Cult of Stalin / Stalin’s legacy in Cold War era Russia

September 24, 2020

Cult of Stalin / Stalin’s legacy in Cold War era Russia.

Twentieth Century Culture & Conflicts

Fall 2020

Analysis Research Paper

You will be required to write one analysis research paper in which you form your own thesis and use at least 2 primary sources and at least 2 scholarly secondary sources to support your argument and explain the context. For this paper, you will need to pick a specific conflict or culture topic from any time between the start of World War I and the early years of the Cold War, so roughly from between 1914 with the assassination in the Balkans to 1961 with the building of the Berlin Wall. The paper should be about 5-6 pages long and should show advanced research on a specific topic.

This paper will require you to identify and analyze at least two primary sources that will help you understand your theme and prove your thesis. You can refer to sources we use in class but they will have to be in addition to the two you are going to analyze in your paper on your own. Just as a reminder, primary sources are works created by someone living at the time. You can look for radio addresses, movies, diary entries, newspaper articles, books, treatises, comics, art, political cartoons, poems, etc. In addition, you will need to track down at least two scholarly secondary sources. By scholarly, I mean books or articles written by a professional historian, with citations and research. You should use these sources to provide you with background information to support your ideas.

This is an analysis research paper, which means that in addition to doing background research on the theme of your choice, you do need to argue a point. Come up with a thesis statement to drive the analysis part of this paper. Include relevant background information but strive to prove something to me throughout your paper.

Directions/Format:

Pick a topic: Since this is a truncated semester, I am going to list some specific topics below and get you started on the primary sources. But, if you would like, you can also come up with a topic of your own, just run it by me as soon as possible.
Look for a few primary and scholarly secondary sources and start doing some more in-depth reading on your topic and keep narrowing down your interest. If you find a good secondary source, check out their bibliography. If It is a book, use the index to go to the particularly relevant sections and follow the citations to look for more primary and secondary sources to track down.
Once you have some of the basic info on the topic and have looked at a few primary sources, come up with your thesis statement. Remember, your thesis statement needs to make a point, it isn’t just a general topic or title for your paper but it needs to be a statement that you can prove using evidence.
Write a 5-6 page paper. Have a cover page (this doesn’t count in the page count), insert page numbers, start your text on the top of the first page after the cover page (no additional heading). Have an introduction and conclusion. Double space, 1 inch margins, Times New Roman font, use formal writing (no contractions, slang, fluff – proofread).
Use formal citations. Use either MLA or Chicago style for citations. You can find out how to use both by going to the Purdue Writing Lab website: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/

Due Dates:

Week 4 Zoom Paper Conferences. Set up a time to Zoom with me outside of class to discuss your preliminary research and thesis statement. Sign up in the Google link and come to our 20 minute meeting with some notes on what you want to write on, your initial ideas as to a thesis statement, and at least 1 primary source that you have already analyzed. Your participation / preparedness will be “graded” as a HW grade.
Submit your final paper by Sunday, September 27^th by midnight. Blackboard will run your paper through SafeAssign, which will check for plagiarism so make sure you properly cite every time you get your information from a source. Do not use uncited, non-scholarly online sources!

Possible topics:

Branches of Social Darwinism and their impact
Flu epidemic of 1918
Existentialism (should pick a thinker or artist)
The Black Hand or other revolutionary groups in the Balkans
War recruitment propaganda (for either war)
War rationing propaganda / connection between food and morale (for either war)
The role of nurses in the trenches (should pick a “front” and a country)
Armenian genocide in Turkey during WWI
Psychological developments after WWI (Freud on human brutality, Gustave Le Bon on the psychology of total war, Grafton Elliot Smith and Tom Hatherley Pear on “shell shock” trauma)
Harlem Renaissance (should pick a theme / person)
The Spanish Civil War and the rise of Franco
WWII and integration (ex: Tuskegee Airmen)
WWII and changes in women’s role in the work force
Nanjing Massacre and Japan’s invasion of China in World War II
Hitler Youth / Fuhrer Cult / Hilter’s use of propaganda and speeches
The Concept of War Crimes / The Nuremberg Trial
Nazism’s role in declining eugenics theories in US after WWII
Nazis and the church in Germany
Gypsies / Roma and the Holocaust
The Treatment of POWs in WWII (should pick a country to focus on, like German treatment of Russian POWs)
Nazi doctors and experimentation on prisoners in WWII (maybe pick a particular group of doctors or particular concentration camp)
The Einsatzgruppen Reports
Resistance movements in WWII (ex: the Warsaw ghetto uprising, French Resistance movement, Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS)…)
The Manhattan Project and atomic bomb research
US internment of Japanese-Americans
The Korean War OR Vietnam War (reasons why it started, its impact, etc. will need to pick a conflict and a specific theme)
Cult of Stalin / Stalin’s legacy in Cold War era Russia
Stalin’s gulags / Russia and the tool of exile
The origins of the nation of Israel
The Suez Canal Crisis
The Berlin Crisis
The Nuclear Test Nam Treaty and/or SALT treaties on limiting missile systems and nuclear power