Historiography of Soviet Type Societies: History and Anthropology

2024/2025

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

3

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Department of History

Course type:

Elective course

When:

1 year, 2 module

Instructors

Platonova, Evgeniia

Starun, Maria

Course Syllabus

Abstract

What are main approaches in history and anthropology of the Russia Empire and Soviet society? What are this field’s classic debates and new issues? How do they differ thematically and methodologically? This course offers a historiographic introduction to this field of study. The course focuses of key case studies that has defined Russian/Soviet studies as well as on its emerging research agenda.

Learning Objectives

• To familiarize students with main events and phenomena of Soviet history
• To develop understanding of historical processes and ways of their interpretation
• To discuss main historiographical debates and approaches to Imperial/Soviet history

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Knowing main classic and novel historiographic approaches
• knowledge of how to analyze key features of text and narrative as historical sources, including the issues surrounding texts’ authorship and edition, and its status as original or copy.

Course Contents

• Soviet national policy in interwar period
• Soviet gender order
• Materiality
• Cold War Soviet
• Ideology of Space/Scape of Ideology
• The war and the post-war
• Industrial regime
• Soviet legal practice

Assessment Elements

• Final essay
  As a final assignment students must submit a review of a selected book or two (and more) articles related to the scope of the course but beyond the obligatory reading list. Suggested works for review will be provided by the teachers.
• Attendance and in-class discussion
  Students are expected to attend all seminars and take active part in the discussion and demonstrate knowledge of the content of lectures and readings.
• Questions for in-class discussion
  Questions for in-class discussion (30%) Students are expected to prepare questions for discussion (3-5) once during the course. Students are required to present the author of the paper and introduce his/her position in the field.

Interim Assessment

• 2024/2025 2nd module
  0.3 * Attendance and in-class discussion + 0.4 * Final essay + 0.3 * Questions for in-class discussion

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Suny, R. G. (1997). Chapter 11: The Russian Empire. In After Empire (978-0813329642) (pp. 142–154). Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• The structure of Soviet history : essays and documents, , 2003

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• The Cambridge history of Russia. Vol.3: The twentieth century, , 2006
• The Soviet experiment : Russia, the USSR, and the successor states, Suny, R. G., 1998

Authors

• LYUBAVINA SVETLANA VYACHESLAVOVNA
• PLATONOVA EVGENIYA SERGEEVNA
• STARUN MARIYA IGOREVNA