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Listed in: Political Science, as POSC-75
William C. Taubman (Section 01)
(CP, IR) The topic until further notice will be “Gorbachev, the End of the Cold War and the Collapse of the Soviet Union.†When Mikhail Gorbachev became its leader in 1985, the Soviet Union, while plagued by internal and external troubles, was still one of the world’s two superpowers. By 1991, the cold war was over, and on the day he left the Kremlin for the last time, December 25, 1991, the USSR ceased to exist. Of course, Gorbachev was not solely responsible for this upheaval. Developments in the USSR and the world prepared the way. But he set decisive change in motion, and no one else in the Soviet leadership would have done so. This course is therefore a case study of the impact of personality on politics, but also of the limits of that impact, and of the importance of other causes (economic, political, social, ideological, international) of events that changed the world. This course fulfills the requirement for an advanced seminar in Political Science. Instructor consent required. Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Taubman.