance of the Great Patriotic War. In this podcast Dr Jonathan Davis of Anglia Ruskin University discusses the USSR from 1941-1953 and the impact and significance of the Great Patriotic War.

Topics:

1. Introduction.
2. The condition of the USSR in 1941. Operation Barbarossa.
3. The impact of war on the Soviet people.
4. Domestic consequences of the war: the legitimizing of Stalin's regime.
5. The USSR's emergence as a superpower, the occupation of Eastern Europe and a renewed sense of Russian solidarity.
6. Conclusion.

Some excellent Gorbachev era podcasts from Dr Edwin Baker. To use this you will need to login to the HA student zone with username @andallthatweb and the password from your teacher. You can listen to the podcasts HERE

End of the USSR
In the late 1980s the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, sought to reform the Union, introducing the policies of glasnost and perestroika in an attempt to end the period of economic stagnation and democratize the government. However, this led to the rise of strong nationalist and separatist movements. Central authorities initiated a referendum, boycotted by the Baltic republics and
Georgia, which resulted in the majority of participating citizens voting in favour of preserving the Union as a renewed federation. In August 1991, a coup d'état was attempted by hardliners against Gorbachev, with the intention of reversing his policies. The coup failed, with Russian President Boris Yeltsin playing a high-profile role in facing down the coup, resulting in the banning of the Communist Party. On 25 December 1991, Gorbachev resigned and the remaining 12 constituent republics emerged from the dissolution of the Soviet Union as independent post-Soviet states. The Russian Federation, the successor state of the Russian SFSR, assumed the Soviet Union's rights and obligations and is recognised as its continued legal personality.

Topics:

1. Introduction.
2. Long term factors.
3. A systemic approach: the system was not open to reform.
4. Circumstantial factors and political transformation. The dissolution of the Soviet Union.
5. The Rise of Yeltsin. Russian politics as opposed to Soviet politics.
6. Conclusion.

Some excellent Brezhnev era podcasts from Dr Edwin Baker. To use this you will need to login to the HA student zone with username @andallthatweb and the password from your teacher. You can listen to the podcasts HERE

Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (19 December 1906 – 10 November 1982) was the General Secretary of the Central Committee (CC) of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),
presiding over the country from 1964 until his death in 1982. His eighteen-year term as General Secretary was second only to that of Joseph Stalin in length. During Brezhnev's rule, the global influence of the Soviet Union grew dramatically, in part because of the expansion of the Soviet military during 
this time, but his tenure as leader has often been criticised for marking the beginning of an era of economic and social stagnation in which serious problems were overlooked, eventually leading to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Topics are:
1. Introduction: What did the Brezhnev era consist of?
2. The Era of Stagnation or the high point of Soviet power and stability?
3. Soviet Union as a super power: treaties with the West.
4. Stagnation and a growing disbelief in a communist utopia.
5. Developed Socialism: a new stage towards communism. The gerontocracy and censorship.
6. Conclusion.

Hi all,

you may find the following link useful
for Personal Study as well as History more generally. Some great advice on a
whole range of History related topics.

Login:
@andallthatweb
Pass: ----ask your teacher :-)

http://history.org.uk/resources/index.php?resource_