MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENTS OF HISTORY AND POLITICALSCIENCE

SOVIET POLITICS AND SOCIETY, 1917-1991
KEY TERMS PAGE 

The terms, personages, and events listed below are drawn from the readings. The definitions provided, drawn from Britannica Online, should make the reading easier to follow but are not a substitute for doing the reading. Please note that interpretations presented in the Britannica may not always agree with those in the reading or those presented by the professor. It is important to read and listen critically, and to come to your own conclusions.

Feb. 5- The Setting: Tsarism (66 pages)

Note: this Fitzpatrick selection and the next are available on-line.

Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution, pp. 15-23, 31-39.

• What are the main social groups into which Fitzpatrick divides Tsarist society?
• What does she mean by the "schizoid nature of Russian society"(21)?  Why are the self-presentations given in this paragraph schizoid?  What are some other examples of this dualism?
• Why does Fitzpatrick believe that Tsarism was doomed with or without the war?

Workers and War
*"Father Gapon's Petition," pp. 96-99

• To what extent can you see a similar "schizoid" character in this document?  In particular, how would you contrast the content of the demands with their tone?

*"Memorandum to Nicholas II," pp. 476-478

• How would you compare Durnovo's depiction of Tsarist society to Fitpatrick's?
• Why does the opposition, in Durnovo's view, represent "no real force"?  How, then, could it become a danger?

*Leon Trotsky, "Peculiarities of Russia’s Development," The Russian Revolution, pp. 1-10 (as marked)

• Trotsky states "The laws of history have nothing in common with a pedantic schematism"(4).  Why do you think he needs to say this?  Consider, in particular, the extent to which his vision of Russia's history is compatible with the vision of history in the Communist Manifesto.
• 
  

The Peasantry

*Peter Stolypin, "We Need a Great Russia," pp. 457-464 (as marked)

• Stolypin agrees that peasants need more land, but argues against taking it from existing landlords through nationalization.  What are the key reasons for this preference?
• What is Stolypin's attitude toward the mir?

The National Question
*Richard Pipes, "The National Problem in Russia," The Formation of the Soviet Union, pp. 1-8

Visual Aids:

Color (!) Photos of Tsarist Russia
 

Key terms:

Russian Empire, Emancipation of 1861, Russo-Japanese War, Bloody Sunday, 1905 Revolution, Duma, Stolypin reforms, peasant mir, proletariat
 

Cast of Characters:

Nicholas II, Sergei Witte, Peter Stolypin

Feb. 10- The Revolutionary Tradition (45 pages)

Fitzpatrick, pp. 23-31
You may find it helpful to read this section both before and after the selections that follow, to fix the big picture in your mind.  This selection is particularly helpful for defining terms and characters you'll encounter in the selections below as well.

• Why were Russia's Marxists "obliged to work not for the coming revolution, but the revolution after next"(28)?
• Russian Marxists all detested tsarism, cared about improving the lot of the working class, and drew inspiration from Marx's writings.  Yet as this selection reveals, they fragmented rapidly.  Why do you think a unified movement was unable to hold together?

Revolutionary Theory I: General
*Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto, pp. 13-33

• Is it fair to say that Marx and Engels are offering a scientific theory of history?
• What stages of history do they describe?  What forces drive history forward?
• What demonstrates that the capitalist system has become a fetter on productive forces?
• Why are proletarians doomed to misery under capitalism?
• What features of capitalism transform the proletariat into a powerful political actor?
• Consider M&E's discussion of the place of ideas in historical development  (see especially at page 31).  How would you reconcile this with their description of the mission of the Communist party?

 

*Daniels: pp. 23-25 (Trotsky on "Permanent Revolution")

• Trotsky believes, in effect, that the Russian working class is well-situated to seize power, but is unlikely to be able to hold onto it without help from revolutions abroad.  Is this a paradox?  What arguments does he present for each of these propositions?

Revolutionary Theory II: Bolsheviks vs. Mensheviks
*Daniels: pp. 6-16 (Lenin’s Theory of the Party, Lenin on the Party Split)

• Can you find anything in the "Communist Manifesto" that would support Lenin's position that workers need outside help to acquire a proper class consciousness?  What would a proper class consciousness be?
• What are the key motivations for Lenin's call for an organization of professional revolutionaries?

*Daniels: pp. 16-17 (Trotsky’s Reaction to Lenin)
*Pavel Axelrod, "The Unification of Russian Social Democracy and Its Tasks," pp. 48-52

• Do Trotsky and Axelrod disagree with Lenin's proposition that the workers cannot develop a proper class consciousness on their own?
• What are their reasons for rejecting Lenin's model of a highly centralized party of professional revolutionaries.

The National Question
Sakwa: 1.17 ("The Right of Nations to Self-Determination")

• Consider this document in light of the "Communist Manifesto."  Why would self-determination be a difficult issue for Marxists?

Key terms:

Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party (includes Bolsheviks & Mensheviks), trade union consciousness (Daniels, p. 7), Great Russian nationalism (Sakwa, p. 24), "law of combined development" (Trotsky, p. 4), Marxism, communism, socialism, capitalism, bourgeoisie, serfdom, feudalism
 

Cast of Characters:

Georgii Plekhanov, Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, Pavel Axelrod, Yulii Martov, Petr Struve

Feb. 12- The Revolutions of 1917 (64 pages) 

Fitzpatrick, pp. 40-67
Answer these two questions not only based on the Fitzpatrick readings, but also the readings on "Seizing Power," "Victory," and "The Revolution from Below."

• Sometimes historians argue about whether the October revolution was made "from above" or "from below."  In other words, they argue whether the Bolsheviks rode to power on a wave of popular support or simply organized a conspiracy to take power.  What do you think Fitzpatrick's position would be?  What about your own?
• Fitzpatrick is skeptical that the Bolsheviks' success represents an implementation of the philosophy of "What is to be Done?".  Do you share this skepticism?  What evidence can you provide for this position?

Revolution and War
Sakwa: 2.1-2.3 (Order No. 1, April Theses, Lenin on the Imperialist War)
*Voices of Revolution, Documents Nos. 23-25,31,33,35

• On Order No. 1, see below
• Regarding the April Theses and the two documents on the war: do you think it was politically risky for Lenin to support an end to the war?  If not, why didn't other parties do it?  If so, why did it seem worth the risk?
• Can you see the influence of Marxism in Lenin and Tsereteli's positions?  Or not?

The Grain Crisis
*Documents from The Provisional Government: 1917

• See below

Dual Power
*Suny: pp. 35-38 (A.F. Kerenskii's Statement...., Iraklii Teseresteli's Speech)
*Daniels: pp. 44-47 (Lenin on the Dual Power)
* Suny: pp. 41-43 (Tsereteli and Lenin's Exchange of Words....)
*Daniels: pp. 57-59 (The Military-Revolutionary Committee)

• For Order No. 1, The Grain Crisis, and Dual Power selections: please read these documents with an eye to who was exercising authority in practice and how they justified their authority.  To what extent do you think that ordinary Russians would have had a feeling that someone was "in charge"?

On Seizing Power
Sakwa: 2.9-2.11, 2.13 (Lenin: For, Kamenev and Zinoviev: Against)
*Suny: pp. 45-47 (Letter to Central Committee....)

Victory
Sakwa: 2.16-2.18, 2.23 (Victory Address, Izvestiya's Condemnation, Decrees on Peace and Land, and Bogdanov's Criticism)

Revolution from Below
*Steve A. Smith, "Petrograd in 1917: the view from below," pp. 63-64
*Voices of Revolution, Documents Nos. 39, 40

• See questions under Fitzpatrick
• Also: compare this to the Durnovo piece we read two sessions ago.  To what extent were his predictions accurate?  If they were right, were they right for the right reasons?

Key terms:

February Revolution, July Days, October Revolution, Constituent Assembly, Provisional Government, Petrograd Soviet of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies, Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs), dual power, workers' control
 

Cast of Characters:

Prince Lvov, Alexander Kerensky, Pavel Miliukov, General Kornilov, Grigorii Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev

Feb. 17--No Class-President's Day

Feb. 19-- The Civil War (71 pages)

Fitzpatrick, pp. 68-92

• What reasons does Fitzpatrick give for the Bolsheviks' success in the Civil War?  Which of them seem most important to you?
• What is the "ideology vs. pragmatism" debate?  What is Fitzpatrick's attitude to it?  In understanding the course of the Civil War and policies adopted during it, is the Bolsheviks' Marxism relevant?

Eliminating Political Opposition
*Suny: pp. 67-73 (Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly)

Withdrawing from War
Sakwa: 3.6-3.7

• What things do Lenin and the Left Communists agree about?

