Soviet Union Trade Blocs
Trade blocs (pacts) and mutual economic associations of interest are hardly new tactical weapons on the nation-state board of marketing strategies. They have been used across the eons for one or another purpose. Leaders of countries of all types have attempted to execute their own versions of this kind of economic vitality model, even when such cooperation forces them to reach outside of their controlling economic philosophies. This was why, in part, Gorbachev cemented early on in his efforts an alliance between COMECON (the Soviet Union's internal Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) with the early partnership members of what would become the European Union (Foxley, 2010). The Soviet Union was on the verge of losing its state market influence, meaning it had a need to reach more broadly to the global market potentials. In 1991, the European Council Free Trade Associations signed an agreement with COMECON, laying…...
mlaREFERENCES
Dimon, R. And Tucker, S. (2008). Role-based Business Intelligence. Information Management. Viewable at http://www.information-management.com/specialreports/2008_95/10001876-1.html .
European Commission (2012). Trade Countries: Russia. Viewable at http://ec.europa.eu/trade/creating-opportunities/bilateral-relations/countries/russia/ .
Foxley, A. (2010). Regional Trade Blocs: The Way to the Future. Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Downloadable from http://www.CarnegieEndowment.org/pubs .
Gronningsaeter, T. (2011). This is EFTA 2011. European Free Trade Assocation. Annual Report. Downloadable at http://www.efta.int/publications/this-is-efta.aspx .
In an unprecedented move, Khrushchev denounced many of Stalin's excesses and set about changing Soviet policy towards the developing world. This change, some call it flexibility, was the branch the Soviets offered to developing countries, like Cuba. Looking around and seeing the alienated or disenfranchized, Khrushchev felt the time was right to solidify alliances with anticolonialists in Ghana, the Congo, and especially, Cuba (Hopf).
After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Khrushchev viewed President Kennedy as too indecisive and not prepared to make hard decisions, felt that Kennedy would back down even if he discovered missiles in Cuba. However, intelligence gathering continued after the Bay of Pigs in 1961, and regular U-2 flights over the island finally presented the evidence Kennedy needed to prove the Soviets were indeed, placing missiles off the American shore (Franklin).
During President Dwight Eisenhower's term one of his great concerns was the mounting tensions between the U.S.…...
mlaREFERENCES
Europa -- Gateway to the European Union. (2009). Citde from Europa.edu:
Russia 1990. (1990, January). Retrieved from CIA World Factbook:
Soviet Union and Stalin Era
Understanding of Stalin and Soviet Union
The Soviet economic system persisted for around 60 years and even after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the basic elements of the system still existed. The leaders exercising the most substantial influence on this system were -- Vladimir I. Lenin and Stalin, who started the prevailing patterns of collectivization and industrialization that became typical characteristic of the Soviet Union's centrally planned system. However, by 1980, the inherent defects became apparent as the national economy suffered; shortly thereafter, reform programs began to alter the traditional structure. One of the chief reformers of the late 1980s, Boris Yeltsin, oversaw the substantial dissolution of the central planning system in the early 1990s.
After the Lenin's demise, two conflicting schools of thought emerged about the future of the Soviet Union in party debates. Left-wing communists believed that world revolution was essential for survival…...
mlaReferences:
Vasyl Plyushch. "Genocide of the Ukrainian People" The Artificial Famine in the Years 1932-1933. Ukrainisches Institut fur Bildungspolitik Munchen. 1973
Clark, Alan. "The Russian German Conflict 1942-45" Quill Publishing. 1965
Alaexander Werth. "Russia at War" Carroll and Graf Publishers. 1964
Robert Conquest. "Stalin: Breaker of Nations" Penguin. 1992
Soviet Union and United States
Comparative Analysis of Industrialization in the Former USS and United States
The political, economic, and cultural impacts of industrialization in North American and European countries are still widely evident today and have heavily affected international relations and global politics. The Industrial evolution is usually considered to have originated in Great Britain in the mid 1700s, which at this point in time was the dominant empire in term of trade, commerce, land ownership, and influence. Other countries with sophisticated economic systems, including Germany, France and the United Kingdom soon developed technology, which allowed for mass production of commodities, more efficient travel over longer distances, and greater participation in formal economic activity for non-elite persons.
