Dickinson College - Spring 2009
History 254

Russia: Quest for the Modern


TF 1:30 - Denny 311
Prof. Karl D. Qualls   -   Denny 307  -  (717) 245-1774 - Email: quallsk@dickinson.edu   Office hours: T 9-12

I reserve the right to adjust any part of this syllabus, with reasonable prior notice, in order to accommodate the needs of students.

Scope and Objectives 

After a brief background on Russian history, we will begin our survey of modern Russia in the late-nineteenth century as the country was undergoing tremendous social and economic change.  Halfhearted attempts at reform after the revolution of 1905 collapsed in the face of World War I.  The Russian economy, and therefore its people, descended into the depths of misery.  From the depths, a group of revolutionaries began to emerge.  A popular revolution took place in February/March 1917 with little aid from the revolutionaries, yet it led to an ineffective liberal constitutional government that shared power with revolutionary councils.  As the strains of war pressed on the new government, Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks decided to seize power in October/November 1917 and articulated a new vision for society.  The bulk of our study will be on this vision, which became the Soviet Union.  After an overview of the twentieth century we will then begin a thematic study of the attempts and failures to create a modern utopia. We will end by assessing Russia today in light of its turbulent past. 

Our content objectives can be summarized and generalized as:
  1. to gain a basic familiarity with the major events and people that have shaped modern Russia
  2. to understand what life was like for the average Russian in this period 
  3. to address the question of the relationship of Marxism-Leninism-Stalinism to the long-term course of Russian history
  4. to place the development and function of the Soviet system in a larger context of "modern" governance 

Our skill objectives are: 

  1. to practice critical thinking and reading
  2. to learn how to write and communicate more effectively (see my grading criteria for written assignments)

Requirements

The course requirements are weighted heavily to reading, understanding, and writing.  The bulk of each student's grade will be derived from written evaluations of our readings and participation in discussions of them. I have exceptionally high standards for student writing, so be warned!  In order to help you strive to do your best work, at times we will employ peer review and peer education in addition to my comments.  All assignments are due at the beginning of class. Likewise, your timely attendance at all classes, except when absences are excusable (which is my determination) and documented, is expected and mandatory and WILL affect your participation grade.

You must also practice civil discourse in communication with me and peers. Thus, the email beginning, "Yo, Prof." will be ignored. If you email me you should begin with a proper salutation, write in complete and grammatically correct sentences, and conclude with an appropriate sign-off. I will neither read nor respond to sloppy discourse. I prefer face-to-face conversations or phone calls. We can accomplish much more in direct communication. If I am unavailable, you may email. But plan ahead because I only check email once or twice a day at most.

Out of respect for me and your peers, please turn off cell phones. I will answer the calls and ask you to leave the classroom for the rest of the period.

Disability Statement

Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester (except for unusual circumstances) so that appropriate arrangements can be made.  Students are required to register with Academic Resource Services in the Advising Office located on the first floor of Biddle House (contact ext. 1080 or waybranj@dickinson.edu) to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations. Likewise, any conflicts with religious holidays must be pointed out to me by the end of the second week.
Academic Honesty

This course follows the College's policy on plagiarism as defined in Students Records, Rights, and Responsibilities and Proscriptions on Conduct. Please ask any questions in advance in order to avoid potential problems. Academic honesty is fundamental to the activities and principles of a college. All members of the academic community must be confident that each person's work has been responsibly and honorably acquired, developed, and presented. Any effort to gain an advantage not given to all students is dishonest whether or not the effort is successful. The academic community regards academic dishonesty as an extremely serious matter, with serious consequences. When in doubt about plagiarism, paraphrasing, quoting, or collaboration, consult the Student Handbook or ask me.

 

Important Dates

  • Spring Break: March 8-13
  • Roll Call Grades Due: March 5
  • Last Day to Withdraw: March 27
  • Classes End: May 1

Reading list

The following are available for purchase in the bookstore:

  1. Stites, et al. A History of Russia Recommended
  2. Anton Chekhov, The Cherry Orchard (Dover)Required
  3. Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Required
  4. Fitzpatrick, Stalinism: New Directions Required
  5. Zamyatin, We Required
The following items are available on Library reserve:
  • Suzanne Massie, Land of the Firebird
  • von Geldern, Mass Culture in Soviet Russia
  • Rosenberg and Suny Social Dimensions of Soviet Industrialization
  • Franco Venturi, Roots of Revolution
  • Circus (VT 4118)
  • Inner Circle (VT0986)
  • Moscow Doesn't Believe in Tears (VT2736)

In addition, all students should read and regularly consult Strunk's and White's classic Elements of Style eithe on-line or by purchasing the book (less that $5 most likely). I would dare say that few serious writers have concluded their careers without reading this pithy reference.