Running a State, Fighting a War
*Orlando Figes, pp. 1-6, 246-249, 271-273
*Robert C. Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, pp. 181-182
*W. Bruce Lincoln, Red Victory, pp. 476-478
*Leon Trotsky, "The Train," My Life, pp. 411-422
Sakwa: 2.11 (review), 3.1, 3.8, 3.10, 3.18 (Secret Police, Red Army, State Capitalism, Terror)

• To what extent do Lenin's pre-revolutionary thoughts (2.11) correspond to the tasks that the Bolsheviks faced after the revolution?
• Consider the policies described in these selections in light of the "ideology vs. pragmatism" debate.  How helpful are these terms?
• To what extent did the Bolsheviks simply continue policies that the tsarist government was already embracing?
• Trotsky's account is obviously self-serving.  What can be learned from it?
• Think of the Civil War as a particular kind of environment.  What personal qualities are likely to be selected for in such an environment?  Consider Trotsky in particular.

Red Opposition
*Suny: pp. 77-82 (Iulii Martov's Letter....)
Sakwa: 3.9, 3.11-3.12, 3.19 (Workers' Control, Left Communists, Democratic Centralists)

• To what extent could the arguments of these oppositions be me with claims of wartime necessity?  What might the oppositionists respond?

Visual Aids:

Chart about hyperinflation.
 

Key terms:

Peace of Brest-Litovsk, Civil War, War Communism, Red Army, the "Whites" (and the White Armies), Czech Legion, the Cheka, Left Communists, Democratic Centralists, grain requisitioning (prodrazverstka), kulaks, sovkhoz, kolkhoz
 

Cast of Characters:

Admiral Alexander Kolchak, General Denikin, Nikolai Bukharin

 Feb. 24- The Crisis of War Communism & the Shift to NEP (60 pages)

In lieu of reading questions for today, please see the assignment below.

Fitzpatrick, pp. 93-106
*Paul Avrich, "The Crisis of War Communism," Kronstadt 1921, pp. 7-34

The Opposition Suppressed
Sakwa: 3.22-3.25, 3.27-3.28(Party Reform, Workers' Opposition, Kronstadt, Bureaucratism, Ban on Factions, Trade Union Debate)

The Shift to NEP
*Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology, pp. 511-517 (Importance of Gold Now and After....)

 

Assignment
 

In class we will conduct a simulated "agitation trial."  These trials were propaganda devices the Bolsheviks used in the 1920's to defend their policies and leaders.  Please see here for descriptions of such trials from the Party newspaper Pravda (Truth).  We will stage a mock trial of War Communism.  Students whose last names begin with A through I will be the prosecution, and J-Z the defense.  In place of reading questions, please prepare for this exercise.

You will note from the descriptions  that the witnesses in such trials were generally defined in sociological terms--they were representatives of particular social groups, rather than individuals with specific knowledge.  So as you prepare for class, think about what groups both the prosecution and defense might want to involve in such a trial.  Draw arguments for your side FROM THE READINGS (please!).  Defenders should prepare to answer the criticisms raised in the various Sakwa readings, while the prosecution will need to make use of these criticisms.  The prosecution should also prepare to argue the point that if War Communism was justified, the shift to the New Economic Policy would not have been necessary, whereas the defense ought to think about how to make their defense of War Communism consistent with the introduction of NEP.

Key terms:

New Economic Policy (NEP), Kronstadt revolt, Workers' Opposition, tax in kind, bourgeois specialists (spetsy), smychka (worker-peasant alliance), "commanding heights," "On party unity" (ban on factions)
 

Cast of Characters:

Aleksandra Kollontai, Mikhail Kalinin

Feb. 26- Defining Bolshevism (60 pages)

*Sheila Fitzpatrick, "The Bolsheviks' Dilemma: The Class Issue in Party Politics and Culture," The Cultural Front, pp. 16-36

• Are there continuities between the Bolsheviks' pre- and post-revolutionary attitudes toward the proletariat?
• Fitzpatrick sugggests (33-34) that the Bolsheviks had no "real alternative to maintaining the proletarian connection."  Do you agree?  To what extent is this statement confirmed by the other readings for this session?

*A. A. Solts, "Communist Ethics," pp. 42-54

Note: we will be discussing this article very intensively in class.  Please read it with particular care.

• Wood (selection below, p. 197) argues that in this period the Bolsheviks found themselves asking "What qualified the party to exercise its dictatorship of the proletariat?"  Do you think Solts found this issue problematic?
• What does Solts see as the main danger facing the party, and how does he propose to address it?
• Does this seem like a piece of Marxist theory to you?  Why or why not?

