B2873 - History of the Soviet Union and Russia

Learning outcomes

The course aims at providing students with in-depth knowledge of Soviet and Russian history since 1917. Students are particularly expected to develop an in-depth knowledge and a critical overview of a set of crucial documents in Russian/Soviet diplomacy that will be analysed during the lectures. By the end of the course students will be able to: - describe the main stages of Soviet and Russian history; - contextualise specific events of Soviet and Russian history within broader social, political, economic frames; - critically analyse key primary sources and effectively present the major scholarly debates on the subject matter.

Course contents

The history of Russia, the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet states in the 20^th century may seem to be molded in violence and radical changes, resulting in a material crisis and a new kind of imperialism. Yet this history is also one of great political and social projects, a form of modernization, a worldwide influence, and audacious and innovative – if unsuccessful to reach the ascribed purpose – nationality policies. The course will explore some of the main dimensions of Soviet and Russian history in the 20^th century.

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, as detailed below. The aim is to enhance the interaction between the Professor and students. It will take place from Wed, 12 Feb. to Friday 23 May, due to numerous holidays in between. Each student should attend 14 classes in total.

Lectures (16 hours) aim to introduce students to the core tenets of the discipline. Seminars (12 hours) aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials and exercises. The lectures are held on Wed. and Fri from 9.00 to 11.00 AM, Feb 12-March 7. For the seminar section of the course, students will be divided in 2 groups, with one class/seminar per week from April 2 to May 23. Students attend a total of 28 hours of classes.

Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the class. Active participation through the discussion of existing scholarship and case studies is highly recommended.

Flexibility and changes on the structure of the course might take place due to emergency contingencies as well as suggestions from students.

A first section (A), common to all students, will explore the tension between the temptation to great power on the one hand (a statist tendency), and the projection outwards of an internationalist ideology on the other hand. It will familiarize students with the general chronology of Soviet (and post-Soviet Russian) foreign policy while also introducing them to the specificity of the Soviet universalist project (Marxist-Leninism, Komintern, Kominform, socialist camp). This section will quickly evoke the utopian beliefs and projects of the first decades (the interwar period) and then study in greater depth the more pragmatic policy of late-Stalinist USSR and afterwards, up to the early 21st century.

A second section will function as a seminar sequence with the active participation of students, discussing selected historiographical essays regarding some of the most recent research in Soviet and Russian history. Students will have to choose and attend only one of the two alternative seminars, SEM1 and SEM2:

• SEMINAR 1 focusing on law and authority, crime and repression in the Soviet Union. How did the Tsarist autocrats and then the Marxist Bolsheviks conceive of law and justice? how the state policy itself criminalized behaviors such as political non-alignment, work indiscipline, marginal activities; how the central place taken by the Gulag in Soviet society left deep imprint on the minds and the communities after its disappearance. Finally, we’ll discuss post-Soviet Russia and the legal dualism (K. Hendley, G. Favarel-Garrigues)
• SEMINAR 2 explores a less known area of the Soviet Union, Central Asia. The case study of Tajikistan (A. Kalinovsky, 2018) will offer the possibility of exploring the themes of Russian colonialism and Soviet ‘decolonization’, perception of otherness and backwardness versus Soviet drive to modernization, and eventually Soviet Tajikistan in the Cold War. Kalinovsky’s case study will be compared with works on other areas of that part of the USSR (Guth, Cucciolla…)

[NB: in 2025/26 SEM 2 will focus on the complex relationship of Russia to Europe, both in terms of political values and representations of itself, and in terms of limits. Where Europe ends and Russia begins, if the latter doesn’t ‘belong’ to the former but pursues its own, specific path (the myth of a ‘Sonderweg’ à la russecan be followed from the ‘Moscow, Third Rome’ of the 16^th century to the latest historical considerations of the current president)?]

ONLY Students enrolled from the MA MIREES can attend classes in presence in Bologna or online on MS Teams, but they must follow the MIREES rules of attendance (70% of the classes).

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Readings/Bibliography

Students are invited to get a first idea of the general topic of the first part of the course by reading Hopf, Ted. “Moscow’s Foreign Policy, 1945–2000: Identities, Institutions and Interests.” In The Cambridge History of Russia, 3: The Twentieth Century, edited by Ronald G. Suny, 662–705. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Or Kalinovsky, Artemy M. “The Soviet Union and the Global Cold War,” in The Cambridge History of Communism. vol.3: Endgames? Late Communism in Global Perspective, 1968 to the Present, edited by Juliane Fürst, Silvio Pons, and Mark Selden, 72–94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

For students who have not approached the history of Russia and the Soviet Union before, it is highly recommended to study Edele, Mark. The Soviet Union. A Short History. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019, or Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Shortest History of the Soviet Union, Columbia University Press, 2022 (it was translated into italian: Breve Storia Dell’Unione Sovietica. Milano: Bompani, 2023).

