POLITICS of RUSSIA

Description:

This course seeks to understand Russia’s political system and change. It is a part of the two courses-set on Eurasia.[1] The course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive coverage of Russia before and after Soviet dissolution, particularly as viewed from Russia’s perspective. It seeks to accomplish the following goals.

Background knowledge. First, it seeks to understand Russia’s political system in historical and contemporary setting. It should provide students with background historical knowledge relevant for understanding the region en large, as well as the knowledge of Russia’s main patterns of policy formation and policy orientation.

Contemporary issues. Second, the course seeks to provide students with basic knowledge of contemporary issues of the post-communist development of Russia and, to the extend possible, the entire Eurasian region. We will be concerned with the Soviet collapse, Russia’s political, economic, and security development, among other issues. 

Analytical perspectives. Third, the course will view Russia’s development in the light of major analytical perspectives that have been developed in Russian area studies as a discipline. In particular, students will learn to think about our subject matter in terms of two major rival schools of thought: Westernism, according to which Russia is in the process of incorporating Western institutions and catching up with the West and Traditionalism that argues that Russia is fundamentally different from the West and will be unable to adjust to liberal democratic values that are deemed exclusively as a product of Europe and its Modernity project.

Critical thinking. Finally, the course should help in developing analytical abilities through critical reading and writing. Students will develop standards of a “good” and “bad” argument and will learn to apply them in their writing and oral presentations

Requirements: 

Attendence and participation – 15% of the grade

Exam – 30%

Research paper (10-15 pages) – 30%

In-class presentation (7-10 minutes) – 15%

Two pop quizes (10-20 minutes) – 10 %

Pop quizes are designed to test your knowledge of readings by asking you to identify key positions, briefly demonstrate how they are supported, and explain which position holds more validity.

The format of paper and presentation will be discussed separately.

Readings: 

Poe, M. T. The Russian Moment in World History. Princeton, 2003.

Suny, R. G., ed. The Structure of Soviet History. Oxford, 2003.

Herspring, D. R., ed. Putin’s Russia. 3^d ed. Rowman & Littlefield, 2007.

Short articles on electronic reserve (marked by *)

Calendar (tentative):

The course schedule:

I. INTRODUCTION

Week 1 (Jan 26) Introduction to the course

(Jan 28) Video I: Documentary “The Russian Revolution”

Week 2 (Feb 2, 4) The Russian Moment in World History

Poe: read all

Week 3 (Feb 9, 11) Revolution and Bolsheviks / Lenin

Suny: 6-22 (Suny), 32-47 (Lenin et al), 62-72 (Decrees), 117-118 (Lenin)

Assignment discussion

II. SOVIET SYSTEM

Week 4 (Feb 16, 18) Stalin

Suny: 89-93, 151-164 (Suny), 118-124 (Lenin), 188-198 (Timasheff), 229-232 (Pravda), 245-250 (Bukharin), 294-298 (Stalin)

Week 5 (Feb 23) Video II: Movie “The Thief”

Week 5-6 (Feb 25, Mar 2) After Stalin

Suny: 329-330, 359-360 (Suny), 340-349 (Khrushv), 360-370 (Bushnell), 370-384 (Millar; Burlatski)

Week 6-7 (Mar 4, Mar 9) Soviet Collapse

Suny: 403-405 (Suny), 423-433 (Gorbachev), 438-445 (Andreeva), 452-456 (Yeltsin), 456-466 (Coup), 467-472 (CIS), 473-476 (Gorbi final speech), 533-549 (“Z”)

Mar 4 Assignment due

III. POST-SOVIET SYSTEM

Week 7-8 (Mar 11, 16) Yeltsin and His Legacy

Suny: 476-478, 492-504 (Suny), 478-492 (Shevtsova), 516-521 (Yeln vs. Khasbulv), 525-526, 530-532 (Yeltsin)

Two views on Yeltsin’s legacy: *The Economist vs. *Tsygankov

Week 8 (Mar 18) Video III: Documentary “Return of the Csar”

Week 9 BREAK

Week 10 (Mar 30, April 1) Putin and Challenges Ahead

Suny: 564-573 (Holmes); Herspring: 1-13, 13-37 (Sakwa); *Putin, Time interview;

Two views on Putin’s legacy: *Chivers vs. *Graham

Apr 1 Presentations begin

IV. CURRENT ISSUES

Week 11 ( Apr 6, 8) State-Building / Northern Caucasus

Suny: 529-530 (Decree); *LaFraniere, How Jihad Made Its Way to Chechnya; *Shlapentokh, The Jihadization of the Northern Caucasus

Two views on Chechnya: *Doukaev vs. *Steele

Week 12 (Apr 13, 15) Review / Exam

Apr 16 Exam

Week 13 (Apr 20, 22) Political Economy / Oligarchs

Herspring: 127-146 (Millar), 147-172 (Wegren);  *RIA Novosti, Russia’s economy under Vladimir Putin; *Reuters: How Russian authorities are tackling economic crisis
Two views on economic crisis: *Mamchur vs. *Chubais

Week 14 (Apr 27, 29) Polit. Attitudes / Demography

*McFaul & Colton, Are Russians Undemocratic? *Mendelson, Failing the Stalin Test; *Eberstadt, Rising Ambitions, Sinking Population

 

(Apr 29) Video IV: Documentary “In the Name of Love”

Week 15 (May 4, 6) Polit. Institutions

Herspring: 37-52 (Colton / McFaul), 53-74 (Remington);

Two views on NGOs: *HRW vs. *Ware

Week 16 (May 11, 13) Foreign Policy / US Russia Strategy

Suny: 521-25 (Migranyan), 526-29 (Duma); Herspring: 173-224 (Herspring; Tsygankov);

Two views on Russia-Georgia war: *Kakabadze vs. *Mandelbaum

May 18 Paper is due at noon