RUSSIA, THE SOVIET UNION, AND RUSSIA ONCE AGAIN!

SPRING, 1998

PETER W. PETSCHAUER

Office WH 216

Phones 262-6023 (office); 264-5514 (home)

 

The basic purpose of this course (SU and Russia, 4552) is to trace the history of what is usually called Russia from the fall of the Romanov dynasty through the Soviet period into the most recent developments. The text is brand new, a very good one at that: Woodford McClellan, Russia; The Soviet Period and After, 4th ed. (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1998). We will also read Vassiley Aksyonov, Generations of Winter (Vintage, 1995), Valentin Berezhkov, At Stalin’s Side (Birch Lane, 1994), and Ryszard Kapuscinski, Imperium (Vintage, 1995). We will also read articles, etc. which will bring us up to date in a rapidly changing field. If you would like to read available paperbacks as background, I preliminarily recommend Herzen, Childhood, Youth and Exile; Turgenev, Fathers and Sons; George Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra; Massie, The Final Chapter; John Reed, Ten Days that Shook the World; Sholokov's trilogy, especially The Don Flows to the Sea; and Orwell, Animal Farm.

Since this is the third time I am teaching this course, it will not be quite as new for me as it will be for you; all the same, please bear with me if I cannot answer all questions as readily as you expect. To help me and you to know better what you expect out of class, I will ask at the very outset what people know and expect out of class. I do hope that we can thus create not only a sense of the usual history, but also some responses to your questions and yet insights into the underlying issues that have moved people in Russia for more than the last one hundred or so years. I would like to require that you see four films and report to me, one pagers, about them:

Nicholas and Alexandra

Ten Days that Shook the World

Rasputin

Shivago

Stalin

The Inner Circle

Burned by the Sun, Nikita Mikhalov

Stalingrad (the German version)

Ballad of a Soldier

Unbearable Lightness of Being

Come and See

Prisoner of the Mountain

Please pick a topic from the options indicated below and work with it to your own, your colleagues, and my satisfaction. In order to meet the requirements of "W" designated courses, I expect that you submit not only the material on the films, but also a computer generated paper (in the range of 15 to 20 pages; graduate students: 25pp). Please submit a draft of your paper; I will carefully read, correct, and discuss this draft with you. I am also asking that one of your colleagues read your paper as soon as it has reached a stage that is satisfactory to you. The readers will be graded for that "work" when they report on it to class and submit a three page summary of their findings. Possible topic varieties are: Plan a Russian Culture Week or Festival for a high school; write a grant proposal for a college Russian studies major or minor; establish a HS library collection of appropriate books and A-V materials; design a video; create a syllabus for a HS course; suggest the art best suited for a small museum collection; or do a traditional research paper. I will of course help you with these endeavors. The paper will count about 25% of your total grade. I expect that you do a presentation of your topic to class. Also, every day you come to class, please bring with you an Admit Card which tells me what you have read (not just for this class) and in a few lines what you think of this reading. Finally, this is another suggestion from the Fall, 1995, Russian History class, I will double-check your outside reading with a quiz each.

I expect, yes indeed I do! that you read the text and other readings before you come to class; that is, even if I lecture/lead, you will find the interacting so much more pleasant and productive.

Your grades will be based on your admit cards; your contributions to class; your reports regarding the films; your project/paper; your comments on the project of another person; the way in which your classmates and I perceive your pre-sentation; quizzes on each of the outside readings; and the awareness of Russian History you exhibit in a mid-term and a final examination.

The grade range is: A= 95-90; B= 89-80; C= 79-70; D= 69-60; and F= 59-...(A grade not appropriate for this sort of class.) I add + and -.

Have an absolutely great semester!

 

SCHEDULE

Week 1 Jan. 7-9 The Monarchy/Alexander II/Alexander III

(Start with Suny)

Week 2 Jan. 14-16 Decembrists/Marxists

Week 3 Jan. 21-23 Confrontation near the End/Nichjolas II/War/Revolution

(Start with Generations)

Week 4 Jan. 28-30 Lenin/the New State/NEP

Week 5 Feb. 4-6 Uncertainty/Stalin Emerges (Start with reports)Strat with

At Stalin’s Side

Week 6 Feb. 11-13 Stalin's Reforms/Terror

Week 7 Feb. 18-20 The Great War/Invasion/Response

Week 8 Feb. 25-27 Destruction/Reconstruction/EXAM

March 3-7 SPRING BREAK

Week 8 Mar. 11-13 Hope for the Soviet Union/Khrushchev (Drafts Due)

Week 9 Mar. 18-20 Conservative Reconsolidition/Breshnev

Week 10 Mar. 25-27 Internal and Foreign Policy Disasters

Week 11 Apr. 1-3 Reform Efforts/Gorbachev (Start with Imperium)

Week 12 Apr. 8-10 Successes/Failures/Resistance

Week 13 Apr. 15-17 Yeltsin/the Coup (Final Papers Due)

Week 14 Apr. 22-24 Russia and the Other Republics

Week 15 Apr. 29 More of Russia and the Other Republics

5/1 READING DAY

May 1: 13:30-16:30 FINALS