Two Regimes: Witness to War
Purpose
The purpose of this lesson is for students to examine life under Stalinist Soviet Union, before, during and after World War II using primary and secondary sources.
Support Materials
All support materials for this lesson can be found at this Google Link:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1aR1E7W5R8tX94MYX1xtwcXhhAsVuPOsa?usp=sharing
Support Materials which are included in the above link are listed below.
NOTE: Be sure to preview all materials before using with your students
- 33-minute film “Two Regimes – Two Genocides” downloadable .mp4
- Background Summary 1917-1941 a Word document
- Background Lecture a PowerPoint presentation
Printouts of:
- Teodora Background Sheet – PDF
- OPTIC Analysis for the film “Two Regimes – Two Genocides” Word document
- Map Exercise – PDF
- Passages Worksheet – Word document
- Two Regimes Writing Assignment – Word document
- Excerpts from TWO REGIMES – A MEMOIR by Teodora Verbitskaya – PDF
- Holodomor 1932-1933 – At a Glance
- Holocaust 1933-1945 – At a Glance
Also Available
- Holocaust Hyperlinked Resource Materials
- Nadia Werbitzky Biographical Information
Florida: Next Generation Sunshine State Standards
- WORLD HISTORY SS.912.W.1.3 World History Benchmark: Interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources.
- WORLD HISTORY SS.912.W.7.8 Benchmark: Explain the causes, events, and effects of the Holocaust (1933-1945) including its roots in the long tradition of anti- Semitism, 19th century ideas about race and nation, and Nazi dehumanization of the Jews and other victims.
- WORLD HISTORY SS.912.W.7.5 Benchmark: Describe the rise of authoritarian governments in the Soviet Union, Italy, Germany, and Spain, and analyze the policies and main ideas of Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, and Francisco Franco.
- LANGUAGE ARTS FLORIDA STANDARD 1112.READING HISTORICAL TEXT 1.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
- LANGUAGE ARTS FLORIDA STANDARD 1112.READING HISTORICAL TEXT.2.6 Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.
- FLORIDA STATUTE 1003.42(g) Required Holocaust Education Mandate Public School Instruction
Author
Dr. Jonathan Grant and Kelly Bowen
Formative Assessment
Assess student knowledge about the Soviet Union. Teacher may ask such questions as: What do you remember about the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviet Union, or Bolsheviks/Communists? What can you recall about Vladimir Lenin or Josef Stalin? If necessary, teacher can provide background from the background sheet. This should take about 5 minutes.
NOTE: Be sure to preview all materials before using with your students
Feedback to Students
The students will receive feedback initially after their OPTIC exercise and map exercise are completed. The teacher will also give feedback in class during Day Two as students are relaying their answers to the worksheets. The teacher will provide verbal feedback after the worksheets are completed to ensure that students are working in the right direction in preparation for completing the response paper.
Summative Assessment
Summative Assessment Task:
Students should be able to demonstrate their understanding of the Holodomor, World War II, and the Holocaust by accurately responding to the writing prompt using the excerpts from the memoir as supporting evidence. They should have accurate notes from the worksheets to help them prepare for the writing assignment.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Students will be able to describe the living conditions for the civilian population in Ukraine during the Holodomor 1932-1933 under Stalin.
- Students will be able to explain how the German invasion and occupation of the Soviet Union during World War II affected the subject populations.
- Students will be able to evaluate the memoir excerpts as a primary source by assessing potential biases and determining the reliability of the memoir by comparing the accounts in the memoir with those in several secondary sources.
- Students will be able to cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources.
Guiding Questions
- How do we know if a primary source is accurate?
- What is the Holodomor 1932-1933?
- What is the Holocaust 1933-1945?
- How did repression in the Soviet Union under Stalin differ from the repression of Nazi Germany?
- Were there any similarities in the repression of the two systems?
- How can we generalize a common historical experience from a unique personal account such as a memoir?
Prior Knowledge
Students should be familiar with the following vocabulary words/concpets/ket figures:
Prior to completing this assignment, students should understand the causes and factors leading to the Russian Revolutions of 1917. Assess student knowledge about the Soviet Union. Teacher may ask such questions as: Who has heard of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Soviet Union, or Bolsheviks/Communists? What do you know about Vladimir Lenin or Josef Stalin?
