Two Challenges to Communism in Poland.\u00a0 <\/strong>It is impossible to understand the fall of communism in Europe after 1989 without addressing the impact of both Karol J\u00f3zef Wojty\u0142a\u2019s ascendency to the\u00a0Throne of St. Peter 35.\u00a0 LECTURE:\u00a0 Wednesday, November 16<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n Gorbachev’s Revolution of Reform.<\/strong>\u00a0 Mikhail Gorbachev\u2019s made a grand attemp to reform Soviet communism.\u00a0\u00a0 For several years, his calls for \u201cperestroika\u201d (economic restructturing) and \u201cglasnost\u201d (openness) were a cause for unparalleled excitement, both within the socialist bloc and in the liberal west. Check out the two videos here<\/a>.\u00a0 Yet despite the fact that this period looked like it might lead to a revolutionary stage of communnist development, it ultimately resulted in revolution against the system and the death of Marxism-Leninism.\u00a0 Some observers have argued that his reforms were destined to fail due to the manifest shortcomings of the socialist system.\u00a0 The events in the Ukrainian city of Chernobyl<\/a> in 1985 provided ample cause for reflection<\/a>.\u00a0 Yet others, like Malia, contend that\u00a0communism was moribund\u00a0anway, regardless of\u00a0 happened in the Soviet bloc.<\/p>\n 36.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 DISCUSSION SECTION:\u00a0 Friday, November 18<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Because you have been working on your papers, there will be no section.\u00a0 Please hand in your paper to your TA.<\/p>\n 37.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>LECTURE:\u00a0 Monday, November 21<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Violence Amidst Reform in China.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Since the late 1970s, scholars have debated whether China is following a special path in the late stages of constructing socialism.\u00a0 Was the army’s deployment<\/a> against student protestors on THANKSGIVING BREAK:\u00a0 Wednesday November 23-November 27<\/strong><\/p>\n Gorbachev was not alone. <\/strong>Gorbachev wasn\u2019t the only reformer in the Soviet bloc in the 1980s.\u00a0 In fact, his policies helped to accelerate significant shifts in domestic policies that were already underway in countries like Hungary and Poland.\u00a0 Yet when Gorbachev\u2019s policies proved to be unworkable, these countries’ governments had to decide whether they would continue with reform or simply move on to something entirely new.\u00a0 Indeed, it’s possible that they had no choice in accomodating themselves to a totally new political system.<\/p>\n 39.\u00a0 LECTURE: Wednesday, November 30<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Those who refuse to learn . . . . are punished by history.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>In this lecture, I will address the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ensuing collapse of communism in East Europe bydescribing my own experiences in East Germany in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n 40.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 DISCUSSION SECTION:\u00a0 Friday, December 2<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Paragraph Assignment<\/em>:\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t McAdams predict the fall of communism?\u00a0 How can he have been so daft?\u00a0 Please identify those features of late 20th-century communism that would have enabled McAdams to predict the events of 1989.\u00a0 What lessons should he learn from being so shortsided?<\/p>\n 41.\u00a0 LECTURE: Monday, December 5<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Yet others learn Your final essay assignment\u00a0will be around\u00a0<\/strong>HERE<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong> \u00a042.\u00a0 LECTURE:\u00a0 Wednesday, December 7<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Concluding Reflections.<\/strong> We go back to the beginning.\u00a0 I seek to make sense of the “long, strange trip” that was world communism.\u00a0 Some experts say that Lenin is dead<\/a>. But maybe<\/a> not.<\/p>\n Top of Page<\/a><\/strong> \u00b7 <\/strong>Founders<\/a><\/strong> \u00b7 <\/strong>Competitors<\/a><\/strong> \u00b7 <\/strong>Defenders<\/a><\/strong> \u00b7 <\/strong>Reformers<\/a><\/strong> \u00b7 <\/strong>Losers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this concluding section of the course, we return to the debate between Cohen (individual volition) and \u2018Z\u2019 (structure).\u00a0 Should the Hungarian (1956) and Czechoslovak (1968) experiments with socialist reform have prepared us for the fact that Gorbachev’s efforts to reform Soviet-style communism from above would fail?\u00a0 In contrast, how might the Chinese Communist Party […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":114,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-31","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/31\/revisions\/64"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blogs.nd.edu\/communism-fall2011\/files\/2011\/08\/Pope-poland.jpg\")
<\/a>\u00a0in 1978 and the formation of the independent Polish trade union movement, Solidarity (Solidarno\u015b\u0107),<\/em> in 1980.\u00a0 In my view, the second event would not have taken place\u2013at least, not as early as\u00a0 it did\u2013without the first.\u00a0 In the documents below, note the rapid acceleration and politicization of events over a mere 13 months.<\/p>\n\n
\n
<\/a>Tian Anmen square, as well as around Beijing and in other major\u00a0 cities, d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu<\/em> all over again?\u00a0 Or have China’s reforms over the past 3 decades signified something very new about world communism?<\/p>\n\n
\n38.\u00a0\u00a0 LECTURE:\u00a0 Monday, November 28\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n
\n
<\/a>what we don\u2019t want them to learn . . . . and somehow survive. <\/strong>Ironically, China, North Korea,Vietnam, and Cuba learned that the best response to popular demands for revolution was retrenchment.\u00a0 Still, ‘retrenchment’ meant different things to each of them.<\/p>\n\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nThe use of electronic devices of any kind, including laptops, cell phones, video cameras, and personal digital devices, as well as those I don’t even know about, is prohibited in my classroom!<\/em><\/p>\n
![Lenin is dead<\/a>.](\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_QeEdv2l2x30\/SP2Yeib85kI\/AAAAAAAABQ8\/i9YE_nVd2CQ\/s400\/7.jpg\"){kind=link}