| Prof. Elizabeth Wood | Prof. David Woodruff (on leave) |
| E51-180 | E53-425 |
| x3-3255 | x3-6643 |
| elizwood@mit.edu | woodruff@mit.edu |
As the course progresses, check here for reading questions or key terms for each session. Some of the key terms will be linked to outside references that will help you as you do the readings. Highlighted sessions have terms available.
1. Introduction to the Course. Tues. Feb. 2
2. The Setting: Tsarism. Thurs.
Feb. 4
3. The Revolutionary
Tradition. Tues. Feb. 9
4. The Revolutions
of 1917. Thurs. Feb. 11
No class meeting. Tues. feb. 16
(Monday schedule
of classes)
5. The Civil War. Thurs.
Feb. 18
6. The Crisis of War Communism
& the Shift to the New Economic Policy. Tues. Feb. 23
First paper due in class
7. Defining Bolshevism.
Thurs. Feb. 25
8. Politics &
Economics of NEP. Tues. March 2
9. The First Five
Year Plan and Collectivization. Thurs. March 4
10. Life in the City.
Tues. Mar. 9
11. Industrialization.
Thurs. March 11
12. Building a New Society.
Tues. Mar. 16
13. Purge and Terror. Thurs.
March 18
No class meeting. Spring Vacation March 23,
25
14. World War II & the Origins
of the Cold War. Tues. March 30
15. Nikita Khrushchev & World Politics.
Thurs. Apr 1
16.
Second paper due in class. Tues. April 6
17. The Khrushchev
Years. Thurs. April 8
18. The Brezhnev Era:
Politics and Economics. Tues. April 13
19. The Brezhnev Era: Social Change.
Thurs. April 15
No class. Institute holiday. Tues. April 20
20. Gorbachev and the Origins of Perestroika.
Thurs. April 22
21. From Glasnost to Elections.
Tues. April 27
22. Nationalism. Thurs.
April 29
23.Third paper due in class. Tues. May 4
24. Collapse of the Soviet Union. Thurs. May 6
25. The New Russia, 1991-present. Tues. May 11
26. Review Thurs. May 13
Readings:
Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution, pp. 15-23;
*Geoffrey Hosking, "Communities and Ideals in Russian Society," in The Awakening of the Soviet Union(1991), pp. 21-40;
*Von Laue, Why Lenin? Why Stalin? A Reappraisal of the Russian Revolution, 1900-1930, pp. 21-51.
Key Terms:
Russian
Revolution of 1905, Emancipation
Manifesto (1861), Duma,
autocracy,
serfdom,
feudalism,
mir,
otkhodniki, social
class, proletariat,
intelligentsia,
zemstvo,
Nicholas
II, Alexander
II, "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality," totalitarianism, chinovnik,
Peter
the Great, Black Partition, Crimean War, pogroms, Witte,
Witte system, Stolypin,
Stolypin reforms
Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Russian Revolution, pp. 23-39;
*Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto;
Lenin's theory of the party ("What is to be Done?" 1902); Lenin on the party split ("One Step Forward," 1904); Marxist Reactions to Lenin; Lenin on 1905 ("Two Tactics of Social Democracy"); Stalin, "The National Question" (1913), in Robert Daniels, ed., A Documentary History, pp. 6-17, 19(bottom)-23, 36-38.
Key terms:
populists,
socialist
revolutionaries (SRs), Russian
Social Democratic Labor Party (SDs) [includes Bolsheviks
& Mensheviks],
Russo-Japanese
War, Bloody
Sunday, October
Manifesto, Octobrists,
Cadets
(Constitutional Democrats), Duma,
soviet,
Fundamental
Laws of 1906, Stolypin
reforms, bourgeoisie
(Warning: this is not a particularly objective disucssion of this term!),
class
struggle, crisis of overproduction, capital, trade union consciousness,
spontaneity, vanguard of the revolution, dictatorship
of the proletariat, scientific socialism, two tactics of social democracy,
petty bourgeoisie.
