HISTORY 360-01

           TSAR AND PEOPLE:

IMPERIAL RUSSIA FROM PETER THE GREAT TO LENIN

                                        FALL TERM, 2002

 

                                      Prof. Weisensel

                                       Old Main, Rm. 307

                    Office Hours: 10:30-11:30, 3:30-4:30 MWF

                                           Phone: x6570

 

SCOPE OF THE COURSE:

This course deals with Russian history from the reign of Peter I (1682-1725) to the Russian Revolution of 1917. Our course will focus on the relationship between the tsar (and the state) on the one hand and the people on the other. As such, we will be less interested in the personalities and foibles of the various tsars and tsarinas than in what they did (or didn’t do) to make the state stronger or weaker during their respective reigns. In discussing Russian society (the people), we will concentrate on analyzing the institutions which gave people weakness, or gave them some strength, in their confrontations with the state. Just as a preview of what we’ll learn: the tsar was powerful but people were not powerless and passive. We will study the major concepts and issues of Russian history, but they will be framed by our study of power and shifts it undergoes. What’s important is to study the interaction of tsar and society, the equilibrium they formed, and then the changes in society which upset the equilibrium in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This “disequilibrium” in large measure explains the 1917 revolution.

 

OBJECTIVES:

1. Expose students to the major trends, issues and controversies in Russian history in the imperial period.

2. Give students an opportunity to sharpen their argumentative skills in writing.

3. Develop an appreciation for the importance of studying the past and an alien culture on their own terms, that is, without judging them with contemporary American culture and politics as the point of comparison.

 

EVALUATION:

Your final grade will be calculated according to the following formula: 3 essays= 50%; two exams= 40%; class participation= 10%.  Class attendance is mandatory. If you miss more than 3 sessions without an excuse, I will be forced to lower your grade.

 

 

READINGS (Available for purchase at the Ruminator Bookstore; also on reserve in the Macalester Library):

E.V. Anisimov The Reforms of Peter the Great.

Lionel Kochan and John Keep, The Making of Modern Russia.

Isabel de Madariaga, Catherine the Great.

John Alexander, The Emperor of the Cossacks.

Aleksandr Engel’gardt, Letters from the Country, 1872-1887.

Vera Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist.

Victoria Bonnell, ed., The Russian Worker.

Marc Ferro, Nicholas II.

Articles and Documents in the History 60-01 “Course Folder” (indicated CF in the syllabus). This file is available to you on the College’s website when you register for the course.

 

                                                SYLLABUS

 

Week 1. Sept.4-6

Introduction. Russia on the Eve of Peter I's Reign. How Autocratic Were Muscovy’s Political Traditions, Which Peter Inherited?

                                                             

                                                            Readings:

Sept. 4. No readings

 

Sept. 6.  a. Kochan and Keep, Making of Modern Russia, ch. 6 (skim), ch. 7;

                b. “Ulozhenie of 1649” [excerpts], in Dmytryshyn, ed., Medieval Russia, 293-300 (CF);

                c. “Ulozhenie of 1649” [excerpts] in Riha, ed., Readings in Russian Civilization, 154-61 (CF);

                d. Konovalov, ed., “Ludvig Fabritius’ Account of the Razin Rebellion,” Oxford Slavonic Papers, VI, 72-94 (CF).

 

 

Week 2. Sept. 9-13 .

The Crisis of Old Muscovy. Peter the Great and the “New Western Model.”

 

                                                            Readings:

Sept. 9. a. Anisimov, Reforms of Peter the Great,  pp. vii-viii, 13-42;

                b. Cherniavsky, “Sovereign Emperor,” in Cherniavsky, The Structure of Russian History, 140-78 (CF);      

 

Sept. 11. a. Anisimov, 43-142;

 

Sept. 13. a. Anisimov, 143-183.

 

Week 3. Sept. 16-20.

The “Western Model” and Its Opponents.

                                                           

                                                            Readings:

Sept. 16.  a. Anisimov, 184-216;

                  b. Avrich, “Bulavin,” 1707-08,” in Avrich, Russian Rebels (CF) (start);

 

Sept. 18.  a. Anisimov, 217-266;

                  b. Avrich, “Bulavin, 1707-08” (finish) (CF).

 

Sept. 20.  a. Anisimov, 267-299;

                  b. Cracraft, “Opposition to Peter the Great,” in Cracraft, ed.,  Peter the Great Transforms Russia (CF).

 

 

Week 4. Sept. 23-27.

The Autocracy and the “Western Model” Under Peter’s Successors (1725-1762). And then, Catherine II(1762-1796).

 

                                                            Readings:

Sept. 23.  a.  Kochan and Keep, The Making of Modern Russia, ch, 8;

                  b. Raeff, “The Succession Crisis of 1730” [documents], in Raeff, ed., Plans for Political Reform…1730-1905, 41-52 (CF); 

 

Sept. 25.  a. Bennett, "Russia's System of Ranks and Orders," pp. 237-41; and Freeze, "The 'Soslovie' Paradigm and Russian Social History," from Kaiser and Marker, eds., Interpreting Russian History, pp. 232-237 (CF);

                  b. de Madariaga, Catherine the Great, Chapters 1-3.

 

Sept. 27.  a de Madariaga, Catherine the Great,  Chapters 4-7;

                  b. Freeze, “Nobility,” and “Bureaucracy and Army,” in Freeze, ed., From Supplication to Revolution, 15-36 (CF).

 

Week 5. Sept. 30-Oct. 4.

Catherine II and the Aspirations of Russian Society.

