History 304: History of Russia and the Soviet Union
Koç University, Fall 2009
Class meets Mondays, Wednesdays, 9:30-10:45 am, room: CAS B-26
Instructor: Mark Baker
Office: SOS 148
Telephone: 212-338-1399
email: [email protected]
I am most easily accessible via email, but phone is fine too.
Office hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, 14:00-16:00
Course Description:
Koç University’s website describes the course as follows: “From the rule of Peter the Great until the 1905 and [1917] Soviet
revolutions. The course concentrates on the social, political, and economic events leading to the 1905 Revolution, including the
1917 Revolution and the Stalin period.” The time period is basically too long and too much has been written to cover this period in
any depth. Hence, we have a great deal to read and discuss. If you wish to do well in this course, it is essential that you keep up
with the readings and attend classes regularly.
Course Learning Objectives:
By the end of the course students will (hopefully) be able:
To identify and define the most important events, people, cultures, civilizations, and processes of the transformation of the
Russian Empire from Peter the Great to the 1917 revolution.
To evaluate historical documents critically and to describe how they might be used in understanding and writing Russian
and Soviet history.
To think more critically about history, how it is constructed, written, and interpreted.
Required Readings:
Readings are all available through the course website: http://www.csub.edu/~mbaker2/Hist304syl.htm
(You may need to login to your library account to view some of the readings.)
The readings may also soon be available via e-reserves (http://libunix.ku.edu.tr). Under the left-hand drop-down menu go to
“Reserves by Course” and search for our course number: Hist 304. You may also be able to purchase a paper copy from the
photocopy center in the library.
For a list of eBooks on Russian History, click here.
Course Requirements:
Percent
Assignment
20
Midterm Examination: will include short-answer, map, and essay questions; students are responsible for all
materials from the lectures and the readings. The exam will take place on 16 November 2009.
10
In-class quizzes (unannounced): There will be some in-class quizzes during the semester, quizzing students mostly
on the readings, not the lectures. They will therefore reward students who do the readings before the class for
which they are assigned.
10
Participation: students will be evaluated not only for attending all classes, but taking an active part in class
discussions.
20
Research Paper: Students will research and write a paper on a topic of their choice, 8-10 pages in length, with a
minimum of eight sources (books and scholarly articles) and at least one primary source (such as a document).
Students will be required to submit a preliminary bibliography by 21 October 2009. The paper will be due on
14 December 2009. Graded papers will be returned to students on 21 December 2009, and students will have the
opportunity to re-write their papers; the re-written papers will be due on 4 January 2010.
40
Final Examination: will include short-answer, map, and essay questions; students are responsible for all materials
from the lectures and the readings. The final examination will be comprehensive and will take place during final
examinations period, 12-22 January 2010.
Class Format:
Our classes will include lectures, group work, class discussions, and film presentations. It is very important that you complete
reading assignments before class. I will presume that students have done the reading. Instead of trying to cover all the subject
matter in the reading, I will focus on important themes, points and controversies. The lectures and the class discussions will make
much more sense and be more useful to you, if you have done the readings in advance.
Very Important Rules:
Late papers will be accepted, but one-third of a grade per day will be deducted (for example, a "B-" paper that is
one day late will become a C+ paper).
Make-up examinations will be permitted only with written verification of medical or personal emergencies. I am a
historian; I require written evidence.
Each student should read Koç University’s Student Code of Conduct, especially concerning Academic
Dishonesty. Using words from any source without placing them in quotation marks and citing the source is
plagiarism. Submitting a paper (in whole or part) that was submitted for any other course is also plagiarism.
Looking at another student's exam or using any outside sources during an examination is cheating. A course grade
of "F" will be applied in all proven instances of cheating and plagiarism.
Turnitin.com: Students and the instructor will be using www.turnitin.com to learn about and check for plagiarism
on the film critique. All students will need to register with www.turnitin.com in the first week of class. (Class
ID:2890920; password: crimea)
You MUST check your email account on a regular basis in order to do well in this course. I frequently send email
messages about upcoming events concerning the course, as well as handouts and other course materials. If you are
not in the habit of checking your Koc email regularly, you will need to start, or else have your email forwarded to
whatever email address you do use regularly.