Grades

Grades will be distributed as follows:
  • Participation (Discussion, short response papers, etc.) 15 percent
  • Bibliography Project 15 percent
  • Midterm exam 20 percent
  • Book analysis (Solzhenitsyn and Zamyatin) 15 percent each
  • Final Exam 20 percent

Late work is simply unacceptable because it unfairly penalizes students who have submitted the work on time. Thus, any deadline missed (even by a minute) will result in a 50 percent reduction in the grade for the assignment for each day or part of a day it is late. If any assignment is not submitted it will result in a failing grade for the course. Although this sounds harsh and unyielding, it is designed to give me the opportunity to evaluate all work equally.

Unless otherwise noted in class, all written work below a "C," except the final paper, must be rewritten within one week after I return them. Rewrites will continue until the papers represent "C" quality work.  The final grade for each task will be an average of all attempts, but not higher than a "C."  This, hopefully, will encourage the best possible work on the first attempt and reward students accordingly.  It should also ensure that by the end of the class each student should be well on her/his way to becoming a successful and effective writer.

You must keep all assignments and my comments and be prepared to send them to me at any time.

 

Week 1:

  • Tuesday: Introduction. Begin reading Stites, et al. or another textbook on modern Russian history. Lecture: Russia before the twentieth century
  • Friday: Modernity (Hoffmann, Russian Modernity, chapters 1 and 12 and Holquist, "Information is the Alpha and Omega of our Work" , The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 69, No. 3. (Sep., 1997): 415-450. Write a paragraph defining "modernity."

Week 2 

  • Tuesday: Discussion of Chekhov, Cherry Orchard. Check out this guide on the impact of industrialization.
  • Friday: Overview of Twentieth-Century Russia and the Soviet Union

Week 3:

  • Tuesday: Revolutionary Movements: Isaiah Berlin's introduction to Franco Venturi, Roots of Revolution, pp. vii-xxx. This guide might help with the finer points of the development of revolutionary movements. Read Massie, Land of the Firebird, chs. 20, 26.
  • Friday: Russia's Revolutions: 1905, 1917 (Read Fitzpatrick on Gateway)

Week 4:

  • Tuesday: Revolutionary Dreams and Revolutionary Culture
  • Friday: Discussion of Zamyatin's We

Week 5 : Agriculture and Industry

Week 6 : Nationality

  • Tuesday: Imperial nationality policy (Knight, "Ethnicity, Nationality and the Masses")
  • Friday: Soviet nationality policy: Fitzpatrick, pp. 313-347 (Slezkine); Fitzpatrick pp. 348-367 (Martin)

Week 7: Social Identities

  • Tuesday: Fitzpatrick, pp. 15-46; Fitzpatrick, pp. 47-70 (Davies); Fitzpatrick, pp. 71-116 (Hellbeck)
  • Friday: Midterm Exam

Week 8: Spring Break, March 9-13, no class

Week 9: Art and Culture

  • Tuesday: Socialist Realism and the 1930s (New Soviet Man and Woman) You must watch Circus (VT 4118) before class today. Lincoln, Between Heaven and Hell, chs. 14-15.
  • Friday: War and Postwar (Zhdanovshchina); Fitzpatrick, pp. 117-230 (Hessler and Volkov)

Week 10: Violence and Punishment

  • Tuesday: Purges, Show Trials, and the Gulag: Fitzpatrick, pp 257-308 (Harris and Hagenloh); Forced Labor Camps
  • Friday: Discussion of Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovic

Week 11:

Week 12: Challenges to Authoritarianism 

Week 13: Science and Nature Bibliography due

  • Tuesday: From Revolutionary Dreams to Conquering Nature: Lysenko, Virgin Lands, and the Space Race.
  • Friday: Read soviethistory.org for 1954 and 1961

Week 14: Women's Equality

  • Tuesday: Soviet "equality" (Barbara Engel, "Engendering Russia's History," Slavic Review, Vol. 51, No. 2. (Summer, 1992), pp. 309-321.; Wendy Goldman, "Revolution and the Family"
  • Friday: Bernstein, "Prostitutes and Proletariats"; and Bucher, "Free and Worth Every Kopek". soviethistory.org for 1980 and the 1936 Constitution

Week 15: Collapse of Utopia

  • Tuesday: Stagnation
  • Friday: Gorbachev's Reforms; Post-Soviet Russia: From Yeltsin to Putin (Read here on 1991). Migration
FINAL EXAM: 09:00 May 11

Book Analysis:

The book analysis should be a short paper (750-800 words, tightly written and argued) that analyzes issues of modernity brought up in the text. Moving from the concepts raised by Hoffmann, show how Zamyatin or Solzhenitsyn understood and evaluated Soviet modernity as they saw it. In short, identify a few key elements of modernity in the novellas, relate them to the quest for modernity in general in the Soviet state, and discuss the author's underlying message about the Soviet experiment.

Midterm Essay Questions: The best exams MUST have a thesis and use ample evidence from our primary document readings

Final Exam