Videos
Causes of the Cuban Missile Crisis
A chronological overview of the events leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Solidarity and the fall of communism in Poland
A detailed explanation of why Poland was the first country in which the communist government fell. Includes an interview with former Polish president Lech Walesa. Taken from Curriculum Bites.
Losing Soviet control over eastern Europe
These three videos present the events that led to the end of communism in the Eastern Bloc.
PART 1 – Gorbachev, the attitude of Honecker, Hungary 1989, Poland 1989, Warsaw Pact Summit 1989, the economic and political situation in East Germany, the crossing of East Germans through Hungary
PART 2 – East Germany’s 40th anniversay demonstration, fall of Honecker, fall of the Berlin Wall, the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia
PART 3 – Uprising in Romania leading to the end of Ceausescu
The relationship between the USA and the USSR in the 1980s
Gorbachev’s involvement in nuclear disarmament negotiations between the Soviet Union and the USA. The USA’s plans to develop ‘Star Wars’ and the collapse of talks at the Reykjavik in 1986. From Curriculum Bites.
Glasnost and Perestroika
The differences between the two terms ‘Glasnost’ and ‘Perestroika’ and the effects of these policies, from Curriculum Bites.
The Berlin Wall and the fall of East German communism
An explanation of the dramatic fall of the Berlin wall in November 1989. From Curriculum Bites.
