Spring 2012
HLT 180 MW 9:30-10:45am
Professor Evans
Office Hours: Wednesday 11-1 or by appointment
DRAFT. WILL BE SUPERCEDED BY REVISED SYLLABUS DISTRIBUTED ON THE FIRST DAY OF CLASS
History 343: Russia Since 1917
Although Russia’s “Soviet experiment” lasted for only 74 years, the lifetime of a single generation, the memory of Soviet socialism remains very important in Russia today and in our own national political imagination. This course will introduce students to the complex, fascinating, and violent history of the Soviet Union, approaching it from a number of disciplinary and intellectual perspectives. We will consider when and whether the 1917 revolution ended, whether it was betrayed, and the fate of its various utopian dreams through the transformations of Stalinism, World War, and Cold War. Throughout, we will focus on how individual people experienced Soviet rule, how the Soviet Union was (or was not) different from other “totalitarian” states of the 20th Century, how it fits into European history more broadly, and how the Party and State leadership balanced ideological imperatives with pragmatic ones as domestic and international conditions changed dramatically over the course of Soviet history. Finally, we will turn to the post-Soviet successor states and the question of Soviet “legacies.”
Required Reading:
To purchase:
Ronald Grigor Suny, The Soviet Experiment: Russia, The USSR, and the Successor States
(first OR second edition)
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Heart of a Dog
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
On D2L:
Primary sources on D2L and
Selections on D2L from Sheila Fitzpatrick and Yuri Slezkine, eds., In the Shadow of
Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to WWII
***The three assigned books will be available on reserve at the Media and Reserves library, located in Golda Meir Library, Lower Level West. If you choose to purchase the books, they are available at the UWM Union bookstore. Please notethatyou may purchase either the first or second edition of the Suny textbook; I will provide page numbers for both. This is important because the second edition of the Suny text costs $50-60 and the first edition is available used for only a few dollars. I will post revised sections from the second edition on D2L, so students using the first edition will not miss anything. The Bulgakov and Solzhenitsyn are also available very inexpensively online.
Course Requirements:
Primary source analysis paper 4-5 pp20%
Bulgakov OR Solzhenitsyn paper 4-5 pp20%
Midterm (March 14)20%
Final (May 16, 10am-12pm)20%
Class participation (includes in-class activities
and D2L quizzes) 20%
Course Schedule:
Week 1: January 23 and 25
The Land and the People
Read:
Suny, Ch. 1
D2L: Maps, Documents from 1905-1906
Week 2: January 30 and February 1
Wars and Revolutions
Read:
Suny, Ch. 2
D2L: Fitzpatrick33-65; Nicholas and Alexandra, Order No. 1, Soviet Appeal to All the Peoples of the World, V. Lenin, “The April Theses,” D. Bednyi, “The Seeing-off”
Week 3: February 6 and 8
From War Communism to NEP
Read:
Suny, Ch. 3,4,5
D2L: Fitzpatrick, 66-165, Lenin, “The Establishment of the Cheka”; Declaration of the Kronstadt Sailors; Tenth Party Congress documents
Week 4: February 13 and 15
Life under NEP
Read:
Suny, Ch. 6,7
Bulgakov (entire)
D2L: Fitzpatrick, 167-218
Week 5: February 20 and 22
The Stalin Revolution
Read:
Suny, Ch. 8, 9,10
D2L: Fitzpatrick, 219-301, Lenin Evaluates the Party and Its Leaders, “Farewell, Ilyich,” J. Stalin, “The Tasks of Business Executives,” J. Stalin, “We Do Not Want to Be Beaten,” V. Mayakovsky, “My Soviet Passport,” J. Stalin, “Dizzy with Success,” V. Kravchenko, I Chose Freedom (selection)
Week 6: February 27 and 29
The Great Terror
Read:
Suny, Ch. 11
D2L: TBA
Weeks 7: March 5 and 7
Stalinist SocietyRead:
Suny, Ch. 12
D2L: Fitzpatrick, 305-323, 331-341, 359-366, “Decree of June 27, 1936 “On the Prohibition of Abortions, Increasing Criminal Penalties for Nonpayment of Alimony, and Some Changes in Divorce Laws,”
Week 8: March 12 and 14—***In-Class Midterm Wednesday March 14***
Midterm review; Midterm
No reading assignment
Week 9: Spring Break
Week 10: March 26 and 28
WWII
Read: Suny Ch. 13, 14
D2L: V. Malakhova, “Four Years as a Frontline Physician” (selection), I. Ehrenburg, “April 27, 1945”
Week 11: April 2 and 4
Late Stalinism
Read:
Suny, Ch. 15, 16
Reader: Selections from Babyi Yar
Week 12: April 9 and 11
Destalinization and Cold War
Read:
Suny, Ch., 17, 18
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (entire)
Week 13: April 16 and 18
Mature Socialism
Read:
Suny, Ch. 19
D2L: late Soviet Jokes
Week 14: April 23 and 25
Glasnost’ and Perestroika
Suny, Ch. 20
D2L: Chernobyl: Report by Pravda journalist Gubarev on his observations at the site, Y. Yevtushenko, “Loss,” Readers letters to the Soviet press during Perestroika,
1991 Coup: Documents and eyewitness accounts
Week 15: April 30 and May 2
The End of Empire
Read:
Suny, Ch. 21, 22
D2L: TBA
Week 16: May 7 and 9
The Putin Era
Read: TBA
FINAL EXAM May 16 from 10am-12pm HLT 180
1