Politics 115 Post-Soviet Politics Spring 2010 Stephen Crowley MWF 3:30-4:20 King 123 Office: Rice 211 Office Hours: MF 1:30-3:00; or by appointment (please sign up at: <http://tinyurl.com/scrowley> e-mail: <scrowley@oberlin.edu> Phone: x58286 In focusing on post-soviet politics, this course will concentrate on the dramatic political (and social and economic) events that have occurred with the fall of the Soviet empire. However, we will make sense of the present through an understanding of the history on which it is built. In so doing, the course will explore some of the major political themes of the twentieth century -- the Russian revolution, Stalinism, the nature of the Soviet political system, Gorbachev's perestroika, nationalism, the Soviet collapse, as well as Russia's rather tentative steps towards capitalism and democracy. By the end of the course, you should have a good understanding about what the Soviet Union was, and about how the attempts to reform it led to its demise; you should also know a good deal about the problems confronting Russia and the former Soviet republics, including their attempts to create new political and economic systems and to find their place in the international political and economic order. Course Requirements You are expected to complete the reading before class. Lectures will assume knowledge of the reading, and will often lead to discussion of the reading. In order to facilitate class discussion and to insure that students stay on pace with the reading, you will be asked to post regular comments on the reading to the Blackboard on-line discussion forum. Comments will be posted about once a week during the semester. (Students will be graded not on the quality of their comments, provided they show some level of thoughtfulness and reflection on the readings). In addition, there will be two analytical essays (5-6 pages) during the semester (due March 19 and April 30) and a final exam. Grades will be determined as follows: Class participation, including class attendance and Blackboard discussion postings 20% 2 analytical essays @25%= 50% Final exam 30%
Reading: The following book have been ordered for purchase at the Oberlin Bookstore: Mary McAuley, Soviet Politics: 1917-1991, Oxford University Press Richard Sakwa, Putin: Russia s Choice, 2 nd Edition, Routledge With the exception of these books, all of the assigned readings will be accessible via Blackboard. Additional copies of some of the reading will also be available on regular reserve. You are also strongly encouraged to follow current events regarding Russia and the former Soviet republics, such as by reading The New York Times. (More in-depth coverage of the region can be found in the daily Financial Times and the weekly Economist, both available in Mudd Library. There are other sources I will gladly point out to you upon request.) I will ask that you not use laptop computers (or other electronic devices) during class time. While many may use laptops solely to take notes, the temptation to do otherwise is unavoidable, and potentially distracting for others as well. Class Schedule February 8-15: The Russian Revolution and Stalinism McAuley, Soviet Politics, intro. and chpts. 1-4 Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution, chapter 2 John Scott, Beyond the Urals, parts 1-3 February 17-22: Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and the Soviet Political Economy McAuley, chapters 5-6 Nikita Khrushchev, "The Secret Speech" [read for main points] Alec Nove, "The Soviet Economy: Problems and Prospects," in Erik Hoffman and Robin Laird, eds., Soviet Polity in Modern Era Natalya Baranskaya, "A Week Like any Other Week," Massachusetts Review, Autumn, 1974
Vladimir Shlapentokh, Public Opinion: Acceptance of the Regime, in A Normal Totalitarian Society February 24-26: Gorbachev s Perestroika McAuley, chapter 7 Mikhail Gorbachev, "Speech to the Khabarovsk Party Conference," in Dallin and Lapidus, The Soviet System: From Crisis to Collapse Nina Andreyeva, "I Cannot Forgo My Principles," in The Soviet System Stephen Kotkin, Steeltown, USSR, chapter 2 March 1: Nationalist mobilizations Terry Martin, An Affirmative Action Empire, in Ronald Suny and Terry Martin, eds., A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin Mark Beissinger, The Persistent Ambiguity of Empire, Post-Soviet Affairs, no.11, 1995 March 3-5: Coup and Collapse McAuley, chapter 8 and conclusion Martin Malia, To the Stalin Mausoleum, in The Soviet System Stephen Cohen Was the Soviet System Reformable? Slavic Review, 63: 3, 2004 Mikhail Gorbachev, "Resignation Speech," in The Soviet System [March 5: first essay assignment distributed] March 8-15: Building Capitalism, Post-Communist Style David Kotz with Fred Weir, Revolution From Above, chapts. 9-10 Joseph Stiglitz, Who Lost Russia? in Globalization and its Discontents Andrei Shleifer and Daniel Treisman, "A Normal Country: Russia After Communism," NBER Working Paper No. 10057, Nov. 2003, pp. 1-15 Richard Sakwa, Putin: Russia s Choice, Introduction, chapts. 1, 9
