SovietRussia

History 452.01 (Soviet Russia)

M. Hickey OSH 130, x4161 Hickey@planetx.bloomu.edu

Office Hours: M,W, F 10:00-11:45

Why did the Bolshevik Revolution occur? How did Stalin gain power? What did industrialization and collectivization mean for Soviet citizens? How can we explain the purges of the 1930s? How did subsequent leaders confront the legacies of Stalinism? What led to the Soviet system's collapse? These are some of the main questions we will address in this reading seminar. Our approach will be both thematic and chronological.

Requirements: Your grade will be based upon: Class Participation (20 percent); a Written and In-Class Report (10 percent); a Research Paper or Historiographic Essay (30 percent); and a Final Exam (40 percent). Criteria for each assignment are explained below. A grade of "A" in this course means that your cumulative score on all assignments adds up to 93 percent or more of possible points; "A-"=90-92; "B+"=88-89; "B"=83-87; "B-"=80-82; "C+"=78-79; "C"=73-77; "C-"=70-72; "D+"=68-69; "D"=60-67.

Class Participation: This class is a reading seminar. My minimum expectation is that you attend class having completed all readings for the week.

For each session after the second week of classes, I will assign a group of students to be discussion leaders. The group of discussion leaders will work together on a strategy for the class session (a lesson plan). They will prepare questions or other in-class assignments for the class that will help us get at the main points of that session’s readings. And they will communicate their plans, questions, etc., with each other and with me via e-mail at least 48 hours before the class session. Then, during the class session, the discussion leaders will play a major role in guiding our discussion and activities.

Your participation grade will be based on the quality of your contribution to discussions and on the quality of your preparation and performance as a discussion leader. Attendance is mandatory, as is your participation as a discussion leader. Your participation grade will fall in direct ratio to the percentage of class meetings you miss; missing your session as discussion leader will void your participation grade.

Written and In-class report: During week two you will select a topic on which you will conduct supplemental readings. You must read three articles in major historical journals (or you can substitute one book) addressing a question relevant to that topic. You will write a short (2-4 page) essay in which you explain the thesis of each of these readings and compare the authors’ arguments to the position taken by Suny in The Soviet Experiment. You will turn in the paper at the session during which we discuss your topic. During that session, you will also present the class with the main points of your paper. I will grade your written report on the basis of its logic, clarity, and accuracy. The in-class report is mandatory; failing to present it will void your written report grade.

Choosing a Topic: The subsections of each chapter in the Suny book provide good report topics. Look over the table of contents, skim the sections that interest you, and then choose a topic. I will schedule you to report at the session during which we discuss that chapter and subsection.

Finding articles: Start by looking in The Russian Review and The Slavic Review, but note that significant articles might appear in other journals as well. To locate articles, you will have to learn to use the library, and in particular to use electronic data bases like "FirstSearch," "Historical Abstracts," and "Humanities Index." You should also consult the "Suggestions for Further Reading" at the end of each chapter in the Suny book, and ask me for suggestions. Some articles and books will be in our library, but others will require use of interlibrary loan. It is your responsibility to obtain the articles, so don't delay! You must consult with me, and I must approve your choice.

Research Paper or Historiographic Essay: You will choose a topic from the list that appears below. You will either A) look for primary sources such as document collections, newspapers, memoirs, and US government documents that shed light on that topic; or B) read a minimum of four books and eight journal articles on the topic. You will then either A) write a research paper that makes a clear and supportable argument about the topic, or B) write an historiographic essay that compares and contrasts the arguments of different historians on the topic.

Finding Primary Sources: In addition to the Daniels collection and the Von Geldern and Stites collection assigned for this course, there are dozens of collections of translated documents that deal with various aspects of Soviet history. There are also memoirs that deal most major topics. You need to hunt for these using library databases and by searching the bibliographies of other books on the topic. There are a few good collections of translated documents on the internet. English-language newspapers are often an interesting source on Soviet history—try searching the New York Times Index, for instance. And the State Department kept a close watch of Soviet affairs; the series Foreign Relations of the United States, Russia and the Soviet Union, for instance, has many interesting materials related to some of the assigned topics. Be unflappable! And ask me for help. You may have to order books and articles through interlibrary loan, so don't delay!

Finding Secondary Sources: Try doing "subject" and "keyword" searches on the various databases at the library, use Suny’s "Suggestions for Further Reading,"sift through the bibliographies of other books and articles, and (as always) ask me for help. You may have to order books and articles through interlibrary loan, so don't delay.

