Federal State Autonomous Educational Institution of Higher Education National Research University Higher School of Economics Faculty of Social Sciences School of Political Science Course Syllabus Russian Space and Russian State For the Bachelor s Degree Program 41.03.04 Political Science Author: Sergei Medvedev, Professor, smedvedev@hse.ru Approved at the meeting of the School of Political Science 2017 Head of the School: Andrei Melville 2017 Recommended by the Academic Council of the Educational Program 2017, Document No. Approved 2017 Academic Supervisor of the Educational Program: Ilya Lokshin Moscow, 2017 This syllabus cannot be used by other departments of the university and other institutes of higher education without the permission of the faculty that developed it.
1. Scope of Use and Links to the Official Documents The present syllabus sets up minimal requirements and course objectives for students, defines the content of lectures and seminars and lays out the criteria for assessment of students knowledge. The syllabus is designed for professors teaching this course, teaching assistants and students enrolled in the Bachelor s Degree Program 41.03.04 Political Science and studying the course Russian Space and Russian State. The syllabus meets the Educational Standard developed by the National Research University Higher School of Economics for the Bachelor s Degree Program 41.03.04 Political Science ; the Educational Program developed by the National Research University Higher School of Economics for the Bachelor s Degree Program 41.03.04 Political Science ; the Curriculum of the Bachelor s Degree Program 41.03.04 Political Science approved in 2017. 2. Learning Objectives The goals of the course are the following: to introduce the idea of space as a key variable in politics and governance; to define main characteristics, topology and structure of the Russian space; to formulate the opposition between space and the state as a key problem of the Russian history, and of modern politics as such; to explore the parameters of modernity in Russian and Soviet history, in particular Russia s modern statehood and modern territoriality; to examine the impact of space on Russia s traditional economic model; to examine the impact of space on governance, administration and bureaucracy in Russia; to examine the impact of space on concepts and rituals of security in Russia; to explore the concept of Eurasia, and the practices of imperialism and governance in the wider Eurasian space; to explore the semiotics of Russian space, and ways of symbolic governance; to examine the impact of space on culture and social life, and on discourses of Russian identity; to learn and find codes and representations of Russian space in Russian art, film and architecture. 3. Students Competencies Developed by the End of the Course By the end of the course students are expected: to understand peculiarities of interconnection between the phenomenon of Russian space and main characteristics of political, economic, social and cultural development of Russia throughout history and today; to be able to make research on political, economic, social and cultural processes in Russia in the context of different geographical, climatic, demographic and other factors; to have an experience of interdisciplinary analysis of historical and contemporary political, economic, social and cultural processes. By the end of the course students are expected to have the following competencies: Competency Code Description Universal UC-2 to be able to reveal the scientific essence of the problems in a professional field. Universal UC-6 to be able conduct researches, including analysis of problems, formulation of aims and tasks, determination of subject and object of research, choice of relevant methods, and assessment of quality of research. Universal UC-7 to be able to work in a team. Universal UC-10 to be able to work in an international environment. 2
Professional PC-1 to be able to independently formulate research problems in the field of political phenomena and processes, define tasks, and choose relevant methodology and methods of research. Professional PC-8 to be able to conduct practical analysis of political phenomena and processes using the methods of political science in order to facilitate decision-making process. These competencies are developed through the following methods of learning: Lectures and seminars are held in English; Students make presentations in international groups; Students write essays on different problems of political, economic, social and cultural development of Russia. 