This instructional unit combines a study of the Soviet leader V. I. Lenin with a study of libraries. Lenin was selected as the focus because of his support of books and libraries and because he oversaw a revolution that altered the political and social structure of Russia and the balance of power throughout the world. Included are lesson plan…

Presents translations of six Russian language articles which highlight the relationship between Marxist philosophy and contemporary educational practice in the USSR. (JDH)

Reviews the operating principals and history of the United Nations Security Council. Examines the concept of collective security and the means by which it is pursued. Concludes by listing a four-point doctrine designed to increase international security. (JDH)

Describes how social studies teachers can explore students' knowledge of communism and the Soviet Union. Explains how to help students make sense of communism's fall. Encourages teachers to ask students what happened, why, and what it means for the future. Explores course evaluation and the topic's meaning for all U.S. citizens. (SG)

Defines war as symptom rather than cause. Identifies the root cause of the Middle East crisis as destruction of the regional balance of power through foreign augmentation of Iraqi power. Criticizes the tendency to see world problems as a fight between good and evil. Defines realism as the ability to see political realities as a balance of power.…

Discusses the fall of communism in eastern Europe. Applies Latin America models to eastern Europe. Suggests that revolutions are shaped by the systems against which they are directed. Concludes that the problems of eastern Europe are not caused by the system so much as by geography. Argues that poor capitalism may lie in the future for eastern…

Asserts that increasing numbers of significant historical archives are being opened. Relates the story of historian Patricia Kennedy Grimsted who spent 30 years identifying the existence and history of national archives in the former Soviet Union and Eastern European nations. Maintains that her efforts have helped historians take advantage of…

Reports on a reading-discussion program of the Vermont Reading Project. Describes the origins, development, and operation of the program. Includes titles of literature works used in the project. (CFR)

This issue of a quarterly publication on world affairs explores the historical significance of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the implication for U.S. foreign policy. With the breakup of the USSR in 1990-91, Russia for the first time this century does not have control over the non-Russian nations of its former empire in Central Asia,…

The goal of the Stanley Foundation is to encourage study, research, and discussion of timely international issues in such a way as to promote understanding of and tolerance for their complexity and to contribute to a secure peace with freedom and justice. Presented are four conference reports with a common characteristic. In each case, the United…

Mikhail Gorbachev has drastically altered the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, and in so doing has also brought about a new international political reality for all of Europe. This paper contrasts Gorbachev's "New Thinking" in foreign policy with the Brezhnev Doctrine (an approach associated with former USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev that…

Traces U.S.-USSR relations throughout Ronald Reagan's administration. Analyzes the shifts in Reagan's policies toward the Soviet Union. Examines the reasons why Reagan changed his views on the Soviet Union, and discusses the political Right's response to Reagan's changed position. (RW)

Like no other region on the globe, the Caribbean Basin has served as a testing ground for U.S. foreign policy. Of all the countries in the region, Cuba has been the scene of many of the United States' most riveting foreign policy dramas. The teacher resource book and student text probe the complex, often troubled, relationship between the United…

The reinterpretation of past events has been a natural phenomenon of twentieth century historiography. Historical revisionism--the reshaping by contemporary scholars of traditional views of the past--has been an inevitable and necessary trait of the profession and has contributed to the growth of humankind's perception of previous generations.…

Hearings on The Soviet-Eastern European Research and Training Act of 1983 are presented. Objectives of the act are to help ensure the nation's independent factual knowledge of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, to help maintain the national capability for advanced research and training on which that knowledge depends, and to provide…