Teaching with the News
Russia and Georgia: Conflict and War (Fall 2008)
Why Should your students learn about Russia?
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The violence and war in Georgia has brought the U.S. relationship with Russia back to the front pages and rekindled an important debate. How should the United States view Russia: as a growing threat, a tough rival, a potential partner, or something else? How do Russian policies affect the United States? What policies should the United States follow to manage its relationship with Russia?
"Russia has now regained a sense of self-respect. We spent so many years feeling there was something wrong with us—others lecturing us on how we should live and where we should go. But we have overcome our inferiority complex.”
—Valentina Matviyenko, governor of St. Petersburg, July 11, 2007
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced nearly a decade of economic turmoil and political upheaval. Many Russians felt humiliated by the fall from a mighty superpower to a struggling country with a crippled economy and ineffective government. Today, Russia has emerged from this period of turmoil and is reclaiming an active role in international relations. Confident and assertive voices have risen in Russian politics—voices that are of increasing concern in Europe and the United States.
Russia is a giant among nations. The country covers one-seventh of the earth’s land and contains huge reserves of oil, gas, minerals, and other natural resources. Russia possesses a nuclear arsenal comparable to that of the United States and a powerful army. Washington and Moscow are no longer the bitter enemies they were during the Cold War, but neither are they allies.
Resources from the Choices Program
The new Choices curriculum unit, Russia's Transformation: Challenges for U.S. Policy, can help your students consider the policy choices before the United States. Using primary sources, readings, and simulations, students consider the history of the U.S. relationship with Russia and explore changes inside Russia since the end of the Soviet Union. The materials prepare students to role-play a debate in the U.S. Senate about what principles and policies should govern the U.S. relationship with Russia.These resources can help your students make sense of the news coming from this region.
Additional Online Resources
Teachers might find it useful to have students explore the following online resources for coverage of current events.
You Tube has English language Russian news produced in Russia.
Johnson’s Russia List is an archive of contemporary domestic, international, and Russian press accounts about current events in Russia.
The New York Times provides general information about Russia, including links to other sites and to current news articles
Lenin’s Mausoleum is a Russian website that explores Lenin’s tomb, offers audio of Stalin and Lenin, and a poll as to whether Lenin should be buried.
Meeting of Frontiers is a bilingual (Russian-English) Library of Congress website that offers a multi-media examination of the exploration and settlement of the Russian-American frontier in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.
Let us hear from you: If you join our mailing list, we will notify you via email when new Choices curriculum units or Teaching with the News mini-units are developed.
Review a list of Choices publications: In addition to its online resources, the Choices Program publishes a wide range of curriculum units on historical turning points and current issues. All published units include extensive background readings and accompanying lesson plans. Ordering is available online.
