History of Russia Module Booklet 2012-13
Department of History
Part 1 Option
History of Russia since 1881
HI 107
Tutor: Chris Read
Module Booklet 2013-14
1
History of Russia Module Booklet 2013-14
Module Specification for History of Russia since 1881
In the event of any conflict between the information contained below and the departmental handbooks, the departmental handbooks take precedence.
Aims & Objectives
This module is an option available to second year History honours and joint-degree students and to visiting and part-time students and 2+2 students in any year of their studies. Options are designed to complement the first and second year core modules by providing the opportunity for study in greater depth of particular regions, periods or themes.
Context: This module develops themes of political, social, cultural and economic history raised in the core module in the context of Russian history since 1881.
Syllabus: The module is divided into four sets of historical questions - those relating to the origins of the Russian revolution; to its course from c1900-1921; to its immediate consequences in the rise of Stalinism; and to Russia's attempts to deal with the legacy of Stalinism from 1953 to the early twenty-first century. Attention will be given to political, social, economic and cultural aspects of these questions.
Teaching & Learning: The module will be taught through weekly lectures and one hour seminars and individual tutorials to discuss feedback on essays.
Assessment: see appropriate History Departmental handbooks.
Note: Deadlines for non-assessed essays are weeks 7, 14 and 17.
ALL LONG ESSAY TOPICS FOR ALL CATEGORIES OF STUDENT WILL NORMALLY BE NEGOTIATED WITH THE TUTOR.
Intended Learning Outcomes
a) the further development of study, writing and communication skills
b) to provide the opportunity, through writing a 4500 word essay, to develop in greater depth an analysis of aspects of the secondary literature and available primary sources relating to topics covered in the module; to allow for greater study of topics the student wishes to learn about which are only covered marginally in the module such as foreign policy; religion; literature and the arts; and thereby to develop independent critical and analytical skills listed below.
c) developing critical analytical skills based on
· introducing students to a wide variety of approaches to the study of Russian History from the late nineteenth to early twenty-first centuries
· conveying basic historical knowledge of Russian History from the late nineteenth to early twenty-first centuries
· utilising interdisciplinary perspectives to deepen historical understanding
· providing students with the opportunity to evaluate critically a range of primary sources including official documents, statistics, writings of leading historical figures and memoirs.
· examining a wide range of secondary sources and secondary interpretations of Russian History from the late nineteenth to early twenty-first centuries
· To enable students to produce written and verbal analyses based on the above
Mark scale
All undergraduate modules are marked using one overall system, which runs from 0-100. Marks fall into different classes of performance:
17-point marking scale
Where an assessment or exam is a single piece of work, or a small number of long exam answers or assessed essays, work is marked using the following scale.
The descriptors in this table are interpreted as appropriate to the subject and the year/level of study, and implicitly cover good academic practice and the avoidance of plagiarism.
With the exception of Excellent 1st, High Fail and Zero, the descriptors cover a range of marks, with the location within each group dependent on the extent to which the elements in the descriptor and departmental/faculty marking criteria are met.
Class / scale / descriptorFirst / Excellent 1st / Exceptional work of the highest quality, demonstrating excellent knowledge and understanding, analysis, organisation, accuracy, relevance, presentation and appropriate skills. At final-year level: work may achieve or be close to publishable standard.
High 1st / Very high quality work demonstrating excellent knowledge and understanding, analysis, organisation, accuracy, relevance, presentation and appropriate skills. Work which may extend existing debates or interpretations.
Mid 1st
Low 1st
Upper Second (2.1) / High 2.1 / High quality work demonstrating good knowledge and understanding, analysis, organisation, accuracy, relevance, presentation and appropriate skills.
Mid 2.1
Low 2.1
Lower Second / High 2.2 / Competent work, demonstrating reasonable knowledge and understanding, some analysis, organisation, accuracy, relevance, presentation and appropriate skills.
Mid 2.2
Low 2.2
Third / High 3rd / Work of limited quality, demonstrating some relevant knowledge and understanding.
Mid 3rd
Low 3rd
Fail / High Fail (sub Honours) / Work does not meet standards required for the appropriate stage of an Honours degree. There may be evidence of some basic understanding of relevant concepts and techniques
Fail / Poor quality work well below the standards required for the appropriate stage of an Honours degree.
Low Fail
Zero / Zero / Work of no merit OR Absent, work not submitted, penalty in some misconduct cases
For calculating module results, the points on this marking scale have the following numerical equivalents:
Class / Point on scale / numerical equivalentFirst / Excellent 1st / 96
High 1st / 89
Mid 1st / 81
Low 1st / 74
Upper Second / High 2.1 / 68
Mid 2.1 / 65
Low 2.1 / 62
Lower Second / High 2.2 / 58
Mid 2.2 / 55
Low 2.2 / 52
Third / High 3rd / 48
Mid 3rd / 45
Low 3rd / 42
Fail / High Fail / 38
Fail / 25
Low Fail / 12
Zero / Zero / 0
PART I OPTION
HISTORY OF RUSSIA SINCE 1881
AUTUMN TERM SEMINARS
Week 2 - 5 Economic and social change in late nineteenth century Russia- workers, peasants and the middle class
Week 2 The peasantry, landowners and other rural inhabitants
What was happening in the countryside?
