Topic: Stalin & Stalinism
| Time | Days | Location | Instructor | GER | Credit | OPUS Class Number | Syllabus (Tentative) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2:00pm-4:00pm | W | Emerson Hall E102 | Matthew Payne. | HSCW. | 4 | 12951 | TBA. |
Content: This class will study not simply the rise and rule of Iosef Stalin-one of the twentieth century's most sanguinary rulers-but also the deep social, political and cultural revolutions he conducted that still shape post-Soviet Russia and the world. Such topics as the Russian Revolution, the war on the peasantry, crash industrialization, the Great Purges, World War II and the coming of the Cold War will all be investigated. A varied collection of works will be used to investigate these topics from memoirs and translations of previously secret Soviet archival documents to scholarly monographs and classics of Soviet literature. Students will receive the bulk of their grade from independent research projects while class will center on discussion and interpretation of texts, not lecture. Students will be expected to contribute to class discussions, read independently, present oral reports and reply to discussion questions.
Required Texts: Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine; Sheila Fitzpatrick, Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times: Soviet Russia in the 1930s; Wendy Z. Goldman, Terror and Democracy in the Age of Stalin: The Social Dynamics of Repression; Loren R. Graham, The Ghost of the Executed Engineer; Oleg Khlevniuk, Master of the House: Stalin and His Inner Circle; Hiroaki Kuromiya, Stalin; Geoffrey Roberts, Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939-1953; Simon Sebag Montefiore, Young Stalin; Nicolas Werth, Cannibal Island: Death in a Siberian Gulag
Grading: final paper = 50%; review paper and oral presentation = 30%; class participation (including oral presentations) = 20%
The schedule of courses on O.P.U.S. is the official listing of courses, including days and times they meet and the General Education Requirements they satisfy. Students should use course descriptions as general guidelines. Course requirements, grading details, book lists, and syllabi are subject to change.