One of the hallmarks of technological innovation during the Industrial evolution was undoubtedly the harnessing of steam power, fueled by coal and petroleum. Cities saw rapid growth throughout the 18th and 19th centuries as…...
mlaResources
Evans-Pritchard, Ambrose (2007). "Dollar tumbles as huge credit crunch looms." The Daily Telegraph (London: Telegraph Media Group Limited). http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2007/07/25/cnusecon125.xml .
Gregory, Paul R. And Robert C. Stuart, Russian and Soviet Economic Performance and Structure, Addison-Wesley, Seventh Edition, 2001.
Kynge, James (2006). China shakes the world, The Rise of a Hungary Nation, Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
Lenski, Gerard (1978). "Marxist Experiments in Destratification: An Appraisal" Social Forces. Vol. 57 No. 2 pp. 364-383.
he Soviet Union had been administered for the past 70 years through a tight control on information. Gorbachev's policy of openness threw open the floodgates. he Soviet people had been kept on a tight leash through tight control on information and "fear" by an oppressive government. (Kedzie, 1997) the lifting of the fear factor did not result in, as Gorbachev had hoped, improvement in the social and economic conditions within the existing system. When the ordinary people found more out about the outside world and their own history, they chose to ignore "perestroika" altogether and opted instead to change the system itself. o make matters worse, all that Gorbachev's "reforms" managed to do was to disrupt the operations of the existing planned economy, provoking a further slowdown in growth leading to widespread shortages of consumer goods. (Moorewood, 1998)
Nationalism
Nationalism in the Soviet bloc's satellites such as East Germany, Poland, Hungary,…...
mlaThe Soviet annual economic growth declined progressively, from a respectable 5% in the 1960s to 3% in the 1970s to 2% or less in the early 1980s
It is interesting to note that while Gorbachev's standing remains high abroad, he is held in contempt by communists, democrats and nationalists alike in the former USSR (he polled a paltry one per cent of the vote in the 1996 presidential elections) -- (Moorehead, 1998)
Soviet Union
S.S.R. The movement began as strike action in protest against rising food prices. Lech Walesa acted as the leader of the Solidarity movement, unifying the public against government abuses. lthough the movement was outlawed, and several workers imprisoned as a result, Gorbachev's reforms changed this. It was once again considered legal, and the movement translated itself as a social gain for citizens in protest against a government that, at the time, positioned itself as the ultimate authority. Solidarity was legalized in 1989 and candidate endorsed by the movement won almost all the seats in the upper house of the bicameral legislature. In other words, Communism was being replaced by a movement that considered the voice of the majority as one of primary importance.
The Soviet Union fell in 1991, which was the year during which Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin became the first President of the Russian Federation. Yeltsin originally supported Mikhail Gorbachev,…...
mlaAlthough the Solidarity movement was founded in Poland, it had significant effects on the Communist reign in the country and ultimately integrated with Gorbachev's reforms towards the fall of the U.S.S.R. The movement began as strike action in protest against rising food prices. Lech Walesa acted as the leader of the Solidarity movement, unifying the public against government abuses. Although the movement was outlawed, and several workers imprisoned as a result, Gorbachev's reforms changed this. It was once again considered legal, and the movement translated itself as a social gain for citizens in protest against a government that, at the time, positioned itself as the ultimate authority. Solidarity was legalized in 1989 and candidate endorsed by the movement won almost all the seats in the upper house of the bicameral legislature. In other words, Communism was being replaced by a movement that considered the voice of the majority as one of primary importance.
The Soviet Union fell in 1991, which was the year during which Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin became the first President of the Russian Federation. Yeltsin originally supported Mikhail Gorbachev, although he did emerge as one of Gorbachev's most powerful opponents. Significantly, Yeltsin was elected by popular vote to the position of President of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR).He won 57% of the vote in a contest that included six candidates. As such, Yeltsin was the second democratically elected leader in the country's history. As such, Yeltsin became the representative of democracy in Russia, which was the culmination of movements such as Solidarity, Perestroika, and Glasnost. This created an atmosphere that shaped the downfall of the U.S.S.R.