*Elizabeth Wood, The Baba and the Comrade, pp. 123-26, 147-53, 194-208

• Why does Wood take issue with portrayals of NEP as a period of relaxation?
• In what way did the transition to NEP challenge earlier social goals?
• What arguments does Wood give to explain how byt (daily life) became such an important issue in 1923?
• Do you see the family-work issues discussed in this selection as specific to the NEP-era USSR, or are they of a sort generally encountered elsewhere?

Renewed Opposition and its Demise
*Suny: pp. 124-126 (Bukharin and Dzerzhinskii Disagree...., Letter from Nikolai Bukharin...., Letter from Dzerzhinskii.....)
Sakwa: 4.8, 4.18-4.20, 4.22 (Workers' Truth, Declaration of the Forty-Six, the New Course, Stalin on Dictatorship)

• Does the party opposition seem to have any "taboos"--i.e., how far is it willing to take its criticism?  Are the opposition recognizable as members of the same party described by Stalin?
• How would you compare the emphases in Stalin's discussion of the party with those made by Solts?

The Lenin Cult
*Suny: pp.126-128 (Joseph Stalin, "The October Revolution...")

Key terms:

Proletkult, Gosplan (State Planning Commission), zhenotdely (women's sections), Pravda, Black Hundreds (Sakwa, p. 131), nepmen, chinovniki (functionaries), "anarcho-syndicalism" (Sakwa, p. 138; also pp. 121-22), appointmentism (Fitzpatrick, p. 25), economic accounting (khozrachet)
 

Cast of Characters:

Vyacheslav Molotov, Patriarch Tikhon

March 2- First paper due in class

Film: "Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks"

March 4- The Politics and Economics of NEP (68 pages)

Fitzpatrick, pp. 106-119, 124-129

• Why does Fitzpatrick seem to find it unlikely that the Communist Party could tolerate NEP's implications easily?
• What was the political significance of "Socialism in One Country" (see also Sakwa document 4.24)
• What was the Bukharin-Preobrazhensky debate on the financing of industrialization?  (see also Sakwa document 4.25)
• What political disadvantages did the Right's advocacy of a conciliatory policy to the peasantry involve?

*Alec Nove, An Economic History of the USSR, pp. 101-114 (also review Wood, pp. 123-126)

• What, in Nove's view, explains the low level of marketed grain in the 1920's?
• How much class differentiation was there among the peasantry?

Monetary Reform
*Vladimir Maiakovskii, "Burzhui, say goodbye to your pleasant money"

• At whom is this poem targetted?  What do you think of its tone?  Does it rest on recognizably "socialist" values?
• Compare the new money about which Maiakovskii was writing to earlier Soviet currency (see pictures on the web here).  Does the design of the new currency seem to reflect some of the same concerns evident in this poem?

Lenin's Last Thoughts
Sakwa: 4.13, 4.15-4.16 (Lenin's Last Testament, Socialism in Russia, Better Fewer, But Better)

• What does Lenin see as the root of conflicts in the Party leadership?
• Do you have any speculations about why he wasn't willing to pick a successor for his own role?
• How does he propose to deal with the peasantry?  How long will it take until the peasant question is resolved?

The Party Opposition: The Left, United, and the Right
*Daniels: pp. 144-147 (The Zinoviev-Kamenev Opposition)
*Daniels: pp. 151-153 (Bukharin on the United Opposition)
Sakwa: 4.27 (Bukharin Warns against Stalin)

• What policy issues were at stake in the discussions over the Zinoviev-Kamenev and United oppositions?
• What do Bukharin's statements to Kamenev reveal about Bukharin's political difficulties?  Is he simply saying back to Kamenev what Kamenev had said to the Party Congress some years earlier?

The Industrialization Debate: Stalin vs. Bukharin
Sakwa: 4.24-4.25 (Socialism in One Country, Primary Socialist Accumulation)

• See questions under Fitzpatrick.

*Stalin, "On the Grain Crisis" and "Siberian Speech," pp. 159-162, 41-48 (as marked)

• Stalin seems to offer at least three explanations for problems with grain procurement: the problems result from low prices offered for grain and lack of industrial goods to offer the peasantry, or from the greediness and hostility of the kulaks, or from the small size of peasant holdings.  Does he effectively reconcile all these positions?
• In "Siberian Speech," Stalin suggests that it won't be possible to strike at the kulaks without alienating some middle (or "average") peasants.  Why?  What solution does he offer for influencing middle peasants?

