C9672 - REGION-MAKING AND NATION-BUILDING IN EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE: POLITICS, SOCIETY AND IDEAS

Learning outcomes

The objective of the course is to introduce students to East European and Eurasian studies, by analysing the intellectual underpinnings of the region’s political vicissitudes throughout Modern and Contemporary history. Students are expected to make comparisons and grasp a comprehensive picture of the impact of nationalism, self-determination, ‘social(ist) experiments,’ and the process of construction/deconstruction of State institutions from the crisis of the Great pre-modern Empires to the current challenges of the EU Enlargement Eastwards. By the end of the course, students will be able to understand the enduring impact of the region’s imperial past and intellectual specifics on current events.

Course contents

B2889 (II)REGION-MAKING AND NATION-BUILDING IN EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE: POLITICS, SOCIETY AND IDEAS

This section of the core course examines the controversial issues of modernity and development, as the industrial revolution has accelerated international competition in innovation, capital, production modes, labor organization, social systems, and equality.

As is well known, its crucial impact on Central and Southeast Europe and Russia challenged their societies' existing predominant rural organization and raised the controversial questions of "backwardness".

Both these questions will be analyzed under different aspects, focusing on debates about theories of development and the factors that contributed to the rooting of a sense of "distinctiveness", with elements of frustration and exclusion, condensed into the category "Eastern Europe".

The rejection of the notion of "East" and the zeal to achieve the same level of development as Western Europe will be examined in their problematic approaches to welfare and egalitarianism, and in the tension between the desire for modernity and the economic, social, and cultural obstacles to it. Consequently, this section will mainly focus on (a) the aspirations of the narodničestvo in Russia and the Balkans, (b) the peasant movement in East-Central Europe between the two World Wars and its competition with Bolshevism, (c) the debate about the industrialization of Soviet Russia in the 20s and the outlets imposed by Stalin; (d) the reforms which stemmed from the process of destalinization and the debate on the socialist market in the 50s and 60s; (e) the growth without reforms and new waves of changes promoted by Gorbachev.

Within this framework, the underlying reasons for the nexus between politics and economics will be investigated by considering either their far-reaching cultural implications across the spectrum of political systems or the desire for modernity in its relations with the "West," in terms of assimilation and distinctiveness. At the same time, the socialist experience will be approached as an attempt to overcome underdevelopment, with its scope and limits, culminating in the collapse of 1989-1991.

To these ends, the course will examine several critical methodological issues and how they are addressed in the social sciences; the approach will be interdisciplinary, and students will be invited to read original documents and primary literature to prepare for presentations.

Readings/Bibliography

Compulsory reading:

Stefano Bianchini, Eastern Europe and the Challenges of Modernity 1800-2000, Routledge, London-New York, 2015 (paperback and e-book available).

Together with: All the documents selected and discussed during the lectures

To prepare their presentations, students may consult the following references:

Piotr S. Wandycz, The Price of Freedom. A History of East Central Europe from the Middle Ages to the Present, Routledge, New York, 1992, pp.1-11;

George D. Jackson Jr., Comintern and Peasant in Eastern Europe 1919-1930, Columbia Univ. Press, New York and London, 1966, pp. 3-150;

David Mitrany, Marx against the peasant: a study in social dogmatism, Chapel Hill, 1951 (only the third chapter on the "Peasant Revolution").

Ivan T. Berend, Central and Eastern Europe 1944-1993. Detour from the periphery to the periphery, Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1998, pp. 127-181;

Barbara Falk, The Dilemmas of Dissidence in East-Central Europe, CEU Press, Budapest, 2003, pp. 313-364;

John B. Allcock, Explaining Yugoslavia, Columbia U. Press, New York, 2000, pp. 67-89;

Additional suggested readings:

Björn Hettne, Development Theory and the Three Worlds, Longman, Harlow, Essex, 1995, pp. 219-248.

Larry Wolff, Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of Enlightenment, Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, 1994, pp. 1-16;

Andrzey Walicki, The Controversy over Capitalism, Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1969.