In conclusion, the fall of the U.S.S.R. was due to a number of factors. The new ideologies introduced by Gorbachev, for example, convoluted with the ideals of democracy espoused by Solidarity and Boris Yeltsin to finally see the end of the Soviet Union.
fall of the Soviet Union the United States has been often described as the world's only remaining super power. Whether this description is accurate or whether it truly matters, is open to debate but how the United States came to the point where it is even a position to be afforded such a distinction is interesting. For a nation that began as thirteen loosely organized colonies and that for most of its history maintained a position of isolation its now being considered the world's only super power is highly ironic.
It has been the common position of many professional historians that the United States emerged on the world political scene when Commodore Dewey staged a showing of American military power in Manila Bay in 1898 (Fry, 1979). On May 1st of that year Dewey defeated a formidable Spanish fleet and sent a message to the rest of the world that…...
mlaReferences
Chalberg, J.C. (1994). Isolationism: Opposing Viewpoints. Chicago: Greenhaven Press.
Dobbins, J.F. (2006). America's Role in Nation-Building: From Germany to Iraq. Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, 87-110.
Fry, J.A. (1979). William McKinley and the Coming of the Spanish-American War: A Study of The Besmirching and Redemption of an Historical Image. Diplomatic History, 77-98.
Holbrooke, R. (1995). America, A European Power. Foreign Affairs, 38-51.
The replacement of Communist, military, and dictatorial regimes is usually accompanied by a period of euphoria among the citizenry but soon thereafter reality sets in and the practical operation of the government sets in (Ekman). When democratization developed in America, the role and size of government was much different. Government in the twentieth century is a much more complicated operation. eorganization of the various institutions that had developed under prior governments had to be transformed into institutions operated under new sets of rules. Suddenly, decisions and policies were not made based on an ideology and conflicting interests had to be considered. Suddenly, politicians and administrators in these new Eastern European democracies were forced to learn how to negotiate. With the adoption of democracy, differing points-of-view and differing policies had to now be considered and the bureaucrats who had formerly operated these institutions and agencies were provided with choices and political…...
mlaRose-Ackerman, Susan. "From Elections to Democracy in Central Europe: Public Participation and the Role of Civil Society." Eastern European Politics & Societies (2007): 31-47.
Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America. New York: Signet Classics, 2001.
Democratization in Eastern Europe
Human Trafficking
Sex trafficking and exploitation in Europe
Sex trafficking in Europe
Although globalization has been a boon in many positive ways to many people, it has also had the unintended consequence of facilitating the sex industry. According to the International Labor Office (ILO) "there are 12.3 million victims of forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation worldwide at any given time. Forty-three percent are trafficked for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation," the majority of which are women and children (Hepburn & Simon 2010:2). "In terms of those trafficked for the purposes of forced commercial sexual exploitation, women and girls make up 98%" (Hepburn & Simon 2010:2).
Case study: Katya
As reported by the British newspaper The Guardian, the former republics of the Soviet Union and much of Eastern Europe are fertile sites of trafficking into EU nations. While still a young teenager, a Moldavian girl named 'Katya' and her friend were assaulted by an older…...
mlaReferences
Gentleman, A. (2011). Case study: Katya. The Guardian. Retrieved from:
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2011/apr/19/sex-trafficking-uk-legal-reform
Hepburn, S., & Simon, R.J. (2010). Hidden in plain sight: Human trafficking in the United
States. Gender Issues, 27(1-2), 1-26. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12147-010-9087-7
For more than a decade, the country has been de-industrializing and learning to live with firewood or diesel generators brought in from Turkey. eforms in Georgia, with its entrenched corruption, lack of competitive industries, poor work ethic, worn-out Soviet-era infrastructure, and widespread poverty, has been considered difficult, especially in the face of a deep economic crisis and security threats, including ones from ussia.
Agriculture is a leading occupation in Georgia, whose warmer districts produce large quantities of tea and citrus fruits; tobacco, wine grapes, rice, and mulberry trees (for silk) are also grown. Sheep, pigs, and poultry are raised. Georgia is rich in minerals also. Georgia had a large and varied industrial sector. Its chief manufactures included transport equipment, electric motors, machine tools, iron and steel, railroad and mining equipment, chemicals, textiles, wine, and building materials, but many industries collapsed after independence.
