Materials

• List of Cold War Web resources for each student:
• Internet access
• Copies of a map of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the former Eastern Bloc Nations (one copy per student)

Instructional Activities

NOTE: The following Web resource may be helpful with this session:

• “Education Place.” Outline Maps. <http://www.eduplace.com/ss/ssmaps/>. This site permits visitors to print a variety of maps.

1. Recap the major points of the Cold War. Discuss how people lived in fear that the world would be destroyed at the push of a button in Washington or Moscow.
   
   
2. Have students write down definitions for the following terms:
   • freedom
   • liberty
   • oppression
   • imprisonment
   • desperation
   • nationalism
   
   
3. Direct students to rewrite those definitions as if they were living behind the Iron Curtain. Then discuss how the feelings of people behind the Iron Curtain would spur independence movements.
   
   
4. Complete the following activities on the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War:
   • In the computer lab, find Web sites to complete the Nationalism activity detailed below:
   
   
5. Instruct students to do the following:
   • Using the maps of the former Eastern Bloc countries and the modern Map of the Commonwealth of Independent States, label the nations and dates of independence movements.
   • Make written notes in response to three questions:
   – What was common in each of the revolts against communism?
   – What was the Soviet response to each rebellion?
   – How would this response influence further rebellions?
   
   
6. As students look at Web site “b” above, have them respond to the following:
   • Identify the following people and countries:
   – George Bush
   – Mikhail Gorbachev
   – Boris Yeltsin
   – Commonwealth of Independent States
   • Describe the economic conditions in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s. Explain how those economic conditions may have influenced the end of communism.
   • Describe the political instability in the Soviet Union during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Explain how that political instability may have influenced the end of communism.
   
   
7. Instruct students to answer the questions below:
   • Is the authors’ bias for or against the events of the Cold War? Prove your answer.
   • What was the economic cost of the Cold War?
   • What was the human cost of the Cold War?
   • What do the authors mean by “balance of terror”?
   
   
8. As a class, discuss the current state of the former Soviet Union and the new threats of nuclear armament in the world today.
   
   
9. Review important information for a quiz next session.