 

                                                            Readings:

Sept. 30. a. de Madariaga, Catherine the Great, chs. 8-12;

 

Oct. 2. a. de Madariaga, Catherine the Great, Chapters 13-16; 

 

Oct. 4. a. Freeze, “Peasantry,” “Industrial Workers,” and “Minorities and Women,” in Freeze, ed., From Supplication to Revolution, 75-99 (CF).

 

Oct. 4th. 1st Take-Home Essay Due in Class.

 

Week 6. Oct. 7-11.

Aspirations of Russian Society in the Eighteenth Century (continued).                                                  Readings:

 

Oct. 7. a. Raeff, “In the Imperial Manner,” in Raeff., ed., Catherine the Great, 197-246 (CF);

                b. Slezkine, “Naturalists vs. Nations,” Representations, no. 3 (1994), 179-195 (CF).

 

Oct. 9. a. Alexander, The Emperor of the Cossacks, chs. 1-3.

 

Oct. 11. Raeff, “Home, School and Service in the Life of the 18th Century Nobleman,” Slavonic and East European Review XL (1962), 212-223 (CF).

 

Week 7. Oct. 14-18..

Peasant Rebellions in the “Enlightened” Age of Catherine II, the Pugachev Revolt.  The Uses of Law in Autocratic Russia, Especially in the Reign of Alexander I (1801-1825).                                                           

                                                           

                                                            Readings:

Oct. 14. a. Kochan and Keep, The Making of Modern Russia, ch. 9;

                b. Alexander, Emperor of the Cossacks, 4-6.

 

Oct. 16. a. Alexander, chs. 7-9.

 

Oct. 18. Mid-Term Examination

 

Week 8. Oct. 21-23.

The Decembrist Movement and the "First Russian Revolution" (Dec. 14, 1825). The Origins of the Liberal Intelligentsia. The Upset Equilibrium of State and Society in the Reign of Nicholas I (1825-55), the ‘Apogee’ of Russian Absolutism.                                                        

 

                                                            Readings:

Oct. 21. a. Pavel Pestel, “The Russia Law,” in Raeff, ed., The Decembrist Movement, 124-52 (CF).

 

Oct. 23.

 

Oct. 24-27. FALL BREAK.  

 

 

Week 9. Oct. 28-Nov. 1.

Alexander II (1855-1881) and the Modernization of Russia. The Peasant Emancipation and Other Reforms.

 

                                                            Readings:

Oct. 28.  a. Kochan, Making of Modern Russia, ch. 10;

                 b. Engel'gardt, Letters from the Country, letters 1-2.

 

Oct. 30. a.  Engel’gardt, Letters from the Country, letters 4-5.

 

Nov. 1. a. Engel’gardt, Letters from the Country, letters, 9-10.

 

Week 10. Nov. 4-8.

Reflections on the ‘Great Reforms’. Can Autocracies Reform Themselves Without Ceasing To be Autocracies? Could Alexander II Have Changed the Course of Russian Political Development? In Whose Interests Was It To Not Upset the Social/Political Status Quo?   Alexander III and Minorities of the Russian Empire.

                                                            Readings:

Nov. 4. a. Bruce Grant, “Empire and Savagery,” in Brower and Lazzerini, eds., Russia’s Orient, 292-310 (CF);

 

Nov. 6. a. Khalid, “Representations of Russia in Central Asian Jadid Discourse,” in Brower and Lazzerini, eds., Russia’s Orient, 188-202 (CF).

           

Nov. 8.  2nd Take-Home Essay Due in Class.

 

Week 11. Nov.11-15. 

Reactionary Response Under Alexander III. Lower Class Resistance.

 

                                                            Readings:

Nov. 11 a. Kochan and Keep, ch. 11;

                b. Stephen Frank, “Confronting the Domestic Others,” in Frank and Steinberg, eds., Cultures in Flux (CF).

 

 Nov. 13. a. Brower, “The Penny Press and Its Readers,” in Frank and Steinberg, Cultures in Flux (CF).

 

Nov. 15. a. Engel, “Women, Men and the Language of Peasant Resistance,” in Frank and Steinberg, Cultures in Flux (CF).

 

Week 12. Nov. 18-22.

The Russian Revolutionary Movement. Fourierism, then Populism and Finally Marxism.

 

                                                            Readings:

Nov. 18: a. Kochan and Keep, ch. 12;

                b. Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist, introduction by Stites, author’s introduction, and pp. 11-86.

 

Nov. 20: a. Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist, pp. 87-174.

  

Nov. 22. a. Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist, pp. 175-248.

 

Week 13. Nov. 25-27.

Bolshevism and the Logic of Russian Radicalism.

 

                                                            Readings:

Nov. 25. a. Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist, pp. 249-end.

 

Nov. 27. a. Start Ferro, Nicholas II.

 

Nov. 28-30. Thanksgiving Break.

 

Week 14. Dec. 2-6.

Russia’s Industrial Revolution and Social Stability. The Working Class and Revolution. Nicholas II the End of the Russian Empire.

 

                                                            Readings:

Dec. 2. a. Kochan and Keep, ch. 13;

              b. Ferro, Nicholas II, part 1.

 

Dec. 4. a. Bonnell, ed., The Russian Worker, Introduction, ch. 1-2.               

 

Dec. 6. a. Ferro, Nicholas II, part 2.

 

Week 15. Dec. 9-13.

World War I and Social Chaos. Who Brought Down the Russian Empire? Nicholas II or the Revolutionaries?

 

Dec. 9. a. Kochan and Keep, ch. 14;

            b. Bonnell, ed., The Russian Worker, ch. 3-4.

 

Dec. 11. a. Ferro, Nicholas II, part 3.

 

Dec. 13. a. Ferro, Nicholas II, part 4.

 

Dec. 13th. 3rd Take-Home Essay Due in Class.

 

Final exam during Finals Week. Exact time TBA.