3400: 336
Summer I
2006
Mon., Tues., Th., 2:30-5:00pm
CAS 144
Professor Michael J. Carley
Arts & Sciences 207C
Office hours: TTh, 1:00-2:00pm
(330) 972-8624
mjcarley@uakron.edu
http://gozips.uakron.edu/~mcarley
Course Description:
This
course is
about Russia, Holy
Mother
Russia,
and the Soviet Union. It is about the development of socialist
revolution
and it is about the peasants, workers, soldiers, and leaders who waged
and won the revolution which for a time shook the foundations of
western
capitalism. Tsars and Bolsheviks, bloody civil war and cold war,
collectivization,
the Great Purges, and the Great Patriotic War will be topics of
discussion.
Lenin, Trotskii, Stalin, Khrushchev, Gorbachev are major characters in
an epic, tragic story of a great and cultured people fighting for a
better
life and fighting sometimes for national survival and for the very
world
itself. During the Second World War it was the Red Army which bore the
brunt of fighting against Nazi Germany and which had battered and
broken
the Wehrmacht before the western Allies set their feet on the beaches
of
Normandy. We will look at Russia, as Russians saw and see their
country,
not as westerners might want it to be. And we will look at how Russia
and
Russians view the west.
Books & Readings for the Course:
Required Texts
Ronald
Grigor
Suny, The
Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States;
Stephen Kotkin, Armageddon Averted: The Soviet Collapse 1970-2000.
Required Readings to be Handed out in Class
Karl Marx & Frederick Engels, The Communist Manifesto;
V. I. Lenin, "Last Testament";
Elena A. Osokina, "Economic Disobedience under Stalin" & Aileen Kelly, "In the Promised Land";
N. S.
Khrushchev,
"Special Report
to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the
Soviet
Union".
N.B.,
there will be discussion of all assignments in class; please be
prepared for these discussions.
Grading Percentages:
Two book reviews(1,000 words) of Overy and Kotkin, 40%;
Class participation 10%;
Four 400-word essays on primary sources or opinion pieces (i.e., on class handouts) 20%;
Student
presentations, 10%: Each student will pick a topic from amongst the
topics given in the schedule below and give a 15 minute presentation to
the class
with questions and discussion following. Topics and dates of
presentation will be determined in class.
Final In-class Examination 20%.
Plagiarism
I make the assumption
that students
are honest. They do not cheat on exams, they do not buy essays, they do not plagiarize the work of others. It may
sound
trite, and in some ways it is, but a student only cheats him or herself
if s/he
indulges in these practices.
Plagiarism may be defined as using and
passing off as
one's own the work or ideas of another person without giving credit to
that
person. Plagiarism may take the form of 1.) copying
from another's work without appropriate use of footnotes and quotation
marks;
2.) the use of another's ideas and
arguments without
acknowledgement; 3.) lengthy and close
paraphrasing;
4.) submitting someone else's written work
as one's
own. Any student discovered to have cheated on an exam, or
plagiarized a
paper will receive no credit (i.e., a zero) for that assignment.
For more
serious cases of plagiarism, disciplinary action by the university may
result.
Late Assignments
If you cannot turn in an
essay on the day due because of illness or other grave problems, you
may do it later. But you must notify me at
least one calendar day before it is due, with appropriate
reasons (a
late night out or an indispensible sporting event, or because you
lost your book
or did not buy it in time will not be deemed acceptable).
I will decline make-up privileges to students who do not provide
advance
notification. Students will be expected to make up the work or
exam
within one week of the due date. The marks on a late paper will
be
reduced by 5 points for each class period it
is
late up to one week, after which I will decline to accept it), unless
you have been granted an extension and I will not grant
extensions except under the conditions given above.
Students are responsible for getting their work in on time.
All work must be completed in order to
pass the course. Finally,
do not submit your written
work by e-mail; the instructor is not
responsible for printing your essays.
Course Withdrawals
University policy does not
allow course
withdrawals after 9 June, and I cannot sign any
drop forms
after that date.
Class Attendance
& Class
Participation
In order
to get the
most out of the course, I expect you to attend class and to participate
in
class discussions (unexcused absences will be noted and will have a
negative
effect on your final marks). As in the case of Late Assignments, only illness or
other grave problems will justify an excused absence; a broken down car
or a late night out will not. At the third unexcused absence you
will
lose five points, and five points for every
unexcused
absence thereafter until six, at which point I will ask you to drop the
class or I will assign a failing mark for the course.
Class
participation means not only attending
class, but participating in class discussions and offering informed
contributions, demonstrating knowledge of rhe assigned readings.
Please make an effort to come to class on time and do not leave early
except in the case of emergency, and in that case kindly advise me in
advance. It is discouteous and disruptive to leave in the
middle of class. Being late or
leaving early will be counted as one-half an absence. It
is also disruptive and annoying to hear cell phones go off in
class. I expect
that cell phones will therefore be turned off. I
encourage class discussion and reward it with
higher marks. I encourage students to ask questions and debate
each other. I do not
encourage students simply to
repeat back the instructor's ideas. The objective is for
you to formulate and articulate your own ideas. Your
participation in class discussions will be essential to the success of
the
class.
15 May:
Course
introduction
and Russian
society in the 19th century.
Read Suny, pp. xiii-xvii., 3-34.
16 May:
Early
revolutionary
thought and
early revolutionists.
Read The Communist Manifesto (32pp.); short essay due on 18 May.
23 May:
The
Great October
Revolution.
25 May:
The civil
war and foreign
military
intervention.
Read Suny, pp. 56-120.
29 May:
Memorial Day holiday.
30 May:
The
Twenties
Read Suny, pp. 123-213;
Read Lenin, "Last Testament"; short
essay on Lenin, "Last Testament" is due.
8 June:
The
death of Stalin
& the
rise
of Khrushchev.
Begin reading Kotkin.
Read Suny, pp. 337-420;
N. S. Khrushchev, "Special Report to the 20th
Congress of the Communist
Party of the
Soviet
Union";
short
essay
on Khrushchev' secret speech is due.
12 June:
The
Brezhnev period.
Read Suny, pp. 421-446.