92673 - RUSSIA IN GLOBAL HISTORY (1) (LM)

Conoscenze e abilità da conseguire

At the end of the course students will have acquired an understanding of the historical role played by Russia at a global level, especially as a key region located at the intersection of the European and Asian worlds. Students will be able to critically engage the study of Russian political, economic, social and cultural history, being capable to adopt sound theoretical frameworks and to read a wide set of different relevant sources. At the end of the course, students will also be able to deploy their analytical skills in professional activities linked with the popularization and public use of historical knowledge.

Contenuti

At the end of the course students will display solid knowledge of the specificities of both Russian/Soviet expansion and of Russian/Soviet sociopolitical order, two phenomenons that developed in parallel with mutual effects. They will be able to explain the continuities and changes in the dynamics characterizing the Russian expansion from the XVIth century, when “Russia ceased to be a relatively homogeneous ethnic polity and became a multinational one” (R. G. Suny) up to the present annexation of Crimea to Putin’s Russian Federation, across the Soviet period. To that end, they will first and foremost study the shifts in Russian spatial boundaries and administrations through these five centuries. The students will also be expected to master the main components of the scholarly debates about Russian/Soviet colonialism, russification, as well as those pertaining to the relationship between authoritarian regimes and imperialist expansion. Finally, students will be able to contextualize and critically discuss the peculiarities of such classic notions as “statehood”, “empire”, “citizenship” and “nationalities” when applied to the case of a continental multiethnic empire spread over Europe and Asia.

The course focuses on a very specific case of empire – in both meanings of the word: a territorial organization and a form of government -, the Russian/Soviet empire. This empire extended continentally, not overseas, yet imposing upon colonized non-Russian nationalities and territories the kind of rule observed in the other European empires of the modern age. Later on, the Soviet regime engaged in broad operations of social engineering or/and ethnic excision up to the very heart of the European part of the empire.

The geographical specificities of the Russian empire accompanied and, according to some scholars, reinforced a political regime (czarism) with no equivalent in contemporary Europe. The revolutionary break of 1917 redefined statehood as well as administrative and political rule over the former imperial territory – part of which was lost in the First World War. Yet the consolidating Soviet Union, in the form of stalinism, redeployed centralizing dynamics and imperialist tendencies. After the chaotic 1990s, Putin Russia reinvented the regime once again, generating a new form of imperialism and authoritarianism the definition of which still ignites debates among scholars.

In order to analyze these dynamics in the long-run, the course will insist on three aspects: the space and its appropriation; the governance of the empire (the global entity as well as the subjects/citizens and “nationalities”, nacional’nosti); the expansionist dynamics. It will thus relate to political, institutional and social history, while ploughing in the field of international relations and nationalities studies.

Various approaches will be combined in order to fully grasp the Russian/soviet empire’s singularity while discarding the idea of exceptionalism. Notably, the course uses the approaches of comparative and connected history and will pay attention to phenomenons of circulation. The levels of analysis ranges from the local scale to the pan-Russian/Soviet level, ultimately questioning the projection of the Russian empire / Soviet state out of itself, in panslavism and worldwide communism.

 

 

Due to a sick leave, Classes will start on 11th May 2020

Testi/Bibliografia

It is strongly recommended to read for the course, as an introduction to Russian history, the following book (available with Unibo credentials through the university catalogue / AlmaRe-Proquest):

Paul Bushkovitch. A Concise History of Russia. Cambridge University Press. 2012. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unibo/detail.action?docID=833416

(chapters on cultural history are less relevant for the course, and can be skipped).

Attending and non attending students must also read:

Kappeler, Andreas. The Russian Empire: A Multi-Ethnic History. London; New York: Routeledge, 2001. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unibo/detail.action?docID=1775293 .

is also fully downloadable for free on Taylor and Francis Group - E-book [Covid-19: iniziative degli editori] [http://ezproxy.unibo.it/login?url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/]

OR

Valerie A. Kivelson, et Ronald G. Suny. Russia’s Empires. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. (ask the teacher for access)

 

Metodi didattici

The teaching will be organized in frontal lectures and classes dedicated to collective discussions of academic articles advised by the teacher.

1. Monday 11 May (11.00-13.00) The Russian empire from the 16th to the 20th century: selecting investigative threads

(teacher)

-presentation of the topic and the main thematics that will be studied

-the main blocs

Mandatory readings:

Lohr, Eric, and Marshall Poe. "Introduction", in The Military and Society in Russia: 1450-1917. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2002.

Becker, Seymour. “Russia and the Concept of Empire.” Ab Imperio, no. 3–4 (2000): 329–42.

 

2. Thursday 14 may (11.00-13.00) The Russian continental empire: rationale and forms of expansion (external and domestic factors)

(teacher)

Mandatory readings:

Moon, David. “Reassessing Russian Serfdom.” European History Quarterly 26, no. 4 (1996): 483–526.

Boeck, Brian. I. “Containment vs. Colonization. Muscovite Approaches to Settling the Steppe.” In Peopling the Russian Periphery. Borderland Colonization in Eurasian History, edited by Nicholas Breyfolge, Abby Schrader, and William Sunderland, 41–60. London; New York: Routeledge, 2007.

 

3. Friday 15 May (14.00-16.00) Incorporating new territories and peoples

Teacher: overview

Student’s presentation: integrating the “other”: the case of the semi-nomad Bashkirs → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Steinwedel, Charles. “Tribe, Estate, Nationality? Changing Conceptions of Bashkir Particularity Within the Tsar’s Empire.” Ab Imperio 2 (2002): 249–78.

 

4. Monday 18 May (11.00-13.00). Europeanizing the empire : the first appeal of “modernizing” ideas

Student’s presentation: the high territoriality of the late eighteenth century → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Sunderland, Willard. “Imperial Space: Territorial Thought and Practice in the Eighteenth Century.” In Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700-1930, edited by Jane Burbank, Mark von Hagen, and Anatolyi Remnev, 33–66. Bloomington; Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2007.

Teacher: modernizing, homogenizing – the costs for subjects and peoples

 

5. Thursday 21 May (11.00-13.00). The confrontation with the national idea: what is Russia?

Student’s presentation: official views and discourses on Russian identity – focus on “reformist conservatism" → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Miller, Aleksei. “Chapter 5. ‘Official Nationality’? A Reassessment of Count Sergei Uvarov’s Triad in the Context of Nationalism Politics.” In The Romanov Empire and Nationalism. Essays in the Methodology of Historical Research, 139–60. Budapest/New York: CEU Press, 2008.

Teacher: The emergence of a “reactive” Russian nationalism? late 18th-late 19th

 

6. Friday 22 May (11.00-13.00). Russification and Colonialism

Teacher: “russification” policies, the Western part of the empire

Student’s presentation: resettlement and colonization → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Morrison, Alexander. “Peasant Settlers and the ‘Civilizing Mission’ in Russian Turkestan, 1865-1917.” Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History 43, no. 3 (2015): 387–417.

 

7. Monday 25 May (11.00-13.00) The great attempts of “modernization” of the nation

Student’s presentation: the reform of the army: forging a nation → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Sanborn, Joshua. “Military Reform, Moral Reform, and the End of the Old Regime.” In The Military and Society in Russia: 1450-1917, edited by Eric Lohr and Marshall Poe, 507–24. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2002.

and

Sanborn, Joshua. “Family, Fraternity, and Nation-Building in Russia, 1905—1925.” In A State of Nations. Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, edited by Ronald G. Suny and Terry Martin, 93–110. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Teacher: the state, the subject, the citizen

 

8. Thursday 28 May (11.00-13.00). War and revolutionary violence struck the nationalities

Student’s presentation: The Jews of the empire, from pogroms to the First World War violence → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Lohr, Eric. “The Russian Army and the Jews: Mass Deportation, Hostages, and Violence during World War I.” The Russian Review 60, no. 3 (2001): 404–19.

Student’s presentation: the Red Terror & the unique case of Decossackisation in the Don → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Holquist, Peter. “‘Conduct Merciless Mass Terror’: Decossackization on the Don, 1919.” Cahiers Du Monde Russe 38, no. 1/2 (1997): 127–62.

 

9. Friday 29th May (14.00-16.00). Revolutions and the new policy of citizenship and nationalities

Teacher : the debates on the national issue - Mandatory reading of primary sources on IOL

Teacher : the debates on the form of the new state

 

10. Monday 1st June (11.00-13.00). Revolutions at the national level

Student’s presentations Choice between 3 topics (but only 2 presentations):

1) the Republic of Bashkortostan → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Schafer, Daniel E. “Local Politics and the Birth of the Republic of Bashkortostan, 1919-1920.” In A State of Nations. Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, edited by Ronald G. Suny and Terry Martin, 165–90. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

2) Central Asia and the reformist Muslim movement → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Khalid, Adeeb. “Nationalizing the Revolution in Central Asia. The Transformation of Jadidism, 1917-1920.” In A State of Nations. Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, edited by Ronald G. Suny and Terry Martin, 145–62. Bloomington/ Indianapolis: Oxford University Press, 2001.

