Politics 115
Post-Soviet Politics
Spring 2010
Stephen Crowley
MWF 3:30-4:20
King 123
Office: Rice 211
Office Hours: MF 1:30-3:00; or by appointment
(please sign up at: <http://tinyurl.com/scrowley>
e-mail: <[email protected]>
Phone: x58286
In focusing on “post-Soviet” politics, this course will concentrate on the dramatic
political (and social and economic) events that have occurred with the fall of the Soviet
empire. However, we will make sense of the present through an understanding of the
history on which it is built. In so doing, the course will explore some of the major
political themes of the twentieth century -- the Russian revolution, Stalinism, the nature
of the Soviet political system, Gorbachev's perestroika, nationalism, the Soviet collapse,
as well as Russia's rather tentative steps towards capitalism and democracy.
By the end of the course, you should have a good understanding about what the Soviet
Union was, and about how the attempts to reform it led to its demise; you should also
know a good deal about the problems confronting Russia and the former Soviet republics,
including their attempts to create new political and economic systems and to find their
place in the international political and economic order.
Course Requirements
You are expected to complete the reading before class. Lectures will assume
knowledge of the reading, and will often lead to discussion of the reading. In order to
facilitate class discussion and to insure that students stay on pace with the reading, you
will be asked to post regular comments on the reading to the Blackboard on-line
discussion forum. Comments will be posted about once a week during the semester.
(Students will be graded not on the quality of their comments, provided they show some
level of thoughtfulness and reflection on the readings). In addition, there will be two
analytical essays (5-6 pages) during the semester (due March 19 and April 30) and a final
exam.
Grades will be determined as follows:
Class participation, including class attendance and Blackboard discussion postings – 20%
2 analytical essays @25%= 50%
Final exam – 30%
Reading:
The following book have been ordered for purchase at the Oberlin Bookstore:
Mary McAuley, Soviet Politics: 1917-1991, Oxford University Press
Richard Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s Choice, 2nd Edition, Routledge
With the exception of these books, all of the assigned readings will be accessible via
Blackboard. Additional copies of some of the reading will also be available on regular
reserve.
You are also strongly encouraged to follow current events regarding Russia and the
former Soviet republics, such as by reading The New York Times. (More in-depth
coverage of the region can be found in the daily Financial Times and the weekly
Economist, both available in Mudd Library. There are other sources I will gladly point
out to you upon request.)
I will ask that you not use laptop computers (or other electronic devices) during class
time. While many may use laptops solely to take notes, the temptation to do otherwise is
unavoidable, and potentially distracting for others as well.
Class Schedule
February 8-15: The Russian Revolution and Stalinism
McAuley, Soviet Politics, intro. and chpts. 1-4
Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution, chapter 2
John Scott, Beyond the Urals, parts 1-3
February 17-22: Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and the Soviet Political Economy
McAuley, chapters 5-6
Nikita Khrushchev, "The Secret Speech" [read for main points]
Alec Nove, "The Soviet Economy: Problems and Prospects," in Erik Hoffman and
Robin Laird, eds., Soviet Polity in Modern Era
Natalya Baranskaya, "A Week Like any Other Week," Massachusetts Review,
Autumn, 1974
Vladimir Shlapentokh, “Public Opinion: Acceptance of the Regime,” in A Normal
Totalitarian Society
February 24-26: Gorbachev’s Perestroika
McAuley, chapter 7
Mikhail Gorbachev, "Speech to the Khabarovsk Party Conference," in Dallin and
Lapidus, The Soviet System: From Crisis to Collapse
Nina Andreyeva, "I Cannot Forgo My Principles," in The Soviet System
Stephen Kotkin, Steeltown, USSR, chapter 2
March 1: Nationalist mobilizations
Terry Martin, “An Affirmative Action Empire,” in Ronald Suny and Terry
Martin, eds., A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin
and Stalin
Mark Beissinger, “The Persistent Ambiguity of Empire,” Post-Soviet Affairs,
no.11, 1995
March 3-5: Coup and Collapse
McAuley, chapter 8 and conclusion
Martin Malia, “To the Stalin Mausoleum,” in The Soviet System
Stephen Cohen “Was the Soviet System Reformable?” Slavic Review, 63: 3, 2004
Mikhail Gorbachev, "Resignation Speech," in The Soviet System
[March 5: first essay assignment distributed]
March 8-15: Building Capitalism, Post-Communist Style
David Kotz with Fred Weir, Revolution From Above, chapts. 9-10
Joseph Stiglitz, “Who Lost Russia?” in Globalization and its Discontents
Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman, "A Normal Country: Russia After
Communism,"
NBER
Working
Paper
No.
