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Department
Winter '02
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HISTORY OF SOVIET RUSSIA (H321)Winter term 2000
Instructor: Dr. Richard Bidlack
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, in December 1991 and the opening of Communist Party and state archives in Russia, historians are deepening and revising their interpretations of Soviet history. This course, which covers the seventy-four years of communist control in Soviet Russia, relies on many newly released documents and studies to summarize and interpret Soviet history. The most important question the course will address is a political one: how and why a radical socialist faction, the Bolsheviks, came to power; how the nature of Bolshevik or Communist rule changed over several decades, largely as a response to a succession of crises; and why the system fell apart in 1991. The primary focus on political change does not mean that other important dimensions of life -- social, economic, cultural, ethnic, and spiritual -- will be ignored. Rather, they will be examined from the perspective of the roles they played in fomenting political change and how, in turn, they were dramatically affected by communist power. Lectures and class discussions will focus on the following topics: the Revolutions of 1917, the Civil War, the New Economic Policy of the 1920s, Stalin's rise to power and his "Revolution from Above," the Great Terror, Soviet foreign policy in the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet Union in the Second World War, the origins and course of the Cold War, the Khrushchevian "thaw," "developed socialism" under Brezhnev, Gorbachev's attempt to reform and modernize communism via "glasnost" and "perestroika," and the end of the USSR and its communist dictatorship in 1991. Lectures and particularly class discussions will incorporate insights and information from the assigned readings, which are listed below: J. Thompson, A Vision Unfulfilled
COURSE REQUIREMENTS Students are expected to attend class regularly. All absences should be explained to the instructor. Any student who misses class more than three times without a valid excuse fails the course. To pass the course, students are required to read all pages of the assigned readings. At the end of the term students will have to pledge that they have completed the readings. Students must also view outside of class at least five hours of film on Russian and Soviet history from among the documentary films listed toward the end of this syllabus. At the end of the term students will indicate which films they have seen. Each student must write a book report of not more than four pages on the Scott memoir and another on the Bardach memoir. The reports will not be graded, but if the report is of poor quality, it must be re-written. Students must pledge on their reports that they have read all pages of both memoirs. Graded assignments consist of a map quiz and three essays. Students will be allowed to submit a revised draft of the first two essays if they wish. The grading scheme is shown below. 10% - Map quiz
CLASS SCHEDULE WEEK 1 (January 5): Introduction to the course. Distribution of maps and identification list Read: Thompson, Introduction through chap. 2 WEEK 2: Soviet geography. Overview of Russian history prior to 1917, the Tsar’s fall from power, and the formation of the Provisional Government Read: Thompson, chap. 3
Special lecture on January 10: Sergei Khrushchev on the future of Russian democracy, 7:30 p.m. in the new science center WEEK 3: The Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War Read: Thompson, chap. 4
Map quiz on January 17 WEEK 4: The Civil War (con’t), New Economic Policy, and Stalin's rise to power Read: Thompson, pp. 193-256
WEEK 5: Stalin's "Revolution from Above" Read: Thompson, pp. 256-272
First essay due at 9:00 a.m. on February 4 WEEK 6: The Great Terror Review: Marx, The Communist Manifesto
Washington Holiday Recess WEEK 7: The Great Terror (con’t.) Report on Scott’s Behind the Urals due in class on February 23 WEEK 8: The Soviet Union in the Second World War Read: Bardach, entire book
WEEK 9: The end of the Second World War and the start of the Cold War Read: Thompson, pp. 354-372
Second essay due at 9:00 a.m. on March 10 WEEK 10: The Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras Read: Thompson, chaps. 9-10
Report on Bardach’s Man is Wolf to Man due in class on March 15 WEEK 11: Gorbachev's reforms Read: Conquest, chap. 15
WEEK 12: The end of the Soviet Union Read: Strayer, chaps. 4-5 On March 29, students shall pledge completion of course readings, indicate which documentary films they have viewed, and complete a course evaluation. Third essay due at 5:00 p.m. on March 30
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