The readings necessary to prepare yourself for the exam differ a little depending on the mode of attendance. Please find all the details on the exam on the page Virtuale [https://virtuale.unibo.it/course/view.php?id=64522#section-1] .

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Teaching methods

Teaching methods

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, along the "Y" system, as detailed in the following program. The aim is to combine the student health and safety with the best possible interaction with the Professor and among students.

Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the class, especially in section B.

Section A. Frontal lectures for all students

8 Lectures (2 hrs each) aim to introduce students to the core tenets of the discipline and the chronology of the region. This section relies mainly on frontal lectures with the use of PowerPoint presentations, though active participation of students in class – by asking questions, requiring additional bibliographical advice – is strongly encouraged.

Class 1: Introduction. The Bolsheviks, the World Revolution and the War 12 Feb.

readings strongly advised: Pons, The Global Revolution – Prologue, Introduction, chapter 1.

Class 2: From ‘socialism in one country’ to the Cold War 14 Feb.

readings strongly advised: Pons, The Global Revolution – chapters 2 and 3.

Class 3: “Time of Empire”, 1945-53 19 Feb

readings strongly advised: Pons, The Global Revolution – chapter 4.

Class 4: “Time of Decline”, 1953-68 21 Feb.

readings strongly advised: Pons, The Global Revolution – chapter 5.

Class 5: “Time of Crisis”, 1968-85 26 Feb.

readings strongly advised: Pons, The Global Revolution – chapter 6 (pp.255-305)

Class 6: “Time of Crisis”, 1985-91 28 Feb.

readings strongly advised: Pons, The Global Revolution – chapter 6 (pp.305-end) and Zubok, Vladislav M. A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2007, chapter 10.

Class 7: The 1990s 5 March

readings strongly advised: Edele, Mark. Russia’s War Against Ukraine: The Whole Story. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2023 – chapters 3-5.

Class 8: Putin’s policy 7 March

readings strongly advised: Frye, Timothy. Weak Strongman : The Limits of Power in Putin’s Russia. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2021, chapter 9.

 

Section B (Seminaries SEM1 and SEM2)

Two Alternative Seminars of 6 lectures (2 hrs each) aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of specific topics. During those classes, the students are required to participate actively, by engaging in discussions among themselves and with the professor. To this end, they must have prepared the discussion on the concrete topic of the day by reading the texts assigned by the professor. For each class, at least two different book chapters / journal articles will be distributed among students.

Dates:

SEM 1 SEM2

Wed. 2 Apr Frid. 4 Apr

Wed. 9 Apr Frid. 11 Apr.

Wed. 16 Apr. Wed. 23 Apr [18 Apr is holiday]

Wed. 7 May Frid. 9 May

Wed.14 May Frid. 16 May

Wed. 21 May Frid. 23 May

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Assessment methods

ATTENDING STUDENTS

The exam is composed of two parts.

• The first part consists in active participation during the 8 classes and 6 seminars and a Mid-Term oral exam (2 open-ended questions on the Section 1). Participation is assessed in terms of attendance, active interaction reflecting the fulfillment of reading assignments and the student’s analytical & critical skills. This first part of the exam will count for 60% of the grade.

The mid-term oral exam will take place in presence, in Bologna on March 19 or 28, 2025. Students who can not attend this exam must shift to the status of non-attending students.

• The second part consists in an critical synthesis (5000 words max) on an academic text agreed with the professor of Section 2-SEM.A or 2-SEM.B (40% of grade)

Those who do not pass the Mid-Term exam will be considered, for their marking, as "Non Attending Students".

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

The final result is made out of one oral exam with two to four open questions pertaining both to Section A and to the topics of Section B-SEM1 or B-SEM2. Therefore non-attending students must also choose one of the 2 seminars and its reading list.

The readings necessary to prepare yourself for the exam differ a little depending on the mode of attendance. Please find all the details on the exam on the page Virtuale

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The first call for non-attending students' will be in May-July 2025 (2 dates), a second in late-August/September 2025 (idem), and one in the winter session of exam (January 2026).

Graduation Policy

The final overall grade will be in the range 18-30:

- 30 cum laude (outstanding, sure grasp of all the material and many interesting insights)

- 28-30 (excellent, sure grasp of all the material and some interesting insights)

- 26-27 (very good, competent grasp of all the material)

- 24-25 (good, competent grasp of some the material)

- 21-23 (satisfactory, partial grasp of the material)

- 18-20 (pass, barely sufficient grasp of the material)

- 17 or below (fail, insufficient grasp of the material).

Teaching tools

The course will make use of ppt and audio-visuals whenever necessary.

It also relies on documents uploaded by the professor on Virtuale.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students.

Office hours

See the website of Vanessa Voisin