Photo of the Russian imperial family leaving the Winter Palace to "mingle" with the "people" after the declaration of war on 3 August 1914 (20 July by the Russian calendar).  It is difficult, but you can pick out Tsar Nicholas II in the photo.  This was one of the last "good" days for the imperial couple, as the Russian people--as did most of the other citizens of countries in Europe--enthusiastically greeted the onset of war and rallied around the tsar.

• Read chapters 23 and 24 in Coffin/Stacey.
• Read my remarks on the Great War and also on Russia and World War I.
• Check Private Donald Fraser, War Diary, September 1915, who was a member of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, as he recounted his experiences on the battle field.
• Study the Questions to Consider and the Key Terms for the week.
• Post (or respond) your thoughts/ideas about this unit's reading and assignment in the Blackboard online discussion forum. Do not post your assignment there.

• Read Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (if you are going to submit the optional Remarque paper).
• Submit the Optional Remarque paper.  If you don't understand why I call this an optional paper, take a look at the Explanation of Assignments and Grading
• Listen to some further information about this unit as a mp3 file.  You can also read the information as a txt file.
• Read my notes on Franz Kafka, one of the most important writers of the twentieth century.
• There are an unbelievable amount of source documents that have been published with regard to World War I.

• World War I: Battle Of Verdun 1/4
• Battle of the Somme - Real Footage
• Bruno Cabanes - Yale, The Great War, Grief, and Memory
• World War I
• Causes of World War I
• Professor Lynn Hunt - UCLA, World War I
• Monet's Water Lilies
• See also the videos dealing with Russia and World War I in the HIS 242 course.
• For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant video for this unit of the course. Send the title of the video, the url and a brief explanation of why you find the video interesting and applicable to the material that is being studied in this unit.

• Take the short 5-point quiz(zes) for this unit's textbook chapter(s). Log into Blackboard and look under "Chapter Quizzes." You have five minutes to complete each quiz (multiple-choice questions).
• Explain the impact of World War I in a one-page paper for a maximum of 50 points (maybe more depending on how good).  Please be sure to cite your sources.  Start here (canadaonline.about.com/od/ww1battles/p/beaumonthamel.htm).
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, watch All Quiet on the Western Front (1930, directed by Lewis Milestone), and assess the historical accuracy of the film in a one-page paper.
• In a one- or two-page paper for a maximum of 50 points (maybe more), offer a detailed contrast between Remarque's depiction of the war in his novel and Milestone's view of the war in his film adaptation of the novel.
• For 50 points maximum extra credit, read Barbara Tuchman, The Guns of August (1962) and write a one-page paper in which you explain what went wrong for the Russian army in the first two months of the war.
• For 25 points maximum extra credit, read the "Willy-Nicky" Telegrams, exchanged between tsar and kaiser, 29 July - 1 August, 1914 and write a long paragraph in which you assess these rulers' grasp on reality.
• For 25 points maximum extra credit, read the comments by Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941, Emperor 1888-1918), "A Place in the Sun" (1901) and write a long paragraph explaining how the Kaiser's attitude contributed to the march towards war.
• For extra credit of a maximum of 10 points, you can submit the answers to the Remarque study questions.  Please write in formal, complete sentences.
• For extra credit, please suggest a relevant website for this unit of the course.  Send the title of the site, the url and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied this unit.