One more semester completed...mostly

It took some serious crunch time but I finally got my essays done for this class. I can't complain too much, the procrastination is my own damn fault. But the important thing is that they are done. I took an incomplete for the class which means I have some time to finish the last assignment. I did learn a couple of interesting tidbits about Stalin from Edvard Radzinsky's book "Stalin" -

He may have been gearing up to start World War III - He was fortifying Moscow with a ring of air defense specifically designed by distance/size to target any potential bombers. He also made references to carrying the revolution to the rest of the world and at the same time was pressuring his scientists for a bigger atomic bomb.

He was mostly likely left to die - When he was found on the floor there was some "delay" in deciding the course of his medical care. Officially nobody wanted to be responsible for his care, but unofficially why not let a man who had killed his friends and his enemies with the same enthusiasm (including you if continues to live) die by equally enthusiastic lack of action.

Radzinsky's book was difficult to read. He has a lot of personal reminiscing about talking to his sources and his writing style takes getting used too, but he did very well with a difficult subject.

I think I learned my lesson this time around, at least a little bit. Waiting until the midnight hour sucks ass. So I think I'll be finishing the last assignment up by the beginning of September so I can close the class out. In the meantime, I'm already signed up for the next semester with a couple of really interesting classes:

HUX 574 - Key Periods and Movements, History: The Age of Revolution

HUX 580 - The Ancient Near East

During this upcoming semester I will have to figure out what I want to do for my thesis. I was considering some work on the Port Chicago mutiny, espionage during the Cold War (I read once that de Gaulle sent agents onto our military base in Germany to steal a nuclear weapon after he was denied one by the U.S.) or perhaps something completely different. I guess I should figure that out fairly soon.