Moscow University Touro
Fall 1997
History of Modern
Russia
(HIS 382)
Instructor: Nikolai Biryukov
Course Description and Objectives
An account of political and social
developments in Russia in the 20th century. The course is designed to advance the
students’ knowledge and understanding of the major events, the principal social
forces and the leading personalities of Russia’s political life from the
ascension of Nicholas II to Yeltsin’s second term in office.
The students are supposed to know
the salient figures (including top government officials, leaders of major
political parties or otherwise influential persons) and the principal events of
modern Russian political history.
The students will have to take four quizes and a final exam. The grades will be determined as
follows: each quiz will account for 15 per cent; attendance, for 5 per cent;
class participation, for 10 per cent; the final exam, for 25 per cent of the
final grade.
The principal textbooks
· Goldman, Marshall I. What Went
Wrong with Perestroika. New York - London: W. W. Norton & Co.
· Hoskins, Geoffrey. The First
Socialist Society: A History of the Soviet Union from Within. Cambridge,
Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
Supplementary reading
· Sakwa, Richard. Russian Politics and
Society, London - New York: Routledge, 1993.
· Tucker, Robert C. Political
Culture and Leadership in Soviet Russia: From Lenin to Gorbachev. New York
- London: W. W. Norton & Co., 1987.
Other titles covering specific periods will be
indicated
in the course of the relevant lectures.
Schedule of Lectures and Exams
|
Sept. 16 |
Lecture 1. |
The Making of Modern Russia: Historic
Circumstances and the Development of Russian Political Culture. |
|
Sept. 18 |
Lecture 2. |
On the Road to Revolution: The Major Issues
and the Principal Forces of Pre-Revolutionary Russian Politics. |
|
Sept. 23 |
Lecture 3. |
The Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War. |
|
Sept. 25 |
Lecture 4. |
The Social and Political Reforms of Lenin’s
Administration. |
|
Sept. 30 |
Quiz 1. |
Russia in 1990-1922. |
|
Sept. 30 |
Lecture 5. |
The End of NEP and the “Great Turning Point”,
1923-1933. |
|
Oct. 2 |
Lecture 6. |
The Grand Myth and the Grand Terror: The
Soviet Union in 1934-1940. |
|
Oct. 7 |
Lecture 7. |
The Soviet Union in and after World War II,
1941-1953. |
|
Oct. 9 |
Quiz 2. |
Stalinist Russia, 1923-1953. |
|
Oct. 9 |
Lecture 8. |
“The Thaw”: The Khrushchev’s Decade,
1953-1964. |
|
Oct. 14 |
Lecture 9. |
“The Developed Socialism” alias “The
Stagnation”: |
|
Oct. 16 |
Lecture 10. |
“The Superpower”: The USSR in International
Politics, 1953-1985. |
|
Oct. 21 |
Quiz 3. |
The Soviet Union in 1953-1985. |
|
Oct. 21 |
Lecture 11. |
“The Perestroika”: Gorbachev’s Reforms,
1985-1991 |
|
Oct. 23 |
Lecture 12. |
The Collapse of the USSR. |
|
Oct. 28 |
Lecture 13. |
“The Post-Perestroika”: The Social and
Political Reforms of Yeltsin’s Administration, 1991-1997 |
|
Oct. 28 |
Quiz 4. |
Perestroika and Post-Perestroika,
1985-1997. |
|
Oct. 30 |
Final Examination |
|