Be on time for class; if you need to leave class early, please let me know in advance.
The classroom is a public forum for dialogue. Hence, all electronic communication devices (especially cell phones
and pagers) must be turned off during class.
Students unable to comply with any of these guidelines should see me personally and immediately to discuss their
reasons.
Class Outline:
dd.mm.yr
Lectures and Readings
28.09.09
Introduction to the syllabus, course and the topic:
A review of the basic dates of imperial Russian history. Click here for a chronology. Click here for a fairly
complete list of rulers.
30.09.09
Peter I (the Great) and his reforms
Reading: Excerpts from four contemporary sources on Peter the Great (read all four accounts) and begin reading
Obolonsky chapter.
05.10.09
Peter I (the Great) and his reforms, part II
Reading: Alexander V. Obolonsky, The Drama of Russian Political History: System Against Individuality (College
Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2003), Chapter 3, pp. 42-65 (eBook).
07.10.09
Ruthless Tsarinas and Palace Coups: Anna I and Elizabeth I
Reading: Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Russian Identities: A Historical Survey (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005),
Chapter 5: "The Eighteenth Century in Russia after the Death of Peter the Great", pp. 88-111 (eBook).
12.10.09
Catherine II (the Great), 1762-1796
Reading: Tony Brenton, "The Ambassador, the Grand Duke, his wife and her lover," History Today 58, no. 9
(September 2008): 14-19.
Three contemporary sources on Catherine the Great (read all three)
14.10.09
Catherine, part II: Pugachev and the peasants
Reading: Isabel de Madariaga, "Catherine the Great," History Today 51, no. 11 (November 2001): 45-51 (eArticle).
Two documents on the Pugachev Rebellion (1774-1775)
19.10.09
Aleksandr I, early period and reforms
Reading: Richard Cavendish, "Murder of Tsar Paul I," History Today 51, no. 3 (March 2001): 53 (e-Article).
Riasanovsky, Russian Identities, Chapter 6: "The Reign of Alexander I, 1801-1825," pp. 111-129 (eBook).
21.10.09
Aleksandr I and the Napoleonic Wars
Reading: Alexander M. Martin, "The Response of the Population of Moscow to the Napoleonic
Occupation of 1812," in The Military and Society in Russia: 1450-1917, edited by Eric Lohr and Marshall Poe
(Boston: Brill, 2002), pp. 469-489 (eBook).
Janet Hartley, "Napoleon in Russia," History Today 41, no. 1 (January 1991): 28-34 (e-Article).
DUE: Preliminary bibliography for research paper! Students will meet with me the following week to
discuss their bibliographies.
26.10.09
28.10.09
Nicholas I, the Decembrists, and Official Nationality Policy
Reading: Riasanovsky, Russian Identities, Chapter 7: "The Reign of Nicholas I, 1825–1855, and the New
Intellectual Climate," pp. 130-166 (eBook).
86th Anniversary of the Founding of the Turkish Republic
~ No Classes ~
University offices open until noon
02.11.09
Nicholas I and the Crimean War, 1853-1856
Reading: Hakan Kirimli, "Emigrations from the Crimea to the Ottoman Empire during the Crimean War," Middle
Eastern Studies 44, no. 5 (September 2008): 751-77 (e-Article).
Richard Cavendish, "Death of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia," History Today 55, no. 3 (March 2005): 58 (e-Article).
04.11.09
Alexander II: the great reformer
Reading: Obolonsky, The Drama of Russian Political History, Chapter 5: "A Decisive Junction: The Epoch of
Alexander II," pp. 87-101 (eBook).
Document: Count von Moltke, "The Coronation of Tsar Alexander II," (1855).
09.11.09
Alexander II: the not so great reformer
Reading: Roman Golicz, "The Russians shall not have Constantinople," History Today 53, no. 9 (September 2003):
39-45 (e-Article).
11.11.09
Peasants and the end of serfdom
Reading: Boris N. Mironov, "The Myth of a Systemic Crisis in Russia after the Great Reforms of the 1860s1870s," Russian Social Science Review 50, no. 4 (July 2009): 36-48 (e-Article).
