On this Tuesday I will talk more about Afganistan, the boycotting of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and the rise of the Solidarity movement and other dissident movements in Eastern Europe.

On Thursday,  you have a rare opportunity to hear our Dean of International Education, Martha Merritt,  speak about her experiences first hand as a Russian-speaking graduate student in political science living in Moscow during the final Gorbachev years. She was studying the Soviet political system and witnessing its collapse simultaneously.

I originally had this as a “pending” slot on our syllabus, but I just got word that Dean Merritt is available and will be the guest speaker for our class on Thursday, Nov. 9.