The following films are highly recommended: • Last of the Czars (DK258/.L3/1996). Lasting about two and one-half hours, the two cassettes or volumes of this documentary program describe the fate of Russia's last tsar, Nicholas II, and his family. • Stalin (DK267/.S83/1990). Three segments of approximately one hour each cover the rise of Stalin to power through his death in 1953. • Stolen Years (DK267/.S89/1999). This hour-long film interviews a number of survivors of Stalin’s labor camps, especially those in the Kolyma region. It also contains footage of abandoned labor-camp sites. The film’s producer and director, Jennifer Law Young and Bruce Young, reside in Lexington. • Kolyma (HV8931/.R8/K66/1996). This Russian-made film of forty-five minutes includes remarkable scenes from the Kolyma camps from the Stalin years and as the camps appear today. Russian speech is voiced over in English. • Russia’s War: Blood Upon the Snow (DK267/.R87/ 1997). Richard Overy wrote his book Russia’s War to accompany this extraordinary documentary-film television series, which runs ten hours. The production is divided into five volumes or tapes that each contains two hours of documentary film. Other films of note include: • The Russian Revolution: October 1917 (DK265/.O7/R92). This hour-long documentary film is broader in coverage than its title suggests. It provides a fast-paced overview of political events from the reign of Nicholas II to the rise of Stalin. • Three Songs about Lenin (DK254/.L44/T75/1991). Originally produced as a motion picture in 1934 by Moscow's Central Documentary Film Studios, this film praises Lenin in three songs. This is a good example of Stalinist propaganda. The program lasts an hour and is in Russian with English subtitles. • The Battle of Russia (D810/.P7/U6295). This film is part of director Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series produced during the Second World War with the assistance of the U.S. government. It is interesting not only for its portrayal of the extreme hardships endured by the Soviet population during the war but also as an example of how the US government sought to portray its Soviet ally. The film lasts an hour and twenty minutes. • Struggle for Russia (DK290.3/.Y45/S77/1994). This film depicts the Gorbachev and Yeltsin years up through the end of 1993. It is two hours long. (“Annie” erroneously states that it lasts 57 minutes.) • Lifting the Yoke (DK508.84/.L54/1994). This fifty-minute documentary
describes Ukraine following the collapse of the Soviet Union.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITING ESSAYS Essays will be graded according to content, organization, and clarity of expression. The first two essays must not exceed six pages and the third essay five pages. All assignments must be typed, double-spaced, with print dark enough to be easily read and have a one-inch margin on all sides. Use “Times New Roman” twelve-point font (the font used on this page) or, if your software does not include that font, a similar twelve-point font. Include a separate, unnumbered title page, which states the paper's title, your name, date, and the course title and number. (Book reports must also have a separate title page.) Also, write out the honor pledge on the title page. The instructor reserves the right not to grade assignments that do not conform to these standards. Any quoted or paraphrased material must be cited. The citation form is simple. Include the author’s name and the page number(s) in parentheses at the end of the sentence that contains the cited material. Students are not encouraged to use sources other than the course’s required readings. In book reports, in parentheses only the page number(s) of cited material. Avoid using long quotes in essays and reports; they take up too much space. If, however, you quote text that is longer than three lines, be sure to indent and single-space it. No attribution is needed for information taken from class lectures. Students may discuss ideas for their essays and book reports with others in the class, but students must write the papers by themselves. Students may submit a revised version of the first two essays within one week after receiving back from the instructor the first draft. Students submitting a revised draft must accept its grade rather than the grade of the first draft. Papers handed in late will receive a significantly lower grade. Problems with computer software in most cases will not be considered a valid excuse for handing in a late paper. Other specific instructions and guidelines that you should follow are listed below: Assume that the reader of your work is an educated person, but not an expert in Soviet history. Hence, be sure to identify all individuals, concepts, and technical terms you introduce in your writing. It is difficult to write a paper in just one sitting. You are strongly urged to outline responses and then write a preliminary draft soon after receiving the assignment. Put the paper aside for a while before writing a second, and, perhaps, a third draft. In these latter drafts, hone the paper to the prescribed length, reducing what is not essential. Also, work on making your writing as logical, lucid, and literate as possible. Begin essays with a thesis statement. Be sure to answer all parts of essay questions in as comprehensive a manner as you can within the prescribed limit. The essays should be based on the assigned readings and class lectures. Make sure that you explain your main ideas as completely as possible. Always try to eliminate ambiguity in your writing. Include relevant concrete examples to support your main ideas. Avoid careless grammatical errors. Watch in particular agreement between nouns and verbs and between nouns and pronouns as well as the use of apostrophes. ANY PAPER THAT CONTAINS FOUR GRAMMATICAL ERRORS OR THREE SPELLING MISTAKES ON A SINGLE PAGE AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVES A FAILING GRADE. Avoid use of passive voice; it tends to obscure the subject of the sentence. Separate continuous-form pages, and staple the pages together.
(Purchase a stapler if you don’t have one.) Be sure to number all
pages.
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