Stephen Cohen and others, Was the Soviet System Reformable? in «Slavic Review», n. 3, vol. 63, fall 2004, p. 459-554

Teaching methods

Methodologically, classes are organized interactively. Regular lessons include discussions on the day's topic and students' acquisition of transversal skills. Students are expected to organize themselves into teams and give oral presentations on the selected documents, supported by readings, according to the instructions given in class. Social responsibility toward classmates, the ability to address the audience, a direct focus on key issues, and strict adherence to deadlines are among the crucial components of the lessons guided by the Professor. His lesson explanations will help students understand the historical context and receive additional interpretive guidance to enhance their critical thinking.

 

Structure of the lectures and readings

Lesson 1:

Introduction to the subject and methodology: Introduction to the subject. Methods of working and studying. The Program of the course. Assignments

The notions: Eastern Europe

Modernity, networking, diasporas, and the Métissage: how to deal with development and nation-states

Lesson 2:

The Social Origins of East European Politics

Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in a Historical Perspective (pp. 5-30)

Daniel Chirot, The Origins of Backwardness in Eastern Europe (pp. 2-13)

Lesson 3:

The Populist controversy on capitalism: the first debate in the theories of development

Walicki, The controversy over capitalism (pp. 1-28)

Gerzen, From the Other Shore: on peasants in Russia (pp. 180-192)

Bakunin, Revolutionary Catechism, ch. X, Social Organization (pp. 87-95)

Lesson 4:

Industrialization and the «Peasant state»: the second debate

Lenin, Decree on the Land (1917), pp. 81-82, Daniels

Stambolijski, The Political and Social Foundations of the Agrarian Organizations (8 pp.)

Mitrany, The role of the Peasant Movement between the wars, pp. 149-156 in Marx against the Peasant

Lesson 5:

Internationalism and the Soviet Industrialization debate: (the third debate)

Lenin, The Tax in Kind, pp. 143-144, Daniels

Bukharin, The NEP of Russia, pp. 188-193 in AA.VV. In Defense of the Russian Revolution

Trotsky, Thesis on Industry, pp. 195-208 IN Idem

Preobrazensky, The New Economics, pp. 175-178, Daniels

Lesson 6:

Reforming the Soviet system: the Origins of the Fourth Debate

Malenkov, On Agriculture, pp. 316-317 Daniels

Hruscev, The Virgin Lands Program, pp. 317-320 Daniels

Liberman, Proposals and the 1965 Reform, pp. 365-370 Daniels

Kosygin, Soviet Consumerism, pp. 385-387 Daniels

Lesson 7:

In search of a "socialist market": Broadening the Fourth Debate to the Camp

Varga, Democracies of a New Type, pp. 142-144 Daniels 2

Imre Nagy, Reform Communism, pp. 82-87 in Gale Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism

Recommendations of the Hungarian Trade Union Council on Workers' Council, 1956, pp. 236-237 Daniels 2

Kadar, The New Economic Mechanism, pp. 321-324 Daniels 2

KPC, The Action Program (April 1968), pp. 329-336 Daniels 2

Lesson 8:

The Third Player between USSR and the Camp: the Yugoslav Self-Management

Tito, On the Law of Self-Management, June 1950, pp. 73-78

Djilas, The New Class, pp. 101-106 in Gale Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism

Boris Kraigher, On Economic Reform 1965, pp. 183-194

Edvard Kardelj, On Pluralism of Interests in Self-managed communities, 1977, pp. 379-399

Lesson 9:

The Communist Idea of Modernity and Dissent: the penetration of the world interdependence

The Helsinki Accords, pp. 366-371 Daniels 2

Currents of Dissent, from Sakharov to Medvedev, pp. 371-380 Daniels

CPSU, The Scientific Technological Revolution, pp. 387-392 Daniels

Sabine Rosenbladt, Environmental Concerns in Poland 1988, pp. 188-192 in Gale Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism

Lesson 10:

The Communist Idea of Modernity and Gorbachev: the Fifth Debate on Politics and Economics

Gorbachev, On Cooperation between Socialist Countries, from the speech in Prague 1987 (pp. 194-196)

Gorbachev, Socialism in Development and Perestrojka (pp. 41-54)

Assessment methods

Oral exam. Students are expected to analyze and discuss in detail the topics covered in class, with appropriate references to the sources in the readings. The ability to compare theoretical approaches and policy implementation will be highly appreciated.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint and overhead projector

Office hours

See the website of Francesco Privitera