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A-level: Crisis of Communism, 1953-2000
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Kent College History's insight:
'Few people remember Brezhnev kindly. At best, he is a pathetic figure with bushy eyebrows stumbling across the international scene, jovial but almost incoherent under the weight of tranquillisers, vodka and oncoming dementia. At worst, he is the man who unleashed the Warsaw Pact armies to overthrow the Prague Spring in 1968, who destabilised half the world by sending Russian forces into Afghanistan in 1979, who devised the Brezhnev Doctrine licensing communist states to use armed force against any nation threatening to leave the ‘socialist camp’. Susanne Schattenberg sets out to correct and sometimes reverse these impressions. ‘I expected to be working on a Stalinist, a hardliner, an architect of domestic and foreign policies of repression,’ she writes in the introduction to this book. But ‘instead of a Cold Warrior, I was faced with a man who passionately fought for peace and ruined his health in the process. Instead of a dogmatic ideologue, a heart-throb who loved fast cars and liked to crack jokes.’ A heart-throb? She adds, disarmingly: ‘I will not escape accusations of being something of a Brezhnev apologist.’' 
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Kent College History's insight:
'Perestroika, which literally means "restructuring", was the difficult time of political and economic reform in the USSR. The reforms were introduced in June 1987 by the new Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. He and his supporters were doing everything they could, but the new economic measures were not working. They could distribute goods, but they couldn't turn a profit. Soviet people were suffering - there was no money and food shortages in shops. It ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.'
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Kent College History's insight:
'Ex-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev says the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 was "a crime and a coup". In a rare interview marking 25 years since the demise of the Soviet Union, he told the BBC's Steve Rosenberg he resigned to avoid a bloody civil war. But today the West was "provoking Russia" and trying to undermine President Vladimir Putin, he said.'
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Various, Poland. LV. Pan, Polish people queuing up to buy newspapers to read about the latest situation. SV. Man reading newspaper. CU. Headlines on Polis
Kent College History's insight:
Pathe News reports Gomulka's leadership of the Polish Communist Party.
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Kent College History's insight:
New York Times obituary of Wladyslaw Gomulka.
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Kent College History's insight:
'On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to venture into space.'
Kent College History's curator insight,
October 21, 2018 4:04 AM
'On 12 April 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to venture into space. History In An Hour offers a summary of Yuri Gagarin's epic life.'
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Kent College History's insight:
'Lavrenti Pavlovich Beria was a Georgian, like Stalin, who called him ‘my Himmler’': the power struggle after Stalin's death.
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Find out more about the history of Nikita Khrushchev, including videos, interesting articles, pictures, historical features and more. Get all the facts on HISTORY.com
Kent College History's insight:
'Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) led the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, serving as premier from 1958 to 1964.'
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Kent College History's insight:
Pathe News report: Soviet Communist Party Secretary Nikita Khrushchev denounces Stalin and Malenkov visits Britain.
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Kent College History's insight:
From The Atlantic, 2012: 'When the Soviet premier died 30 years ago, it opened up a series of political debates and power struggles that continue to this day.'
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Kent College History's insight:
'In the Soviet Union there were rare individuals who fought for human rights, at great personal expense. One was psychiatrist Semyon Gluzman, who condemned the incarceration of dissidents in mental hospitals. The BBC's Owen Bennett Jones met him once in the 1980s and again this year - and this time he was full of hope for the future of his country.'
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Kent College History's insight:
Konstantin U. Chernenko's death and the succession of Mikhail Gorbachev, as reported in the New York Times.
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Kent College History's insight:
'Nikita Khrushchev was a statesman and reformer who brought Russia and the world to the brink of catastrophe. Stalin’s Great Terror, de-Stalinization and the worst crises of the Cold War are closely linked with his name. Learn about the life and legacy of leadership of Nikita Khrushchev through interviews with his children.'
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Kent College History's insight:
Leonid Brezhnev's rise to power and rule in the USSR.
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Kent College History's insight:
'For half a century the Soviet economy was inefficient but stable. In the late 1980s, to the surprise of nearly everyone, it suddenly collapsed. Why did this happen? And what role did Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's economic reforms play?'
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Kent College History's insight:
New York Times film: 'The former Polish president Lech Walesa explains how he defied Communist rule to help bring down the Iron Curtain.'
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It's 25 years since the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, stood down
Kent College History's insight:
'It's 25 years since the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, stood down. Soviet-style communism ruled Eastern Europe and the USSR for over 40 years after World War II. Although there were sporadic attempts to rise up against Soviet rule, they were ruthlessly repressed. Then in the late 1980s the Communist Party itself started to introduce reform with so-called Perestroika. By 1989 the countries of Eastern Europe were breaking free from Moscow’s control. But it took until 1991 for the USSR itself to abandon Communism and to break up into a collection of independent states.'
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I do not own rights to this video and do not intend to infringe upon them for personal gain. I am posting this series for educational purposes only. This i
Kent College History's insight:
People's Century, part 25: 1989 People Power
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From
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In the USSR, alcoholism was an enormous problem, which the government tried to tackle with these incredible PSA posters.
Kent College History's insight:
Soviet anti-alcohol posters.
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Kent College History's insight:
New York Times obituary of Georgi M. Malenkov, 'a leading political figure in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin but who was ousted in a Kremlin power struggle and sent into political oblivion' from February 1988.
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Kent College History's insight:
'Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971), First Secretary of the Communist Party (1953-1964) and Premier of the Soviet Union (1958-1964) delivered the following speech to an unofficial, closed session of the Twentieth Party Congress on February 25, 1956.'
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Kent College History's insight:
British TV coverage of Brezhnev's funeral, 1982
Kent College History's curator insight,
June 25, 2016 11:20 AM
The beginning of the end for the Soviet Union. Leonid Brezhnev's Funeral on 15 November 1982, reported by Alistair Burnett.
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Kent College History's insight:
Clive James' brilliant New Statesman review of Brezhnev: A Short Biography by The Institute of Marxism-Leninism, CPSU Central Committee
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ANDROPOV IS DEAD IN MOSCOW AT 69; REAGAN ASKS 'PRODUCTIVE' CONTACTS AND NAMES BUSH TO ATTEND FUNERAL
Kent College History's insight:
The death of Yuri V. Andropov, as reported in the New York Times.
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'Washington D.C., August 30, 2022 – The National Security Archive mourns the passing today of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, 1931-2022, first and last president of the Soviet Union, who ended the Cold War and enabled through his "glasnost" our work to open archives around the world.'