I. Germany to Moscow
II. Causes and Effects of Environmental Disasters
III. Genocide
I. Germany to Moscow
East Germany and Moscow were once under communism and a government controlled command economy, and transitioned into a market economy, due to political and social changes, but the change was not exactly smooth. The change between the two different types of economies brought problems to the lives of the people in Moscow and Eastern Germany. More poverty, problems, differences, animosity; less food, money, fairness, and opportunities for all. Is this what the countries governments planned for? Eastern Germany didn't think so, and a popular belief was that Western Germany did not do their part in the transition.
In Eastern Germany, when the Berlin Wall came down, also the command economy came down with it. The transition into a market economy made people have to manage their own money, which was something that was not needed under a command economy, and if a citizen didn't know how to manage their money they would be required to file for bankruptcy. People also had to compete for jobs and for business, which was something that would not happen under a command economy, because under a command economy, they would be given a job and there was no competition. If a person who made sweaters under the command economy, the sweater maker would have to find another job such as a shoemaker and the sweater maker would need to compete for that job, and once that person became a shoemaker that person would have to compete with other businesses for customers to consume the shoes made by that citizen. Eventually at the end of the day a person would need to know how to spend their own money without going broke.
In Moscow the situation was similar, now, whereas people were starving, because they couldn't support their families with their two jobs. The majority of the population had to work many jobs to just feed their families, and everything in Russia was based on a person's fiscal status. If a citizen was poor the person starved, if a citizen was rich, the citizen lived lavishly. Other problems in Russia included street signs that have changed, and youth gangs. Along with this came a change in religion and art. Art and religion were not normally allowed in Russia, but with the change in government came changes in this sector of life. Life in Russia was at a crossroad.
The Life in these two countries at the time would be not be a time one would want to live in, unless one was fairly wealthy. The transition between the two economies would put tension in the daily lives of the citizens of East Germany and Russia. Hardships and strife were primary effects of this transition at first. Broken promises by new neighbors, starvation, competition, poverty, were results of these transitions.
People are unsure if the transitions were right for them, because it seems more problems arose after the transition, but some argue people’s lives were better before the transition, and others argue against it. The only true way to know if their lives were better before or after, would be to ask a person who lived before and after the transitions.
II. Causes and Effects of Environmental Disasters
The Chernobyl and Eastern European environmental problems were mainly caused by poor decisions and improper planning. These problems caused severe environmental damage at the time and it will continue for a long period of time. Air pollution and Nuclear Reactor explosions are just a fragment of the results caused by poor Soviet planning. Poor soviet planning also resulted in the deformation and general 'messing up' of the genealogy of the people born and who live in and around the area in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
The Soviets Union caused many environmental disasters in the time it was around because of the rush to become a world power. Industrialization was another name for this. The Soviet Union worked somewhat like a car, it needed fuel, it needed something to drive it in a direction, it needed a destination, and it needed someone to pay for the 'car'. The Soviets needed power to fuel their revolution, so in turn they had to build power plants, and on occasion the power plants were faulty or built in a bad location. The Soviet Union also had coal and timber to build houses and to fuel the houses. To fund its revolution the Soviet Union had to have resources, and it had lumber, oil, lead, coal and water. The Soviet Union's direction was to become a major world power, and the person driving it was the actual people of The Soviet Union, but from the outside it was Joseph Stalin.
Effects of environmental disasters are still seen today, nearly a score after the fall of the Soviet Union, in Chernobyl, and throughout the region. In Chernobyl the nuclear reactor disaster lead to radiation which affects the people and future people in the region, which is quite evident as shown in some pictures and shown in text in examples. The natural resources drive caused deforestation and other poor human and environment interaction. In the rush to dig for oil the Soviet Union, they left the sky polluted and the land full of holes. Lead was cheap and available, but was bad for the health. These are more examples of bad soviet planning.
Poor Soviet planning seemed to be on the top of the Soviet agenda, which was slightly below 'Global Power' and 'Destroying our countries political and social freedoms', and suggested by the 'poor' in the planning, the planning was not very thought out, and was built on many faults, like many of the power plants. The Chernobyl disaster could be described as 'One of the most famous' disasters in the Soviet Time Period. The industrialization was still not good enough because The Soviet Union was almost always 30 years behind in technology, due to the economy. Russia's natural resources helped drive the 'Soviet Czar in his Car'(Czar referring to the leader of Russia not an actual Czar), and what does the car do when it runs out of gas?
III. Genocide
Genocide is defined as "Acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group", Genocides normally take place in one country dominated by one group of people, or one group of people targeted by larger majorities. Ukraine genocide, the Armenian Genocide, and the infamous Holocaust, what do they have in common? They all are genocides.
The Stalin/Ukraine Genocide took place in 1932 in Ukraine and is often referred to as the 'Artificial Famine' due to Stalin's plan to starve all those who attempted to oppose the Soviets, which is barbarianism because he is starving the Ukrainians as a whole, He also wanted to break the spirits of all who tried to start a revolution. The effects of this genocide would be killing 7-10 million Ukrainians, thus proving his ‘point’.
The Armenian Genocide which was a genocide that took place around Turkey that was occupied by the Young Turks, who were Muslim, and planned to get rid of all the infidels, and to reclaim their land, the Young Turks then proceeded to extradite all Infidels to the desert where they would starve to death. 1.5 Million Armenians and other Infidels were led to death in the desert, and Turkey currently is defending itself saying it was a war, when evidence points strictly against it.
The Holocaust the 'most famous genocide' or most widely known was started in 1938 and was triggered by a German soldier getting shot by a Jew, and in return a chain reaction led to The SS and Nazi Party using anti-Jew propaganda to escalate anti-Jew feelings. They then targeted the Jews and other people of non Aryan race, took place throughout Europe but centralized in Germany, with Hitler, his Nazi party and the SS leading. The SS and Nazi Party vandalized the Jews culture by burning religious documents and monuments, which would be a direct attack at their culture. The Holocaust used concentration and extermination camps to kill the undesirables, which were brutal methods of death, often humiliating. 7 million undesirables and 6 million Jews died as a result of the Nazi's. Today repercussions of these tragic events are felt through Europe.
Each of the genocides attempted to get rid of people that were not wanted by the use of direct force or in-direct force such as starvation and execution. The Holocaust and the Ukraine both had extremely high death tolls, and both were communist related, but one was by direct force (execution) and one was political prowess.
The Armenian Genocide and The Holocaust both targeted groups based on race or ethnic background, and killed them by direct force and in-direct, differences include that the people the death tolls between them have a huge gap and the purpose the Armenian Genocide was to reclaim the land.
The Armenian Genocide and the Ukraine Genocide both used indirect methods, and both are less known than the Holocaust, the greatest difference between these two is that the genocide in Armenia targeted ethnic groups, whereas the Ukraine targeted a country. Barbarianism is evident in the Armenian and Ukraine genocide due to the direct targeting on their beliefs, ethnicity, or country., which is another thing in common.
All of these genocides are catastrophes to human kind, and hopefully humans will learn from their mistakes and not commit monstrosities to this extent. Raphael Lempkin’s vandalism and barbarianism theories are evident in these genocides.