Научно-практическая работа " Железный занавес "

                    Municipal educational institution 

               “Gymnasium №4” 

               C. Sterlitamak RB

                                           RESEARCH WORK

     “Iron curtain” and it’s affection on relations between states and country         development 

Performed by a student of grade 10b

Of the MAEI “Gymnasium No. 4”

Of the UD, The city Sterlitamak

Agibalova Christina Alexandrovna

Scientific director 

Saphina Lilia Ilgezarovna 

                                  STERLITAMAK, 2022

                               Table of contents 

Introduction                                                                                                           2

Chapter 1. Theoretical part                                                                                  3

Chapter 2. Conducting and analysing a sociological survey of students          7

Chapter 3. Research part                                                                                    8

Conclusion                                                                                                            9

Literature                                                                                                            10

Appendix                                                                                                            11

                                                                           1

                                                          Introduction

Social, political and cultural relations are largely regulated by interaction with other states and now the relevance of relations with West countries and Europe is increasing again. Earlier clash with the “Iron curtain” was observed while USSR times and the current political situation shows that the discord between states has not been completely eliminated. Iron curtain formally considered as a political cliche, which means informational, political and border barrier, erected in 1919-1920. This barrier has been separating the USSR and other socialist countries from the capitalist countries of the west. The curtain started to crumble only in the 80s. But was the iron curtain really overthrown and what were the consequences?

Relevance of work

Many parameters of the country, such as standard of living, technological development and economic growth depend on relations with other major powers and discord in these relations often threatens with negative consequences and even war. Current political conditions show that today this discord exists and poisons not only the cultural branch of life, but also many others. 

Purpose of the work: to study influence of “iron curtain“ on relations between states and country’s development

Object of research - people of western and east countries

Subject of research - increasing chance of an iron curtain

Tasks:

1.  To study historical term of ‘iron curtain’.

2.  Investigate consequences of the iron curtain and it’s influence.

3.  Review current manifestations of the iron curtain, it’s dangers and causes    4. Conduct a social survey among citizens about relations between east and west.

   5. Investigate how citizens perceive strained relations with other countries and how can it affect them.

5.  Draw conclusions.

6.  Recommendations for narrowing the gap between people’s  

                                                       2

                                   Chapter 1. Theoretical part

The origin of the term:

The first person who used this concept was G. Wells in 1904 in his book “The food of the Gods“ to describe the enforcement of confidentiality.

Later, in 1919, the French prime minister Georges Clemenceau also used this concept, but in anti-soviet way: “ We want to put an iron curtain around Bolshevism, which will prevent it from destroying civilised Europe”.

Anyway, formally this cliche was introduced by W. Churchill on the 5th of

March 1946 while his Fulton speech which was marked as the start of the Cold War

Here’s an important thing-the first time after bolsheviks came to power People had access to other countries with certain conditions, such as absence of debts, which is not very special or unusual, but later, literally in 1929 they began to sharply reduce the amount of available currency that was allowed to take abroad and already in 1931 in the instruction of entry in and exit out of the USSR a norm was introduced:

“Permits for travelling abroad for travel on private business are issued to soviet citizens in exceptional cases”-soon, exit visas came to use and the iron curtain went down for many years. The right to see life on the other side remained only with diplomats, employees and military.

This obviously had interrelated consequences like:

-Unfortunately, Russia historically has long lagged behind European states in development and the barrier between states made even less possibilities to catch them up.

-Also, as soviet government used propaganda, interaction between cultures and the cultural development have declined further 

-Another big minus of the iron curtain is economical consequences: the restrictions in supply of goods, strained relations, all of these were causing economical instability 

                                                            3

-And that’s not all! Lack of access not only to ordinary goods, but also to the latest medical equipment led to increase in the mortality.

-Cold War also should be mentioned, because it’s inextricably linked with the iron curtain. It is obvious that Cold War led to rising tension between states and also affected citizens.

-Arms race is a thing connected with Cold War and the main problem of itgrowing sense of fear in  people, and this also added the tension in relations. 

So, is there an iron curtain now?

