Collapse of the Soviet Union Reading Packet

Explain the diplomatic and economic causes of the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse, including the roles of Reagan and Gorbachev.

Define Cold War vocabulary terms — communism, foreign policy, arms reduction, military coup — using context from the passage.

Answer text-based multiple-choice questions that require locating explicit details stated in the passage.

Compose a paragraph synthesizing the passage's events using five required domain-specific vocabulary terms.

Preview the seven-term vocabulary list before students read, since the terms appear in quick succession in the passage before the matching page reinforces them.

Have students complete the five-box event-summary diagram before the paragraph-writing prompt — it works as a graphic-organizer prewrite for that final task.

Print only the four numbered activity pages for students and hold back the three answer-key pages for grading or self-checking.

Assign the packet digitally through the bundled Google Slides and Google Forms links instead of printing, since the vendor built parallel paper and digital versions.

Reading comprehension of historical nonfiction — students locate explicit details across an eight-question multiple-choice section drawn directly from the passage.

Domain-specific vocabulary acquisition — students match seven Cold War terms (communism, foreign policy, arms reduction, military coup) to their definitions.

Cause-and-effect reasoning — the event-summary diagram has students connect the Cold War, the arms reduction talks, and the Soviet Union's dismantling as a linked sequence.

Text-based paragraph writing — students synthesize the passage into an original paragraph using five vocabulary terms as required content.