The core textbook for this course is John Thompson, Russia and the Soviet Union (Westview)

1. EARLY RUSSIA

   Jan. 28-Feb. 6: The Medival Period: Thompson, pp. 1-40;
   Discussion: "The Russian Law" (Handout).

   Feb. 9-20: The Muscovite State: Thompson, pp. 41-92;

   Discusson: S. F. Platonov, The Time of Troubles (Kansas) (1) pp. 1-84; (2) pp. 85-176.

   MONDAY, March 2: FIRST EXAMINATION

2. IMPERIAL RUSSIA

   March 4-17: Eighteenth-Century Russia: Thompson, pp. 93-146;
   Discussion: M. S. Anderson, Peter the Great (Longman) (1) pp. 1-90; (2) pp. 91-206

   March 18-Apr. 8: Russia, 1825-1917: Thompson, pp. 147-186;
   Discussion: W. Vucinich, The Peasant in Nineteenth-Century Russia (Stanford) (1) pp. XI-71; (2) pp. 133-57, 263-84.

   WEDNESDAY, Apr. 15: SECOND EXAMINATION

3. TWENTIETH-CENTURY RUSSIA

   Apr. 16-30: Lenin and Stalin: Thompson, pp. 187-233;
   Discussion: R. Suny & A. Adams, The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik Victory (Heath) (1) pp. 1-15; 50-69;197-204; 241-47; (2) pp. 339-44; 376-431; 468-92.

   May 1-7: The Soviet System: Thompson, pp. 234-306;
   Discussion: A. Koestler, Darkness at Noon (Bantam)
   
   

Recommended: The Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia (Penguin)
WEDNESDAY, May 20 at 8:00 AM: FINAL EXAMINATION
Grading: Mid-semester examinations 20% each; final examination 40%; discussion 20%.

This course is designed with three major goals in mind. First, it should provide a valid and useful analysis of the evolution of the Russian state and the Russian people. Second, investigating how the Russian people (and others who became part of the Russian state) responded to various challenges and events should serve as a model for how historians interpet data. Finally, studying the history of Russia should introduce students to a somewhat different type of society from that they would normally know and thereby expand their intellectual and cultural horizons.

The examinations are designed to test how well students are fulfilling the course goals. Because historians are as interested in why an event happened as in the fact that it happened, examinations will stress questions of causality in history. The examinations will all be in essay form because this is the most appropriate format in which to argue interpretations of the available facts. The examinations assume that students have good control of the material covered in the textbook and in class lectures and a less detailed knowledge of material in the discussion-section readings.

The discussion sections are meant to give students practice and help in analysing various kinds of historical discourse (much as they will be expected to do on the exams). They will do this either by watching how historians make their judgments and evaluate historical source material or by analysing historical documents ("primary sources") themselves. The sections have their own assigned material and attendance is rigorously enforced; being unprepared for a scheduled section, that is, not having carefully read the assigned material, is the equivalent of absence and will be recorded that way. Note that 20% of the course grade is determined by the quality of participation in the discusion sections.

Finally, remember that regular, attentive attendance at all lectures is expected. It should also be pointed out that despite a superficial resemblance, our classroom is not the USAir Arena and that thus a somewhat different code of behavior is expected. If you are late for class (which should happen only very rarely), please come in quietly and take a seat near the door you came in so you don't distract other students or the instructor. Similarly, despite the hockey-palace aura of the room, please resist the temptation to talk to your neighbor; it is inconsiderate of the neighbor and distracting to those around as well as to the instructor.