Fall 2005

HIS 383 • Stalinist Russia

Course Description

This graduate seminar will examine the history and historiography of the Stalinist period. The course will focus primarily on the interaction between the party-state and society: both how government policies affected people's daily lives, and how social and economic realities, as well as popular resistance, shaped and constrained state policy. The topics we will examine include the extent of Stalins personal role, the social dimensions and political economy of forced collectivization and rapid industrialization, Stalinist cultural and social values, nationalities policies, the causes and impact of the

Grading Policy

Four critical reviews of the readings, 5-6 pages in length each, constitute the written work for the course. The final grade will be based on class participation as well as on the written work.

Texts

Montefiore, Simon. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Stalin's Peasants: Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village after Collectivization. Viola, Lynne. Peasant Rebels under Stalin: Collectivization and the Culture of Peasant Resistance. Kotkin, Stephen. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization. Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Everyday Stalinism: Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times. Goldman, Wendy. Women at the Gates: Gender and Industry in Stalins Russia. Gregory, Paul. The Political Economy of Stalinism: Evidence from the Secret Archives. Hoffmann, David. Stalinist Values: The Cultural Norms of Soviet Modernity, 1917-1941. Brooks, Jeffrey. Thank You, Comrade Stalin! Soviet Public Culture from Revolution to Cold War. Martin, Terry. The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939. Conquest, Robert. The Great Terror: A Reassessment. Getty, J. Arch. The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932-1939. Overy, Richard. Russias War: A History of the Soviet War Effort: 1941-1945..

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