HIST 322 - Seminar in Russian History

Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2013 and alternate years

Completion of HIST 102 or 221 is strongly recommended prior to taking HIST 322. Selected topics in Russian history, including but not limited to heroes and villains, Soviet biography, Stalin and Stalinism, the USSR in the Second World War and origins of the Cold War, the KGB, and the decline and fall of the Soviet Union and the re-emergence of Russia. May be repeated for degree and major credit if the topics are different.

Spring 2013 topic:

HIST 322-01: Seminar in Russian History: The Decline and Fall of The Soviet Union and Re-Emergence Of Russia (4). Completion of HIST 102 or 221 is strongly recommended. An analysis of the past 35 years of Soviet and Russian history. Students gain an understanding of how the Soviet Union weakened from the latter half of the 1970s and then collapsed during the failed reforms of the last General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev. The course covers how Russia tried to introduce market and democratic reforms under President Boris Yeltsin during the tumultuous period after the USSR dissolved into fifteen separate states and during which Russia, which was rapidly weakening politically and economically, launched a bloody war to try to prevent the autonomous republic of Chechnya from gaining independence. Students gain insights into the reasons for the remarkable reassertion of state power and robust growth of the economy under President Vladimir Putin starting in 2000 and the growing disenchantment with Putin’s authoritarianism over the past year and a half. (HU) Bidlack.