Final exam
Answer BOTH questions in the form of an essay, using full, grammatically correct, sentences.
Address all the points raised in each set of questions.
Use no more than approximately 500 words per essay.
- Historians have begun to distinguish a difference in the unfolding of the Holocaust in eastern and western Europe. In how far does the Babyn Yar massacre prove the validity of this point? How and why did the shooting at Babyn Yar unfold in the manner it did in late September 1941? How did so many Jews of Kyiv fall into Nazi captivity? Why did they not escape? And which Kyivan Jews did escape the killings? Why did the non-Jewish civilian population of Kyiv stand by and let the massacre occur?
Illustrate your discussion by referring to some of the document drawn up by Berkhoff and his fellow authors (indicate page numbers to which your refer, for example, or provide a short quotation, or paraphrase something–and refer to the page[s] that you paraphrase).
15 points
- The textbook by Boterbloem (History of Russian and its Empire) ends in 2018. Since that year many significant developments have occurred in the post-Soviet region, not least in Ukraine and Russia. What would you change (especially, but not exclusively, in the last chapter) to bring the textbook up to date and continue the story until the spring of 2023? What would you add? In which respects do you differ with Boterbloem’s assessment of Vladimir Putin and the prospects for Ukraine and Russia of five years ago? What would you alter or delete?
15 points
