HISTORY 362-01

HISTORY OF THE USSR AND CIS

PROFESSOR WEISENSEL

MAIN 307

OFFICE HOURS: 2:30-4:30 MWF

X6570

This course presents a survey of the history of the USSR from the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, through the Revolution of 1991 ending the USSR, to the present-day Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Though the bulk of our work will deal with history since 1917, the course begins with a brief discussion of the tsarist heritage, since the intellectual roots of the Soviet system developed in tsarist times, and since the traditions of the past have colored Soviet, and continue to color post-Soviet, society and government. In fact, the centuries-long tsarist past, not the Soviet recent past, may be our best road map for the Russian future.

With some exceptions (e.g. reading Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War) “high” politics will not be the emphasis of our course. Rather we will emphasize two other themes:

1. The question of motivation or origin. What makes the Soviet regime “work”? Are its acts driven by an unconscious but nevertheless ingrained and powerful cultural predisposition to repeat the patterns of the past (i.e., the tsarist past)? Or, is ideology (Marxism-Leninism) more important? Or, powerful personalities (e.g., Stalin)? Or, striving for economic gain?

2. Social history, that is, how the lives of millions of people were effected by, and in turn how they effected, the decisions made in Moscow. Here we will always be asking: were there any ways ordinary people had “power”? Lastly in regard to society, we will study to see if a "civil society" was growing unnoticed under the noses of the totalitarian leaders.

We all are aware of the treatment of the USSR and the CIS in the American media. The U.S. press creates Russian “tropes” (stereotypes) designed to distance the US from the USSR/Russia. These “tropes” are not necessarily “truth,” but are an unattractive alternative which repel the Americans and get them to rally around their own cultural values. Here we will try to rise above the pressures of our cultural assumptions about right and wrong, and normal and abnormal, and deal with the Soviets/Russians on their own terms and in their own context.

Each student will be expected to come to class and to read the assigned books. The class meets three times per week, MWF, 2:20-3:20. There will be four take-home essay exams, spaced throughout the course about one every three weeks. I will turn out the questions far ahead of the deadlines. The readings we do together in class will provide you with ideas and materials for the essays (i.e., there will be no extra readings required for them). You may rewrite of any of the essays to improve your grade. I will average the grades on the two versions of your papers. Late papers are strongly discouraged. Please note that incompletes will not be considered for this class except under extraordinary circumstances.

Your grade will be determined as follows:

a. 4 essays- 80% (20% each), and

b. class participation- 20%

Class attendance is a requirement for the course. Each unexcused absence above three will cause your grade to be lowered by 1/2 grade.

READINGS (At Ruminator Books):

1. Suny, The Soviet Experiment. Oxford paperback;

2. Read, From Tsar to Soviets. Oxford paperback;

3. Stites, Revolutionary Dreams. Oxford paperback;

4. Brooks, Thank You, Comrade Stalin! Princeton hardback;

5. Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War. Harvard paperback;

7. Brudny, Reinventing Russia. Harvard paperback;

8. Khazanov, After the USSR. Wisconsin paperback;

9. Readings will also include articles and chapters from journals and other books. They are designated CF in the syllabus for “Course Folder.” Our course has a course folder where you can long-on to get these articles and chapters.

1. Week of Jan. 27-31.

Bridges Between Tsarist and Soviet Russia.

What was the legacy of 1000 years of monarchial rule? Individual rights. Rule of law. Status through class or status through wealth. Nationhood under the tsars. Political participation under the tsars.

a. Read, From Tsar to Soviets, 1-4;

b. Zile, Ideas and Forces in Soviet Legal History, selected. docs. (#1) (CF);

c. Suny, The Soviet Experiment, Ch. 1.

2. Week of Feb. 3-7.

The People and the Two Revolutions of 1917.

What was the relationship between the Bolshevik Party and the masses of Russia and the masses of Petrograd in 1917? Did the masses chose the Bolshevik Party in any way?

a. Read, 5-8;

b. Suny, The Soviet Experiment, Ch. 4

c. Zile, Ideas and Forces, selected docs. (#2) (CF)

3. Week of Feb. 10-14.

October, 1917 (continued); The People and the Russian Civil War, 1918-20, and War Communism.

What forces drive the early Soviet government? Does context have anything/something to do with the appearance of Soviet authoritarianism? What about Lenin’s personality? About ideology? Might the attitudes of the masses have had something to do with the birth of totalitarianism? If so, what?

a. Suny, The Soviet Experiment, Ch. 3;

b. Zile, Ideas and Forces, selected docs. (#3) (CF);

c. Read, Chs. 9-13.

4. Week of Feb. 17-21.

Feb, 19. First essay (5-7 pp.) due in class.

NEP (“New Economic Policy”). Making the USSR. Nationality Policy.

Did NEP have intrinsic merits which could have been the permanent basis of Soviet economic life? Was there a social base for NEP?, or (conversely) for a resumption of the revolutionizing of society and culture begun in 1917? Is law an independent, overseeing force during NEP? Was Soviet federalism (a fundamental principle of the 1924 constitution of the USSR) the answer to Russia’s historic problem of integrating non-Russians into a common state and society?

a. Suny, Ch. 5;

b. Stites, Revolutionary Dreams, Parts 1-2;

c. Zile, Ideas and Forces (#4) (CF).