4. The Revolutions of 1917. Thurs. Feb. 11
Fitzpatrick, pp. 40-67;
Lenin, April Theses; On Dual Power; State and Revolution; The October Revolution & Bolshevik Revolutionary Legislation; Lenin, Immediate Tasks in Daniels, pp. 42-52, 62-68, 74-77;
*Fred Corney, "Writing October: History, Memory and Identity
in the Construction of the Bolshevik Revolution," pp. 65-81.
Key terms:
February
Revolution, Provisional
Government, Alexander
Kerensky, soviets, dual power, Order
No. 1, defensism, April
Theses, July
Days, factory committees, workers' control, General
Kornilov, Red Guards, Military
Revolutionary Committee, Council of People's Commissars (Sovnarkom),
State and Revolution, Paris
Commune (1871), withering away of the state, national self-determination,
one-party government, obshchina or mir,
separators, kulaks,
Constituent
Assembly, Maximalists/
Left SRs, Decree on Land (October 26), prodrazverstka (grain requisitioning
expedition), smychka (peasant-worker alliance).
5. The Civil War. Thurs.
Feb. 18
Fitzpatrick, pp. 68-92;
One-Party Dictatorship, Red Terror, War Communism (1918); Centralization of the Communist Party (1919); Lenin, "All Out Against Denikin"; Bukharin's Apology; Trotsky on Terror; Democratic Centralists; Lenin, "Left-Wing Communism (1920) in Daniels, pp. 80-82, 89-101;
*Trotsky, "The Train," in Basic Writings, pp. 111-19;
*"The Trial of Lenin," Pravda, April 22, 1920, and other trials in Pravda
Chronology of the Civil War, Brest-Litovsk, "No war, no peace," Czechoslovak Legion, Trotsky (read up to, but not including, "The Struggle for Succession"), Whites, Red Army, Cheka, Red and White Terror, War Communism, pragmatism vs. ideology debate on War Communism, nationalization (meaning 2), grain requisitioning, Committees of the Poor, women's departments (zhenotdely), kulaks, cadre (meanings 2,3,4), Politburo, militarization of labor.
6. The Crisis of War Communism & the Shift to the New Economic Policy. Tues. Feb. 23
Readings:
*Avrich, "Crisis of War Communism," Kronstadt 1921, 7-34;
*Alec Nove, "NEP," Economic History of the USSR, pp. 83-90.
Kollontai, The Workers' Opposition; The Kronstadt
Revolt; Resolutions of the 10th Party Congress: On Party Unity; On the
Syndicalist and Anarchist Deviation in our Party; The Tax in Kind in Daniels,
pp. 104-13.
Paper assignment (4-7 pp.) due in class. No late papers will be accepted. You must also be present in class.
In 1921 the Soviet government began to make a transition from War Communism to the New Economic Policy. In your paper you will be asked to consider the pros and cons of War Communism as if you were presenting either a prosecution or a defense of the government (choose either one or the other). You may single out a particular individual or a particular policy, or you may take on the whole of War Communism as such. In your arguments be sure to rely on the materials we have read for class, both those which were supportive of War Communism and those which criticized it. Consider as well what arguments your opponent might make on the other side of the bar. In other words, if you are defending War Communism, what arguments of the prosecution would you want to consider (and, of course, refute). And vice versa.
In class we will divide into two teams, one of prosecutors and one of defenders. The task of each team will be to determine arguments for and against the retention of War Communism. As you are doing your reading, think carefully about the pros and cons of War Communism and NEP from a variety of different points of view (ideological, political, social, economic). You may be as lawyerly as you like in presenting your arguments in your papers. You should, however, be prepared to argue either side of the case when you arrive in class as we will divide the two sides in class. In the end we will choose three judges to determine who has won the case.
Readings:
*Sheila Fitzpatrick, "The Bolsheviks' Dilemma: The Class Issue in Party Politics and Culture," in Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Cultural Front, pp. 16-34;
*Elizabeth Wood, The Baba and the Comrade, pp. 123-26, 147-52, 194-208.
*Sol'ts, A.A. "Communist Ethics." In Rosenberg, ed. Bolshevik Visions (Part 1), pp. 42-54.
Communist Ideal in Family Life (1920), Protests against NEP in Daniels,
pp. 102-104; 114-17.
Readings:
Fitzpatrick, Russian Revolution, pp. 106-119
*Alec Nove, "Agriculture and the Peasants," Economic
History, pp. 105-118.
