ONE-PAGE HAND-OUT SYLLABUS
Detailed Academic Calendar
week-by-week summary =

WEEK   1 = The big picture and/or "the long duration" | Get started on exercise one and exercise two
WEEK   2 = Origins of modern political culture | Get under way with exercise three
WEEK   3 = Era of Great Reforms and/or Russian Revolutionary Situations | Begin serious thinking about exercise six
WEEK   4 = Era of Great Reforms and/or Russian Revolutionary Situations | Exercise four deadline
WEEK   5 = 1905 Revolution
WEEK   6 = Revolutions of 1917 | Draft essay #3 [ID] completed at home before exercise five deadline
WEEK   7 = Revolutions of 1917 (continued) | Get exercise six under way, and complete draft essay #4 [ID] soon
WEEK   8 = Stalinist "totalitarianism"
WEEK   9 = Gorbachev and the collapse of the USSR
WEEK 10 = "New Russia"
FINALS WEEK = NB! Exercise six & Exercise seven (with draft essay #4 [ID] already inscribed)

Comprehensive list of seven exercises distributed through the term =

1) Keep a journal of weekly readings and other examples of YOUR WORK (from week 1 through week 10)
2) Learn how to navigate The Student's Annotated Chronology and Systematic Bibliography (week 1)
3) Research and compose four draft essays in the journal (in 3 phases = weeks 2 through 4, 4 through 6, and 6 through 10)
4) First Submission of journal, with general reading/writing entries, plus the first two draft essays (week 4)
5) Take a midterm exam, with general reading/writing entries, plus the third draft essay (week 6)
6) Big research paper (due finals week)
7) Submit the journal for final evaluation, with results of continuing reading/writing, plus the fourth draft essay (finals week)

ONE PAGE HAND-OUT SYLLABUS =

HST 445/545: RUSSIAN POLITICAL CULTURE = The Problem of Russian Civil Society
Alan Kimball, McK 367, 346-4813. Office hours: Tue & Thur 11:30-13:00 & by appointment
KIMBALL@UOREGON.EDU

Most course materials are in the Knight Library or course webpages.  You will purchase a lab book, and there you will keep a record of library and webpage readings, write four take-home "draft" essays, & write a midterm exam. There will be no final exam in this course. Instead, you will submit a term paper on the first day of finals week  Here is a basic calendar of the term's work:

!! ja31:------------FIRST SUBMISSION OF JOURNAL with first two draft essays and thoughts on possible big research-paper topic
!! fe14:----------- MIDTERM EXAM IN JOURNAL, with third draft essay
!! mr17:  -------- BIG RESEARCH PAPER and FINAL SUBMISSION OF JOURNAL (with fourth draft essay) DUE by 5pm

First exercise:  Purchase a blue-bound lab book (9x7 inches; Stock # 43-571, JUST EXACTLY THIS ONE; ask at the customer service desk in the basement of the UO Book Store). The first thing I want you to do with your lab book (let’s call it the journal) is paste a white label securely to the outer upper right-hand corner of the front cover (a mailing label will do). Boldly inscribe your name there. Please leave the inside cover & the first 5-6 pages blank for keeping your own table of contents & a comprehensive, numbered list of books & other library material consulted. It is your responsibility to guide the reader to each part of the journal. Leave the final two pages of the lab book blank for instructor comments & grading. Separate from the journal, keep another notebook for lecture, course handouts, etc. The journal is where you keep a record of YOUR WORK, and the notebook is where you keep a record of MY WORK.

Second exercise:  Locate this course on the following webpage:
 http://www.uoregon.edu/~kimball/courses.htm. Add this page to your web-browser "favorites" page. You'll go there often this term.

These first two and five further exercises are listed and explained on the course website.

ABOUT GRADES: Essays & exams are due at the time the class meets on the days specified. Late exercises are penalized one grade. Exercises AWOL 24 hours after due date are given a failing grade. Failure to complete any one of the essays or exams will result in a failing grade for the course. Unpenalized postponement of an exercise is possible only when documented illness or happenstance forces delay, or when arranged in writing beforehand. If you attend class regularly, keep a good lecture notebook, devote eight or nine hours of your study-week to your reading & writing, & keep a good record in your journal, you may be sure that you are meeting course expectations.


Academic Calendar

I try to make each link to SAC below either a single hypertext hop [ID] or LOOP [ID].

This academic calendar also can be taken as a list of potential topics, either for your four draft essays [ID] written in the journal [ID], or for your research report [ID], to be submitted by email [ID]. The research report topic may be selected from any part of the list, early or late.

The topic of your  first two draft essays [ID] should probably come from the first half of the calendar, and the final two draft essay topics from the second half.

As you make your topic selections, do not let your choices overlap or duplicate one another. Remember the virtue of breadth as you make your selections.

 

WEEK 1 =
The big picture and/or "the long duration"

EXERCISE ONE =

Through the whole term, the course requires nine hours a week outside of class time, reading and note-taking, mainly in a journal. I say "mainly in a JOURNAL" because you may want to do much of your preparation for exercise six, the big research paper, on your word processor.

Purchase and set up your journal, a bright blue canvas lab book (9x7 inches; Stock # 43-571, JUST EXACTLY THIS ONE; ask at the customer service desk in the basement of the UO Book Store). The first thing I want you to do with your lab book (let’s call it the journal) is paste a white label securely to the outer upper right-hand corner of the front cover (a mailing label will do). Boldly inscribe your name there. Please leave the inside cover & the first 5-6 pages blank for keeping your own table of contents & a comprehensive, numbered list of books & other library material consulted. It is your responsibility to guide the reader to each part of the journal. Leave the final two pages of the lab book blank for comments & grading. Separate from the journal, keep another notebook for lecture, course handouts, etc. The journal is where you keep a record of YOUR WORK, and the notebook is where you keep a record of MY WORK.

Read this extended description of journal.

EXERCISE TWO =

Guide to readings throughout the term are provided in lectures outlined on this course webpage and most particularly in the primary and secondary sources indicated in "The Student's Annotated Chronology and Systematic Bibliography" [SAC © Alan Kimball].

Read this extended description of SAC and how to use it.

You may print any part of the electronic material I provide this class & place it in your lecture notebook (not in your journal).

 

First-week topics

Three interpretive issues =

Twelve events or eras of long-term historical significance =

Readings (relevant to the whole academic term)
(primary sources are in boldface)

Choose some part of the following three-part list of readings (one or more titles) on the big picture and devote about four hours to your choice(s). Search for insight into the long-term Russian political culture. Keep a record of your search in your journal.

General accounts
(more like reference works, with short interpretive passages indicated) =

Titles offering vast interpretive perspective =

Early Russian history

  • August, Baron von Haxthausen-Abbenburg, Studies on the Russian Interior
  • Sigismund von Herberstein, Description of Moscow and Muscovy
  • Marshall T. Poe, The Russian Moment in World History| Argues three main points = (1) For centuries, Russia was the only non-Western power to defend itself against Western imperialism. (2) Russia carved out for itself the only non-Western path to modern society, neither European nor Asian but distinctly Russian and based on autocratic governmental authority and command economics. (3) The Soviet era must be seen as a natural continuation of Russia's long-term past, i.e., points one and two. Does this argument apply also to post-Soviet Russia?
  • Sergei Pushkarev, Self-Government and Freedom in Russia
  • More focused but still of broad significance for the interpretation of "the long duration" =
    • Charles J. Halperin, Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact..., pp. 87-119. What is Mongol impact?
    • Leo de Hartog, Russia and the Mongol Yoke, pp. 128-67. What is Mongol impact?
    • Donald Ostrowski, Muscovy and the Mongols..., pp. 36-63 (significant institutional influences); pp. 85-107 (refutes "Oriental" interpretation)
    • Alexander Yanov, The Origins of Autocracy: Ivan the Terrible in Russian History, pp. 1-23, 280-320
    • 1649:Ulozhenie [Law Code] [SAC]
    • Andrei Kurbskii and Tsar Ivan IV, Correspondence (Intro by John Fennell, then a few selections). What was the political status of nobles?
    • Robert Crummey, Aristocrats and Servitors (Introductions and conclusions. What was the political status of nobles?)
    • Jerzy Lukowski, Liberty's Folly pp.1-25, 264-7 (re.Poland's social/political decline. Compare Polish and Russian freedoms)

