HTST : Late Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union

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1 Department of History, University of Calgary, Winter 2008 Lecturer: Dr Alexander Hill Telephone: or Main Office Office: Social Sciences Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday 09:30-10:45 Location: Science Theatre 131 Office Hours: Monday 10:00-11:00 and Tuesday 15:00-16:00 Alexander II The battleship Potemkin Lenin and Stalin Collectivization HTST : Late Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union This course is concerned with the history of the Russian Empire and Soviet Union from the reign of Alexander I from 1801 to the collapse of the Soviet Union in Moving from Russia s emergence as a great power during the Napoleonic Wars we will examine her attempts to maintain this prominent position in Europe, and in particular after defeat in the Crimean War was seen to highlight Russia s increasing economic and social backwardness. For the period 1861 to 1914 particular attention will be paid to conflict between reformist and conservative elements in society, and the progress of social and economic reform in response to events of We will then move on to look at the causes of Russia s revolutions of 1917, including Russia s participation in the First World War, and the continuation of the struggle for the political succession during the Russian Civil War. During the period from October 1917 to 1991 the Bolshevik Party dominated what became, in 1924, the Soviet Union. An important theme for this element of the course will be the relationship between ideology, geopolitics and policy. We will examine the nature of the emergent Stalinist system, legitimation by Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War, and attempts to reform this system after Stalin s death. The textbook for the course is Riasanovsky and Steinberg s A History of Russia (Seventh Edition), with Kotkin s Armaggedon Averted: The Soviet Collapse being recommended reading for material for lectures Recommended reading from your textbook, as well as selected journal articles and book chapters, is provided with the lecture outline, available as pdf files on Blackboard or online through the library. A number of general works concerned with Imperial Russian and Soviet history are listed at the end of this reading list. Additional reading will be recommended in the lectures as required, which will be particularly relevant to those who choose to write essays concerned with particular lecture themes. Try also to make use of journal article indexes such as Historical Abstracts. Assessment for the course will be two short essays and a final, multiple-choice test. The first essay will deal with Imperial Russia and events of 1917, the second with the Soviet Union. A choice of questions is provided below along with further details of the course. 1

2 Lecture Outline: N.B. if not specified reading is available in electronic form through electronic journals via the library. Tuesday 15 January: Introduction Lectures 1 and 2 (Thursday 17 and Tuesday 22 January): From Alexander I to Nicholas I Reading: Riasanovsky Chapters 25, 26 and 27! Additional reading: Susan P. McCaffray, Confronting Serfdom in the Age of Revolution: Projects for Serf Reform in the Time of Alexander I, in The Russian Review 64 (January 2005) pp.1-21 Lectures 3 and 4 (Thursday 24 and Tuesday 29 January): From reform to reaction Alexander II and III Reading: Riasanovsky Chapters 29 and 30 Mosse, An Economic History of Russia (1996), published originally in hardback as Perestroika under the Tsars (1992), Chapter 3 pdf on Blackboard Additional reading: Steven L. Hoch, Did Russia s Emancipated Serfs Really Pay too Much for too Little Land?, in Slavic Review, 63(2) (2004) pp ; Serge A. Zenkovsky, The Emancipation of the Serfs in Retrospect, in The Russian Review 20 (4) (1961) pp Lectures 5 and 6 (Thursday 31 January and Tuesday 5 February): Nicholas II to 1914 Reading: Riasanovsky Chapters 30 and 31 Mosse, An Economic History of Russia (1996), published originally in hardback as Perestroika under the Tsars (1992), Chapter 13 pdf on Blackboard Additional reading: Peter Waldron, The End of Imperial Russiam , Chapter 3 pdf on Blackboard Lectures 7 and 8 (Thursday 7 February and Tuesday 12 February): World War I and the revolutions of 1917 Reading: Riasanovsky Chapter 34 White, The Russian Revolution (1994), Chapter 3 pdf on Blackboard Additional reading: John Channon, The Peasantry in the Revolutions of 1917, in Frankel and Frankel (eds.), Revolution in Russia: Reassessments of 1917 (Blackboard); Robert Service, The Bolsheviks on Political Campaign in 1917: A Case Study of the War Question, in Frankel and Frakel, Revolution in Russia (Blackboard) Lecture 9 (Thursday 14 February): The Bolsheviks Ascendant Reading: White, The Russian Revolution (1994), Chapter 10 pdf on Blackboard Mawdsley, The Russian Civil War (1987), Conclusion pdf on Blackboard Additional reading: Taisia Osipova, Peasant Rebellions: Origins, Scope, Dynamics and Consequences, in Brovkin, The Bolsheviks in Russian Society: The Revolution and the Civil Wars (Blackboard) Tuesday 26 February: Essay 1 due in at the beginning or end of class or at the latest by 4:00 p.m. in the red box outside the Department of History. A Soviet film, Chapaev (1934), concerned with the Civil War, will be shown during class. Lectures 10 and 11 (Thursday 28 and Tuesday 4 March): War Communism and NEP 2