5. Week of Feb. 24-28.

The Stalin Revolution.

Why did it happen? Was there a social basis growing for Stalinism? Or, was the Stalin Revolution only an internal coup d’etat within the Communist Party, which was then forced down the throats of the masses? Did the personality of Stalin have anything to do with it? Did Marxist ideology have anything to do with it (i.e., did Marx’s writings appear to justify it)? Were there other Marxist or socialist alternative plans for the future? Why weren’t they enacted?

a. Stites, Revolutionary Dreams, Parts 3-4 (finish the book);

b. Suny, Ch. 9.

6. Week of March 3-7.

Stalin's Totalitarian Society and the Needs of the Nation (I).

Was the Stalin regimentation of society necessary? What was the reaction of the Russian masses to the new program of collectivization, regimentation and rapid industrialization? Did the Communists care what “society” thought? What was law’s purpose under Stalin?

a. Suny, Ch. 10;

b. Zile, Ideas and Forces, selected docs. (#5) (CF)

c. Fitzpatrick, Stalin’s Peasants, Ch. 7 (“Power”), Ch. 9 (“Malice”).

7. Week of March 10-14.

Mar. 14. Second essay (5-7 pp.) due in class.

Stalin's Society and the Needs of the Nation (II).

How can/do powerless people react to power? How did popular culture serve the interests of the Communist Party?

a. Suny, Ch. 11, Ch. 12;

b. Brooks, Thank You, Comrade Stalin!, Chs. 1-4.

8. March 17-21. Spring Break.

9. Week of March 24-28.

The “Great Fatherland War” (World War II) and Soviet Society.

Stalin’s Last Years. Russia and the Cold War.

How did Soviet society change as a result of the “Great Fatherland War” (World War II)? Was Stalinism synonymous with an aggressive, ideological, expansionistic foreign policy after World War II (the Cold War)? Can it be said that the CPSU had “politics”, considering foreign policy?

a. Suny, Ch. 14;;

b. Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War, Prologue, Chapters 1-4;

c. Brooks, Thank You, Comrade Stalin!, finish.

10. Week of March 31-April 4.

Soviet Foreign Policy in the Cold War (continued). Khrushchev's Rise. De-Stalinization and Its Limits.

Were the foreign policy views of the different Soviet leaders the same? What significance can we discern from the Zubok and Pleshakov book about Soviet foreign policy under Stalin and his minions?

How does one explain Khrushchev’s rise to power and then, once in power, his turning against Stalin’s legacy? Are there convincing structural or systemic explanations for the turn from Stalinism, or is it just a matter of personalities, namely Khrushchev and his minions?

a. Suny, Ch. 16;

b. Arbatov, The System, Chapter 3 (CF);

c. Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War, Chapters 5-8, Postmortem.

11. Week of April 7-11.

Fall of Khrushchev. Party over Personality under Brezhnev. The Machine Runs into Trouble.

What structural problems do you see in the government approach to the economy and society in Brezhnev’s time (1964-1981)? Do changes in the law reflect changing needs of state or society? Does change in law reflect any “unraveling” in society?

a. Suny, Chs. 18-19;

b. Brudny, Reinventing Russia, Chs. 1-2.

c. Arbatov, The System, 6-7 (CF);

d. Matthews, Poverty in the Soviet Union, 2-3 (CF);

12. Week of April 14-16.

April 16th. Third essay (5-7 pp.) due in class.

Brezhnev and Fulfilling National Goals. Origins of the “Gorbachev Revolution.” Does change in law reflect any unraveling in society? In Brezhnev’s time what is the significance of the “nationality issue?”

a. Brudny, Reinventing Russia, Chs. 3-5;

c. Zile, Ideas and Forces, selected docs. (#6) (CF).

April 17-20. Easter Break.

13. Week of April 21-25.

The “Gorbachev Revolution,“ and the Reaction of Soviet Society to It. Does the relationship between law and society change under the “reformer” Brezhnev? Can totalitarian states reform themselves and yet remain themselves?

a. Suny, Ch. 20;

b. Brudny, Reinventing Russia, 6-7;

c. Lapidus, “State and Society: Toward the Emergence of Civil Society in the Soviet Union,” in Dallin and Lapidus, 130-150 (CF);

14. Week of April 28-May 2.

Totalitarian Reform (continued). Gorbachev's Revolution and Its Limitations. Reaction of Soviet Society: Non-Russian Nationalities; the Communist Rank-and-File. The End of the USSR.

a. Khazanov, After the USSR, Chapters 1-4;

b. Brudny, Reinventing Russia, 8 and Epilogue;

c. Suny, Ch. 21.

15. Week of May 5.

A Survey of Post-Soviet Eurasia: Is This the End of History, i.e., the Victory of Western Liberal, Capitalist Democracy Everywhere?

a. Khazanov, After the USSR, Chapters 5-8, Conclusion;

b. Suny, Ch. 22.

Fourth essay is due in my office by 5 p.m. on May 12^th.