Students might have prior knowledge of the Russian Civil War 1918-1920, the establishment of communist rule in the Soviet Union, and the building of socialism under Josef Stalin. Russia’s poor performance in the First World War aggravated existing social and political problems in tsarist Russia, most notably the peasantry’s demand for land and educated society’s desire to end autocracy and the incompetent rule of Tsar Nicholas II. The overthrow of the tsarist system brought the Provisional Government to power in March 1917, but that government’s determination to continue the war opened the way for the Bolshevik Party (Communists) under Vladimir Lenin to capitalize on growing anti-war feeling to seize power in November 1917 and establish the Soviet state. Lenin’s repression provoked anti-Bolshevik opposition and led to the Civil War in which anti-Bolshevik forces (dubbed “Whites’) fought the communists (“Reds’). The Civil war caused more Russian deaths than the First World War. Red victory meant that the Soviet Union emerged as a new country, replacing tsarist Russia. Lenin died in 1924, and following a period of economic recovery Josef Stalin initiated the ‘Building of Socialism” in the Soviet Union beginning with the implementation of the first Five-year Plan in 1929, policies that caused the deaths of 5 to 10 million Ukrainians known as the Holodomor 1932-1933. Stalin established a centrally planned economy that used the forced collectivization of agriculture to control the country’s supply of food. Students should also have familiarity with Nazi Germany, the Gestapo, and the SS.
Teaching Phase
Prior to class, download the film “Two Regimes – Two Genocides”, and print out the hand outs for your students.
Day One: Show the film Two Regimes – Two Genocides 33-minutes.
- Hand out the OPTIC Analysis of Paintings in the film Two Regimes – Two Genocides.
- Review the sections of the worksheet for the students understanding.
- Have the students complete the OPTIC Analysis worksheet.
Day Two: Provide a background lecture about the Soviet Union from 1917-1941 (See attached lecture) 35-minutes
Guided Practice
- After discussing the information presented in the lecture, distribute copies of the memoir excerpts from Two Regimes (A Memoir) by Teodora Verbitskaya
- Distribute the Teodora background sheet.
- Distribute the Two Regimes (A Memoir) excerpts worksheet.
- Then have students perform the map exercise in class to have students locate the key places in her memoir. 10 minutes
- Walk around and briefly guide students who may be confused about the events/details in the memoir.
Independent Practice
The teacher should assign students the excerpts of TWO REGIMES to read over the weekend. The teacher should handout the two-page memoir worksheet also at this time. The teacher should instruct the students to answer the questions on the worksheet by taking notes with page number and quotes in preparation for the in-class discussion.
Day Three – Teacher will divide the class into groups for discussion about their answers to the excerpt’s worksheet and then invite the groups to share their answers.
Closure
In order to prepare for the final writing assignment, hand out the following:
- The Holodomor 1932-1933 – At a Glance.
- The Holocaust 1933-1945 – At a Glance.
- The Writing Assignment
Explain the writing assignment which is based on three questions: suggest to students’ ways to organize their responses to these questions using all the course materials provided.
Accommodations
Students with visual or hearing difficulties may be seated closer to audio/visual equipment.
Students who are non-sighted will be provided with a verbal description of each painting. Teacher should seek assistance from student’s ESE service provider in adapting necessary materials to meet student’s needs.
Teacher will stop the video as necessary for clarification and discussion.
Students who are unable to work in pairs for discussions may choose to share their ideas independently in writing.
Students who struggle with motor skills can use word processor or dictate the independent practice and summative assessment task.
Extensions
To further extend this lesson:
The teacher may ask students to search for other primary or secondary sources concerning the Holodomor, World War II, the Holocaust and the Soviet Union. These new items could be used to refute or buttress the interpretation from the memoir.
Further Recommendations
Ideally, this lesson will be started on a Thursday so that students will have the weekend to complete the reading of the memoir and the excerpt worksheet for Day 3 classwork on the following Monday.
Short Summary
This lesson will expose students to a primary source memoir written by a Ukrainian woman who lived under the Stalinist Soviet Union, survived the Holodomor 1932-1933, experienced the invasion and occupation of Ukraine by Nazi Germany, witnessed the roundup of 7,500 Jews (who were then murdered and buried outside the city limits), and then was deported with her daughters to work as a slave laborer in Nazi Germany. Students will analyze her memoir to assess the role of Ostarbeiters as slave laborers. As a culminating assignment, students will write a 3-4 page response to the writing prompt using examples from the memoir excerpts and additional course materials as evidence.
Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and the Foundation for Leon County Schools.