Writing your paper:

If you are doing a research paper, then your aim is to ask and answer a clear and important historical question about the topic. Define your question as clearly as possible. Explain what (if anything) Suny has written about your topic in The Soviet Experiment. Then use the primary source materials to make a coherent argument that—to the extent possible given the sources—answers your question. Make sure that you are conscious of the limits of your sources. And be sure that the evidence supports your argument.
Historiography is the history of how history gets written. Your aim in an historiographic essay is to explain changes in historical interpretation across time or differences between various "schools" of historical interpretation. Define your topic as clearly as possible. Then analyze the works that you have read, either in chronological order or by historiographic "school." Discuss the thesis of each work and the kinds of sources the author has employed, then explain how it relates to previous historical interpretations. Assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of each work or school. Finally, come to a working conclusion as to the most useful interpretative approach to your topic.

Whether you choose A or B, your paper must be at least 10 pages long (typed, double-spaced), not counting endnotes. You must use endnotes to document the source of all quoted, paraphrased, and summarized material. I will grade your paper on the basis of its clarity, logic, accuracy, and utilization of source material.

Potential Topics for Research or Historiographic Essays:

Workers in the 1917 Revolution

The Bolshevik Party in 1917

Bolshevik Policies During the Civil War

Military Aspects of the Civil War

Social Policy During NEP

Cultural Policy During NEP

Party Power Struggles During NEP

Economic Policy During NEP

Trotsky and Politics in the 1920s

Stalin and Politics in the 1920s

Soviet Foreign Policy in the 1920s

State Policy towards Collectivization in the 1930s

State Industrial Policy in the 1930s

State Science/Educational/Cultural Policy in the 1930s

The State and Famine in the 1930s

Peasant Resistance to Collectivization

Workers and Resistance to State Labor Policy in the 1930s

The Causes of the Terror in the 1930s

The Impact of the Terror in the 1930s

Soviet Foreign Policy in the 1930s

The Red Army in World War Two

Soviet Domestic Politics During World War Two

Stalin and the Post-War State

The USSR and the Origins of the Cold War

Khrushchev's Rise to Power

Labor Policy and/or Conflict Under Khrushchev

Agricultural Policy under Khrushchev

Foreign Policy Under Khrushchev (including the Cuban Missile Crisis)

Politics Under Brezhnev

State Social Policy Under Brezhnev

Foreign Policy Under Brezhnev (including the "Second Cold War")

The Meaning of the Gorbachev Era

Or you can choose your own topic in consultation with me.

Final Exam: In November I will give you a take-home final exam. It will be an essay question, and it will require you to draw together material from Suny, Daniels, Von Geldern and Stites, and also from outside readings. It will be due at our scheduled final exam meeting. Your essay must be at least ten pages long (typed, double-spaced), not counting endnotes. I will grade your exam on the basis of its logic, clarity, accuracy, and use of relevant evidence.

TEXTS (in bookstore):

Daniels, Robert V., ed. A Documentary History of Communism. Vol. 1, Communism in Russia. Revised Edition. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1984.

Suny, Ronald Grigor. The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Von Geldern, James and Richard Stites, eds. Mass Culture in Soviet Russia: Tales, Poems, Songs, Movies, Plays, and Folklore, 1917-1953. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.

Weekly Reading Assignments (with links to study questions):

WK 1 (31 Aug., 2 Sept.). Housekeeping. Contours of Late Imperial Russian History.

Suny ch. 1; Daniels, pp. 7-13, 14-18, 25-29, 33, 46-48.

WK 2 (7, 9 Sept.). Late Imperial Russia and the 1917 Revolutions.

Left over reading from wk. 1; Suny, ch. 2; Daniels, pp. 54-80.

WK 3 (14, 16 Sept.). 1917 and the Civil War.

Left over from wk. 2; Suny, ch. 3-4; Daniels, pp. 81-92, 92-98, 102-105, 113-117, 121-123, 136-143; Von Geldern, 3, 6-12, 13-14, 14-15, 22-29; Reports.

WK 4 (21, 23 Sept.). NEP, and the Power Struggle. Pt. 1

Left over from wk. 3; Suny, ch. 5-6; Daniels, pp. 143-214; Reports.

WK 5 (28, 30 Sept.). NEP, and the Power Struggle. Pt. 2.

Suny, ch. 7-8; Von Geldern, pp. 32-138; Reports.

WK 6 (5, 7 Oct.). Peasants and Collectivization.

Suny, ch. 9; Daniels, pp. 202-207, 215-219, 224-227; Von Geldern, 142-156;

Reports.

WK 7 (12, 14 Oct.). Industrialization,

Suny, ch. 10; Daniels, pp. 208-214, 215-219, 228-234; Von Geldern, 156-181,

238-243; Reports.

WK 8 (19, 21 Oct.). The Party-State Machine, the Purges, and Terror.

Suny, ch. 11; Daniels, pp. 221-224, 253-258, 235-236, 249-253, 258-274; Von