Teaching Resources and Study Guides
Teaching Resources and Study Guides
Study Guides for David Edgar’s Iron Curtain Trilogy
The Shape of the Table Study Guide (PDF)
Pentecost Study Guide (PDF)
The Prisoner’s Dilemma Study Guide (PDF)
External Links
You can find teaching resources typically highlighted in the right hand side bar of each page (where available), and video resources are directly embedded in the pages. However, please feel free to explore the links listed below as they appear by module.
Definition of communism via Dictionary.com
The Communist Manifesto—Document text in English
Karl Marx—Biography and other information
Friedrich Engels—Biography and other information
The Revolutions of 1848—More information
The Russian Revolution –More information
Timeline of the Russian Revolution
Video Lecture on the Russian Revolution and Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky—Biographies and other information
Lenin’s Testament document text
Joseph Stalin—Biography and other information
The Great Purges—More information
Great Purges video
Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact document text
Non-web:
Pipes, Richard (1990). The Russian Revolution: 1899–1919. London: Collins Harvill.
Service, Robert (2000). Lenin: A Biography. London: Macmillan.
Montefiore, Simon Sebag (2003). Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
Service, Robert (2004). Stalin: A Biography
The Yalta Conference –More information
The Yalta Agreements document texts
The Potsdam Conference via BBC
The Potsdam Agreements documents text
Harry Truman and Potsdam—Biography and other information
Annexation of Soviet Socialist Republics—More information
Poland, 1939 map
Finland and the Winter War map
The Soviet Socialist Republics map
Occupation of Germany, 1945 map
Video on the Allied Division of Germany via YouTube
Non-web:
Fulbrook, Mary. “The Two Germanies, 1945–90” (ch. 7) and “The Federal Republic of Germany Since 1990” (ch. 8) in A Concise History of Germany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004): 203–249; 249–257.
Video introduction to the Cold War via YouTube
The Long Telegram original document via the Truman Library
The Long Telegram—More information
The Truman Doctrine—document text and more information
Containment Theory—More information
The History of the Marshall Plan—More information
The Marshall Plan—More information
Organization for European Economic Cooperation—Information via OECD
Video on the Marshall Plan via YouTube
Text of the Marshall Plan speech
COMECON—More information
NATO—More information
Warsaw Pact—More information
PBS film on Nuclear Arms Race via YouTube
The Iron Curtain map
The Iron Curtain —Information and videos via Encyclopedia Britannica
Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” Speech—Informational video via YouTube
Iron Curtain Speech—Full audio via YouTube
Iron Curtain Speech text
Photographs of the Berlin Wall via the Cold War Museum
Timeline of the Berlin Wall
Interactive map of the Berlin Wall
Checkpoint Charlie—More information
Life in East Germany—Article from the Guardian
Recommended Films:
Timeline with informational material
Timeline: Soviet Union History
Khrushchev’s Thaw—More information
Prezi presentation and Quizlet study tools
The GULAG system—Online Exhibit
1953 GDR (East Germany) Uprising—More information
1956 Hungary Uprising—More information
Ukrainian Nationalism—More information
Brezhnev Doctrine—More information
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties I and II—More information
Soviet invasion of Afghanistan More information via Encyclopedia Britannica
Soviet-Afghanistan War More information via Ducksters
Mikhail Gorbachev—Biography and more information
Glasnost and Perestroika—Biography and more information
Boris Yeltsin—Biography and more information
Video on early causes of Collapse via Neok12
Video on the Collapse of the Soviet Union via NeoK12
Solidarity—More information
Solidarity Movement video via YouTube
Solidarity origins—More information
Lech Walesa—Biography and more information
Solidarity Timeline via the BBC
Czechoslovakia: The Velvet Revolution—More information
Civic Forum—More information
Vaclav Havel—Biography and more information
Hungary, 1989—More information
Janos Kadar—Biography and more information
Karoly Grosz—Biography and more information
Hungarian Socialist Party—More information
Hungary punches a hole in the Iron Curtain—Article from German news source, Spiegel Online
Pan-European Picnic—Article from German news source, Deutsche Welle
East German flight video via YouTube
BPENTECOST-Study-GuideShape-Study-GuideDilemma-Study-Guideulgaria—More information
Todor Zhivkov—Biography and more information
Petar Mladenov—Biography and more information
Romanian Revolution of 1989—More information
Nicolae Ceausescu–Biography and more information
Ion Illescu–Biography and more information
The Birth of a United Europe:
History of the EU timeline from the European Union
Video introduction to the EU
European Coal and Steel Community—More information
De Gaulle and British ascension—More information
Schengen Agreement—More information
Single European Act—More information
Treaty on the European Union—More information
Single currency—More information
Foreign and security policy—More information
Justice and home affairs—More information
Single market—More information
Treaty of Amsterdam—More information and summary here
The Stabilization and Association Process—More information
Treaty of Nice—More information
PDF files of all EU treaties—primary documents
EU Enlargement Groups gif—interactive map of EU ascension groups
How the EU works today Videos and explainer from the BBC
Introduction to the Prisoner’s Dilemma and MAD
Mutually Assured Destruction—More information
Cuban Missile Crisis—More information
Online Exhibit on Cuban Missile Crisis with interactive primary documents, photographs
Eastern Europe transition: Shock Therapy More information
Jeffrey Sachs Biography and more information
Differences in success for post-Communist transitions
Freedom House Reports through 2000 on democratization and economic transition in post-Communist countries
Freedom House Report 2014 on democratization and economic transition in post-Communist countries