Reference no: EM132299230 , Length: word count:1750

Assignment -

Instructions: Select one question/topic from the discussion questions available for each module. Respond with one or two paragraphs.  Then reply to each of the two posts along with the discussion module.

Module 1 -

For Discussion Forum, please address any of the questions below. As always: you are required to make a minimum of THREE (3) posts per module. At least one of your three posts should be your own original comment; at least one - should be a response to or comment on something another classmate has posted; the third post can be either your own original post or a comment on a classmate's post. Keep in mind that your response should NOT simply be a summary of the assigned reading. A higher grade will be awarded to posts that demonstrate student's ability to provide an original interpretation of the topic while also applying relevant concepts, issues, and theories covered in the module.

1. The Leningrad - Seattle spacebridge features a dialog between American and (still) Soviet citizens at the very beginning of Mikhail Gorbachev perestroika. Did any of the questions (or answers) that the spacebridge participants brought up surprise you? To your mind, what was the most memorable moment of that bridge? Keeping in mind that, obviously, Soviet television was not going to invite dissidents to such a program, did you get a sense that Soviet citizens were generally happy and content with their lives? Did you get a sense of antagonism towards Americans? (alternatively, did you get a sense of antagonism towards the Soviets from the Seattle crowd?). Give specific examples from the video. What questions do you think would have been discussed (and why) if a dialog of this type happened between Russians and Americans today?

2. In this module you have read quite a bit about the Gorbachev era that ultimately ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Did any of the readings or video materials you have seen so far illustrate (or contradict) anything that you read about the Soviet Union of that time? Give specific examples.

3. As you now know, after Gorbachev rose to power in the Soviet Union in 1985, the reforms that he put into place dramatically changed the lives of Soviet citizens. Watch this brief video clip (length 6:32, excerpts from Robin Hessman's 2010 documentary My Perestroika) in which several Russians describe their personal experiences during that turbulent time. In your opinion, which of the new freedoms enjoyed by Russians was the most important? Why? Why do you think one woman in the video called this period a "really confusing and difficult time for our country"?

4. Tapping into your imagination here (please do base your answer on what you have learned in this module). If you were born in the Soviet Union in the late 1960s and were about 17 or 18 during the beginning of perestroika, what changes do you think you personally would have welcomed most? What would have been most difficult to adapt to? If you were the Soviet leader in 1980s and your goal was to improve the existing regime, what policies or reforms would you recommend? Which policies and reforms that Gorbachev implemented would you have stayed away from? (E.g. would you have introduced the anti-alcohol campaign? etc.). Although this is a "what if" type of question, make sure to provide detailed answers backed with facts and data from this module's materials.

5. For Russian / Soviet people of my generation, Gorbachev's perestroika (and then the collapse of the Soviet Union) was definitely a profoundly life-changing event on every possible level. What events would you identify as the key political events for your own generation? Why did you pick this particular event? If you choose to answer this question, make sure to explain how are these events similar to / different from what Soviet citizens experienced in the late 1980s.

Module 2 -

For Discussion Forum, please address any of the questions below. As always: you are required to make a minimum of THREE (3) posts per module. At least one of your three posts should be your own original comment; at least one - should be a response to or comment on something another classmate has posted; the third post can be either your own original post or a comment on a classmate's post. Keep in mind that your response should NOT simply be a summary of the assigned reading. A higher grade will be awarded to posts that demonstrate student's ability to provide an original interpretation of the topic while also applying relevant concepts, issues, and theories covered in the module.

1. Some historians (and Mikhail Gorbachev himself) believe that "Chernobyl was the real reason the Soviet Union collapsed". Discuss why this nuclear meltdown might indeed be one of the causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

2. As you read in this module's materials, in 2002, the radioactive "Exclusion Zone" surrounding the Chernobyl powerplant was deemed safe enough to permit guided tours of the area. In 2011 Chernobyl was officially declared a "tourist attraction" (one day round-trip tour from Kiev is $165 per person). What do you think about disaster tourism (or, for that matter, of any type of the so-called "thanatourism" or the "dark" tourism that takes travelers to concentration camps, dungeons, prisons, or graveyards)? Where does one draw the line between memorialization and commercialization? Should there be any clear guidelines on the ethics of marketing and promoting these sites? Make sure to draw parallels and cite materials from this module.

3. Many of this module's texts (both literary and cinematic) focus on the fate of local residents and rescue workers who were directly exposed to radiation or evacuated from their homes in the aftermath of the explosion. Discuss any of the texts (poem, film, story) that left the deepest impression on you. How does this particular text (or texts) describe the way the Chernobyl catastrophe changed / upset / undermined people's everyday lives?