3 Reading: Riasanovsky Chapter 36 Kenez, A History of the Soviet Union from Beginning to End, Chapter 3 [Blackboard] Additional reading: Anne E. Gorsuch, NEP Be Damned: Young Militants in the 1920s and the Culture of Civil War, in The Russian Review 56 (4) 1997 pp ; Robert Himmer, The Transition from War Communism to the New Economic Policy: An Analysis of Stalin s Views, in The Russian Review 53 (4) (1994) pp Lectures 12 and 13 (Thursday 6 and Tuesday 11 March): The Rise of Stalin, Collectivisation and Industrialisation Reading: Riasanovsky Chapter 37 Kenez, A History of the Soviet Union from Beginning to End, Chapter 4 [Blackboard] Additional reading: R.W. Davies, Soviet Military Expenditure and the Armaments Industry, : A Reconsideration, in Europe-Asia Studies 45 (4) (1993) pp ; James R. Harris, The Growth of the Gulag: Forced Labour in the Urals Region, , in The Russian Review 56 (2) (1997) pp ; N.S. Simonov, Strengthening the Defence of the Land of the Soviets : The 1927 War Alarm and its Consequences, in Europe-Asia Studies 48 (8) (1996) pp Lectures 14 and 15 (Thursday 13 and Tuesday 18 March): Political Repression under Stalin to 1941 Reading: Getty and Naumov, The Road to Terror (1999) (Introduction and Conclusion) pdf on Blackboard Khlevnyuk, The Objectives of the Great Terror, in Hoffmann (ed.) Stalinism (2003) pdf on Blackboard Additional reading: J. Arch Getty, Excesses are not Permitted : Mass Terror and Stalinist Governance in the Late 1930s, in The Russian Review 61 (2) (2002) pp Tuesday 18 March: Much of the lecture will be taken up with the short late-soviet film Defence Counsel Sedov (1988) Lectures 16 and 17 (Thursday 20 and Tuesday 25 March): The Soviet Union on the International Stage and the Road to the Stalingrad The German invasion of the Soviet Union Reading: Riasanovsky Chapter 38 Mawdsley, The Stalin Years (1998), Chapter 6 pdf on Blackboard; Barber and Harrison, The Soviet Home Front, (1991), Chapter 2 pdf on Blackboard; Alexander Hill, Stalin and the West, in Gordon Martel (ed.), A Companion to International History (2007) [Blackboard] Additional reading: Carley, Behind Stalin s Moustache: Pragmatism in Early Soviet Foreign Policy, in Diplomacy & Statecraft (2001) 12(3), pp ; Viktor Suvorov, Who was planning to attack whom in June 1941, Hitler or Stalin?, Journal of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence Studies 130(2) (1985) pp [Blackboard]; T.J. Uldricks, The Icebreaker Controversy: Did Stalin Plan to Attack Hitler?, Slavic Review, Vol. 58, No. 3 (Autumn 1999) Lectures 18 and 19 (Thursday 27 March and Tuesday 1 April): From Stalingrad to Berlin and From late Stalinism to the thaw. Reading: Riasanovsky Chapter 39 Kenez, A History of the Soviet Union from Beginning to End, Chapters 7 and 8 [Blackboard] Additional reading: Gorlitzki and Khlevniuk, Cold Peace: Stalin and the Soviet Ruling Circle, , Chapter 6 [Blackboard]; Geoffrey Hosking, A History of the Soviet Union 3

4 (Final Edition), Chapter 11 [Blackboard]; Hosking, G., The Second World War and Soviet National Consciousness, Past and Present, Volume 175, No.1 (2002) Tuesday 8 April: Essay 2 due in by 4:00 p.m. in the red box outside the Department of History or in class. A relevant Soviet film [TBA] will be shown during class. Lectures 20 and 21 (Thursday 3 and Thursday 10 April): From thaw to stagnation and Gorbachev and the Collapse of the Soviet Union Reading: Riasanovsky Chapters 40 and 42 Kotkin, Armageddon Averted Additional reading: Geoffrey Hosking, A History of the Soviet Union (Final Edition), Chapter 13 [Blackboard]; G. Lundestad, Imperial Overstretch, Mikhail Gorbachev, and the End of the Cold War, in Cold War History, Volume 1, Number 1 (August 2000), pp. 1-20; Vladimir Mau, The Road to Perestroika: Economics in the USSR and the Problems of Reforming the Soviet Economic Order, in Europe-Asia Studies 48 (2) (1996) pp ; David Norlander, Khrushchev s Image in the Light of Glasnost and Perestroika, in The Russian Review 52 (2) (1993) pp ; V. Zubok, Gorbachev and the End of the Cold War: Perspectives on History and Personality, in Cold War History, Volume 2, Number 2 (January 2002) pp Lecture 22 (Tuesday 15 April): Yeltsin s Russia [TV programme] Thursday 17 April: Final test Soviet propaganda poster of the Great Patriotic War comparing Hitler s invasion of 1941 with Napoloen s invasion of Demonstration moves past the St Petersburg University,