*Daniels: pp. 162-163, 166-169 (Bukharin on Peasant Policy, Equilibrium)

• Bukharin had famously said, in 1925, that peasants should strive to "get rich."  What is his attitude to kulaks here?  How do you think he would answer Stalin's argument that anti-kulak policies will also offend middle peasants?
• Why does he criticize Trotskyism in 1928, long after Trotsky had been pushed out of the leadership?

The National Question
*Suny: pp. 122-124 (The Question of Nationalities....)

Visual Aids:

Scissors Crisis chart
Money of the Early 1920's
 

Key terms: (most only in the readings this session)

Lenin's Testament, the triumvirate, Left Opposition/Right Opposition, "socialism in one country," "squeezing the peasantry," the "scissors crisis" (see the chart discussed in class),  "Urals-Siberian" method/Article 107 (Fitzpatrick, p. 125), "dekulakization," circular flow of power (Fitzpatrick, 109), vozhd (Daniels, 146)
 

Cast of Characters:

Joseph Stalin, Grigorii Zinoviev, Lev Kamenev, Nikolai Bukharin, Feliks Dzerzhinsky, Aleksei Rykov, Lazar Kaganovich, Nadezhda Krupskaya, Vladimir Maiakovskii

March 9- The Great Break: Collectivization & Industrialization (66 pages)

Please focus on the following issues with respect to all of the readings:

-What accounts for the tremendous sense of haste characteristic of the
First Five-Year Plan period?
-To what extent was this a transition to a "planned" economy?  Were the
plans teleological or genetic?
-Were collectivization and industrialization separate policies?  If they
were connected, how so?
-Fitzpatrick says there were tremendous battles over setting priorities.
Based on the other sources, why do you think this was so?
-Why does the search for enemies seem to become so much more prominent in
this period than in NEP?

Fitzpatrick, pp. 120-124, 129-141

Collectivization
*Fitzpatrick, Stalin's Peasants, 62-79.
Sakwa: 5.3-5.6 (Liquidation of Kulaks, Dizzy with Success, Bolshevik-Leninist Opposition)

Industrialization
*Stephen Kotkin, "Peopling a Shock Construction Site," Magnetic Mountain, pp. 72-82, 86-103 (as marked)
*Stalin's Letters to Molotov, pp. 168-169, 175, 200-201, 209, 218-221
Sakwa: 5.7-5.8, 5.16 (Stalin on Industrialization, Against Wage Equality, Forward, Oh Time!)

Visual Aids:

Chart of grain exports.
 

Key terms:

industrialization (generic definition), collectivization, First Five-Year Plan, the Shakhty trial, Magnitogorsk (i.e., Magnetic Mountain), "gigantomania," class liquidation, "Dizzy with Success," "revolution from above," Famine of 1932-33, internal passport (propiska), "red specialists," subbotnik
 

Cast of Characters:

Sergo Ordzhonokidze
 

March 11- The New Economy (65 pages)

Gennady Andreev-Khomiakov, Bitter Waters, pp. 185-188, 4-13, 22-25, 39-55, 69-85, 105-122

In class we will again be doing small group discussions, trying to answer the general question of whether Andreev-Khomiakov describes a "market economy," a "planned economy," or something else.  The following more specific questions will serve to guide this conversation:

• Does the law of supply and demand operate?
• In a capitalist economy, demand is unpredictable.  Is it here?
• Incentives: what do managers and workers care about?  Do they try to maximize profit?
• Is there a division of labor?
• Are there property rights?  Is the legal system important?
• How do money and the financial system work?
• How does the planning cycle work?  What incentives are there for parties to planning process?
• Who’s powerful?  Party, state, Moscow, local authorities?

