92674 - History of Modern and Contemporary Russia (1)

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course students will know and be able to apply the main methods of analysis to cultural and historical processes in Russia over the modern and contemporary eras, whether in the specific geo-historical context or through interaction with other complex cultural worlds. They will be able to place political, religious and cultural phenomena in historical context, critically examining the interconnections (including comparison with other cultural areas), and use specific cases to illustrate various aspects of the encounter among different cultures. They will be able to recognise and analyse the documentary and textual sources relevant to the areas in question. They will know how to listen, understand and debate respectfully with different cultures and viewpoints, spotting tie-ups among the different disciplines involved in interpreting cultural and historical phenomena.

Course contents

This course aims to provide the most up-to-date knowledge on the political and social history of the Tsarist Empire, the USSR, and the Russian Federation in the 20th century up to the beginning of V. Putin’s presidency. Emphasis is placed on key periods, such as 1905–1921 and 1928–33, and on the main dynamics of the system.

It is strongly recommended that students read the brief history of the Soviet Union listed in the bibliography (S. Fitzpatrick) for a systematic overview of the 20th century, particularly for those who do not already have knowledge of the country’s history (which should not be confused with Marxist-Leninist doctrine or the narrative produced by historians who were members of European communist parties).

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Readings/Bibliography

Some readings are mandatory before specific lectures to enable critical study of sources and discussion; they are indicated in the space "Virtuale" del corso and are the basis of the final written exam of the attending students. Non-attending students will work on monographs indicated below (in the section "Assessment methods").

Non mandatory readings: To allow for classroom discussion, it is essential that students with no previous experience in Russian and Soviet history read at least an overview of 20th- and 21st-century Russian history before the start of the course, or at least the second week of the course. Sheila Fitzpatrick is recommended (her book was originally published in English The Shortest History of the Soviet Union, Columbia University Press, 2022), as well as Mark Edele, The Soviet Union. A Short History (Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019). Note that the latter author recently published a historiographical study on Stalinism: Mark Edele, Debates on Stalinism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2020) and a concise story of his area of specialization Mark Edele, Stalinism at War: The Soviet Union in World War II (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2021).

To delve into the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in particular, one can study Cigliano, Giovanna. La Russia contemporanea : un profilo storico, 1855-2005. Roma: Carocci, various prints (2005, 2013, 2023). But for an elaborate view of the entire chronological span 1850-1991, I shall rather recommend Graziosi, Andrea. L’Unione Sovietica, 1914-1991. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2011 (exists in ebook format obtainable through AlmaRe) This is the most comprehensive summary work on the Soviet period, and contains reflections on historiography up to 2010. French historian Nicolas Werth has also written a general history of the Soviet Union, which is regularly updated (some editions have been translated into Italian).

The more recent period is concisely studied in Benvenuti, Francesco. Russia oggi. Roma: Carocci, 2013 (fro 1985 to 2010) and in De Stefano, Carolina. Storia del potere russo. Dagli zar a Putin. Brescia: Morcelliana, 2022 (from 1985 to 2022).

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Teaching methods

Classes are based on active interaction among students and with the instructor. Time is set aside for working with primary sources, which all attending students are required to read and study before class.

Through the study of texts, documents, and key concepts essential to an academic understanding of contemporary Russian and Soviet history, students will also explore methodologies for the critical analysis of primary sources. During the course, students are expected to acquire or improve their skills in historical methodology. Attending students may sign up, by the second week of the course, to join groups that will present brief analyses of a historical source during one of the designated class sessions.

As the course does not follow a strictly linear or lecture-based structure, I once again recommend that students without prior knowledge of the country read a short handbook before the start of classes.

*The first three classes are devoted to explaining the course content and structure, including the methodology for the critical analysis of historical sources (the Russian/Soviet case) We will then proceed to a critical analysis of the Petition of the St. Petersburg Workers of January 9 (22), 1905, which will provide an opportunity to examine the situation in the Russian Empire at the beginning of the 20th century, the concept of autocracy, and the First Russian Revolution.

*Lectures 4–6 consist of lectures, accompanied by the study of historiographical debates and recent theses on the period 1905–1932, as well as primary sources.

*Lectures 7–15 alternate between group discussions (based on preparatory reflections on primary sources) and lectures on the years 1930–2000.

 

DETAILED CALENDAR

Lessons 1, 2, 3 “Russia”: An Unusual History of Expansion. Introduction to the course topic, teaching methods, and assessment. In-depth study of a primary source: the Petition of the St. Petersburg Workers of January 9 (22), 1905;

Lesson 4-5 The Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917, an episode in the “continuum of crisis” (Peter Holquist). Study of a primary source: Memoirs of the Menshevik Vera Aleksandrova

Lesson 6 From the dream of global revolution to the ‘revolution from above’ (1918-1932)

Lesson 7 Collectivisation and state violence. Work on primary sources: documents taken from Graziosi, Andrea (ed.), La grande guerra contadina in Urss. Bolsheviks and Peasants (1918-1933), Rome, Officina Libraria, 2022, pp. and by Nicolas Werth, The Island of Cannibals. Siberia, 1933: a story of horror within the gulag archipelago, translated by Francesco Roncacci, Milan, Corbaccio, 2007.

Lesson 8 Stalinism in the 1930s.

Lesson 9 World War II in the USSR. Work on primary sources: excerpts from Vasily Grossman, A Writer in War, 1941-1945, Milan, Adelphi, 2015.

Lesson 10  The Khrushchev Thaw. Work on primary sources: excerpts from Nikita Khrushchev's “secret report.”

Lesson 11 The Brezhnev Years 1. Work on primary sources: dissidents and political repression.

Lesson 12 The Brezhnev years 2. Work on primary sources: excerpts from S. Aleksievic, Secondhand Time

Lesson 13 Gorbachev's perestroika. Work on primary sources (collection of various documents).

Lesson 14 From hope to crisis, 1991 and 1993. Work on primary sources: White House, August 1991 and October 1993.

Lesson 15 The beginning of the Putin era. Work on primary sources: Text by A. Politkovskaya, 2004.

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Assessment methods

The exam is administered in written form, in a lab with restricted network access, and electronic devices are prohibited. Students write in a Word document and are permitted to use the spell-checker and grammar checker.

AI can be a useful tool to support independent study at home by providing in-depth analysis, summaries, and self-assessment exercises. However, with regard to assessment methods, the use of AI is prohibited during in-person exams. Any use constitutes a violation of academic integrity.

 

• ATTENDING STUDENTS

To be considered attending and pass the corresponding exam, students must attend classes and take a final written exam based on the material covered in class, lasting no more than 2 hours after the end of all 15 classes. The exam will consist of answering 3 or 4 questions on the content covered in class: the primary sources studied together, the summaries of the content covered in each class, and any academic texts uploaded by the instructor to the online platform. The questions will be open-ended and require written answers. The grading criteria will be: the accuracy and precision of the answer, the use of appropriate vocabulary, and the ability to connect specific aspects and facts with broader concepts studied in class.

Students may sign up to present a primary source during a class session (between the 7th and 14th sessions), and this work will be factored into the overall grade.

 

• NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students who cannot attend class regularly are anyway welcome to come when they can. The course grade will result from a 3-hour written exam after the end of the 15 lectures. The test consists of answering 5 to 6 open-ended questions on the content of the 2 books chosen (see below)

Study list:

1/A general and concise overview of the contemporary age in Russia/Urss.

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Breve Storia Dell’Unione Sovietica. Milano: Bompani, 2023. (the book exists in English)

2/ a monograph to be chosen between these 2:

• Liudmila G. Novikova, La controrivoluzione in provincia : movimento bianco e guerra civile nella Russia del Nord, 1917-1920, Roma, Viella, 2015 (the book exists in English)

This is a thorough monograph, based on a broad archival base and fueled by the latest historiographical insights into civil wars, war cultures and extreme violence. It offers an original look at the nexus of "1917 revolutions and the Russian Civil War," from the vantage point of a little-studied area in which counterrevolution exhibited special characteristics (General Miller).

• Riccardo Mario Cucciolla, La repubblica del cotone. Le evoluzioni dell’Uzbekistan sovietico tra inclusione e crisi imperiale (Rome: Viella, 2024).

Cotton has characterized the development of industrialization and global capitalism, transforming rural societies, the environment, and imperial relations. The recent history of Uzbekistan, the main non-Slavic republic of the USSR, is linked to this raw material: the political, economic, social, and cultural relations between Moscow and Tashkent were based on cotton production, in their peculiarities, in a system that included the periphery but reproduced, under other banners, many dynamics of the previous colonial regime. But at what price? Alternating between external interference and periods of greater autonomy, the ‘cotton republic’ remained actively included in and heavily dependent on the Soviet system until 1991, when independence, however unwelcome, became inevitable.

 

There are six exam sessions for both oattending and non-attending students: early November, early December, mid-January, late March, early July, and early September.

The syllabus to be studied changes every year; non-attending students in debt should study the year's syllabus given in the exam call.

 

ASSESSMENT POLICY
Each answer in the written examination may be awarded a maximum of points indicated for each question. The total for all answers corresponds to a maximum of 30 points (if the clarity and richness of the answers are particularly high, it may receive 30L) If the student has demonstrated active participation in classrooms, the overall total for the examination may be increased by 1 to 4 points
The following will then be assessed:
- The mastery of the content
- The ability to synthesize and analyze themes and concepts
- The ability to express oneself adequately and in language appropriate to the subject matter
The highest mark will be awarded to the student who shows a general understanding of the topics discussed in the literature to be studied, an assimilation of the most important knowledge, a critical approach to the material and sources and a confident and effective use of appropriate terminology.

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Teaching tools

During the lectures, the professor will make extensive use of power point presentations.

The texts to be prepared for the final exam (for students attending the course) will be uploaded to the teaching materials section of the website.

Other tools are made available in the teaching materials section of the site, such as lists of original terms and abbreviations with their translation.

Students who require specific services and adaptations to teaching activities due to a disability or specific learning disorders (SLD), must first contact the appropriate office: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students. The office will propose adjustments to interested students, which must in any case be submitted 15 days in advance for approval by the teacher, who will assess their suitability in relation to the course objectives.

Office hours

See the website of Vanessa Denise Aline Voisin