5 Assessment: Short essay 1 Tuesday 26 February by 4:00 p.m. in the red box outside the History Department office (or in class) Short essay 2 Final test Tuesday 8 April by 4:00 p.m. in the red box outside the History Department office (or in class) Thursday 17 April in class A short essay of up to 2,250 words including references but excluding bibliography in the word count, selected from the questions for essay 1 provided overleaf. A short essay of up to 2,250 words including references but excluding bibliography in the word count, selected from the questions for essay 2 provided overleaf. Multiple-choice questions. 45% 45% 10% In order to pass the course you must submit both essays and sit the final test. Where applicable a flat 10% of the mark awarded will be deducted for exceeding word limits on one of the essays. Sample multiple-choice question: Which of the following senior Bolsheviks was not killed during the Great Purges of ? a) Zinoviev b) Bukharin c) Kamenev d) Voroshilov e) Rikov The correct answer is, in this case, d! Gagarin Khrushchev Gorbachev 5

6 Essay questions: Essay 1: 1) Why was Russia humiliated by defeat on home territory in the Crimean War of , so soon after her stunning successes in the Patriotic War of 1812? 2) How successful were the Great Reforms of Alexander II? 3) To what extent had the position of the peasantry in Russian society improved by 1914 compared to 1861? 4) The February Revolution of 1917 would not have taken place had it not been for the First World War how convincing is this assertion? 5) Explain why the Bolshevik s were successful in their pursuit of power EITHER a) from February to October 1917 OR b) from October 1917 to February 1921? Essay 2: a) Assess the success of Stalinist economic policies in the period from b) Why did the Great Purges take place in ? c) Was Soviet foreign policy driven by ideology or more prosaic concerns in the period from ? d) To what extent does Stalin deserve credit for Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War? e) To what extent did the Soviet leadership break with the Stalinist past in the period from ? f) Can Gorbachev be held responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991? Remember that all works in your footnotes should be in your bibliography. In order to score highly on your essay you must: *Have been answering the question. *Have an argument. *Support your argument with evidence/concise examples. Trotskii in prison, 1905 Soviet T-34 production during Great Patriotic War 6

7 Grading: All work will be graded using the following table for the conversion of percentages to letter grades. The final letter grade will be calculated from the percentage marks for each assignment and not from the letter grades accompanying them: Grade Percentage equivalent Description A+ A A B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D F From outstanding to excellent From very good to reasonable (average) From reasonable (average) to poor From poor to unacceptable In line with university regulations, final test papers will not be returned to students. From the Registrar s Office: It is the student's responsibility to request academic accommodations. If you are a student with a documented disability who may require academic accommodation and have not registered with the Disability Resource Centre, please contact their office at Students who have not registered with the Disability Resource Centre are not eligible for formal academic accommodation. You are also required to discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of this course. May Day parade 1985 (left) and Soviet poster of the 1920s on the emancipation factories apparently offered to women 7

8 Reading: The following is a list of general reading material which may be of use to you in the library: N.B. Other editions of these works may also be available in the library. General (covering both Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union): Author (s) Title Classmark Riasanovsky and Steinberg A History of Russia DK40.R Imperial Russia: Hosking Pushkarev Thaden The Soviet Union: Hosking Nove Kenez Service Mawdsley Ward Overy Keep Russia People and Empire The Emergence of Modern Russia Russia since 1801 The Making of a New Society A History of the Soviet Union An Economic History of the USSR A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End A History of Twentieth Century Russia The Stalin Years: The Soviet Union Stalin s Russia Russia s War Last of Empires A History of the Soviet Union DK49.H DK189.P DK189.T C.2 DK266.H HC335.N DK266.K DK266.S C.1 DK267.M DK267.W D764.O DK267.K Soviet special forces (Spetznaz), Afghanistan,

9 Roses for Stalin, Vladimirskii (1949) PLAGIARISM Plagiarism occurs when one submits or presents one's work in a course, or ideas and/or passages in a written piece of work, as if it were one's own work done expressly for that particular course, when, in fact, it is not. As noted in the Department of History Guide to Essay Presentation, plagiarism may take several forms: Failure to cite sources properly may be considered plagiarism. This could include quotations, and wording used from another source but not acknowledged. Borrowed, purchased, and/or ghostwritten papers are considered plagiarism, as is submitting one's own work for more than one course without the permission of the instructor(s) involved. Extensive paraphrasing of one or a few sources is also considered plagiarism, even when notes are used, unless the essay is a critical analysis of those works. The use of notes does not justify the sustained presentation of another author's language and ideas as one's own. Plagiarism is a serious academic offence. A plagiarized paper will automatically be failed. Plagiarism may also result in a failing grade for the entire course and other penalties as noted in The University of Calgary Calendar. Carina McDonald/Social Science Faculty Rep. Phone: /Rm. MSC 251 SAFEWALK/Campus Security: