Activities
Suggested activities using this programme and the recommended websites:
Activity 1: Biography of Mikhail Gorbachev
Look carefully at the web page biography of Mikhail Gorbachev (http://www.cs.indiana.edu/hyplan/dmiguse/Russian/mgbio.html).
There are many biographies on the Internet, but most of them contain more information than this one. Use your word processor (or an html editor if you can) to edit this site and create your own fuller version. You should find all the extra information you need in the TV programme but there are the other listed websites as well.
Activities 2-4: Gorbachev — Hero or Villain?
Before you tackle Activities 2-4 read this short extract carefully. It comes from an article on an Internet site. If you want to read the whole article go to http://www.boston.com/globe/search/stories/nobel/1991/1991ai.html
A sense of failure and regret came through his [Gorbachev’s] Christmas Day abdication speech - especially in his sorrow over his people ''ceasing to be citizens of a great power." Certainly, if man in the street interviews can be believed, the former Soviet peoples consider him a failure.
History will be kinder. The Nobel prize he received for ending the Cold War was well deserved. Every man, woman and child in this country should be eternally grateful.
His statue should stand in the centre of every East European capital; for it was Gorbachev who allowed them their independence. The same is true for the newly independent countries further east and in Central Asia. No Russian has done more to free his people from bondage since Alexander II who freed the serfs.
Activity 2: Gorbachev the Hero — the view from the West
Use the TV programme and the Internet resources to research the contents for a web page celebrating Gorbachev as a hero. Your website represents the views of people in the West, particularly Britain and the USA. You should focus on:
- His role in trying to reform the USSR
- His role in disarmament and the end of the Cold War
Activity 3: Gorbachev the Hero — the view from Eastern Europe
Use the TV programme and the Internet resources to research the contents for a web page celebrating Gorbachev as a hero. You are looking at Gorbachev’s career from the point of view of opponents of the Soviet regime in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and East Germany. You should focus on:
- His role in trying to reform the USSR
- His refusal to support the Communist leaders in Eastern Europe
Activity 4: Gorbachev the Villain — the view from the USSR
Use the TV programme and the Internet resources to research the contents for a web page criticising Gorbachev as a villain. You are looking at Gorbachev’s career from the point of view of people who lived and worked in the USSR or in present day Russia. You should focus on:
- His role in trying to reform the USSR
- Why and how his reforms failed to improve conditions
- Why his reforms upset Communists
- How people in the USSR reacted to the loss of control of Eastern Europe and the eventual break-up of the USSR
