History 360

History of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1894-Present

Spring 2007

Instructor:    James W. Crowl

Office:   East Ruffner 246
Office Telephone:   395-2217
Office Hours:   MW  2:00-2:50;  TR  3:20:4:00

Course Description:

Russia from the reign of Nicholas II to the present, with emphasis on the factors leading to the collapse of the monarchy and the revolutions of 1905 and 1917, and on the subsequent construction and evolution of the Soviet system.

Text:

David MacKenzie and Michael W. Curran, A History of Russia and the Soviet Union, and Beyond.  Sixth Edition, Chicago: Wadsworth,  2001.

Supplementary Reading:

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich.

Course Objectives:

Upon completion of the course, students will have gained an appropriate increase in:

1.  knowledge and understanding of the forces which shaped Russian and Soviet history and civilization from 1894 to the present

2,   knowledge of historical study and methodology

3.  understanding of the importance of ethical dilemmas in the shaping of history

4.  the ability to do historical research

5.  the skills necessary to use a word processor

Class Schedule:

Week 1  (Jan. 18):

R:  What was wrong with Imperial Russia?

Week 2  (Jan. 23-25):  Reign of Nicholas II, r 1894-1917

T:  Nicholas II:  Domestic Policies
R:  Revolutionary Movement, 1881-1905

Week 3 (Jan. 30-Feb. 1):  Reign of Nicholas II

Assignment:  Text, chapters  27-30  (to  page . 416)

T:  Lenin and Bolshevism
R:  Foreign Policy, 1894-1905

Week 4 (Feb 6-8):  Reign of Nicholas II

T:  1905
R:  The Stolypin Era

Week 5 (Feb. 13-15):  Reign of Nicholas II

T:  World War I 
R:  1917:  March Revolution 

Week 6 (Feb. 20-22):  The Revolutions of 1917

T:  1917: March to November
R:  February 22,  FIRST TEST

Week 7 (Feb 27-Mar. 1): The November Revolution

Assignment:  Text, chapters 31-36  (to page 519)

T:   November Revolution
R:   November Revolution

Week 8 (Mar. 6-8): The First Decade

T:  Civil War and "War Communism"

R:   New Economic Plan;  Power Struggle, 1921-1927

*********MARCH 6, RESEARCH PAPERS DUE ! LATE PAPERS WILL LOSE A LETTER GRADE FOR EACH DAY LATE!

Spring Break, March 13-15

Week 9 (Mar. 20-22):  Stalin and Stalinism

T:   Stalin:  Background and Early Career
R:   Victory in the Power Struggle:  Industrialization

Week 10 (Mar. 27-29):  The Great Transformation

T: Industrialization

Thursday MARCH 29, SECOND TEST

Week 11 (April 3-5):  The Great Purge

T: Collectivization and Famine
R:   The Great Purge

Week 12 (April 10-12):  Close of the Stalinist Era

Assignment:  Solzhenitsyn,  One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

Assignment:  Text, chapters  39-45

T:  The Great Purge
R:  The Post-War Era

Week 13 (April 17-19): The Khrushchev Era

T: Early Career

R: Later Career

Week 14 (April 24-26): Brezhnev and Gorbachev

T:  The Brezhnev Years
R: Gorbachev

Final Examination:  Not comprehensive

Course Requirements:

Two Tests: February 22; March 29

One research paper:  Due March 6
Final Examination

Grading:

Your final grade in the course will be determined as follows:  each test will count as one-fourth, the final examination will count as one-fourth, and the research paper will count as one-fourth.

Attendance Policy:

Students will find it difficult to succeed in the course unless they attend regularly.  However your instructor does not believe in artificially penalizing students by lowering grades for failure to attend classes. I do ask that students come to class on time, unless they have a disability that prevents them from doing so.  Students who come late to class will otherwise be penalized one point for each time they are late! Students are likewise asked not to return if they need to excuse themselves during class.  The constant coming and going of students from the classroom detracts from a proper academic environment.  I also have a closed mind on absences from tests.  Make-ups will be given only when students provide a valid reason for the absence.

Honor Code:

Students are expected to comply with the honor code on all work for the course.

Research Paper:

Students are required to write a research paper of no less than ten (10) pages on a topic concerning Soviet or post-Soviet history, culture, science, literature, military, foreign policy, living conditions, society, religion, etc.  Students should confer with the instructor regarding a topic.

At least ten (10) sources should be cited in the footnotes or end notes of the paper. No more than one (1) of these may be an electronic source! Never site an encyclopedia or an electronic encyclopedia!

Papers are due on March 6.  There will be a letter grade penalty each day for papers handed in after that date.