Even though the fall of the Berlin Wall was considered as the date of the iron curtain fall, we still can see manifestations of strained relations between Russia and European or west states. Actually, the propaganda is still here, it’s just simply provided as a choice, so it’s even possible to assume that the current propaganda is more affective than the soviet one. There is a big threat of new iron curtain and this is due to the current political situation between Russia and Ukraine-US recognises Russia as a threat and the consequence of such conflict could easily be a new iron curtain, the western side also often  imposes sanctions on Russia. Unfortunately, the situation with Crimea had bad effect on relations with European countries too. Well, actually, not many of states took Russia’s side: it’s only Syria, Bolivia, North Korea and Armenia. Some people believe there were none, but it’s not true. New conflict with Ukraine breeds new reasons for disagreement. 

Which problems does it cause?

There is many problems caused by influence of relations with other states:

1)     Economical situation-the ratio of the rubble to the dollar is getting only worse. For today, 1$ represents 80₽, which is definitely cannot but affect the economic situation in the country. A violation of relations with other states can harm the commodity market, as sales to them and the purchase of goods from them are reduced

2)     Fear among the people. Mental stress reduces performance, contributes to morbidity and increases dissatisfaction with the government.

3)     Cultural detachment from other states and aggression towards them. 

Russia also called for the withdrawal of NATO forces from Romania and Bulgaria, for which was accused by the Romanian Minister Defence Dynka of trying to create a new iron curtain. 

                                                          4

It is important for people to remain understanding, polite and kind to each other. Cases of Russophobia from foreigners are not uncommon, unfortunately not only from politics but from our behaviour too. Due to cultural distance peoples often evaluate each other stereotypically

                                                         6

 Chapter 2. Conducting and analysing a sociological survey of students

In order to confirm the information, we conducted a social survey among people. Since the opportunity to interview foreigners live, the survey was conducted on online sites such as Chatroulette. In total, 30 people took part in the survey. Two questions were asked: 

1.     Does Russia have any reason to fear Western countries?


2.     Do Western countries have any reason to fear Russia?


The first diagram ( Appendix 1 ) presents answers of the people to the question “ Does Russia have any reason to fear Western countries? “. The majority answers was “ Yes ”.

The second diagram ( Appendix 2 ) presents the answers to the question “ Do western countries have any reason to fear Russia? “. 1/3 answers think so.

In addition, we found surveys already conducted by other people. One of them in the third diagram ( Appendix 3 ), which represents the general opinion about Russia among 38 countries. Most part of answers is unfavourable.

                                Chapter 3.  Research part.

Identifying the anxiety of people because of strained relations with other countries.

To begin with, I complied and formulated in a pie chart format the possible root causes of anxiety for these people. Then I conducted a survey among adults on the street. Using the methods of mathematical statistics, I proceed the data obtained to build diagram. The result obtained in Appendix 4.

The diagram shows, that for people relations with other states are important and they are interested in them. 

                                           Conclusion.

In the course of the research work, the consequences and reasons for which the possibility of an iron curtain is dangerous. The relations are inextricably linked to the welfare of the population and their cultural awareness. As a result of the study, it was found that the most part of people are concerned about the current situation and many foreigners have a negative opinion of the whole country due to the political conflicts. This gives rise to economic, cultural, military, information problems. One of the factors is disinterest in foreign culture and history.

I believe that in order to reduce this gap and being more close as people’s we should more communicate to each other and show more interest to the culture of the others. Being more polite and friendly is much better than being unreasonably aggressive.

                                               Literature:

1.           https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2013/09/03/global-opinion-of-russiamixed/

2.           https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.rbc.ru/rbcnews/politics/ 10/01/2018/5a549d4b9a79476120fe5065

3.https://znak.com/2018-04-06/

zheleznyy_zanaves_kak_nasha_strana_otgorodilas_ot_mira_i_prevratilas_v_bo lshoy_konclager

4.https://www.history.com/.amp/this-day-in-history/churchill-delivers-ironcurtain-speech

5.https://www.britannica.com/event/Iron-Curtain

6.https://lenta.ru/news/2022/01/22/iron/

                                                          Appendix

Appendix 1

 

Appendix    2

11

Appendix 3

                                       Appendix 4

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