10057, Nov. 2003, pp. 1-15
Richard Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s Choice, Introduction, chapts. 1, 9
March 19: First Essay Due
March 17-24: Building Democracy, Post-Communist Style
Catherine Danks, Politics Russia, chapt. 12
George Breslauer, “Boris Yeltsin as Patriarch,” in Archie Brown, ed.,
Contemporary Russian Politics
Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s Choice, chapts. 2-4
Andrei Ryabov, “How Russia works,” Russian Analytical Digest, 49, 5 Nov 2008
Victor Yasmann and Donald Jensen, “Putin’s Choice: A Profile of Dmitrii
Medvedev,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 23 March 2008
[March 27-April 4: Spring Break]
March 26-April 16: End of Empire, New States
Artis Pabriks and Aldis Purs, Latvia: The Challenge of Change, chapt. 3
Theodore Gerber & Sarah Mendelson, “Caught in Between: Citizenship, Identity,
and Young Ethnic Russians in Estonia,” PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 62,
2009
Lucan Way, “Authoritarian State Building and the Sources of Regime
Competitiveness,” World Politics, 57: 1, Jan. 2005, 231-61
Paul Kubicek, "Problems of Post-Postcommunism: Ukraine after the Orange
Revolution," Democratization, Apr. 2009, Vol. 16 Issue 2
Graeme Herd, “Colorful revolutions and the CIS,” Problems of Post-Communism,
52: 2, Mar 2005
Charles Fairbanks, “Georgia’s Soviet Legacy,” Journal of Democracy, 21: 1
(January 2009)
Andrew March, “From Leninism to Karimovism: Hegemony, Ideology, and
Authoritarian Legitimation,” Post-Soviet Affairs, 19, no. 4, 2003
Kathleen Collins, “Clans politics in Central Asia,” Journal of Democracy, 13: 3,
2002
Michael Klare, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, chapt. 5
Eric McGlinchey, “Three Perspectives on Political Islam in Central Asia,”
PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 76, 2009
Cullen Murphy, “Get in Touch with Your Inner Turkmenbashi,” Atlantic, Nov. 02
Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s Choice, chapt. 10
[April 16: second essay assignment distributed]
April 19-26: Finding the Russian State
Stephen Holmes, “When Less State Means Less Freedom,” Transitions,
September 1997
Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s Choice, chapts. 5-8
Georgi Derluguian, "The Coming Revolutions in the North Caucasus," PONARS
Policy Memo No. 378, Dec. 2005
Vadim Volkov, "Violent Entrepreneurship in Russia," Europe-Asia Studies, vol.
55, no. 5, 1999
April 28-May 5: Society, Class and Gender
Bertram Silverman and Murray Yanowitch, New Rich, New Poor, New Russia,
chapters 2-3
Anders Aslund, Building Capitalism, chapt. 8
Murray Feshbach, “Russia’s Population Meltdown,” The Wilson Quarterly,
Winter 2001
Sue Bridger, Rebecca Kay, and Kathryn Pinnich, No More Heroines?: Russia,
Women and the Market, chapters 2-3; 8
William Finnegan, “The Countertraffickers: Rescuing the victims of the global
sex trade,” The New Yorker, May 5, 2008
Stephen Crowley, “Comprehending the Weakness of Russia’s Unions,”
Demokratizatsiya, Spring 2002
April 30: Second Essay Due
May 7-14: Is Russia headed West or South?
Shleifer and Treisman, "A Normal Country: Russia After Communism," pp. 1626
Anatol Lieven, “The Masque of Democracy: Russia’s Liberal Capitalist
Revolution and the Collapse of State Power,” chapter 4 in Chechnya
Sakwa, Putin: Russia’s Choice, chapt. 11
Vladimir Putin, “Russia at the Turn of the Millennium,” appendix in Sakwa,
Putin: Russia’s Choice
Michael McFaul & Kathryn Stoner-Weiss ‘The Myth of the Authoritarian Model:
How Putin’s Crackdown Holds Russia Back,” Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2008
Lilia Shevtsova, “What’s the Matter With Russia?” Journal of Democracy, 21: 1
(January 2009)
Ted Hopf, “Russia’s Place in the World: An Exit Option?” PONARS Eurasia
Policy Memo No. 79, 2009
Stephen Cohen, "The New American Cold War," The Nation, July 10, 2006
Friday, May 21, 9 am: Final Exam
Honor Code:
The Honor Code is a serious commitment. You should all be familiar with the honor
code (available at http://www.oberlin.edu/~stlife/Honor_Code/Honor_Code.html). In
general, you are encouraged to share your work with other students, and to seek their
input, comments and corrections. However, the work you submit must be substantively
your own. If you are unsure how the Honor Code applies to a particular assignment,
please ask me. It is essential that you write and sign the honor code on all work you hand
in for this class. (You do not need to write this on Blackboard discussion postings.) The
Honor Code reads: “I affirm that I have adhered to the Honor Code on this assignment.”