Reagan and Gorbachev: From ‘Evil Empire’ to Summits — KS4 Cold War Lesson (Edexcel GCSE)

How Did the Cold War End? Complete 6-Lesson Bundle (Détente to the Collapse of the USSR)

This KS4 History bundle brings together six fully resourced lessons covering the dramatic final phase of the Cold War, from the rise of détente in the 1970s to the collapse of the USSR in 1991. Students explore how brief cooperation gave way to renewed confrontation in Afghanistan, why Gorbachev’s reforms shook the foundations of Soviet power, and how relations between the superpowers transformed so rapidly in the 1980s. Designed for the Edexcel GCSE unit The Cold War 1945–91, all lessons are fully adaptable for AQA, OCR, WJEC and other major exam boards. The bundle includes six enquiry-led lessons, each with full teacher notes: • Détente in the 1970s: Cooperation or Cold War Tactics? How SALT, the Apollo–Soyuz Mission and the Helsinki Accords shaped US-Soviet relations, explored through a living graph, a true/false investigation and a multi-stage What Would You Do? scenario. • The Kabul Revolution 1978: Why Did Afghanistan Become a Cold War Flashpoint? Why a remote mountain nation became strategically vital, using image analysis, mapping tasks, a Brezhnev role-play introduction and a multi-stage decision-making activity. • The Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan 1979: Why Did the Crisis Escalate? A sequence of tasks including a register starter on 1970s relations, a recap crossword, a major What Would Carter Do? simulation, reaction-sorting tasks and a final knowledge-bingo plenary. • The Consequences of Afghanistan: Did the Invasion End Détente? How the invasion shattered cooperation and reshaped global tensions, taught through a Soviet cartoon starter, image interpretation, role-play as Brezhnev, and a vocabulary-sorting challenge comparing 1968 and 1979. • Why Did Gorbachev Dare to Change What No Soviet Leader Before Him Would? Exploring what made Gorbachev so different, using one-word summaries, card-sorts, character match-ups and grouping tasks examining reactions across Soviet society. • Who Ended the Cold War: Reagan, Gorbachev – or Both? A cartoon analysis of Reagan’s portrayal, a tone-analysis task, an SDI card-sort, summit-snapshot challenges, headline-evaluation tasks and a decision-line plenary debating who contributed most to ending the Cold War. Across the bundle, students engage with a rich variety of active learning strategies, including: Living graphs Character match-ups High-challenge decision-making simulations Continuum debates and standing evaluations Image analysis, mapping tasks and headline inference Vocabulary sorting and recap tools Every lesson includes clear, consistent teacher notes, offering purpose, step-by-step guidance, historical insight, differentiation options and timings. This 6-lesson bundle provides everything needed to deliver the complete late-Cold War unit with creativity, clarity and high challenge — forming a key part of the wider Asa Merrin Cold War series.