Key terms: (This week's terms will not be used in your final exam. They are for your reading assistance only.)

kolkhozniki, defitsitnyi, udarnichestvo/udarnik (shock worker), Yezhovshchina(see p. 190, fn. 11), kombinatsii/kombinirovanie/kombinator (see p. 191, last fn.), artel (see p. 190, fn. 2), partizanshchina
 

March 16- Purge and Terror (65 pages)

-How would you explain the great purges?  Were they products of Stalin's paranoia, a new flare-up of Fitzpatrick's "revolutionary virus," the culmination of the violence of the preceding two decades, or something else?
-The "show trials" asked people to believe many manifestly implausible things--including that people who had been among the most powerful leaders of the country had for many years been working against it.  Why do you think the claims put forward in these trials were so extreme?
-What, if any, mass support was required for the purges to take place on the scale they did?  Why do you think it was forthcoming?  Why was opposition not successful?
-Are you convinced by Tucker's explanation of "the why of forced confession"?  Are other arguments possible?
-Sometimes it is argued that Bukharin intended his statements at his public trial to reveal that the entire process was based on fictions, despite making formal admissions of guilt.  What do you think?

Fitzpatrick, pp. 163-170
*Robert C. Tucker, Stalin in Power, pp. 441-478
*Documents from McCauley, Stalin and Stalinism, pp. 112-120
*"Last Plea of the Accused Bukharin," The Great Purge Trial, pp. 327-328, 656-668 (as marked)
Sakwa: 5.17-5.19, 5.23-5.24, 5.30, 5.32 (Ryutin Group, Congress of Victors, Kirov Murder, Purge Plenum, Show Trials, Criticisms)

Key terms:

purges (chistki), the Great Purges/Great Terror, NKVD, show trials, the "Congress of Victors"
 

Cast of Characters:

Sergei Kirov, Yurii Pyatokov, Marshal Tukhachevsky, Genrikh Yagoda, Nikolai Yezhov, Andrei Vyshinsky, Pavlik Morozov

March 18- World War II (79 pages)

Reading Questions:

-What were some of the repressive measures used to ensure discipline and effort in the war?  What about measures intended  to generate enthusiasm?
-How would you compare the themes sounded in wartime propaganda to those prominent prior to the war?  See especially Sakwa documents 6.16-6.18, 6.23, 6.24, 6.28, 6.39?  Also see this page with some wartime posters.
-What makes sense to you regarding (a) Stalin's unwillingness to belief that a German invasion was happening (see 6.1-6.5, 6.13, 6.14, and Barber) and (b) Stalin's failure to appear publicly at the start of the war (6.16-6.17)?
-Was the war a transformative experience for the Soviet system, or did it reinforce features already prominent?
-Why do Barber and Harrison call the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings the "first casualties of the Cold War"?

Reading

*John Barber, The Soviet Home Front, pp. 19-44, 59-67
Sakwa: 6.1-6.5, 6.7-6.9, 6.11-6.26, 6.28, 6.30-6.32, 6.39 (Soviet-Nazi Pact, War, Appeals to Patriotism, Mass Deportations, Victory Toast)
Andreev-Khomiakov, pp. 146-151, 163-171

Key terms:

Great Patriotic War, Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact ("non-aggression pact"), Finno-Soviet "winter war", Seige of Leningrad, Battle of Stalingrad, Untermenschen, Order No. 227 (on retreaters and deserters), Lend-Lease, "Ten Great Victories," "anti-Soviet" theory of Hiroshima, Katyn, Babii Yar, deported peoples
 

Cast of Characters:

Lavrentii Beria

March 23& 25 - Spring Break--No Classes

March 30- The Khrushchev Years: Thaw and Social Change (71 pages) 

We will have small-group discussions in class on the following topic: Suppose you were an advisor to Khrushchev in the 1950's.  Offer a list of pros and cons of the policies actually pursued in the following areas: de-Stalinization (was it worth it to give the Secret Speech and allow a freer discussion of Stalin's rule?), the economy, and foreign policy.   Remember that you would have been trying to offer suggestions that would have been convincing to Khrushchev as reflecting his goals and values.

Reading questions

-What continuities can you see in Khrushchev's policies with Communist/Bolshevik traditions?  What policies were major departures?
-How do you understand the utopian strain in Khrushchev's policy?  What were some aspects of it, and how might you explain them?
-What explains the degree of opposition to Khrushchev within the party?

*Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War, pp. 175-182

Agrarian and Political Reform
*Roy Medvedev and Zhores Medvedev, Khrushchev, pp. 30-45, 56-65, 94-101, 117-122
Sakwa: 8.1-8.3, 8.4, 8.6, 8.10, 8.12 (The New Course, Virgin Lands, Secret Speech, Annulling Deportations, 1961 Party Program)

Opposition, Dissent, and Khrushchev's Fall
Sakwa: 8.7, 8.15, 8.19-8.21 (Anti-Party Group, Solzhenitsyn, Khrushchev's Ouster)

Anti-Party Group, Twentieth Party Congress (1956), Khrushchev's Secret Speech, de-Stalinization, personality cult, "New Course," Virgin Lands scheme,  shestdesyatniki (Sakwa, p. 341)
 

Cast of Characters:

Lazar Kaganovich, Georgii Malenkov, Anastas Mikoyan, Alexander Solzhenitsyn

April 1-- The Origins of the Cold War (67 pages)

Reading questions:

Sakwa:

-What were the plans for setting up new political systems in the states of
Eastern Europe?
-How would Germany be made to pay for the war?  What evidence is there that
this issue was of special importance to the Soviets?
-What lessons, if any, does Stalin seem to draw from his war experience?
-How does Kennan explain the importance of Marxism for the Soviet leadership?

General:

-What evidence did the Soviets have at the end of WWII that the rest of the
world was bent on confrontation with the Soviet Union?  What about the
Western powers' evidence regarding the intentions of the Soviets?
-Why do you think the alliance did not hold up in the post-war world?

Ending World War II
Sakwa: 6.33-6.36 (Yalta)

The Rise of Rivalry
Sakwa: 7.2-7.5, 7.13 (Two Camps, Long Telegram, Iron Curtain, Mr. X)
*"The Novikov Telegram,"' pp. 3, 8, 12-16

Khrushchev and Kennedy
*Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin's Cold War, pp. 182-188, 236-74

Key terms:

Yalta Conference, Cold War, Bay of Pigs invasion, Cuban missile crisis, Berlin wall, Warsaw Treaty, containment, Hungarian revolution of 1956, 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, KGB, "Iron Curtain"
 

Cast of Characters:

Nikita Khrushchev, Yuri Gagarin, John Foster Dulles, George Kennan

April 6- Second paper due in class

Film: "The Thief"  

April 8- Soviet Science (71 pages) 

April 13- The Brezhnev Era: Politics and Economics 

We will focus especially on Yeltsin's memoir, for which the other readings are a helpful context.  Some questions regarding Yeltsin:

1. Recall our earlier discussion of “charisma”—the claim to legitimacy from performing heroic or extraordinary feats.  To what extent is Yeltsin a charismatic figure?
2. How would you compare Yeltsin’s description of the economy to the economy of the 1930’s, as described by Kotkin and Andreev-Khomiakov?
3. What are some examples of the ways central priorities were or were not effective in shaping life in Sverdlovsk?
4. What, if anything, can you gather about Yeltsin’s attitude to laws and rules?
5. Look for examples of political battles involving Moscow authorities.  What actors got involved?  What was the outcome?
6. How would you describe Yeltsin’s “management philosophy”?  Give some examples.
7. How much do you trust Yeltsin’s account?
8. What do you think of the image of Brezhnev given here?
 

*Timothy Colton, "Brezhnev's Ambiguous Legacy," The Dilemma of Reform in the Soviet Union, pp. 6-31

*Boris Yeltsin, Against the Grain, pp. 43-56, 61-82

The Brezhnevite System and Foreign Policy
Sakwa: 9.1-9.4 (1965 Reforms, Stagnation, Detente, Developed Socialism)

End of the Thaw and the Rise of Dissent
Sakwa: 9.17, 9.19 (Call for Reform, KGB Surveillance) (same file as above)

Key terms:

detente, invasion of Afghanistan, nepotism, "period of stagnation" (zastoi)
 

Cast of Characters:

Leonid Brezhnev, Aleksei Kosygin, Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko
 

April 14- The Brezhnev Era: Social Change

*Timothy Colton, "What Ails the Soviet System?" The Dilemma of Reform in the Soviet Union, pp. 32-67

(Colton is a professor of political science at Harvard.)
-Which of the six categories of Soviet problems Colton specifies (see page
36 and following) strike you as most challenging?
-What were some of the political and economic implications of the USSR's
demographic difficulties?
-Was it getting harder or easier for educated people to find jobs in the
1970's?
-Why does Colton think the Soviet regime had a "tacit pact with society"
about living standards (47)?
-What explained ordinary Soviets' growing hordes of cash, and what were
some of the economic consequences?
-Why do you think the Brezhnev leadership chose to have existing
enterprises expand their missions to address problems with consumer goods
and food supply (p.37, 55)? How is the decision to focus on repair of
industrial equipment (41) similar, if at all?
-What "vicious circles" does Colton identify as key threats for the future
(56-57)?
-Without the benefit of hindsight, do you think you would have been more or
less optimistic about Soviet prospects than Colton was based on the
evidence he had available?