4. Discuss the documentary Babushkas of Chernobyl. What stood out to you / surprised you the most? Why do you think these ladies insist on living on farms that the Ukrainian government and radiation scientists have deemed uninhabitable? How do they manage to get by, isolated, in an abandoned landscape guarded by soldiers, and rife with wild animals? How has the radiation affected them these past 3 decades? How is it possible that these women's connection to their community stronger than "radiophobia" (fear of radiation)? Lastly, does it seem like the Ukrainian government is providing these women with sufficient support? And, to give you a slightly different perspective on "uprooting" one's family, here is another story and a reaction from Chernoby's survivors to the film from TED Talk. How do you compare Tania's story to the story of the film's babushkas who wanted to have their dead bodies "smuggled" back into the "Exclusion zone" to make sure they are buried in their homeland?

5. Many of the module's personal narratives focus on human trauma and suffering that thousands of people had to endure after the Chernobyl disaster. From what you learned in this module, do you feel that the Soviet government's response to the catastrophe was adequate / appropriate? Was there anything specific that the Soviet government did (or didn't do) that surprised you?

Module 3 -

For Discussion Forum, please address any of the questions below. As always: you are required to make a minimum of THREE (3) posts per module. At least one of your three posts should be your own original comment; at least one - should be a response to or comment on something another classmate has posted; the third post can be either your own original post or a comment on a classmate's post. Keep in mind that your response should NOT simply be a summary of the assigned reading. A higher grade will be awarded to posts that demonstrate student's ability to provide an original interpretation of the topic while also applying relevant concepts, issues, and theories covered in the module.

1. Judyth Twigg begins her essay by stating: "The human costs of the Soviet regime were unquestionably and unbearably high. Few would argue for a return to the political repression, pervasive economic and bureaucratic inefficiency, corruption, and general malaise that plagued the late Soviet society. From the perspective of the Russian people, however, not everything about the Soviet Union was bad..." (p.147). Based on the materials you have read and watched, discuss what upsides and downsides of the Soviet (and post-Soviet) regimes Russian people experienced. Even though the question might be somewhat oversimplifying the issue, what were the "good" and the "bad" aspects of the Soviet regime?

2. From what you have learned so far, what advantages does the system of central planning have over a free market economy? What are the disadvantages? Give specific examples from your readings / viewings.

3. A question for those of you interested in business and economics. Writing in 2002, Harley Baltzer refers to Russia as becoming a "post-industrial petro-state" (p.164) (basically, a state that heavily depends on exports of raw materials [oil] to sustain its economy). You will continue hearing this term as you move on to the study of Putin's Russia. From what you have read in this module / know so far, why do you think this term is applicable to Russia? What in your mind makes the Russian petrostate essentially vulnerable? Do you have any examples from recent developments in Russia to illustrate the vulnerability of the petrostate?

4. Writing in 2002, Harley Balzer discusses several major problems that stemmed from or got exacerbated by psychological and physical shocks of the 1990s. Discuss any of these problems; provide your own feedback and opinion on them. From what you know about histories of other countries (including the U.S.), have major socio-political upheavals ever had similar impacts on the country's population?

5. Here's one more humanitarian problem for you to consider. Prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union many ethnic Russians resided in Soviet republics outside of Russia (say, in Ukraine, or the Baltic republics). With the collapse of the Soviet Union, all of these republics became different countries, many of which focused on the development of their own national identities. With the Soviet Union gone, ethnic Russians living in various former Soviet republics one day woke up "abroad." They never immigrated or gave their consent to living in a foreign country, it's just that the republic they lived in was now "foregn." To give you an example, during Second World War, my aunt's family ended up in Latvia. Latvia, of course, was a Soviet republic, where Russian was one of the official languages. My aunt was a little girl when her family took her to Latvia. She, of course, learned the Latvian language, went to Latvian school, then university, etc. At the time of the collapse of the USSR she was firmly established in Latvia: she was a secondary school teacher, and - apart from a few relatives - had no place to go to in Russia (she didn't need to!). For all intents and purposes she considered herself Latvian. When in 1991 Latvia became a brand new country, my aunt encountered tremendous hostility towards herself because she was not ethnically Latvian. She was fired from her job, and for a few years had to survive teaching private Russian lessons. (I must say, that within about 10 years things calmed down and she is now Latvian citizen - a whole separate long story). Provide your own feedback on this situation of ethnic Russians residing in former Soviet republics and all of a sudden facing the ethnic hostility that I described. If you are familiar with the recent Russia - Ukraine conflict, explain how president Putin used the argument of "ethnic Russians in Ukraine" as a pretext of annexing Crimea.

