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

The course explores several key themes and dynamics of Russian and Soviet history in the 19th and 20th centuries, resorting to insights brought by political, social, and cultural history. The students will be especially invited to discover the scholarship that worked toward re-situating Russian / Soviet history within a broader context, and questioned in a new way the assumed exceptionality of Russian trajectory.

Did the imperial nature of the Russian state — albeit deeply transformed by the Bolsheviks' nationality policy — preclude any project of liberal democracy? how can we posit Russia / the USSR during some key global moments of world history?

The first module of the course focuses on some essential basis of Russian / Soviet contemporary history: Was political oppression and dictatorship the expression of an weak state? Were Russian elites, state political culture, and society itself reluctant to reforms, debate, power negotiations? what were the relationships between brutal action on the social fabric, tradition, modernization, and messianism?

The second module of the course delves into the issue of “nation” in the Russian / Soviet twentieth century. The Russian empire, the Soviet Union, and even the smaller post-Soviet Russian Federation were multinational states, spread out across eleven time zones and more than 22 million square kilometres (8,65 million square miles). National awakening counted among the factors of collapse of the tsarism in 1917, and the subsequent Civil War was in part a fight of a center to retain its hold on the periphery. If Russian nationalism was still, in 1917, a concept much less clear than in European nation-states like France, there undoubtedly existed a Russian imperialism that found diverse forms depending on where it expressed itself: in "oriental", "Asiatic" expanses that needed to be dragged up from their cultural and economic 'backwardness', or in the more developed, but also rebellious, western parts of the country. 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 its Stalinist form, redeployed centralizing dynamics and imperialist tendencies while creating the first “Affirmative Action Empire” in world history (T. Martin). The issue of supranational identity (“rossiskii” — i.e., “Russian” in the political, but not ethnic sense — then Soviet) will also be examined continually through documents originating from state institutions, educated milieus (including scientists, writers, and artists) and “ordinary” subjects and citizens.

The last module of the course studies four "global moments" of 20th century history where Russia / the USSR were particularly active protagonists: 1918-22 - revolutions and "brutalization" of warring societies; 1944-50 - repatriation and other displacements / 1944-47- end of war and accountability; 1964-1968 - Cultural Revolutions and the Communist world; 1989-1992 - the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the end of the Cold War.

Testi/Bibliografia

For students who have not approached the history of Russia and/or the Soviet Union before, it is strongly recommended you read carefully one or two overviews, such as

• the highly readable, succinct and recent Mark Edele, The Soviet Union. A Short History. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019.
• the more detailed synthesis of Andrea Graziosi, L’Unione Sovietica, 1914-1991. Bologna: Il Mulino, 2020 (electronic version of the 2011 print) or finally
• the introduction and chapers on the 19th to 21st centuries of Valerie A. Kivelson and Ronald G. Suny, Russia’s Empires. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017 or Serhii Plokhy, Lost Kingdom. The Quest for Empire and the Making of the Russian Nation. From 1470 to the Present. New York: Basic Books, 2017.

Other general references include:

• Ronald G. Suny, ed., The Cambridge History of Russia. Vol. III, “The Twentieth Century”, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Silvio Pons, The Global Revolution : a History of International communism 1917-1991 (tr. Alan Cameron) Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Each module will allow the study of specialized scholarship and students will be required to read several academic texts (articles, book chapters available online or retrievable from the course 'Virtuale' space) for each of the three modules.

Metodi didattici

Classes begin on Wednesday 8 November, 11.00-13.00, and are held each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday 11.00-13.00 in Aula Specola.

The 15 classes will alternate some in-person lectures by the professor (or guest professors) and collective discussions around a primary source, a precise topic or a scholarly work studied by two to four students (see. section "assessment methods for more details). The professor will present the methods of ‘study’ to apply to these documents during the first classes.

The students will therefore actively participate in class, improving their methodological skills in historical interpretation of sources and critical appraisal of scholarship, and acquiring essential knowledge on modern and contemporary Russia.

The first module is mainly built on frontal lectures, even if students are always encouraged to participate and ask questions during the lectures. The second module mixes students’ assignments (short presentations), collective discussions and moments of frontal lecture by the professor. The last module is mainly based on students’ presentations and collective discussions.

Modalità di verifica e valutazione dell'apprendimento

• ATTENDING STUDENTS

The mark for attending students will be composed of two parts:

1. The first part will be given on the basis of the general participation during class, evaluated in the following way: regularity of presence and contribution during the 15 classes and a (or several, in the case where the student would like to, or could not attend at least 12 classes) small presentation in class. This presentation will require that students do some basic research – on a topic proposed by the professor, or on a specific scholarly concept, or monograph – and manage to present the essence of their findings in 10 min maximum to the rest of the class, in a clear and engaging way. This means students may understand what are the crucial aspects of the topic they are assigned to present, while being able to engage a little further during the discussion that will follow their presentation. In several cases – notably the last 4 classes devoted to the examination of a ‘global moment’ of the 20^th century, the 4 to 5 presenting students may gain to organize their short presentations together, since each of them will cover various, but complementary topics.
2. An oral during which students will demonstrate their assimilation of key topics seen during the classes (signalled ‘to be studied for the exam’ both in class and on the didactic materials uploaded for the students on Virtuale) and a list of book chapters / journal articles selected by the professor (not above 150 pp in all).

The questions will be aimed at testing the student's ability in exposing with appropriate language:

• the main topics tackled by the books and articles,
• the methodological or conceptual choices made by the authors,
• the sources exploited,
• as well as their skills in making connections between different texts in order to build an argument.

There will be 6 calls for the final oral exam: one for exchange students (in priority) around 17-21 Dec.; one in late January; one in mid-February; one in late May; one in mid-June; 2 in the fall 2024 (Sept and Nov)

 

• NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students that do not attend classes will have to pass an oral exam, with questions aimed at verifying the student's knowledge of the relevant literature available for non-attending on the 2023-24 Virtuale of the course (section "Introduction").

If any question or doubt persists about the content of this oral exam, the students are strongly invited to contact the instructor during scheduled reception hours, or to schedule a meeting by email.

The questions will be aimed at testing the student's ability in exposing with appropriate language:

• the main topics tackled by the books and articles,
• the methodological or conceptual choices made by the authors,
• the sources exploited (if any more than secondary literature),
• as well as their skills in making connections between different texts in order to build an argument.

There will be 6 calls for the final oral exam: one for exchange students (in priority) around 17-21 Dec.; one in late January; one in mid-February; one in late May; one in mid-June; 2 in the fall 2024 (Sept and Nov)

• GRADUATION SCALE (FOR ALL STUDENTS, ORAL EXAMS)

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.

 

 

 

Strumenti a supporto della didattica

Besides the articles or chapters discussed during classes and the primary sources chosen for students’ presentations, the 'Virtuale' space of the course will provide a set of maps, and the most essential instructor's powerpoint presentations for each class.

Attending students are invited to check the Virtuale before each class.

Orario di ricevimento

Consulta il sito web di Vanessa Voisin