March 19: First Essay Due March 17-24: Building Democracy, Post-Communist Style Catherine Danks, Politics Russia, chapt. 12 George Breslauer, Boris Yeltsin as Patriarch, in Archie Brown, ed., Contemporary Russian Politics Sakwa, Putin: Russia s Choice, chapts. 2-4 Andrei Ryabov, How Russia works, Russian Analytical Digest, 49, 5 Nov 2008 Victor Yasmann and Donald Jensen, Putin s Choice: A Profile of Dmitrii Medvedev, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 23 March 2008 [March 27-April 4: Spring Break] March 26-April 16: End of Empire, New States Artis Pabriks and Aldis Purs, Latvia: The Challenge of Change, chapt. 3 Theodore Gerber & Sarah Mendelson, Caught in Between: Citizenship, Identity, and Young Ethnic Russians in Estonia, PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 62, 2009 Lucan Way, Authoritarian State Building and the Sources of Regime Competitiveness, World Politics, 57: 1, Jan. 2005, 231-61 Paul Kubicek, "Problems of Post-Postcommunism: Ukraine after the Orange Revolution," Democratization, Apr. 2009, Vol. 16 Issue 2 Graeme Herd, Colorful revolutions and the CIS, Problems of Post-Communism, 52: 2, Mar 2005 Charles Fairbanks, Georgia s Soviet Legacy, Journal of Democracy, 21: 1 (January 2009) Andrew March, From Leninism to Karimovism: Hegemony, Ideology, and Authoritarian Legitimation, Post-Soviet Affairs, 19, no. 4, 2003 Kathleen Collins, Clans politics in Central Asia, Journal of Democracy, 13: 3, 2002
Michael Klare, Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet, chapt. 5 Eric McGlinchey, Three Perspectives on Political Islam in Central Asia, PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 76, 2009 Cullen Murphy, Get in Touch with Your Inner Turkmenbashi, Atlantic, Nov. 02 Sakwa, Putin: Russia s Choice, chapt. 10 [April 16: second essay assignment distributed] April 19-26: Finding the Russian State Stephen Holmes, When Less State Means Less Freedom, Transitions, September 1997 Sakwa, Putin: Russia s Choice, chapts. 5-8 Georgi Derluguian, "The Coming Revolutions in the North Caucasus," PONARS Policy Memo No. 378, Dec. 2005 Vadim Volkov, "Violent Entrepreneurship in Russia," Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 55, no. 5, 1999 April 28-May 5: Society, Class and Gender Bertram Silverman and Murray Yanowitch, New Rich, New Poor, New Russia, chapters 2-3 Anders Aslund, Building Capitalism, chapt. 8 Murray Feshbach, Russia s Population Meltdown, The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2001 Sue Bridger, Rebecca Kay, and Kathryn Pinnich, No More Heroines?: Russia, Women and the Market, chapters 2-3; 8 William Finnegan, The Countertraffickers: Rescuing the victims of the global sex trade, The New Yorker, May 5, 2008 Stephen Crowley, Comprehending the Weakness of Russia s Unions, Demokratizatsiya, Spring 2002 April 30: Second Essay Due May 7-14: Is Russia headed West or South?
Shleifer and Treisman, "A Normal Country: Russia After Communism," pp. 16-26 Anatol Lieven, The Masque of Democracy: Russia s Liberal Capitalist Revolution and the Collapse of State Power, chapter 4 in Chechnya Sakwa, Putin: Russia s Choice, chapt. 11 Vladimir Putin, Russia at the Turn of the Millennium, appendix in Sakwa, Putin: Russia s Choice Michael McFaul & Kathryn Stoner-Weiss The Myth of the Authoritarian Model: How Putin s Crackdown Holds Russia Back, Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2008 Lilia Shevtsova, What s the Matter With Russia? Journal of Democracy, 21: 1 (January 2009) Ted Hopf, Russia s Place in the World: An Exit Option? PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo No. 79, 2009 Stephen Cohen, "The New American Cold War," The Nation, July 10, 2006 Friday, May 21, 9 am: Final Exam Honor Code: The Honor Code is a serious commitment. You should all be familiar with the honor code (available at http://www.oberlin.edu/~stlife/honor_code/honor_code.html). In general, you are encouraged to share your work with other students, and to seek their input, comments and corrections. However, the work you submit must be substantively your own. If you are unsure how the Honor Code applies to a particular assignment, please ask me. It is essential that you write and sign the honor code on all work you hand in for this class. (You do not need to write this on Blackboard discussion postings.) The Honor Code reads: I affirm that I have adhered to the Honor Code on this assignment.