*Robert Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary,
1879 -1929, pp. 368-394.
Lenin's Testament, Trotsky on Industrialization;
Formation of the Trotskyist Opposition; Condemnation of the Trotskyist
Opposition, Preobrazhensky on the Economics of Industrialization, The United
Opposition, Bukharin on the Opposition, The Theoretical Debate on Socialism
in One Country in Daniels, pp. 117-118, 124-129, 130-131, 139-141, 147-158.
Readings:
Fitzpatrick, pp. 120-129;
*James C. Scott, "Soviet Collectivization," Seeing Like a State, pp. 193-222;
Stalin, On the Grain Front (1928); The Right Opposition; Stalin, The Right Deviation; Stalin, Problems of Agrarian Policy (1929); The Famine of 1932-33 in Daniels, pp. 159-164, 170-173, 177-179; 188-190.
Film: "Bed and Sofa"
Readings:
Loren Graham, The Ghost of the Executed Engineer (entire)
Stalin, "The Tasks of Business Executives,"; "New conditions" in Daniels, pp. 180-85;
Peter Palchinsky, advantages of backwardness, Fordizm, Taylorizm, Shakhty Trial, Industrial Party Trial (1930), Dnieprostroi, Magnitogorsk, White Sea Canal, BAM, Chernobyl, Don Basin mines.
Readings:
*Lewis Siegelbaum, Stakhanovism and the Politics of Productivity in the U.S.S.R., 1935-1941, pp. 216-246.
Stalin's Social Ideal, The New History, The New Nationalism, Socialist Realism, The New Family Ideal in Daniels, pp. 190-98.
Readings:
*Robert C. Tucker, Stalin in Power, pp. 415-478.
The Kirov Affair (Letter of an Old Bolshevik); Trotsky, Revolution Betrayed; Stalin, On Inadequacies of Party Work; The Gulag; The Moscow Trials; Stalin, Telegram, in Daniels, pp. 198-217
14. World War II & the Origins of the Cold War Tues. March 30
Readings:
*John Barber, The Soviet Home Front, 1941-1945 pp. 19-44, 59-67.
Ludmilla Alexeyeva, The Thaw Generation, pp. 9-66
Mobilization Against the German Invasion (1941), Stalin and the Orthodox Church (1943), Stalin on the Great Russians (1945), Zhdanov Movement (1946), Party Control of Science Genetics (1948) in Daniels, pp. 223-24, 228-29, 232-42.
Readings:
*Vladislav Zubok and Constantine Pleshakov, "The Education of Nikita Khrushchev," "Khrushchev and Kennedy," Inside the Kremlin's Cold War, pp. 174-209, 236-74.
Film: "Russia's War"
Readings:
*Mary McAuley, "Khrushchev and Party Rule," Soviet Politics, pp. 62-74
Alexeyeva, Thaw Generation, pp. 66-78, 83-86, 94-101, 103-115
Khrushchev's Secret Speech, Harebrained Schemes, Suslov's Secret Speech in Daniels, pp. 254-58, 273-79.
*Timothy Colton, "Brezhnev's Ambiguous Legacy," in The Dilemma of Reform in the Soviet Union, pp. 6-31;
*Boris Yeltsin, Against the Grain, pp. 43-56, 61-82;
Peter Hauslohner, "Politics Before Gorbachev," in Dallin and Lapidus, pp. 37-56.
There are only a few key terms for these readings: social contract; charter of oligarchy; respect for cadres.
Please focus on the following questions in your reading.
Hauslohner: According to Hauslohner, a norm against the use of violence within the country's elite took hold after Stalin's death. What was the political impact of this norm? What changes took place in the role and internal governance of the Communist Party in the post-Stalin period?
Colton: What were the "three faces of Brezhnevism"? What were some signs of "the loss of vigor and direction"? Can you find any connection between the reasons Khrushchev was deposed and the form the Brezhnev era took?
Yeltsin: This is Yeltsin's description of his years as leader of the
Sverdlovsk province. He was roughly equivalent to a governor of a U.S.
state. How would you contrast his style of leadership and sphere of responsibilities
with those of a U.S. governor? What occasioned Yeltsin's single intervention
in the court system? How did he and Gorbachev meet? How was he able to
accomplish what he did with the chess club and in the areas of housing
and road-building? How consistent do you find his account of the Brezhnev
years with those presented by Hauslohner and Colton?
