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Department of History
Department of History
Contacts

Address:
190068 Saint Petersburg
123 Griboedov channel, Room 123

Phone:+7 (812)786-92-49 

Postal address: 
190068 Saint Petersburg
123 Griboedov channel

Administration
Adrian A. Selin
Department Head – Adrian A. Selin
Evgeniy Anisimov
Academic Supervisor – Evgeniy Anisimov
About the Department

The Department of History was created in 2012. The overarching goal of the department is systematic development of the field of global, comparative, and transnational history as a potent tool of overcoming the limitations of national history canon, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue in the field of social sciences and humanities, and brining new public relevance to historical knowledge. The department mission includes the development of new type of historical undergraduate and graduate education in Russia and pioneering new research fields in Russian historiography in dialogue with the global historical profession. 

Publications
Book
Shared Images: A History of American Art in the Soviet Union during the Cold War

Chunikhin K.

De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2025.

Article
The Russian Civil War after 100 Years: Within and Beyond the Historiographical Front Lines

Alexander V. Reznik.

Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. 2024. Vol. 25. No. 3. P. 644-658.

Book chapter
Individualism and Psychology in the Auto/Biography of Lev Trotsky, 1900–20s

Alexander V. Reznik.

In bk.: Revolutionary Biographies in the 19th and 20th Centuries: Imperial – Inter/national – Decolonial. Göttingen: V&R Unipress, 2024. P. 17-34.

Working paper
The Image of the Past in Ciro Spontone’s ‘Historia Della Transilvania’

Khvalkov E., Levin F., Кузнецова А. Д.

Working Papers of Humanities. WP. Издательский дом НИУ ВШЭ, 2021

All publications
Contacts

Address:
190068 Saint Petersburg
123 Griboedov channel, Room 123

Phone:+7 (812)786-92-49 

Postal address: 
190068 Saint Petersburg
123 Griboedov channel

Administration
Adrian A. Selin
Department Head – Adrian A. Selin
Evgeniy Anisimov
Academic Supervisor – Evgeniy Anisimov
Department of History

Conspiracy на Histories of secrecy between diplomacy and espionage: surveillance, conspiracy and information

2024/2025
Academic Year
ENG
Instruction in English
3
ECTS credits
Delivered by:
Department of History
Type:
Elective course
When:
2 year, 2 module

Instructor

Egorov, Evgenii

Egorov, Evgenii

Course Syllabus

Full SyllabusAsk Question

Abstract

This MA course delves into the intricate intersection of diplomacy and espionage, exploring the nuanced histories of secrecy. Focused on diverse forms of surveillance, the curriculum navigates the blurred boundaries between diplomatic practices and covert intelligence operations. Investigating themes of conspiracy and information manipulation, the course offers a comprehensive understanding of how secrecy has shaped historical narratives and continues to influence contemporary global dynamics.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • Being capable of navigating the historiography on surveillance and espionage
  • Able to articulate analytical perspectives on the interactions between diplomacy, knowledge production, and information gathering
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • Student articulates the relations between diplomacy and intelligence
  • Student traces the origins of diplomatic communications, intelligence gathering and surveillance institutions
  • Student recognizes the relations between literature, conspiracy, and secrecy
  • Student articulates the connection between imperial rule and information-gathering
  • Student explains the history of particular imagination surrounding secrecy and diplomacy
  • Student navigates diplomatic forms of knowledge as well as intricacies of information-production
  • Student articulates modern debates about the future of IR and diplomacy
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • The delicate relations between diplomacy and intelligence
  • Conspiracies, secrecies, and their origins
  • Decoding a conspiracy: investigation and surveillance
  • Empire and surveillance
  • Aesthetics and images of diplomacy and espionage
  • Forms of knowledge in diplomacy and espionage
  • Radical thoughts for brighter future: peace, state and promises of diplomacy
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking Seminar work
  • non-blocking Presentation
  • non-blocking Essay
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • 2024/2025 2nd module
    0.5 * Essay + 0.2 * Presentation + 0.3 * Seminar work
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • 9781351164238 - Cynthia Scott - Cultural Diplomacy and the Heritage of Empire : Negotiating Post-Colonial Returns - 2020 - Routledge - http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2299963 - nlebk - 2299963
  • Black, J. (2010). A History of Diplomacy. London: Reaktion Books. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=342741
  • Boundary spanners of humanity : three logics of communications and public diplomacy for global collaboration, Zaharna, R. S., 2022
  • Brayne, S. (2017). Big Data Surveillance: The Case of Policing. American Sociological Review, 82(5), 977–1008. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122417725865
  • Conan, D. A. A Question of Diplomacy / D. A. Conan. — Санкт-Петербург : Лань, 2013. — 14 с. — ISBN 978-5-507-32858-1. — Текст : электронный // Лань : электронно-библиотечная система. — URL: https://e.lanbook.com/book/39938 (дата обращения: 00.00.0000). — Режим доступа: для авториз. пользователей.
  • Conservative internationalism : armed diplomacy under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan, Nau, H. R., 2013
  • Corporate diplomacy : the strategy for a volatile, fragmented business environment, Steger, U., 2003
  • Cultural diplomacy and international cultural relations. Vol. 1:, , 2020
  • Deibert, R. (2013). Black Code : Surveillance, Privacy, and the Dark Side of the Internet. Toronto: Signal. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=743006
  • Industrial espionage : developing a counterespionage program, Benny, D. J., 2014
  • Rose, M. V. aut. (2017). A new cultural diplomacy : the integration of cultural relations and diplomacy / Martin Rose. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.491786824
  • Shoshana Zuboff. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism : The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power: Vol. First edition. PublicAffairs.
  • Spies, Inc. : business innovation from Israel's masters of espionage, Perman, S., 2005
  • Svenonius, O., & Björklund, F. (2013). Video Surveillance and Social Control in a Comparative Perspective. New York: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=512326

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • American diplomacy in the twentieth century, Schulzinger, R.D., 1994
  • Diplomacy in Renaissance Rome : the rise of the resident ambassador, Fletcher, C., 2015
  • The Chevalier d'Eon and his worlds : gender, espionage and politics in the eighteenth century, , 2010

Authors

  • LYUBAVINA SVETLANA VYACHESLAVOVNA
  • Egorov Evgenii Vitalevich