Society and Dissent
*Suny: pp 360-379 (The "New Soviet Man" turns Pessimist, The Little Deal....)
*Chornovil, "My Trial," 57-69
*Tompson, Soviet Union Under Brezhnev, Doc. 22, 145-146

The Andropov Years
Sakwa: 9.32-9.35 (Continuity, Flexibility, Ideology, Novosibirsk Report)

-Based on the available evidence, do Andropov and/or Zaslavaskaia seem to
have appreciated the seriousness of the problems facing the Soviet Union?

Key terms:

samizdat, "developed socialism," "expectations gap," second economy, merger v. rapprochement of nationalities (Colton, p. 44), "One Week Like Any Other," the "Novosibirsk report."

Cast of Characters:

Yuri Andropov, Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev

April 20--No Class--Patriot's Day

April 22-- Gorbachev's Political Revolution

*Michael McFaul, "Gorbachev's Design for Reforming..., The End of the Soviet Union", Russia's Unfinished Revolution; Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin, pp. 33-86

Economic Reform
Sakwa: 10.1-10.6 (Anti-Alcohol Campaign, Perestroika)

Political Reform
Sakwa: 10.8-10.18 (Seventieth Anniversary Speech, Nina Andreeva, Nineteenth Party Conference, Congress of People's Deputies, Abolition of the Party's Leading Role, New Political Thinking) (same file as above)

Key terms:

Nineteenth Party Congress (Summer 1988), Congress of People's Deputies (March elections, televised May session), uskorenie (acceleration), glasnost, perestroika, New Political Thinking, amendment to Article Six (CPSU's "leading role"), Andreeva letter, withdrawal from Eastern Europe, withdrawal from Afghanistan

Cast of Characters:

Yegor Ligachev, Alexander Yakovlev, Boris Yeltsin

April 27-- Nationalism

*Geoffrey Hosking, "The flawed melting pot," The Awakening of the Soviet Union, pp. 82-88

The Baltics and Central Asia
*Victor Zaslavsky, "The evolution of separatism in Soviet society under Gorbachev," pp. 71-79

Georgia
*Stephen Brook, "Civil War or Ice-Cream," Claws of the Crab, pp. 6, 8, 17, 21-33

Russia
*Roman Szporluk, "Dilemmas of Russian Nationalism," pp. 441-462

Key terms:

"Communist empire" (Hosking, p. 83), "bourgeois nationalism" (Hosking, p. 87), "elder brother," indigenous cadres, titular nationalities, "empire-savers" vs. "nation-builders"

Soviet Republics:

April 29- Collapse of the Soviet Union

*McFaul: pp. 86-117 (The End of the Soviet Union)
*Hoffman, The Oligarchs, 100-126
*Caroline Humphrey, "'Icebergs,' barter, and the mafia in provincial Russia," pp. 8-13
Sakwa: 10.20-10.22, 10.24-10.32, 10.37 (Sovereign Russia, Union Treaty, Referendum, August Coup, Suspension of Communist Party, Gorbachev's Resignation)

Key terms:

"August coup," State Committee for the State of Emergency (GKChP), Democratic Russia, Russian "White House," Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), barter (general definition), "icebergs," food-cards/coupons/orders

Four Autonomous Republics in Russia:

Buryatia, Kalmykia, Tuva, Yakutia

Cast of Characters:

Gennadii Yanaev, Vladimir Kryuchkov, Boris Pugo, Anatolii Lukyanov, Andrei Kozyrev, Pavel Grachev, Aleksandr Lebed

May 4- New Russia Emerges, 1991-1993

*David Remnick, "The October Revolution," Resurrection, pp. 37-83
Siberia Bound - readings to be announced

Key terms:

"October events," 1993 referendum, "irreconcilable opposition," National Salvation Front, Ostankino, price liberalization

Cast of Characters:

Yegor Gaidar, Viktor Chernomyrdin, Aleksandr Rutskoi, Ruslan Khasbulatov

May 11- From Yeltsin to Putin, 1993-2001

Siberia Bound - readings to be announced
*Freeland, Sale of the Century, 134-189
*Suny: pp. 564-573 (What Russia Teaches Us Now: How Weak States Threaten Freedom)

Other readings TBA.

May 14- Contemporary Russia

Readings will be announced in May.