HIS 100 Project

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Southern New Hampshire University *

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100

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History

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Feb 20, 2024

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docx

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3

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HIS 100 Project Template Use this template to address the steps in your Project Guidelines and Rubric. Replace the bracketed text with your responses. Ensure that you have considered your instructor’s feedback when revising your work. Proofread the entire document before submitting. Part 1: Creating a Research Question 1. Describe how your assumptions, beliefs, and values influenced your choice of topic. With me being from Germany I have heard about Chernobyl a lot, even though the accident was a few years before I was born. We also discussed it some in school, without exact details. So, my interest came back up when I saw the topic on the list, and I thought I might be able to utilize some knowledge I had before starting my research. Also, to me nuclear activity is something scary, so I thought doing my research might help clear up if my thoughts are right or more wrong. 2. Discuss the significance of your historical research question in relation to your current event. My current event of the nuclear waste dump in the ocean shows me the world has not learned from bad events in the past (my historical event – Chernobyl) and money is still more important than human beings. Because that is all this is about. Chernobyl was a good money-making plant, which was supposed to produce energy for cheap, but nobody ever got information about how dangerous it is (besides the government of course). And I would have thought the world would take this as an example and put extreme requirements on even running a nuclear plant. But no, as mentioned my current event shows the opposite and dumping waste cheap is more important than health. 3. Explain how you used sources to finalize your research question. First, I listened to my course instructor and finalized my research question with his feedback. But I tried to search libraries, the internet, took advice out of discussions and searched as many sources as possible. Because I needed to make sure I would be able to understand my source and utilize it for my paper. I found so many that I had to start making sure to only pick the ones that I was able to understand and that made sense to me. With this strategy I was able to build my research question. Part 2: Building Context to Address Questions 1. Describe the context of your historical event that influenced your current event. The context of my historical event is a nuclear accident at the Chernobyl plant. The plant was talked about multiple years before the accident of requirements that needed to be corrected. But none of this was communicated to the public. To society it looked like a great opportunity to make good money for your family, to move to a town close by which hosted mostly plant workers and their families, and the plant promised a great future. Until April 26, 1986 – a night to remember, when the accident occurred, fatalities happened right away and many more got sicked and died because of the side effects of nuclear activity. But not just did it affect workers, no it affected people living close by, nature, the economy, life and pretty much everything around the plant. Even as dramatic as this is, I do not believe it has influenced my current event, since nuclear waste still gets dumped into the ocean and nuclear plants are still able to run as if nothing has happened. 2. Describe a historical figure or group’s participation in your historical event. The Soviet government – which covered up this whole accident drastically. They made it look like nothing had happened and it did not affect anything around it. And even after the truth was 1
closer to being told, they started drifting away from the Chernobyl accident and trying to talk about other accidents that had happened. They covered up the dangers before the accident and the reality of what the side effects of the accident really are. 3. Explain the historical figure or group’s motivation to participate in your historical event. The motivation in the beginning (opening the plant) was to make money, since producing nuclear energy is much cheaper than any other kind. After the accident the motivation was to keep quiet about what really happened, about the dangers in general and the soviet government did not want anybody to know, they knew it had flaws and they were not telling the public, instead they lured the public to the area to have more workers and pretend they created something great. Part 3: Examining How Bias Impacts Narrative 1. Describe a narrative you identified while researching the history of your historical event. I have found many different narratives on my research journey. Many reflect the cover-up, because stories seem to be too positive for what just happened. But one narrative I have found I enjoyed reading very much – it is written by a journalist Yu. Shcherbak, who talks about the real world after the accident. No sugar coating, no cover up, he talks about the changes and how life had to go on. It impressed me since it was real talk, and not rainbows and sunshine. 2. Articulate how biased perspectives presented in primary and secondary sources influence what is known or unknown about history. Biased perspectives will only let you know what they want you to know – no facts, documents, letters or anything. A biased perspective can be more positive/ negative than the real event. It might include some other facts, because of what the storyteller wants you to know. And with that it can change facts of history. If there are no documents, letters, or real facts that are existent, the biased storyteller can form stories to how he wants, to what he wants people to know, what he does not want them to know and how he wants to tell the story. Biases can change facts completely. 3. Identify the perspectives that you think are missing from your historical event’s narrative. I believe the perspective that is missing is the government perspective with the truth. Which would never happen, because then they would admit to making mistakes, showing weaknesses and caring more about money than their people. Part 4: Connecting the Past with the Present 1. Explain how researching its historical roots helped improve your understanding of your current event. I always wondered why we never talked much more about the accident in school or anywhere else since we lived fairly close to the site. I believe the only time we spoke about it was in Geography class to see the radius of the effected area of nuclear activity. Now I know why. The Soviet government was trying to hide it all and cover it up. I also thought it was a genuine accident, which it was not. The workers did not know enough about the topic, not enough safety measures were in place, and it was all about making money. 2. Articulate how questioning your assumptions, beliefs, and values may benefit you as an individual. 2
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