Challenges: For Georgian economy to progress there are myriad internal…...
mlaReferences
Habibov, Nazim N & Fan, Lida. Social Assistance and the Challenges of Poverty and Inequality in Azerbaijan, a Low-Income Country in Transition. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare. 33.1,2006: 203+.
Gupta, Sanjeev, Leruth, Luc, De Mello, Luiz & Chakravarti, Shamit. Transition Economies: How Appropriate Is the Size and Scope of Government?. Comparative Economic Studies. 45. 4, 2003: 554+.
Rasizade, Alec. Meets the Test of Its Independence. Contemporary Review. 284.1658, March 2004: 139+
Progress in Azerbaijan; an Ally in the War on Terror'. The Washington Times. April 28, 2006: A19.
United States vs. Soviet Union
The Cold ar, although over now, had a demonstrative effect on the United States culture and political sphere. Indeed, some of those effects are still felt in the United States to this very day. However, this report will focus on three political and social effects that were rendered during the height of the Cold ar. This report will explore three political effects and three social effects. hile the United States came out fine from the Cold ar, there were/are some effects that were extensive and wholly negative for the country then and/or now.
One political effect that was rise of paranoia-like questioning found during the McCarthyism era. McCarthy acted under the premise and idea that a good number of Communists had infiltrated the United States government. Even President Truman was part of this framework as he insisted on background checks for all government officials (U.S. History, 2014)
.…...
mlaWorks Cited
OSU. "eHistory.com: Historical analysis of the Cold War." eHistory.com: Historical analysis of the Cold War. (accessed September 28, 2014).http://ehistory.osu.edu/World/articles/ArticleView.cfm?AID=66
Tennessee For Me. "Domestic Impacts of the Cold War." Tennessee 4 Me. (accessed September 28, 2014).http://www.tn4me.org/tpsapage.cfm/sa_id/20/era_id/8
US History. "McCarthyism." ushistory.org. (accessed September 26, 2014).http://www.ushistory.org/us/53a.asp
US History. "McCarthyism." ushistory.org.
They began to worship Lenin, and Stalin encouraged this by playing a prominent role at Lenin's funeral and encouraging the Party to collect and display some of Lenin's personal belongings and important documents. He made the people believe that he had supported Lenin and Lenin supported him, even though that was not true. While publicly he seemed humble and meek, in reality he was now waging war against Trotsky. Because he had so much power within the Party, he began to speak out against Trotsky, and people were afraid of their own positions, so they listened and they began to support Stalin. He always used his power to put fear into the people around him.
Trotsky's power was in his leadership of the ed army, and Stalin began to work against him to replace him with someone of his own choosing. Stalin kept index cards with information on all the…...
mlaReferences
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin: Denunciation." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia.
1994, 2000-2005, on Infoplease. © 2000-2005 Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease. 08 Nov. 2005 http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/people/A0861299.html
Moynahan, Brian. The Russian Century: A History of the Last 100 Years. New York: Random House, 1994.
Vision and Mission of Allies and the Axis Armies
The Allies power were the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union. However, the Axis were German, Japan and Italy. The mission of allies was to liberate Europe and the Pacific against German insurgency. However, the mission of Axis power was to take over the world and kill all Jews. Typically, many countries fought on the side of allies and axis powers directly and indirectly. Major allied countries that fought during the World War 11 were the United States, Russia and France. However, German, Japan, and Italy fought on the side of the Axis power. Moreover, Britain, Soviet Union and China were the allies however, Finland was not part of the allies.
The overall mission plan of Allies operation was to weaken and break through defense line of the Omaha beaches as well as the Normandy beaches in order to liberate Paris from…...
