B2873 - HISTORY OF THE SOVIET UNION AND RUSSIA

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide an overview of the social and political evolution of the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1991 and its legacy for post-Soviet Russia. At the end of the course students will be able to: - describe the main stages of social changes and political governance from the 1917 Revolution to the collapse of the Soviet Union – describe the social and political legacies of the Soviet experience for Russia after 1991 – critically present the major scholarly debates on State/society relationships - contextualize Soviet social and political history in a broader framework, analyzing key junctures when Soviet international concerns or ambitions interacted with its domestic agenda.

Course contents

The history of Russia, the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet states in the 20^th century may seem to be molded in violence and radical changes, resulting in a material crisis and a new kind of imperialism. Yet this history is also one of great political and social projects, a form of modernization, a worldwide influence, and audacious and innovative – if unsuccessful to reach the ascribed purpose – nationality policies. The course explores some of the main dimensions of Soviet and Russian history in the 20^th century, in two successive sections.

The Lecture section (A: 16 hours, 16 Sept-21 Oct 2025), common to all students, examines the tension between the temptation to great power on the one hand (a statist tendency), and the projection outwards of an internationalist ideology on the other hand. It introduces students to the general chronology of Soviet (and post-Soviet Russian) foreign policy and to the specificity of the Soviet universalist project (Marxist-Leninism, Komintern, Kominform, socialist camp). This section evokes the utopian beliefs and projects of the first decades (the interwar period) and then studies in greater depth the policy of late-Stalinist USSR and afterwards, up to the early 21st century.

The Seminar section (B: 12 hours, 4 Nov-18 Dec.2025, one class per week for each student) divides students in two groups, along a theme to be chosen by them between:

· SEMINAR 1 (Tuesdays) focusing on law and authority, crime and repression in the Soviet Union. How did the Tsarist autocrats and then the Marxist Bolsheviks conceive of law and justice? how the state policy itself criminalized behaviors such as political non-alignment, work indiscipline, marginal activities; how the central place taken by the Gulag in Soviet society left deep imprint on the minds and the communities after its disappearance. Finally, we will discuss post-Soviet Russia and the legal dualism (K. Hendley, G. Favarel-Garrigues)

· SEMINAR 2 (Thursdays) focuses on the complex relationship of Russia to Europe, both in terms of political values and representations of itself, and in terms of limits. Where Europe ends and Russia begins, if the latter doesn’t ‘belong’ to the former but pursues its own, specific path (the myth of a ‘Sonderweg’ à la russe can be followed from the ‘Moscow, Third Rome’ of the 16^th century to the latest historical considerations of the current president)?]

[NB: in 2026/27 SEM 2 will explore a lesser known area of the Soviet Union, Central Asia. The case studies of the irrigation of the Aral Sea basin (M. Peterson, 2019) and of the construction of a dam in Tajikistan (A. Kalinovsky, 2018) will offer the possibility of exploring the themes of Russian colonialism and Soviet ‘decolonization’, perception of otherness and backwardness versus Soviet drive to modernization, and eventually Soviet Tajikistan in the Cold War]

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Readings/Bibliography

Students are invited to get a first idea of the first part of the course by reading Hopf, Ted. “Moscow’s Foreign Policy, 1945–2000: Identities, Institutions and Interests.” In The Cambridge History of Russia, 3: The Twentieth Century, edited by Ronald G. Suny, 662–705. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Or Kalinovsky, Artemy M. “The Soviet Union and the Global Cold War,” in The Cambridge History of Communism. vol.3: Endgames? Late Communism in Global Perspective, 1968 to the Present, edited by Juliane Fürst, Silvio Pons, and Mark Selden, 72–94. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.

The first eight classes will mainly rely on writings on Bolshevik early revolutionary theory, then s. Pons, The Global Revolution (2014) and eventually S. Radchenko To Run the World. The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power (2024).

For students who have not approached Russian or Soviet history in their past curriculum it is highly recommended (mandatory for undergraduates in exchange) to study Edele, Mark. The Soviet Union. A Short History. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019, or Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Shortest History of the Soviet Union, Columbia University Press, 2022 (it was translated into italian: Breve Storia Dell’Unione Sovietica. Milano: Bompani, 2023). Undergraduates in exchange will be tested on this general knowledge, aside from the general program common to all attending students of the course, during the midterm oral.

The readings necessary to prepare yourself for the exam differ a little depending on the mode of attendance. Please find all the details on the exam on the page Virtuale.

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Teaching methods

Important, for exchange students: the admission to optional courses of the LM/Master IR (like this one) is allowed to incoming students at Master level. Undergraduate students must demonstrate to the Professor having already acquired those competences in the disciplines: see section “Readings / ‘For students who have not approached Russian or Soviet history in their past curriculum….’”

ONLY Students enrolled from the MA MIREES can attend classes in presence in Bologna or online on MS Teams, but they must follow the MIREES rules of attendance (70% of the classes).