6. Discuss comedy monologues that I included in this module representing the eras of perestroika and the collapse of the Soviet Union. What are the themes and targets of satirists' writings? Give specific examples of Soviet / post-Soviet social, political, or economic issues that the comedians target. How do these stories present Russia as a nation? Did you feel that the topics and /or tonalities of the comedians' satire change from the late 1980s (perestroika era) to the 1990s? Using the information that you have about the era, explain the change (or lack thereof).

Module 4 -

For Discussion Forum 5, please address any of the questions below. As always: you are required to make a minimum of THREE (3) posts per module. At least one of your three posts should be your own original comment; at least one - should be a response to or comment on something another classmate has posted; the third post can be either your own original post or a comment on a classmate's post. Keep in mind that your response should NOT simply be a summary of the assigned reading. A higher grade will be awarded to posts that demonstrate student's ability to provide an original interpretation of the topic while also applying relevant concepts, issues, and theories covered in the module.

1. It appears that Mikhail Khodorkovsky has quite a number of images in Russian cultural discourse. He is the oligarch who "stole money from the Russians." He is also a martyr and "a prisoner of conscience" who suffered from Putin's regime. And yet again, he is the opposition leader trying to rally his Russian compatriots in the blogosphere. Based on this module's readings and videos, explain how these (and perhaps other?) images co-exist as part of Russia's collective perception of Khodorkovsky. Do you feel that the director of the film Khodorkovsky takes a particular stance towards this former oligarch?

2. The film Khodorkovsky begins with a group of young people stating that they either don't know who Khodorkovsky is or explaining that he is the person who stole lots of money from Russia. Khodorkovsky himself admits that in the 1990s he was far from being "saintly," yet claims that - at the time - he was simply playing by the rules of his society. The sentiment that Khodorkovsky (and other oligarchs) are basically corrupt tycoons with criminal associations, who promoted their private interests against their country's well-being, is quite common in today's Russia. Based on your readings and video materials, discuss why Russians might feel this way towards Khodorkovsky.

3. Discuss how patterns and functions of advertisement in Russia changed from Soviet to post-Soviet times. What new ads appeared in the Putin era? From what you have read and studied so far, how is Soviet and today's Russian advertisement different from what a Western consumer is used to? Discuss any one of the advertisement campaigns that Birgit Beumers desccribes in her essay "Consumer Culture": how is this specific ad similar to or different from what a Western consumer sees?

4. Here's a question meant for the economics / business majors among us. How do you think Bolris Yeltsin's economic policies of the early 1990's (especially the economic shock therapy) allow for the emergence of Russia's oligarchs? Give specific examples from the readings and video materials of the course.

5. From what you have understood from this module (and other readings in this course), what is the nature of the relationship between the economy and politics in Russia? What was the significance of oligarchs in Russia of Boris Yeltsin? Has this significance changed under Vladimir Putin's presidency?

6. What particularly surprised you in this module's readings and viewings? What new insights did you gain into the world of contemporary Russia and Russians? Give specific examples from the readings / viewings.

Module 5 -

For Discussion Forum, please address any of the questions below. As always: you are required to make a minimum of THREE (3) posts per module. At least one of your three posts should be your own original comment; at least one - should be a response to or comment on something another classmate has posted; the third post can be either your own original post or a comment on a classmate's post. Keep in mind that your response should NOT simply be a summary of the assigned reading. A higher grade will be awarded to posts that demonstrate student's ability to provide an original interpretation of the topic while also applying relevant concepts, issues, and theories covered in the module.

1. Using information about the concept of "personality cult" analyzed in Cassidy and Johnson article (esp. pp. 46 - 49), discuss the various ways in which Putin's cult has been created in today's Russia. From what you have understood from the course material so far, how does the Putin cult (and the opposition to this cult) differ from cults of other Soviet leaders (e.g. Stalin or Brezhnev)?

2. If you recall, in the documentary My Perestroika Borya (a history teacher) was unhappy with new history books that the Russian government was imposing on high schools. Read an excerpt from such a history book in Peter Baker's essay "Project Putin" (p.38). What is your opinion on the textbook's message? Do you feel this type of "historical" text is, in a way, a step back towards Soviet-style propaganda? Explain your opinion. Do you think schools need to draw a line between education and politics, education and indoctrination? Should any time be spent in schools glorifying (or even discussing) the country's leaders? Make sure to tie your answer to the Russian example.

3. Several readings and documentaries in this module talk about the mythology surrounding Putin's name, as well as about "the Putin brand." Discuss specific examples of various cultural mythologies surrounding Russia's current leader. Why do you think these mythologies might be important to his rule? Can you think of similar folkloric, mythological or popular cultural presentations of politicians as celebrities in other countries (including the U.S.)? In general, do you think politicians can be considered celebrities?