C. Read From Tsar to Soviets (chapter 1)
I. Thatcher (ed) Late Imperial Russia: Problems and Prospects
H. Rogger Russia in the Age of Modernisation and Revolution 1881-1917
(Chapters 1-7)
E. Acton Russia (Chapter 5)
L. Trotsky 1905 chs 1-4 esp ch 4 ‘The Driving Forces of the Russian revolution’ at http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1907/1905/ch04.htm
Week 3 Cities and industry – workers and the middle class
What was the impact of industrialisation on Russian society c. 1900? Did the Russian proletariat have distinctive features? How strong was the middle-class?
Reading
C. Read ‘Labour and Socialism in Tsarist Russia’ in D. Geary (ed) Labour and Socialist Movements in Europe Before 1914
C. Read From Tsar to Soviets (chapter 1)
I. Thatcher (ed) Late Imperial Russia: Problems and Prospects
H. Rogger Russia in the Age of Modernisation and Revolution 1881-1917
(Chapters 1-7)
E. Acton Russia (Chapter 5)
P. Waldron The End of Imperial Russia (chapters 2 & 3)
Week 4 The Revolution of 1905-1907 and autocratic politics
Why did revolution break out in Russia in 1905?
C. Read From Tsar to Soviets (chapter 2)
A. Heywood & J. Smele (eds) The Russian Revolution
of 1905: Centenary Perspectives
M. Perrie 'The Russian Peasant Movement of
1905-1907: Its Social Composition and Revolutionary Significance', Past and Present, no. 57, November 1972, pp 123 155.
P. Waldron The End of Imperial Russia
(chapters 1, 4 & 5)
E. Acton Russia (chapter 6)
Week 5 After 1905
By what means was the autocracy able to restore its authority? How viable was Tsarism after 1907?
Reading
C. Read From Tsar to Soviets (chapter 2)
A. Heywood & J. Smele (eds) The Russian Revolution
of 1905: Centenary Perspectives
M. Perrie 'The Russian Peasant Movement of
1905-1907: Its Social Composition and Revolutionary Significance', Past and Present, no. 57, November 1972, pp 123 155.
P. Waldron The End of Imperial Russia
(chapters 1, 4 & 5)
E. Acton Russia (chapter 6)
Document
The October Manifesto
Week 7 1917: The February Revolution and the Provisional Governemt.
Why did Tsarism finally collapse? Why was the Provisional Government unsuccessful?
C. Read Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (ch. 1)
C. Read From Tsar to Soviets (chapter 3-7)
E. Acton Russia (chapter 7)
E. Acton Re-thinking the Russian Revolution chs.6-9
N. Stone The Eastern Front (chapters 1, 9 & 13)
Warwick History Video The Decline of Tsarism
Week 8 1917: The October Revolution
What were the roles of peasants, workers and soldiers? Why did the Bolsheviks come to power?
Reading
C. Read Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (ch. 1)
C. Read From Tsar to Soviets (chapter 3-7)
C. Read Lenin: A Revolutionary Life (Ch 5)
E. Acton Russia (chapter 7)
E. Acton Re-thinking the Russian Revolution chs.6-9
J. White The Russian Revolution
N. Stone The Eastern Front (chapters 1, 9 & 13)
Warwick History Video The Decline of Tsarism
Document
V.I. Lenin Tasks of the Proletariat in the Present Revolution (April Theses)
Week 9 Bolshevism and Lenin's Russia 1 Civil and Revolutionary War
Who were the Bolsheviks? How did they survive the Civil War? Did the experience change them?
Reading
C. Read The Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (chs.2, 3)
C. Read From Tsar to Soviets (chs 8-13)
C. Read Lenin: A Revolutionary Life
E. Acton Russia chap 8
S. Fitzpatrick The Russian Revolution (chs 2-6)
V. Serge Memoirs of a Revolutionary (chs 2,3 & 4)
R. Suny The Soviet Experiment (chs 3-5)
P. Kenez A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End (ch 2 & 3)
R. Service A History of Twentieth Century Russia (chs 4-8)
Week 10 Bolshevism and Lenin’s Russia 2 Lenin’s Last Years 1920-24
How did Lenin evaluate the achievements of the revolution up to 1922/3? Was the New Economic Policy viable?
