HISTORY 260-01

           TSAR AND PEOPLE: IMPERIAL RUSSIA FROM PETER THE GREAT                                                                                          TO LENIN

                                          Spring Term, 2006

 

                                           Prof. Weisensel

                                       Old Main, Rm. 307

Office Hours: 1:00-2:20 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. Since this is a survey course, we will engage different themes. However, the emphasis will be on three: 1. the relationship between the tsar (and the state) on the one hand and the people on the other; 2. the development of a Russian political culture; and 3. the transformation of old Rus’ into modern Russia.

 

The glue holding the course together will be the pursuit of understanding of the three themes above. 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 change things. Nor will I favor any single philosophy of history, since I think that every different approach, not just one, contributes to understanding the past. Nevertheless, some approaches to history cease being stylish and are replaced for a time at least by others. Keeping this in mind, many of our readings and some of my lectures will reflect the newest approaches.

 

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.

 

The most important part of your grade will be the essays. I think it is important to understand what I am looking for so that you know how to approach these assignments. In all of these essays it will be crucial to have an argument, or a point of view, which your essay will try to get your reader to accept. Remember that the writer is like a lawyer arguing a case before a jury (his/her readers); the goal is to convince the jury to agree with you. The facts or data are important too, but only as evidence to back up your argument. You will get the facts from readings and lectures. However, a paper which is just a "fact pit", lacking an argument, will not get a very good grade, just as a paper which is nothing more than telling what you think, like a letter to the editor, without evidence to support it, also will not get a very good grade. I will help you by posing your essay assignment questions as "problems" which I will explain but which you will solve. Posed that way you should have no trouble presenting a paper which has an argument.

          I will look for the following key features in your essays:

          1. The introductory paragraph. This will be where you will explain the problem and where you will tell your readers what you are going to argue. This is the most important part of the essay and it cannot just float aimlessly.

          2. A thoroughly developed argument. Here in the middle part of your essay you will thoroughly make your argument. Each paragraph will make a separate point. Each paragraph will serve the argument of the essay; a paragraph will not be a dumping ground for "interesting stuff" which you don't know how to use elsewhere. Evidence from readings, lectures and discussion sessions will be utilized to back up your points. Here also, you shouldn't overlook anything important from the class materials that can help you. Needless to say, you will have to read everything assigned for the essay by the time you write the essay. Footnotes are not necessary! If, however, you want to quote an author word-for-word, then cite the source of the quotation in parentheses (...) in the text immediately after the quote.

          3. A conclusion. Here you may want to summarize your argument. However, the most important element of the conclusion will be your explanation of the significance of your findings. For example, how should your findings guide our thinking in the future? Or, what do your findings tell us about potentially fruitful lines of inquiry in the future (what should researchers do next)? etc.

          In the past the following problems have frequently appeared in students' essays:

          a. Essay lacks a clear point/goal/argument. The essay just "talks about" a subject rather than presents an argument about it.

          b. Essay fails to use the material at hand, especially ideas that could really help you, suggesting that you didn't understand a book or article, or worse, that you didn't read it.

          c. Essay is not written clearly for an audience of readers. Writers sometimes overlook the fact that writing means writing for others to read and understand. If a writer's syntax, or choice of terms, or organization is so idiosyncratic that only the writer understands what's going on, the purpose of writing in the first place is lost. The reader is like a blind man walking in a lightless tunnel unless you "take his hand" by being clear and organized.

          d. Presenting an essay that has not been proofread, leaving it full of misspellings and sloppy and unintelligible syntax.

          e. Essay lacks a conclusion, or has conclusion that does nothing more than summarize the argument.

 

 

READINGS (Available for purchase at the Macalester Bookstore, Lambert Building. Many are also on reserve in the Macalester Library): 

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

Paul Bushkovitch, Peter the Great;

Isabel de Madariaga, Catherine the Great.

John Alexander, The Emperor of the Cossacks.

Aleksandr Nikitenko, Up from Serfdom;

Vera Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist.

Victoria Bonnell, ed., The Russian Worker.

Marc Ferro, Nicholas II.

Articles and Documents in the History 260-01 “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. Jan. 23-27

Introduction. Russia on the Eve of Peter I's Reign. Russia’s Political and Social Culture.                                          

                                                Readings:

Jan. 23. No readings

 

Jan. 25.  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);

 

Jan. 27. A. Bushkovitch, Peter the Great, Introduction, ch. 1.

           

Week 2. Jan. 30-Feb. 3.

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

 

                                                Readings:

Jan. 30. a. Cherniavsky, “Sovereign Emperor,” in Cherniavsky, The Structure of Russian History, 140-78 (CF);

 

Feb. 1. a. Bushkovitch, Peter the Great, Introduction, chs. 1-2.

 

Feb. 3. a. Bushkovitch, chs. 3-4.

 

Week 3. Feb. 6-10.

The “Western Model” and Its Opponents.