4. As you learned in this module, Vladimir Putin's first priority as Russian president was to bring prosperity, order and stability to Russia. From what you read / watched in this module, explain whether Putin was successful in stabilizing the situation in Russia. And, if he has indeed set Russia on the path of progress (at least economic?), why are there so many opponents and critics of his regime? (Make sure to back up your answers with facts and data from the module's materials).

5. In his article "Putin Era: Progress and Problems," Prof. John Thompson speaks about many paradoxes of Putin's presidency. Discuss any of these paradoxes that caught your eye the most.

6. Question for the political scientists among us. The materials you've studied in this module all bring up a number of different terms to describe Vladimir Putin's regime, from "kleptocracy" to central government authority to "sovereign democracy." Based on this module's materials, which term do you find most appropriate and why? (make sure to back your argument with facts from the readings / viewings).

7. Read the article "Universities Prepare for the Cold War Redux" Based on the information of this module (and any other information you've learned in this class), provide your own insight and expert analysis of the situation described as a cultural anthropologist / scholar of contemporary Russia. What are the roots of the issue discussed in the article? (How did it happen that, at least according to the experts interviewed in the article, "the number of people who can give qualified perspective (on Russia - OM) is near its lowest since the end of World War II"? What are the consequences of this situation? Did anything else catch your eye in the article? (For example, do you agree with a Professor from George Washington University that, when it comes to curricula, Universities are "faddish"? Can you give specific examples of such academic "fads"?)

Module 6 -

For Discussion Forum, please address any of the questions below. As always: you are required to make a minimum of THREE (3) posts per module. At least one of your three posts should be your own original comment; at least one - should be a response to or comment on something another classmate has posted; the third post can be either your own original post or a comment on a classmate's post. Keep in mind that your response should NOT simply be a summary of the assigned reading. A higher grade will be awarded to posts that demonstrate student's ability to provide an original interpretation of the topic while also applying relevant concepts, issues, and theories covered in the module.

1. Read excerpts from the manifesto of the NASHI group. Did any of the statements in the manifesto surprise you? Explain why. If you recall, in his article "Cults and Politics: Propagandizing Russia's Youth," Michael Jaskiw wrote that NASHI encourages "a narrow set of political views and demonizes independent thought." Based on the manifesto, agree or disagree with Prof. Jaskiw's statement. Do you agree that the manifesto indeed impinges on democratic freedoms and sets Russia up "for a future of repressions"? Or do you feel that his concern over Nashi's nationalism is an alarmist over-reaction? Back up your argument with specific examples from the manifesto and other readings in this module.

2. Do you think political figures in other countries (for example, sitting president of the U.S. or, for that matter, presidential candidates during election season) should be ever relying on support from youth organizations? How could a candidate / political figure benefit from such a group? How could young people benefit from joining such an organization? Could such a youth support group become anti-democratic? Whenever possible, during your own discussion, draw parallels to the readings and video materials of this module.

3. In his essay, Michael Jaskiw points out that some scholars have compared Nashi and their actions to "Hitler Youth." If you have read about Hitler youth in your other classes, do you agree with this observation? What are some examples of Nashi's actions that analysts can see as "extremest"? Could you compare the actions of Nashi to a cult? Make sure to back up your arguments with concrete examples.

4. Based on this module's readings and video materials, do you feel that young people who participated in the Nashi rallies were used as political pawns? Or were they exercising their rights to express their free will? What do you think might drive young people to join a political organization or a cult? Compare and contrast with Nashi and cite examples from this module's readings and video materials.

5. Have you heard of the "Pussy Riot" group before you took this class? How (if at all) did the film change your perception of current artistic and cultural life in Russia? Did the film change or shape your understanding of punk art and its place in society?

6. Has any art ever provoked or inspired you to change your thinking or to take action? How so? From what you have read and watched, how effective do you think Pussy Riot's strategy was (or rather still is) to inspire a revolution (riot) through their provocative punk art? Why do you think Pussy Riot believed that a controversial performance was the only way for them to get people's attention?

7. I think there is an interesting paradox that comes out of the multiple story lines of the documentary Pussy Riot: the Movement. When the girls are asked who would make a good replacement for Putin, they answer: Mikhail Khodorkovsky (the controversial exiled oligarch we discussed in one of the previous modules). Later on, without mentioning any specific names, the film's interviewees refer to the tremendous corruption in Russia and wealth that is concentrated in too few hands. But wasn't Khodorkovsky ultimately among those few corrupt individuals? Provide commentary based on the viewings and readings of this module.

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar