In March 1921, white clad troops under the command of General Tukhachevsky, and acting under the orders of Lenin and Trotsky, crossed the late winter ice that linked the naval base of Kronstadt to Petrograd. The troops mission? To suppress a rising of the sailors and workers at the base, who had opposed Lenin’s Bolshevik regimes The brutality of the suppression that followed ended any hope that the Soviet Union would develop as a genuinely popular, peaceful system. There is a sense in which the horrors of Stalinism and the gulag were predicted in the decision of Lenin to butcher the Kronstadt rebels, and in the eagerness of his enforcer, Trotsky, to carry out the task. What is often referred to as the ‘Kronstadt moment’ defined the essentially repressive nature of Soviet communism, a characteristic that was to endure down to the USSR’s final collapse in the early 1990s.
Course aim
To introduce a key event in European history
Do I need any particular skills or experience?
- You will need your own personal email address so that you’re able to login to the WEA’s digital learning platform: WEA Canvas. You will need to be able to understand how to follow URL links to pages on the internet. If you want to understand more about Canvas please visit: http://bit.ly/WEAonline
- You will need to be able to follow links to join our WEA live video learning platform: WEA Zoom. If you’d like to understand more about our video learning platform, Zoom please visit: http://bit.ly/WEAonline and http://bit.ly/ZoomSpec
- This is a live lecture delivered by a subject specialist in an online webinar video learning platform. You will need to be able to access the internet on a device with speakers or earphones. There will be opportunities to take part in discussions and chats. If you’d like to know how to use Zoom please visit: http://bit.ly/ZoomSpec
- No skills or experience needed
- This course is for beginners
- This course is for improvers
- This course is suitable for beginners and improvers
By the end of the course I should be able to:
- appreciate the main features of the topic
- see the event in its historical context
- appreciate its wider political significance
- make judgements regarding conflicting interpretations
- show awareness of the social and economic factors
How will I be taught?
- The WEA’s digital learning platform, Canvas will be used to provide resources or to support lessons, enable assessment, provide learner feedback and for other activities for individuals away from the course. If you want to understand more about our digital learning platform please visit: http://bit.ly/WEAonline
- The WEA tutor will use a range of different teaching and learning methods and encourage you and the group to be actively involved in your learning
- You will be expected to carry out a range of activities in your own time
What kind of feedback can I expect?
- You will be able to keep a record of your progress and achievement using photos, audio, text or documents uploaded into the WEA’s digital learning platform, WEA Canvas.
- Your tutor will provide written, text and audio feedback recorded in WEA Canvas, WEA’s digital learning platform.
- You will be able to keep a digital portfolio of your work on WEA’s digital learning platform, Canvas.
- You will have opportunities to discuss your progress with your tutor
- You will be encouraged to share your work with the group and discuss your learning
What else do I need to know?
- What you need: You will need an internet connection, speakers, a microphone and a webcam so that you can use our video learning platform, Zoom. If you’d like to understand more Zoom please visit: http://bit.ly/ZoomSpec
- Nothing else is needed
- All materials will be provided
Pre-course work, reading and information sources
- You will have access to course resources and links to wider learning through the WEA’s digital learning platform, Canvas: http://bit.ly/WEAonline
- No pre reading is required but research on the subject on the internet or in the library may be helpful
What can I do next?
- Progress to another WEA course
- Progress to a course with another provider
- You could progress to Higher Education courses. Follow link to the PEARL website for information http://pearl.open.ac.uk/
- Access the WEA What Next? booklet here http://www.wea.org.uk/learn-wea/what-can-i-do-next
Download full course information sheet