Diplomay and the Cuban Missile CrisisIntrodutionThe Cuban Missile Crisis (16 Otober 1962 to 20 November 1962) began with the disovery by US intelligene of Soviet missile launh failities in Cuba. The threat of an attak on US soil was made lear to President Kennedy by his Joint Chiefs of Staff, who urged Kennedy to take aggressive ounter-measures. Kennedys main onern was that aggressive ation on his point ould lead to even more aggressive retaliation on the part of the Soviet Union and ultimately to nulear war. Largely seen as exerising oerive diplomay to avoid a military onfrontation, Kennedys diplomati efforts in the Crisis have been praised as a defining moment in the Cold War. The reality of the situation is, however, that behind the senes Kennedy engaged in quid pro quo diplomay to satisfy Khrushhev and avert a war.BakgroundThroughout the latter half of 1962, ampaigns for the upoming Congressional eletions…...
mlac. Nathan, J. (1992). The heyday of the new strategy: The Cuban missile crisis and the confirmation of coercive diplomacy. Diplomacy and Statecraft, 3(2), 303-342.d. Nathan, J. (Ed.). (2016). The Cuban missile crisis revisited. Springer.e. Weaver, M. E. (2014). The Relationship between Diplomacy and Military Force: An Example from the Cuban Missile Crisis. Diplomatic History, 38(1), 137-181.
Soviet Law
The legal system of ussia may be viewed through the prism of communism and Marxism, but that is not all that needs to be considered when discussing Soviet than ussian legal ideology and court systems (Bartlett, 2008). In reviewing the development in how western scholars think about the impact on ussian law from Soviet legal practices, Bartlett points out that law is more than just statutes it is also the "social practices norms, behaviors, and expectations" of the public (Bartlett, 2008, p. 4). As one of the world's nuclear powers and the largest country in Eurasia an understanding of the development of Soviet ussian legal practices is essential to an understanding of region.
Origins of USS Legal History
Soviet law was portrayed as socialist law but the ideology behind it was strictly Marxism (Berman, 1948, p.223). In the socialist legal framework, the legal systems under a capitalist regime are viewed in…...
mlaReferences
Berman, J., (1948). The challenge of soviet law. Harvard Law Review, 62(220), pp. 220-264.
Dobrin, S., (1956). Some questions of early soviet legal history. Soviet Studies, 7(4), pp. 353-372.
Kahn, J., (2008). Law and Legal System of the Russian Federation. Review of Central & East European Law, 33(2), 239-247.
Krygier, M. (1990)., Marxism and the rule of law: Reflections after the collapse of communism. Law & Social Inquiry, 15(4), pp. 633-663.
One of the most interesting issues in international relations is the role that nuclear weapons play in the effort to obtain peace. Many people suggest that nuclear weapons can preserve peace. The United States was the first country to actively deploy nuclear weapons in an effort to shorten a war by dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II. The widespread destruction, which was unlike anything ever experienced in a war up to that point, is often credited with ushering in the end of World War II, at least in the Pacific....
The Chernobyl nuclear incident remains one of the worst unintentional nuclear disasters to ever occur. It is important to understand what happened at Chernobyl, before, during, and after the incident, in order to avoid a similar incident occurring in the future. Understanding the after effects is also important for seeing how a nuclear disaster can impact an area that is not heavily populated by humans, because some of the results of the results have been surprisingly positive for the flora and fauna in the Chernobyl area.
Chernobyl was a nuclear power plant in Russia. Like all....
I do not agree with the statement that opposition to the Weimar government from 1924-1929 was harmless. There were several significant opposition groups during this period that posed threats to the stability and functioning of the government.
Firstly, right-wing extremist groups, such as the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler, emerged during this time and gained considerable support. These groups vigorously attacked the Weimar Republic, spreading their ideologies of racism, anti-Semitism, and authoritarianism. Their opposition was far from harmless, as they organized violent activities, attempted coups, and disrupted the political process. The Beer Hall Putsch in 1923, led by....
1. The rise and fall of the Russian Empire
2. The impact of Peter the Great on Russian history
3. The role of the Russian Revolution in shaping modern Russia
4. The Soviet Union under Stalin's rule
5. The Cold War and its effects on Russia
6. The fall of the Soviet Union and the transition to a market economy
7. The role of Russia in World War II
8. The cultural and artistic history of Russia, including literature, music, and visual arts
9. Gender roles and women's rights in Russian history
10. The legacy of Tsarist Russia in modern-day Russia
11. The impact of the Mongol invasions on Russia's....
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