4. The Course in the Structure of the Educational Program The course belongs to a series of elective professional courses. The course is based on the following courses: «Political History of Russia and Foreign Countries» «Political Geography» «The State Power in the Russian Federation» In order to successfully attend the course, students should have the following knowledge and competencies: to be able to study, acquire new knowledge and skills in different professional fields (UC-1); to be able to work with information: find, assess and use information from different sources that is necessary in order to accomplish scientific and professional tasks (including the use of the systems approach) (UC-5); to be able to choose relevant methods of research and use them (PC-2); to be able to look for, collect, process, analyze and keep information in order to accomplish necessary tasks (PC-4). The course is useful for studying the following courses: «Contemporary Russian Politics» «Audit of the Political System of the Russian Federation» «Russian Social Policy» 5. Course Plan No. Topic Total Class hours Independent hours Lectures Seminars work 1 Introduction. The Problem of Russian 12 4 2 6 Space: Its Topology and Structure I Levels of Space Governance 2 Economic Governance: The Paradoxes of 16 2 4 10 Khozyaistvo and the Administrative Market 3 Territorial Governance: The Administrative- 16 2 4 10 Territorial Division 4 The Political Culture of Russian Space: 16 2 4 10 Mobilization and Modernization II Modernity at Large 5 The Origins of Russian Modernity: The 16 4 4 8 National-Security State 6 The Soviet Modernity: The USSR as the 16 4 4 8 Enlightenment Project III The Anthropology of Space 7 The Social Dimension of Space: Culture 16 2 2 12 3
One and Culture Two 8 Symbolic Governance in Russian Space: 16 2 2 12 The USSR as a Text 9 Russia as the Space of the Subconscious 16 2 2 12 10 Conclusion. The Future of Russian Space: 12 2 2 8 Between Order and Chaos Total 152 26 30 96 6. Forms of Control of Students Knowledge Type of control Form of 4 th year Requirements control 1 st module 2 nd module Current Homework * (2 nd week) Presentation or case study of 1000-1500 words in English. Essay * Essay of 2500-3500 words in English. (4 th week) Final Exam * Oral discussion about the essay, answers to the questions about the content of the course. 6.1 Grading Criteria All assignments are assessed in 10-point grading scale. 10-point grading scale 5-point grading scale 1 - very unsatisfactory 2 - unsatisfactory 2 - very bad 3 - bad 4 - satisfactory 3 - satisfactory 5 - very satisfactory 6 - good 4 - good 7 - very good 8 - almost excellent 5 - excellent 9 - excellent 10 - brilliantly The essay should consist of an introduction, main body of the text, and conclusion. The essay should contain the definition of research problem, goals and objectives of the research as well as an overview of literature and other sources. 6.2 Final Grade Composition The professor assesses contribution of students to seminars: participation in discussions and quality of presentations. Creativity and abilities to hold discussion and to speak clearly and soundly are especially welcomed. The cumulative grade is calculated as follows: G cumulative = 0,3*G participation + 0,3*G homework + 0,4*G essay The resultant grade is calculated as follows: G resultant = 0,8*G cumulative + 0,2*G exam The cumulative and resultant grades are rounded to the nearest whole number. 7. Course Outline WEEK 1. INTRODUCTION. The Problem of Russian Space: Its Topology and Structure 4
Russian space as an asset. Russia-mythology and images of space. Space as the dominant of Russian modern history. Territory as a key marker of modernity. Westphalian territorial thinking: Space = resource = power. Russian space as burden. Problems of Russian space: Low population density, savage nature, marginality, amorphousness, lack of borders. Statecraft in Russia: A big state as a response to large space. Huge strategic requirements: spatial development (infrastructure), territorial control, territorial defense. Space vs. the State as the main opposition of the Russian history; takes place at various levels: politics, society, economy, culture, language. Derluguian, Georgi and Immanuel Wallerstein. Putting Russia in World-Systems Perspective, in: Maria Lipman, Nikolai Petrov (eds). Russia in 2020: Scenarios for the Future. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2011, pp. 25-44. Trenin, Dmitri. Chapter 1. The Spatial Dimension of Russian History, in: Dmitri Trenin. The End of Eurasia. Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2001, pp. 39-86. WEEK 2. Economic Governance: The Paradoxes of Khozyaistvo and the Administrative Market Traditional Russian economic model. Spatial/strategic: Long borders, militant neighbors, vulnerability of key centers. Mobilization of resources by the state: high taxation levels, unprecedented state expenditure on industrial production and capital. Concentration of land and human resources. State as a key economic agency: Role of Peter the Great. Russian political economy: Khozyaistvo instead of the economy, producer dependent on the state instead of an independent merchant, distribution instead of exchange. Economic functions of the state. Sectors of priority investment. Budgetary cycle in the USSR. USSR as a vertically integrated corporation: a single mechanism of resource allocation, a hierarchical organization. The administrative market: privatizing hierarchical positions and statuses. Chervyakov, Vladimir. The Russian National Economic Elite in the Political Arena, in: Klaus Segbers and Stephan de Spiegeleire (eds). Post-Soviet Puzzles: Mapping the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union, Vol. I, Against the Background of the Former Soviet Union. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995, pp. 205-282. Etkind, Alexander. Barrels of Fur: Natural Resources and the State in the Long History of Russia, Journal of Eurasian Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2011, pp. 164-171. Kordonsky, Simon. The Structure of Economic Space in Post-Perestroika Society and the Transformation of the Administrative Market, in: Klaus Segbers and Stephan de Spiegeleire (eds). Post- Soviet Puzzles: Mapping the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union. Vol. I, Against the Background of the Former Soviet Union. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995, pp. 157-204. Shleifer, Andrei and Daniel Treisman. A Normal Country: Russia After Communism, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2005, pp. 151-174. WEEK 3. Territorial Governance: The Administrative-Territorial Division A system of multifunctional institutional districts (Gubernias in Russia, Oblasts in the USSR) to control space with all its contents. Organizing the operation of state institutions, and people s daily lives, sanctioning ethnicity. Oblasts as key institutions of the state. Hyper-centralization within the regions. Regions as self-contained and self-sufficient units; seeds of disunity and regionalization. Kagansky, Vladimir. Russian Regions and Territories, in: Klaus Segbers and Stephan de Spiegeleire (eds). Post-Soviet Puzzles: Mapping the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union, Vol. II, Emerging Geopolitical and Territorial Units: Theories, Methods and Case Studies. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995, pp. 49-56. 5
Medvedev, Sergei. Post-Soviet Developments: A Regional Interpretation. A Methodological Review, in: Klaus Segbers and Stephan de Spiegeleire (eds). Post-Soviet Puzzles: Mapping the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union, Vol. II, Emerging Geopolitical and Territorial Units: Theories, Methods and Case Studies. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995, pp. 5-48. WEEK 4. The Political Culture of Russian Space: Mobilization and Modernization Space and political culture. The role of climate, geography and geopolitics. Surviving in the East European forest: role of the state. The roots of patrimonialism and the imperative of survival. External elements: the ideological bloc (Byzantium), the despotic bloc (Tatars), the bureaucratic/policing bloc (West). Keenan, Edward. Muscovite Political Folkways, The Russian Review, Vol. 45, No. 2, 1986, pр. 115-181. Malinova, Olga. Russia and The West in the Twentieth Century: A Binary Model of Russian Culture and Transformations of the Discourse on Collective Identity, in: Reinhard Krumm, Sergei Medvedev and Hans-Henning Schröder (eds). Constructing Identities in Europe: German and Russian Perspectives. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2012, pp. 63-79. Poe, Marshall. The Russian Moment in World History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 1-45. WEEK 5. The Origins of Russian Modernity: The National-Security State Defining Modernity: the philosophical, political and practical meanings. Political Modernity: the Westphalian State. Modernity and Statehood in Russia: borrowed or indigenous? Modernity and territoriality: filling the blank spaces. Russia s territorial imperative and the national-security state. Medvedev, Sergei. Introduction and Part 1. Modernity at Large, in: Sergei Medvedev. Rethinking the National Interest. Putin s Turn in Russian Foreign Policy, Marshall Center Paper, No. 6, 2004, pp. 1-31. Poe, Marshall. The Russian Moment in World History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002, pp. 46-104. WEEK 6. The Soviet Modernity: The USSR as the Enlightenment Project The USSR as the modern Enlightenment : secular, urban, rational, supranational and industrial project. The USSR as the high point of the European modernity. The Soviet civilization. Modes of production: Capitalism and Statism. Modes of development: Industrialism and Informationalism. The inability of Soviet statism to move to the information society. Structural problems of Soviet modernity: Extensive growth, technological retardation, territorial overstretch. The breakup of the USSR. Gorbachev, Yeltsin and Putin: Exit strategies from Soviet Modernity. Castells, Manuel. The Crisis of Industrial Statism and the Collapse of the Soviet Union, in: Manuel Castells. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Vol. III, End of Millennium. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, pp. 5-68. Trenin, Dmitri. Chapter II. The Breakup of the USSR, A Break in Continuity, in: Dmitri Trenin. The End of Eurasia. Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2001, pp. 87-99. Fukuyama, Francis. The Modernizing Imperative: The USSR as an Ordinary Country, The National Interest, No. 31, Spring 1993, pp. 10-18. Kotkin, Stephen. Afterword. Stalinism as a Civilization, in: Stephen Kotkin. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995, pp. 355-366. 6