                                               

                                                Readings:

Feb. 6.  a. Avrich, “Bulavin,” 1707-08,” in Avrich, Russian Rebels (CF) (start);

 

Feb. 8.  a. Okenfuss, “Russian Students in Europe,” in Garrard, ed., The Eighteenth Century in Russia (CF);

 

Feb. 10.  a. Cracraft, “Opposition to Peter the Great,” in Cracraft, ed., Peter the Great Transforms Russia (CF).

              

 

Week 4. Feb. 13-17.

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

 

                                                Readings:

Feb. 13.  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);   

 

Feb. 15.  a. Bennett, "Russia's System of Ranks and Orders,"; and Freeze, "The 'Soslovie' Paradigm and Russian Social History," from Kaiser and Marker, eds., Interpreting Russian History, (CF, both under “Bennett”);

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

 

Feb. 17.  a de Madariaga, Catherine the Great,  chs. 4-7;

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

 

Week 5. Feb. 20-24.

Catherine II and the Aspirations of Russian Society.

 

                                                Readings:

Feb. 20. a. de Madariaga, Catherine the Great, chs. 8-12;

 

Feb. 22. a. de Madariaga, Catherine the Great, chs. 13-16; 

 

Feb. 24. a. Freeze, “Peasantry,” “Industrial Workers,” and “Minorities and Women,” in Freeze, ed., From Supplication to Revolution, 75-99 (CF).

 

Feb. 24 1st Essay Due in Class.

 

Week 6. Feb. 27-Mar. 3.

Aspirations of Russian Society in the Eighteenth Century (continued). Rus’ Becomes “All the Russias,’ or Expansion and Minority Policy.

                                                Readings:

Feb. 27. a. Slezkine, “Naturalists vs. Nations,” Representations, no. 3 (1994), 179-195 (CF).

 

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

 

Mar. 3. 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. Mar. 6-10..

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:

Mar. 6. Mid-Term Examination

 

Mar. 8. a. Kochan and Keep, The Making of Modern Russia, ch. 9;

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

 

Mar. 10. a. Alexander, chs. 7-9.

 

Week 8. Mar. 13-17.  Spring Break.

 

Week 9. Mar. 20-24.

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:

Mar. 20.  a. Nikitenko, Up from Serfdom, start.

 

Mar. 22.  a. Nikitenko, Up from Serfdom, continue.

 

Mar. 24.  a. Nikitenko,  Up from Serfdom, finish.  

 

 

Week 10.  Mar. 27-31.

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

 

                                                Readings:

Mar. 27.  a. Kochan, Making of Modern Russia, ch. 10;

               b. Wortman, “Rule by Sentiment,” AHR 95(1990) (CF)

 

Mar. 29. a. . Stephen Frank, “Confronting the Domestic Others,” in Frank and Steinberg, eds., Cultures in Flux (CF);

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

 

Mar. 31. a. Brower, “The Penny Press and Its Readers,” in Frank and Steinberg, Cultures in Flux (CF);

 

Week 11. Apr. 3-7.

Reflections on the ‘Great Reforms’. Can Autocracies Reform Themselves Without Ceasing To be Autocracies? Alexanders II and III and Minorities of the Russian Empire.

                                                Readings:

Apr. 3. a. Sahadeo, “Epidemic and Empire,” Slavic Review 64 (2005) (CF);

 

Apr. 5. a. Khalid, “Representations of Russia in Central Asian Jadid Discourse,” in Brower and Lazzerini, eds., Russia’s Orient, 188-202 (CF).

         

Apr. 7.  2nd Essay Due in Class.

 

Week 12. Apr.10-14. 

Reactionary Response Under Alexander III. Russian Revolutionary Movement.

 

                                                Readings:

Apr. 10 a. Kochan and Keep, ch. 11;

             b. Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist, start;

 

Apr. 12. a. Figner, Memoirs of a Revolutionist, continue;

 

Apr. 14. No. Class. Good Friday. Finish Memoirs of a Revolutionist.

 

Week 13. Apr.17-21.

The Russian Revolutionary Movement (continued). Russian Industrialism and Social Stability.

                                                Readings:

Apr. 17: a. Kochan and Keep, chs. 12-13;

              b. Ferro, Nicholas II, part 1.

 

Apr. 19: a. Ferro, Nicholas II, part 2.

 

Apr. 21. a. Bonnell, ed., Russian Worker, Introduction, chs. 1-2.

 

Week 14. Apr. 24-28.

Bolshevism and the Logic of Russian Radicalism.

 

                                                Readings:

Apr. 24. a. Bonnell, ed., Russian Worker, chs. 3-4.

 

Apr. 26. a. Ferro, Nicholas II, part 3;

 

Apr. 28. a. Ferro, Nicholas II, part 4;

 

Week 15. May 1-2.

Nicholas II the End of the Russian Empire.

 

                                                Readings:

May. 1. Third Essay Due by 5 p.m.

 

Final Exam time TBA.