3) The case of Karelia (this case requires a student mastering French OR Russian) → Core articles (mandatory reading of the English one for everybody) – Baron, Nick. “The Language Question and National Conflict in Soviet Karelia in the 1920’s.” Ab Imperio, no. 2 (2002): 349–60. + Барон, Ник. “Региональное Конструирование Карельской Автономии.” Ab Imperio, no. 2 (2002): 279–308. OR Baron, Nick. “La Révolution et Ses Limites. Conscience de La Frontière Soviétique et Dynamique Du Développement Régional En Carélie (1918-1928).” In Frontières Du Communisme, edited by Sophie Coeuré and Sabine Dullin, 87–104. Paris: La Découverte, 2007.

 

11. Thursday 4 June (11.00-13.00). The “affirmative action empire”

Teacher: the triumph of the ethnic-territorial option

Student’s presentation: the affirmative action empire in practice → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Edgar, Adrienne Lynn. “Emancipation of the Unveiled: Turkmen Women under Soviet Rule, 1924-29.” The Russian Review 62, no. 1 (2003): 132–49.

 

12. Friday 5 June (14.00-16.00). The national factor in early Stalinist terror

Teacher: dekulakization (the example of Central Asia) Mandatory reading: Edgar, Adrienne Lynn. “Chapter 7. Cotton and Collectivization. Rural Resistance in Soviet Turkmenistan.” In Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan, 197–220. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Student’s presentation: the famine in Ukraine and its controversies → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Graziosi, Andrea, “The Soviet 1931–1933 Famines and the Ukrainian Holodomor: Is a New Interpretation Possible, and What Would Its Consequences Be?” (this text was published in different journals in other languages)

 

13. Monday 8 June (11.00-13.00). Inflection of the nationalities policy and the Great-Russian turn

Student’s presentation: the ethnic deportations of the 1930s → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Gelb, Michael. “An Early Soviet Ethnic Deportation: The Far-Eastern Koreans.” The Russian Review 54, no. 3 (1995): 389–412.

Teacher: the Great-Russian turn (1934-1945)

 

14. Thursday 11 June (11.00-13.00). Destalinization, decolonization and the "converging" of nationalities in the USSR

Teacher: Destalinization in the Virgin Lands ? Ethnic Relations and Soviet Identity

Student’s presentation: the Soviet decolonization project and its domestic parallels → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Kalinovsky, Artemy M. “Not Some British Colony in Africa: The Politics of Decolonization and Modernization in Soviet Central Asia, 1955-1964.” Ab Imperio, no. 2 (2013): 191–222.

 

15. Friday 12 June. The Nationalities and the end of the Soviet Union

Teacher: the collapse of the system, the regime and the Union

Student’s presentation:nationalism in the collapse of the USSR → Core article (mandatory reading for everybody) – Lazda, Mara. “Reconsidering Nationalism: The Baltic Case of Latvia in 1989.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 22, no. 4 (2009): 517–36.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Classes will alternate – sometimes within one unique class – teacher’s presentations and students’ presentations.

The aim is fourfold:

1. breaking the monotony and estrangement of Teams visioconferences. I do hope that varying the speakers will both make the class less monotonous and will foster everybody’s participation (through the tchat or, if technological tests prove it possible, through direct vocalized questions: we are 15 maximum, I assume it may be possible);

2. Alternating synthesis (teacher’s job) with more precise examples of our thematics;

3. Encouraging students’ contribution to the reflection on the thematic, critical assessment, more generally encouraging a collective exchanges of views on the various examples we each studied in more details

4. getting right into the flesh of specialists’ research.

Presentations will be organized around a scholar article that I ask everyone to read prior to the scheduled class. The student in charge of the presentation will dispose of 40-45 min maximum to deliver his/her speech and displaying maps, documents, whatever s.he deems useful (NB: 40 min speech correspond approx. to 3 full-redacted pages, single interline, thus not so much...).

S.he will be expected to:

• use the concrete example studied in the article to relate it to the general topics delineated during the first two classes, underscoring what specific it brings to the general thematic, and /or or how it engages in a scholarly debates, which sources the author uses, etc.

• whenever possible, extend the scope strictly covered by the article (I prepared complementary bibliographies for each presentations, assuring myself all the texts were accessible online, or through my delivering to you) On this precise point, I will be ready to discuss with each of you (for instance, during reception hours) the extent to which the original article can be expanded

• feel free to use maps, excerpts of texts, and whatever device required to sustain the vocal presentation.