WEEK 7. The Social Dimension of Space: Culture One and Culture Two Spread and settlement as different reactions to space by the population and by the authority. Theory of Culture One and Culture Two: Architectural representations of space and the state. Cultures of spread and settlement in the Russian history and politics. The 1990s as Culture One and the 2000s as Culture Two. Paperny, Vladimir. Architecture in the Age of Stalin: Culture Two. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002, 371 p. Medvedev, Sergei. A General Theory of Russian Space: A Gay Science and a Rigorous Science, Alternatives, Vol. 22, No. 4, 1997, pp. 523-553. WEEK 8. Symbolic Governance in Russian Space: The USSR as a Text Russian Empire as a hostage to geography. Symbolic, rather than practical, assimilation of space. Growth of Russia as a symbolic act. The dominance of the word/sign in the Russian culture, verbal vision. Russia as a space of non-referential semiotics. The power of language in the making of the state. Monopoly on classification, discourse of power, symbolic violence. Crisis of representation in the USSR. The Soviet discourse: from deconstruction and elimination of reality to simulation of reality. Putin s regime and post-soviet simulation. Groys, Boris. The Total Art of Stalinism: Avant-Garde, Aesthetic, Dictatorship, and Beyond. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992, 126 p. Medvedev, Sergei. USSR: Deconstruction of the Text. At the Occasion of the 77th Anniversary of Soviet Discourse, in: Klaus Segbers and Stephan De Speigeleire (eds). Post-Soviet Puzzles: Mapping the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union, Vol. I, Against the Background of the Former Soviet Union. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995, pp. 83-120. WEEK 9. Russia as the Space of the Subconscious Self-definitions of Russia: irrational, feminine, spiritual, collectivist. Lack of subjectivity. Russia as the space of the subconscious. Positive meanings of irrationality: From the Church to the Bolsheviks, from Tolstoi to Bakhtin. Russia as the subconsciousness of the West? Medvedev, Sergei. Russia as the Subconsciousness of Finland, Security Dialogue, Vol. 30, No. 1, March 1999, pp. 95-109. Hellberg-Hirn, Elena. Ambivalent Space: Expressions of Russian Identity, in: Jeremy Smith (ed.). Beyond the Limits. The Concept of Space in Russian History and Culture. Helsinki: SHS, 1999, pp. 49-70. Pursiainen, Christer. Space, Time, and the Russian Idea, in: Jeremy Smith (ed.). Beyond the Limits. The Concept of Space in Russian History and Culture. Helsinki: SHS, 1999, pp. 71-94. WEEK 10. CONCLUSION. The Future of Russian Space: Between Order and Chaos Is the interplay between Space and Authority, Culture One and Culture Two the perennial Russian choice? The space of places and the space of flows. What happens to Russian space in the postindustrial age? Russia s alternative futures. Trenin, Dmitri. Conclusion. After Eurasia, in: Dmitri Trenin. The End of Eurasia. Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2001, pp. 313-338. 7
Medvedev, Sergei. EU-Russian Relations: Alternative Futures, FIIA Report, No. 15, 2006, 53 p. Morozov, Viatcheslav. Subaltern Empire? Toward a Postcolonial Approach to Russian Foreign Policy, Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 60, No. 6, 2013, pp. 16-28. 8. Educational Methods During the lectures and seminars students should be actively engaged in discussions on the course topics. At the seminars the professor and students discuss readings and students presentations. The group may also watch and discuss films on relevant topics and visit museums and exhibitions. 9. Means of Current and Final Control of Students Knowledge 9.1 Essay Topics Students should submit their own essay topics, and to run them by the course instructor or teaching assistants. 9.2 Homework Topics 1. Boris Yeltsin s resignation and Vladimir Putin s rise to power in 1999-2000 2. The Yukos affair and the arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003 3. The wars in Chechnya and Ramzan Kadyrov s political regime 4. The terrorist attack in Beslan and reforms of federalism in Russia in 2004 5. The concept of sovereign democracy and the management of elections in Vladimir Putin s Russia 6. Dmitry Medvedev s presidency (2008-2012), his political agenda, and the Skolkovo project 7. Russia s opposition to NATO enlargement and the Russian-Georgian War in 2008 8. Politics of memory in Russia and celebrations of the Victory Day in 2000-2017 9. The attitudes of Russian political leadership and population towards Joseph Stalin and commemoration of victims of Soviet political repression 10. The project of the Eurasian Economic Union and its prospects 11. Migration in Russia and Muslims in Moscow 12. Russia s reaction to the Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea in 2014 13. The war in Donbass and Russia s foreign policy in 2014-2017 14. Russia s military intervention in the Syrian Civil War in 2015-2017 15. Russian hackers and information war between Russia and the West 16. The phenomenon of Alexey Navalny and political protests in Russia in 2017 17. Moscow under Mayor Sergei Sobyanin and new housing renovation plan 18. Vladimir Medinsky s cultural policy and the case against Kirill Serebrennikov 9.3 Control Questions 1. The influence of territory/geography on political regimes. Compare Russia with other countries. 