Alexeyeva, Thaw Generation, pp. 116-24, 138 (bottom)-141, 154-58, 162-73 (bottom), 206-33, 244-57, 277-97
Letter to the Soviet Leaders; David Remnick, "The Pioneers of Perestroika," in Dallin and Lapidus, pp. 75-87;
The End of the Thaw; Currents of Dissent; Suppression of Dissent (Andropov), Soviet Jews and the Emigration Issue; Absorption of the National Minorities in Daniels, pp. 284-86, 290-97, 301-2, 307-313, 323-325.
No class. Institute holiday Tues. April 20
20. Gorbachev and The Origins of Perestroika. Thurs. April 22
*Colton, "What Ails the Soviet System?" pp. 32-67;
*Tatyana Zaslavskaya, "Socialism with a Human Face" in Cohen and Vanden Heuvel, eds., Voices of Glasnost, pp. 115-39;
Lapidus, "State and Society: Toward the Emergence of Civil Society" in Dallin and Lapidus, pp. 125-46.
The Gathering Crisis: The 'Novosibirsk Report', in Restructuring, Glasnost, Reopening the Past, Daniels, pp. 331-334.
21. From Glasnost to Elections. Tues. April 27
*Robert Kaiser, "The Birth of a New Russia," Why Gorbachev Happened, pp. 254-88
Gorbachev, "Speech"; Andreyeva, "I cannot forgo"; Ligachev, "Inside Gorbachev's Kremlin," in Dallin and Lapidus, pp. 284-96, 706-17.
*Alexander Motyl, "The Sobering of Gorbachev: Nationality, Restructuring, and the West," in S. Bialer, ed., Politics, Society and Nationality Inside Gorbachev's Russia, pp. 149-73
*Mark Beissinger, "The Persisting Ambiguity of Empire," Post-Soviet Affairs 11, 2 (1995), pp. 149-84
*George Breslauer and Catherine Dale, "Boris Yeltsin and the Invention of a Russian Nation-State," Post-Soviet Affairs 13, 4 (1997), pp. 303-32
Boris Yeltsin, "Speech to the Russian Federation Congress of People's Deputies, May 22, 1990" in Dallin and Lapidus, pp. 410-13
Do not neglect to check out the link on nationalism.
What do you think "makes" a nationality, a nation, a nation-state? i.e., in what ways does, say, a "culture" or an ethnicity become a nation? When do you think the processes of nation-building in Soviet history have been positive and when negative? Who and what forces support or work against nationalism? Can we look at the development and change of policies toward nationalities over the long period of Soviet history from 1917 to 1991 as one way of understanding Soviet "political culture," i.e., the ways the system operated?
What do you see as the possible outcomes for the former Soviet Union? How do we evaluate the various possibilities of empire, nation, federation?
These are particularly good articles to practice your reading skills
on. Can you summarize the main arguments of each article? Can you identify
the evidence that the author has brought to bear in support of those arguments?
Do you find the evidence convincing? What do you think are the most interesting
issues which emerge? How do you put these issues together in your own minds?
Film: "Forgotten Melody for the Flute."
24. The Collapse of the Soviet Union. Thurs. May 6
Hewett, "Is Soviet Socialism Reformable?"; "Beyond Perestroika"; Yeltsin, "Speech"; Kriuchkov, "Top Secret KGB Memo"; "Coup Chronology"; Dallin, "Causes of the Collapse" in Dallin and Lapidus, pp. 311-36, 410-13, 569-73, 582-95, 673-95.
*Yuri Feofanov, "Russia's Nuremberg (The Communist Party Case)" in Feofanov and Donald Barry, eds., Politics and Justice in Russia (1996), pp. 294-308
25. The New Russia, 1991-present. Tues. May 11
*Lane and Ross, "From Soviet Government to Presidential Rule," pp. 3-20;
*Lilia Shevtsova, "Russia's Post-Communist Politics: Revolution or Continuity," in Gail Lapidus, ed., The New Russia, pp. 5-36
26. Review