16.11.09
Midterm Examination
18.11.09
Alexander III, 1881-1894
Reading: Bruce W. Lincoln, "Murder near the Cathedral," History Today 25, no. 3 (March 1975): 175-184 (eArticle).
23.11.09
Nicholas II, 1894-1917
Reading: Riasanovsky, Russian Identities, Chapter 8: "Russia from the Death of Nicholas I to the Abdication of
Nicholas II, 1855–1917," pp. 167-210 (eBook).
25.11.09
The Russo-Japanese War and the 1905 revolution
Reading: Stewart Lone, "Between Bushido and Black Humour," History Today 55, no. 9 (September 2005): 20-27
(e-Article).
Raymond A. Esthus, "Nicholas II and the Russo-Japanese War," Russian Review 40, no. 4 (October 1981):
396-411 (e-Article).
30.11.09
Kurban Baymarı, 26-30.11.09
~ No Classes ~
University offices open until noon
02.12.09
The 1905 revolution, part II
Reading: Beryl Williams, "RUSSIA 1905," History Today 55, no. 5 (May 2005): 44-51 (e-Article).
Charlotte Alston,"Witnessing a Revolution," History Today 55, no. 1 (January 2005): 28-29 (e-Article).
Document: Manifesto of 17 October 1905
Document: The Russian Fundamental Law of 23 April 1906
07.12.09
The Stolypin reaction, 1907-1911
Reading: The Stolypin Agrarian Reform: Ukaz of 9 November 1906
Matt Carr, "Cloaks, Daggers and Dynamite," History Today 57, no. 12 (December 2007): 29-31 (e-Article).
09.12.09
World War I and the Russia Empire
Reading: Eric Lohr, "War and Revolution, 1914-1917," in The Cambridge History of Russia: Volume 2, Imperial
Russia, 1689–1917, ed. Dominic Lieven (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 655-669 (eBook).
14.12.09
February 1917 "People's revolution"
Reading: Abdication of Nikolai II, 15 March 1917
The First Provisional Government, Izvestiia, 3 March 1917
Resolutions adopted by the First All-Russian Congress of Soviets, June 1917
Research Paper Due! Please submit paper to www.turnitin.com by 9:00 am (Class ID:2890920; password:
crimea).
16.12.09
The Many Revolutions of 1917
Reading: Sarah Badcock, "Talking to the People and Shaping Revolution: The Drive for Enlightenment in
Revolutionary Russia," Russian Review 65, no. 4 (October 2006): 617-636 (e-Article).
21.12.09
October 1917 revolution
Reading: Vladmir Illyich Lenin (1870-1924), "April Theses" (April 1917)
Vladmir Illyich Lenin, "Call to Power," 24 October 1917
"Declaration of the Rights of the Toiling and Exploited Peoples," 1917
23.12.09
Civil war, 1918-1921
Reading: V. I. Lenin, "On the Organization of the Extraordinary Commission to Fight Counter-Revolution,
Letter to Dzherzhinski (19 December 1917)
Letter from Lenin to M. Gorky, (15 September 1919)
28.12.09
The second civil war: toilers versus the regime
Reading: Peter Holquist, "Anti-Soviet Svodki from the Civil War: Surveillance as a Shared Feature of Russian
Political Culture," Russian Review 56, no. 3 (July 1997): 445-450 (e-Article).
L. Trotsky, "On the Events at Kronstadt," (16 March 1921)
30.12.09
The New Economic Policy (NEP), 1921-1928: lost possibility or brief respite?
Reading: Norman Pereira, "Stalin and the Communist Party in the 1920s," History Today 42, no. 8 (August 1992):
16-22 (e-Article).
04.01.10
Affirmative action empire
Reading: Francine Hirsch, "Getting to Know "The Peoples of the USSR": Ethnographic Exhibits as Soviet
Virtual Tourism, 1923-1934," Slavic Review 62, no. 4 (Winter, 2003), pp. 683-709 (e-Article).
Stalin's rise and the great turn
06.01.10
12.01.1022.01.10
~~~~~
Final Examination
~~~~~
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