2. The impact of space on society. Community and Society. Patterns of movement and settlement of the population. Compare Russia, Europe and the US. 3. Russia and the West. Is Russia a Western/European country? What does it entail being a Western country? 4. What is Modernization? Modernization in the West and in Russia. Agents of Modernization. 5. What are the key elements of the Russian political culture? Elaborate in detail on the key historical impacts on the Russian political culture. The impact of space on Russian political culture. 6. What is the role of the state in the economy in the West and in Russia? 7. What are the peculiarities of the Russian and Soviet administrative/territorial structure? 8. What is a national-security state? Give examples from the Russian history 9. What are the key reasons for the breakup of the USSR? Given the right policy, was it possible to preserve the Soviet Union in the 1990s? 10. Is Russia still an Empire? What is an Empire? Are there still Empires in today s world? 8
11. Modern and postmodern states in today s world. When did Modernity start and end? Modernity and Postmodernity in Russian politics. 12. What are the key elements of Russian culture, and how are they influenced by the Russian space? 13. How do you see the future of Russia? Is it capable of maintaining such a large territory in the 21st century? How does Russia fit into the global economy? 14. Characterize Russia s political regime under Boris Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev. How do you see Russia s future in the next twenty years? 10. List of Literature 10.1 Main Textbook Students are provided with an online reading for the course. 10.2 Reading List Castells, Manuel. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture, Vol. III, End of Millennium. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. Etkind, Alexander. Barrels of Fur: Natural Resources and the State in the Long History of Russia, Journal of Eurasian Studies, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2011, pp. 164-171. Fukuyama, Francis. The Modernizing Imperative: The USSR as an Ordinary Country, The National Interest, No. 31, Spring 1993, pp. 10-18. Groys, Boris. The Total Art of Stalinism: Avant-Garde, Aesthetic, Dictatorship, and Beyond. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. Keenan, Edward. Muscovite Political Folkways, The Russian Review, Vol. 45, No. 2, 1986, pр. 115-181. Kotkin, Stephen. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. Lipman, Maria and Nikolai Petrov (eds). Russia in 2020: Scenarios for the Future. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2011. Medvedev, Sergei. A General Theory of Russian Space: A Gay Science and a Rigorous Science, Alternatives, Vol. 22, No. 4, 1997, pp. 523-553. Medvedev, Sergei. EU-Russian Relations: Alternative Futures, FIIA Report, No. 15, 2006. Medvedev, Sergei. Rethinking the National Interest. Putin s Turn in Russian Foreign Policy, Marshall Center Paper, No. 6, 2004. Medvedev, Sergei. Russia as the Subconsciousness of Finland, Security Dialogue, Vol. 30, No. 1, March 1999, pp. 95-109. Morozov, Viatcheslav. Subaltern Empire? Toward a Postcolonial Approach to Russian Foreign Policy, Problems of Post-Communism, Vol. 60, No. 6, 2013, pp. 16-28. Paperny, Vladimir. Architecture in the Age of Stalin: Culture Two. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Poe, Marshall. The Russian Moment in World History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2002. Segbers, Klaus and Stephan de Spiegeleire (eds). Post-Soviet Puzzles: Mapping the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union, Vol. I, Against the Background of the Former Soviet Union. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995. Segbers, Klaus and Stephan de Spiegeleire (eds). Post-Soviet Puzzles: Mapping the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union, Vol. II, Emerging Geopolitical and Territorial Units: Theories, Methods and Case Studies. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 1995. Shleifer, Andrei and Daniel Treisman. A Normal Country: Russia After Communism, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2005, pp. 151-174. Smith, Jeremy (ed.). Beyond the Limits. The Concept of Space in Russian History and Culture. Helsinki: SHS, 1999. Trenin, Dmitri. The End of Eurasia. Russia on the Border between Geopolitics and Globalization. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2001. 9
Krumm, Reinhard, Sergei Medvedev and Hans-Henning Schröder (eds). Constructing Identities in Europe: German and Russian Perspectives. Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2012. 11. Technical Support for the Course In order to hold classes the professor needs a laptop, projector and speakers. 10