The goal is not, naturally, to summarize an article, even when some are especially clearly structured (ex: Steinwedel, Kalinovsky...). The objective is more to deliver the main thoughts and methods of the article/chapter but in the framework of your own understanding of it: by providing lacking background (it’s necessary for several topics), making the article discuss with other scholars’ views, revealing the main output that the article delivers, from your point of view.

I expect the displaying on the screen (again, through the Teams program)

• of the literature you used

• of whatever necessary documents (illustrations, maps, etc.)

Each presentation will be marked, equating to the course marking. Students are free to, besides the oral presentation, send me a written "presentation" (no more than 15 pages) if they want- this is not mandatory.

 

 

NON ATTENDING STUDENTS

The exam consists in an oral exam assessing the following readings:

Kappeler, Andreas. The Russian Empire: A Multi-Ethnic History. London; New York: Routeledge, 2001. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unibo/detail.action?docID=1775293 .

OR

Valerie A. Kivelson, et Ronald G. Suny. Russia’s Empires. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. (ask the teacher for access)

and a set of academic articles that will be accessible through Unibo electronic resources or uploaded in the IOL of the course:

Suny, Ronald G. “The Empire Strikes Out: Imperial Russia, ‘National’ Identity, and Theories of Empire.” In A State of Nations : Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, edited by Ronald G. Suny and Terry Martin, 23–66. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unibo/detail.action?docID=430519

Boeck, Brian. I. “Containment vs. Colonization. Muscovite Approaches to Settling the Steppe.” In Peopling the Russian Periphery. Borderland Colonization in Eurasian History, edited by Nicholas Breyfolge, Abby Schrader, and William Sunderland, 41–60. London; New York: Routeledge, 2007. (uploaded on IOL, Class 2)

Moon, David. “Reassessing Russian Serfdom.” European History Quarterly 26, no. 4 (1996): 483–526. (uploaded on IOL, Class 2)

Hosking, Geoffrey. “Patronage and the Russian State.” The Slavonic and East European Review 78, no. 2 (2000): 301–20. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4213055

Burbank, Jane. “An Imperial Rights Regime: Law and Citizenship in the Russian Empire.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 7, no. 3 (2006): 397–431. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/201670

Brower, Daniel. “Kyrgyz Nomads and Russian Pioneers: Colonization and Ethnic Conflict in the Turkestan Revolt of 1916.” Jahrbücher Für Geschichte Osteuropas 44, no. 1 (1996): 41–53. https://www.jstor.org/stable/41049659

Holquist, Peter. “Violent Russia, Deadly Marxism? Russia in the Epoch of Violence, 1905–21.” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 4, no. 3 (2003): 627–52. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/46154

Martin, Terry. “Modernization or Neo-Traditionalism? Ascribed Nationality and Soviet Primordialism.” In Stalinism. New Directions, edited by Sheila Fitzpatrick, 348–67. London; New York: Routeledge, 2000. (uploaded on IOL)

Northrop, Douglas. “Nationalizing Backwardness. Gender, Empire, and Uzbek Identity.” In A State of Nations. Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, edited by Ronald G. Suny and Terry Martin, 191–220. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unibo/detail.action?docID=430519 .

Viola, Lynne. “Stalin’s Empire. The Gulag and Police Colonization in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.” In Stalin and Europe: Imitation and Domination, 1928-1953, edited by Timothy Snyder and Ray Brandon. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. (uploaded on IOL)

Guth, Stefan. “USSR Incorporated Versus Affirmative Action Empire? Industrial Development and Interethnic Relations in Kazakhstan’s Mangyshlak Region (1960s–1980s).” Ab Imperio, no. 4 (2018): 171–206. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/720028

Gribanova, Galina. “10. Ethnic and Religious Relations in Russia since the 1980s.” In The Social History of Post-Communist Russia, edited by Piotr Dutkiewicz, Richard Sakwa, and Vladimir Kulikov, 209–28. London; New York: Routeledge, 2016. Taylor & Francis Group Ebook until 31/05

 

The questions will be aimed at testing the student's ability in exposing with an appropriate language some of the topics tackled by the books and articles, methodological or scholarly choices made by the authors, as well as his/her skills in making connections between different texts in order to build an argument.

Proper language and the ability to critically speak about the literature's content will lead to a good/excellent final grade

Acceptable language and the ability to resume the literature's content will lead to a sufficient/fair grade.

Insufficient linguistic proficiency and fragmentary knowledge or understanding of the literature's content will lead to a failure in passing the exam.

 

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Maps, academic texts, graphs & tables, textual presentation (study of primary sources)

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Vanessa Voisin