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, along the "Y" system: a common bloc of classes and a bloc where students distribute themselves in two smaller seminar groups. The aim is to combine the study of a basis of knowledge on Soviet international relations with more specific interests of the students about domestic history of the country, as well as with the best possible interaction with the Professor and among students. The Lecture section introduces students to the core tenets of the Soviet foreign policy. The Seminar section provides occasions for in-depth discussions of class materials and exercises on themes pertaining to the political and social history of the Russian empire/USSR.

The lectures are held on Tu. from 9.00 to 11.00 AM and Thursd. from 09.00 to 11.00 AM. Please check the precise calendar of classes posted below. Each student should attend 14 classes in total, or 28 hours.

Students are required to carefully read the assigned material before the classes. Active participation through the discussion of existing scholarship and case studies is highly recommended in the Lecture section, and mandatory in the Seminar section.

Section A. Frontal lectures for all students

Class 1: Introduction. The Bolsheviks, the World Revolution and the War Tu 16.9

Class 2: From Global Revolution to the Great Break Tu 23.9

Class 3: “Time of State, and of Empire”, 1934-45 Thurs 25.9

Class 4: “Time of Empire and rising tensions”, 1945-49 Tu 30.9

Class 5: From imperial dominance to disunity, 1947-68 Thurs 2.10

Class 6: Irreformable communism? , 1968-81 Tu 14.10

Class 7: “Time of Crisis”, 1985-91 Thurs 16.10

Class 8: The 1990s to today Tu 21.10

Midterms exams: Thursd. 23 Oct, 9.00-11.00 and/or Tues. 28 Oct 9.00-11.00 at students’ choice.

Section B (Seminaries SEM1 and SEM2)

Two Alternative Seminars of 6 lectures (2 hrs each) aim to provide occasions for in-depth discussions of specific topics. During those classes, the students are required to participate actively, by engaging in discussions among themselves and with the professor. To this end, they must have prepared the discussion on the concrete topic of the day by reading the texts assigned by the professor.

Dates:

SEM 1                                  SEM2

Tuesday 4.11                        Thursday 6.11

Tuesday 11.11                      Thursday 13.11

Tuesday 18.11                      Thursday 20.11 (exceptionally shifted

                                           at 5-7 PM the same day)

Tuesday 25.11                      Thursday 27.11

Tuesday 9.12                        Thursday 11.12

Tuesday 16.12                      Thursday 18.12

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Assessment methods

For ATTENDING STUDENTS the exam is composed of two parts.

· The first part consists in a Mid-Term oral exam (2 open-ended questions on the Section 1). Participation is assessed in terms of attendance, active interaction reflecting the fulfillment of reading assignments and the student’s analytical & critical skills. This first part of the exam will count for 50% of the grade.

The mid-term oral exam will take place in presence on either Thursd 23 Oct, 9.00-11.00 or Tues 28 Oct 9.11.00 (professor’s office, 2-37, Piazza San Giovanni in Monte 2, Bologna, each student will choose their date).

Students who can not attend this exam must shift to the status of non-attending students.

· The second part consists in an active participation during the 6 seminars and a critical synthesis of an academic text pertaining to Section 2, chosen in agreement with the professor (50% of grade)

For NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS the final exam consists in one oral exam of 30-40 minutes with four open questions pertaining both to Section A and to the topics of Section B-SEM1 or B-SEM2. Therefore non-attending students must also choose one of the 2 seminars and its reading list.

The readings necessary to prepare yourself for the exam differ a little depending on the mode of attendance. Please find all the details on the exam on the page Virtuale.

The first call for both attending (short final oral) and non-attending (longer single oral) students' is fixed immediately after the end of the classes in Dec. 2025 (prioritarily for students in exchange), the second Jan.2026. Call 3 and 4 are scheduled in May/July 2026, calls 5 and 6 in late August-September 2026.

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Graduation Policy

The final overall grade will be in the range 18-30:

- 30 cum laude (outstanding, sure grasp of all the material and many interesting insights)

- 28-30 (excellent, sure grasp of all the material and some interesting insights)

- 26-27 (very good, competent grasp of all the material)

- 24-25 (good, competent grasp of some the material)

- 21-23 (satisfactory, partial grasp of the material)

- 18-20 (pass, barely sufficient grasp of the material)

- 17 or below (fail, insufficient grasp of the material).

Teaching tools

The course will make use of ppt and audio-visuals whenever necessary.

The page Virtuale of the course contains additional information on the topics studied, the exam format, the available bibliography, and the enrolment in the dates for the midterm orals.

Students with learning disorders and\or temporary or permanent disabilities are invited to contact the office responsible (https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students ) as soon as possible so that they can propose acceptable adjustments. The request for adaptation of the exam must be submitted in advance (15 days before the exam date) to the lecturer, who will assess the appropriateness of the adjustments, taking into account the teaching objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Vanessa Voisin