Hist
343 Russia and the Soviet Union (spring 2025)
Class Schedule
The
readings listed for a given class day are meant to
indicate that you should read those before you attend
that class. "Text"
refers to the Mark Galeotti book, A Short History of Russia. Jan 28—Introduction and Overview: Poles,
Varangians, and Others
Jan 30—The Origins of
Russia
Read Hosking, pp. xv to 26.
Feb. 20--Cultural
Continuities: Luboki, Music, Culture
Read through the various pages of Alexander
Boguslawski's wonderful collection of "popular
prints," or Lubok, online at:
http://www.rollins.edu/Foreign_Lang/Russian/Lubok/lubok.html
(I mean it when I say this: look at all
the pages
and all the captions. There will be a double
value reading quiz, and we will discuss
this in class.) And, read
the Wikipedia entry for Ivan
Turgenev:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Turgenev Feb. 25--The
Empire, War, and Reform: To the Crimean War Carefully look at the ALL the photos
and read all the text of "The Prokudin-Gorskii
Photographic Record Recreated": http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/ Also, read
Wikipedia on the forced resettlement of Jews to the
"Pale": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_of_Settlement and read this
short bio of Alexander II https://www.thoughtco.com/alexander-ii-biography-4174256
Mar
20--Midterm Exam
Mar
25--Contexts:
Bolsheviks, Comintern, Party,
Fascism, Depression, and More
See the Wikipedia article on Trotsky http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky(concentrate
on the latter part of the article--the
post 1924 material)
AND watch carefully this instructive
video from the Smith College Museum of
Art: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyUdccGhJUY
Mar.
27--Stalin Triumpans: The Great
Purges, Ethnic Cleansing, and the Holodomor Read Hosking,pp. 96-111.
And watch this excellent interview of
Stalin biographer Stephen Kotkin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhi2icRXbHo And look
carefully over these Stalin-era posters,
and be sure to read the accompanying text: http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/sovintro.php As you do so,
ask yourself what kind of information we
can glean from such sources.
Research paper Progress
Report due on Mar. 28 at 11:59 via
Turnitin.com
Apr 1--The
Soviets and the Origins of World War II
Watch this long interview with Sean McMeekin, a
historian who has recently, three years ago, written
a new history of World War II origins from the
Soviet perspective. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RLVwB23c1o
Please watch the whole thing and listen carefully.
Apr. 15--From Stalin to
Khrushchev Ppt with sound:
From Stalin to Khrushchev:
Link TBA
And Wikipedia Khrushchev's
20th Party Congress "Secret Speech." Please read at least
the INTRO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_Congress_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union And the famous
Kitchen Debate between VP Nixon and Soviet
leader Khrushchev
Apr. 17—Khrushchev
to Brezhnev Read about the Bay of Pigs and
Missile Crisis, National Security Archive: http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/bayofpigs/
and about the Cuban Missile Crises http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/Cuban-Missile-Crisis.aspx
(including the
audio part, and the whole Thirteen Days exhibit) And
read the Wikipedia entry for Also read Wikipedia on Brezhnev http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brezhnev
And for class discussion, read about Vasily
Mitrokhin's internal KGB report on Soviet
operations in Afghanistan between 1978 and 1983: read
Spartacus-Educational on Mitrokhin: https://spartacus-educational.com/Vasili_Mitrokhin.htm
Research Paper due on April 18
at 11:59pm via Turnitin.com
Apr 22--After Brezhnev: Neo-Cold War
Wikipedia entries on: Andropov
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Andropov
the Soviet War in
Afghanistan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_war_in_Afghanistan
And on Star Wars (SDI) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
--optional--a pretty good Afghani documentary
history of the Soviet-Afghan War: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeV8RuvHfUI
May 1—The
1990s:
Read this interesting article on the preservation of
Lenin's body: https://allthatsinteresting.com/vladimir-lenin-body Final Research Paper
due on Friday, May 2, 11:59pm via Turnitin.com
May 6--The 2000s: Putin May 11--Summing Up
Watch this hard-hitting and controversial lecture by
John Mearsheimer on the 2014 emergence of the
Ukrainian problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4&t=727s
<font size="+2" face="Times New Roman, Times,
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