C. Read Lenin: A Revolutionary Life
E. Acton Russia chap 8
S. Fitzpatrick The Russian Revolution (chs 2-6)
V. Serge Memoirs of a Revolutionary (chs 2,3 & 4)
B. Williams Lenin
J. White Lenin: The Practice and Theory of Revolution
Document
V.I. Lenin On Co-operation
Our Revolution
Week 11 The "Stalin Revolution" I – The Rise of Stalin and the Beginning of the Stalin Revolution - Collectivisation
Why did Stalin come to power? What did he stand for? What were the main features of collectivisation?
A. Nove & Stalin: Terror and Transformation
C. Read (Warwick History Video)
Reading
C. Read Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (ch.4)
M. Fainsod Smolensk under Soviet Rule (ch 12)
C. Ward Stalin's Russia chaps 1-3
C. Ward (ed.) The Stalin Dictatorship (chs. 1-5)
R. Suny The Soviet Experiment (chs 6-10)
P. Kenez A History of the Soviet Union (ch 4)
R. Service A History of Twentieth Century Russia (chs 9-10)
C. Read The Stalin Years: A Reader (articles by Shulz; Davies et al; Waters)
Week 12 The “Stalin Revolution” 2 - Industrialisation and the emergence of Stalinist Society
What were the main features of industrialisation?
Reading
M. Fainsod Smolensk under Soviet Rule (ch 13)
E. Acton Russia (ch 9)
A. Nove An Economic History of the USSR
(chs 4-8)
C. Ward Stalin's Russia chaps 1-3
C. Ward (ed.) The Stalin Dictatorship (chs. 1-5)
R. Suny The Soviet Experiment (chs 6-10)
P. Kenez A History of the Soviet Union (ch 4)
R. Service A History of Twentieth Century Russia (chs 9-10)
C. Read The Stalin Years: A Reader (articles by Shulz; Davies et al; Waters)
Documents
Selected documents on collectivisation
Week 13 The emergence of Stalinist Society
What was "Stalinism" as it existed in the 1930s?
Reading
Hellbeck, J. ‘Working, Struggling, Becoming: Stalin-Era Autobiographical Texts’ in Language and Revolution. Making Modern Political identities Halfin I. ed. (London: Frank Class, 2002), pp. 135-159.
Hellbeck, J.Revolution on My Mind: Writing a Diary Under Stalin (Cambridge Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2006).
Hoffman D. and Kotsonis, Y. eds. Russian Modernity: Politics, Knowledge, Practices (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 2000).
Hoffman, D. Stalinist Values: The Cultural Norms of Soviet Modernity, 1917-1941 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001).
M. Edele, Stalinist Society, 1928-1953
R. Tucker (ed) Stalinism (pp 3-154)
C. Ward Stalin's Russia chap 4
C. Ward (ed) The Stalin Dictatorship (ch 6)
R. Suny The Soviet Experiment (chs 11-12)
P. Kenez A History of the Soviet Union (ch 5)
S. Fitzpatrick Everyday Stalinism
C. Read The Stalin Years: A reader
Week 14 The Great Purge
Why did the Great Purge of 1936-8 take place? What was life like in the USSR in the 1930s.
Reading
C. Read Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (ch.5)
J. Arch Getty (ed.) Stalin’s Terror: New Perspectives
Robert W Thurston Fear & Belief in the U.S.S.R.
"Great Terror" Response to Arrest 1935-39 Slavic Review vol 45, no. 2, pp 213-244 (includes discussion with Robert Conquest)
R Service A History of Twentieth Century Russia (ch 11-12)
R. Tucker (ed) Stalinism (pp 3-154)
C. Ward Stalin's Russia chap 4
C. Ward (ed) The Stalin Dictatorship (ch 6)
R. Suny The Soviet Experiment (chs 11-12)
P. Kenez A History of the Soviet Union (ch 5)
S. Fitzpatrick Everyday Stalinism
C. Read The Stalin Years: A reader (article by Khlevniuk)
Documents
Riutin Platform Law of 1 December 1934
Bukharin’s Last Letter
Order 00447 of 30 July 1937
Week 15 The Second World War 1
Why did the Soviet Union become involved in the War?
Reading
Jonathan Haslam The Soviet Union and the Struggle for Collective security in Europe
Geoffrey Roberts Unholy Alliance: Stalin’s pact with Hitler: the Soviet Union and the Origins of the Second World War
Week 17 The Second World War 2
The Second World War was the great test of Stalin's system. How did it survive?
Reading
Geoffrey Roberts Stalin’s Wars
C. Read Making and Breaking of the Soviet System (ch.6)
H. Carrere d'Encausse Stalin: Order through Terror (ch 5-9)
M. Djilas Conversations with Stalin
E. Acton Russia ch 10
A. Nove An Economic History of the USSR (ch10 &11)
C. Ward Stalin's Russia chap 5
J Barber & The Soviet Home Front
M Harrison
R. Suny The Soviet Experiment (chs 13& 14)
P. Kenez A History of the Soviet Union (ch 6)
R. Service A History of Twentieth Century Russia(ch13 &14)
C. Read The Stalin Years(article by Erickson)