HIST 222 - Decline and Fall of the Soviet Union and Resurgence of Russia

FDR: HU
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2014 and alternate years.

This course analyzes the reasons for the decline of the Soviet Union commencing in the latter part of the Brezhnev era and its collapse under the weight of the failed reforms of Gorbachev. It further traces the fragmentation of the USSR into fifteen republics and the simultaneous devolution of authority within the Russian Republic under Yeltsin. The course concludes with the remarkable reassertion of state power under Putin up to the present. Students write an essay assessing the Yeltsin transition and engage in a class debate at the end of the term on the prospects for Russia’s future. Bidlack.