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Regular version of the site
Bachelor 2019/2020

The Soviet Union and the World: Comparative and Transnational Perspectives on Soviet History

Type: Elective course (History)
Area of studies: History
Delivered by: School of History
When: 3 year, 1 module
Mode of studies: offline
Instructors: Alexandr Voronovici
Language: English
ECTS credits: 3
Contact hours: 42

Course Syllabus

Abstract

The course is designed to provide a larger comparative and transnational view on Soviet history. Over the last couple of decades, we witnessed a number of attempts to put the history of the Soviet Union in a comparative and transnational framework. With renewed strength historians are trying to look beyond the borders of the Soviet Union in order to explore new issues in Soviet history or to revisit the old ones. At the same time these attempts coincide with the popularity of new trends in historiography and historical methodology. The notions and methods of the world history, transnational history, entangled history, history of transfers etc emerge increasingly more often in historical studies, including research on Soviet history. Thus, this course puts the two tendencies together and discusses some of their products in Soviet historiography. One of the key recurring and in many respects classical questions of recent historiography is to what extent the Soviet Union is unique or similar to other states. Can we apply the same or similar concepts and analytical frameworks, as we do with other historical cases or should we approach Soviet history differently? How did Soviet actors view themselves in relation to the outside world? In addition, increasingly the historians pay more attention to the questions of the interaction of the Soviet Union with the external states, actors, models, ideas etc. How does this broader, transnational view help us understand Soviet history better? How did the international environment influence the developments in the Soviet Union and vice versa? The course does not aim to provide a comprehensive view on the Soviet trans-border engagement or an analysis of all the dimensions of comparison with other cases. The goal is rather to discuss general tendencies of these processes, certain key topics, and some attempts to tackle them, that exist in historiography. Importantly, the focus is not limited only to the level of Soviet leadership and top bureaucracy. The analyzed actors often include mid- and low- level Soviet activists and non-state actors.
Learning Objectives

Learning Objectives

  • to familiarize students with certain dimensions of Soviet history contextualizing it in a larger comparative and transnational perspective
  • to improve students’ ability to discuss academic issues in English (in oral and written form)
Expected Learning Outcomes

Expected Learning Outcomes

  • to gain knowledge about key tendencies, events, and turning points in the evolution of the Soviet Union and its international interactions
  • to introduce students to some of the key recent historiographical developments and major debates in Soviet studies
  • to demonstrate the examples of the application of transnational and comparative methods to Soviet history
Course Contents

Course Contents

  • The Soviet Project in International Context
  • International Environmental History: Soviet Arctic
  • Export of the Revolution
  • Soviet Nationality Policies: Affirmative Action and Entanglements
Assessment Elements

Assessment Elements

  • non-blocking regular participation in class discussion
  • non-blocking three quizzes: students will receive a short quizzes that will check whether they have read
  • non-blocking review essay
  • non-blocking final exam
Interim Assessment

Interim Assessment

  • Interim assessment (1 module)
    0.3 * final exam + 0.35 * regular participation in class discussion + 0.25 * review essay + 0.1 * three quizzes: students will receive a short quizzes that will check whether they have read
Bibliography

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

  • Brown, K. (DE-588)1036333965, (DE-627)749900644, (DE-576)383853389. (2013). Plutopia nuclear families, atomic cities, and the great Soviet and American plutonium disasters Kate Brown. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.381343839
  • Bruno, A. (2016). The Nature of Soviet Power : An Arctic Environmental History. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1475783
  • David-Fox, M. (2015). Crossing Borders : Modernity, Ideology, and Culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=993450
  • Fascination and enmity : Russia and Germany as entangled histories, 1914 - 1945 / ed. by Michael David-Fox . (2012). Pittsburgh, Pa.: Univ. of Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edswao&AN=edswao.383692032
  • KIRASIROVA, M. (2011). “Sons of Muslims” in Moscow: Soviet Central Asian Mediators to the Foreign East, 1955-1962. Ab Imperio, (4), 106–132. https://doi.org/10.1353/imp.2011.0003
  • Koenker, D., & Gorsuch, A. E. (2013). The Socialist Sixties : Crossing Borders in the Second World. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=597267
  • Smith, S. A. (2008). Revolution and the People in Russia and China : A Comparative History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=228107
  • Solchany, J. (2018). Rezension: Michael Geyer / Sheila Fitzpatrick (Hg.): Beyond Totalitarianism. Stalinism and Nazism Compared (rezensiert von Jean Solchany). Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.9EF63A93
  • Worley, M., Morgan, K., & Laporte, N. (2008). Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern : Perspectives on Stalinization, 1917-53. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=276884

Recommended Additional Bibliography

  • Pons, S. (2014). The Global Revolution : A History of International Communism 1917-1991 (Vol. First edition). Oxford [England]: OUP Oxford. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=830618
  • Zubok, V. M. (2007). A Failed Empire : The Soviet Union in the Cold War From Stalin to Gorbachev. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=301081