The format for the paper MUST be in compliance with Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers,  Sixth Edition, Chicago:  The University of Chicago Press.  No parenthetical or text notes will be acceptable!  Students who lack access to the Turabian volume should consult my History 110 syllabus for examples of acceptable footnote and Works Cited form. Make certain that you know the proper use of Ibid and “short title” in such notes!

Before the due date for papers, students will need to submit their work to turnitin.com to ensure that there is no plagiarism.  The instructor will provide an ID number and enrollment password for the class.

The password is: Martov

The identification number is: 1830017

Students sometimes seem to assume that research for papers consists of checking for library books on that particular topic.  If a student finds a book on the topic chosen for the paper, the topic is probably too broad and needs to be narrowed!  True research consists of finding a few pages or even paragraphs in a number of books or articles!

Bibliography:

I.  The Coming of the Revolution:

Baron, Samuel H. 1963. Plekhanov: The Father of Russian Marxism.

Deutscher, Isaac.  1954.  The Prophet Armed:  Trotsky, 1879-1921.

___________.   .  1963.  The Prophet Unarmed: Trotsky, 1921-1929.

                          .   1963.  The Prophet Outcast.

Fischer, Louis.  1964.  The Life of Lenin.

Lincoln, W. Bruce. 1981 The Romanovs.

Massie, Robert V.  1978.  Nicholas and Alexandra.

Pares, Bernard.  1939.  The Fall of the Russian Monarchy.

Robinson, Geroid T.  1949.  Rural Russia Under the Old Regime.

Service, Robert.  2000. Lenin:  A Biography.

Treadgold, Donald W.  1986.  Twentieth Century Russia.

Ulam, Adam B.  1965.  The Bolsheviks.

Wolfe, Bertram D. Three Who Made a Revolution.

II.  Founding the Soviet State:

Carr, Edward H. 3 vols. 1950-1953. A History of Soviet Russia:  The Bolshevik Revolution.

Chamberlain, William Henry.  1935.  The Russian Revolution, 1917-1923.

Daniels, Robert V.  1967.  Red October.

Deutscher, Issac.  1949. Stalin: A Biography.

Fainsod, Merle.  1959.  How Russia is Ruled.

Pipes, Richard.  1967.  Revolutionary Russia: A Symposium.

__________.   1990.  The Russian Revolution.

Schapiro, Leonard. 1971.  The Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

III.  Stalin and the Five-Year Plan Era, 1928-1941:

Conquest, Robert .  1968.  The Great Terror.

.  1985.  Harvest of Sorrow.

Cohen, Stephen F.  1971.  Bukharin.

Jasny, Naum.  1961.  Soviet Industrialization, 1928-1952.

Lewin, M.  1975.  Russian Peasants and Soviet Power.

Mandelstam, Nadeshda. 1970.  Hope Against Hope.

                  ___..  Hope Abandoned.

Medvedev, Roy A.  1973.  Let History Judge.

Nove, Alec.  1982.  An Economic History of the USSR.

.  1964. Was Stalin Really Necessary?

Salisbury, Harrison.  The Great Purge.

,  1969.  The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad.

Solzhenitsyn, Alexander. 3 vols. 1973-1978. The Gulag Archipelago, 1918-1956.  .

Ulam, Adam.  1973.  Stalin: The Man and His Era.

IV.  The Khrushchev Era:

Crankshaw, Edward.  1966.  Khrushchev:  A Career.

Linden, Carl A.  1966.  Khrushchev:  A Career.

Tatu, Michel.  1969.  Power in the Kremlin: From Khrushchev to Kosygin.

V.  The Brezhnev Era:

Cohen, Stephen F. 1980.  The Soviet Union Since Stalin.

.  1982.  An End to Silence.

Brown, Archie and Michael Kaiser (eds.).  1982.  Soviet Policy fot the 1980's.

Baron, John.  1974.  KGB.

Bialer, Seweryn.  Stalin's Successors: Leadership, Stability, and Change in the Soviet Union.

Kaiser, Robert G.  1976.  Russia: The People and the Power.

Smith, Hedrick.  1975.   The Russians.

.  1991.  The New Russians.

VI.  The Gorbachev - Yeltsin Era:

Brown, Archie. (Ed.)  Contemporary Russian Politics:  A Reader.

Colton, Timothy J. and Robert Levgold, eds. 1992. After the Soviet Union:  From Empire
to Nations.

Doder, Dusko.  1987.  Shadows and Whispers:  Power Politics Inside the Kremlin
from Brezhnev to Gorbachev.

Doder, Dusko and Louise Branson.  1990.  Gorbachev: Heretic in the Kremlin.

Lewin, Moshe.  1988.  The Gorbachev Phenomenon,

Medvedev, Zhores.  1989.  The Gorbachev Phenomenon.

Taubman, William and Jane A. 1989.  Moscow Spring.

Periodicals:

Slavic Review  (American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies)

Problems of Communism  (to 1991)

New York Times

Washington Post