Unit Overview:

This unit examines the establishment and development of communism in Russia. Students will begin by creating a map and timeline of significant communist governments around the world. This is to highlight communism’s spread around the world as we study its origins in Russia. Students will participate in extensive reading to understand the foundations of communism with Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin. They will also learn about the actions and impact of Russian leaders Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and Mikhail Gorbachev. Students will create a comic, participate in class discussion, complete reading and note-taking, and complete a test to demonstrate their learning.

 

Personal Unit Overview: What did you achieve this unit?

In this unit, I learned a lot about communism: how it started, and why it was implemented in various countries. I also learned about the Russian government under different leaders, from Lenin to Putin. It was really interesting to learn why and how Russia became the country it is today.

 

Enduring Understandings:

• What are the benefits and downfalls of communism?

  • The benefits of communism is that everybody receives equal amounts of resources, which means that most of the resources and wealth aren't only with the smallest percent of the population, and poverty is not as extreme. However, communism often leads to corruption because it's usually run by a small group of people, like when Russia was controlled by Lenin or Stalin. The problem with a country being led by one person or a small group of people is that these leaders tend to have very limited differences in their ideas. Therefore, there's a lower chance of the country developing into different directions. For example, the first Russian communist government refused to industrialize so they ended up lagging so far behind other modernized western countries.

 

Area of strength: Which standard was your strength and why?

My strength in this unit is integrating visuals and data in my presentations to show my understanding of the things I've learned.

 

Area of growth: Which standard needs improvement and how can you improve for the future?

I could improve on my organization in general so I could do my work more efficiently.