Imperial Russia

 

WEEK 2 =
Origins of modern political culture


1825 December 14:Petersburg, Senate Square. Decembrist Uprising

EXERCISE THREE =

Over the term you will compose four "draft essays" [ID]. The topics of all four draft essays should grow out of your general course work. As you devote the nine hours to reading and writing in the journal every week, you will come across primary documents that you would like to read with closer attention and research more extensively in the secondary and reference literature. Consult this page devoted to reading and writing in the academic setting. It builds on the description of the draft essay [ID] and makes several suggestions about how critical reading in the academic setting contributes to writing in the academic setting.

DRAFT ESSAYS #1 & #2 = Before the time of "first submission" [ID], you will compose your first two draft essays in the journal [ID].

Two more draft essays will follow =

DRAFT ESSAY #3 = The deadline for the third draft essay is midterm time [ID].

DRAFT ESSAY #4 = The deadline for the fourth and final draft essay is final submission of the journal to me [ID]

I am ready to help define topics that best suit you. On your own, you will probably find your topics as you do the regular weekly reading. The draft essays should be thought of as moments of intense reading and writing in the course of the standard reading and writing in the journal.

Second-week topics =

Readings (secondary sources)

 

 

WEEKS 3 & 4 =
Era of Great Reforms and/or Russian Revolutionary Situations

mir2.jpg (97025 bytes)
Meeting of peasant elders in mirskoi skhod [village assembly]
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

EXERCISE FOUR =

The course requires a "no-grade" first submission of the journal to me on the first day of class in the fourth week of the term (see one-page syllabus for exact date). By this time please include in the journal the first two of your draft essays [ID], and  a clear list of possible research topics [EXERCISE SIX below] so that I might make recommendations to you on that matter. This first submission is also an early check to see if I can give you any ideas how to proceed with your journal and the course in general.

Third- and fourth-week topics =
Phases Preparatory to the Revolutionary Twentieth Century

*1856:1866; The era of "Great Reforms" [LOOP on "great reform"] and "the first Russian revolutionary situation" [SAC]
*--Essay on Russian Civil Society and Political Crisis, 1859-1863 [TXT]
*--Essay on "Intelligentsia" [TXT]

*1867:1881; Russian populism [SAC]

  • Going to the people [SAC]
  • The second Russian revolutionary situation [SAC]
  • Terror [SAC] and [TXT]
  • Women in 19th-c. Russian political culture [SAC]
  • Two very different sorts of Russian anarchism = Bakunin and Kropotkin

*1881:1899; Reactionary politics [LOOP on reaction]

Readings (secondary sources)

Readings (primary sources)

Titles offering vast interpretive perspective
and particularly relevant for the next three weeks =

 

WEEK 5 =
The rise of organized political parties and the 1905 Revolution

Fifth-week topics =

Readings, divided into categories
(Readings in boldface are primary sources)

General perspective on late 19th- and early 20th centuries =

Economic modernization and politics =

Zemstvo and “liberal” movements =

Marxism =

Peasants and industrial workers =

Revolution of 1905 =

State Duma =

Silver-Age Culture =

EXERCISE FIVE =

A midterm exam will follow a standard form [ID] and will be taken on the last day of class next week (see one-page syllabus for exact date). You will write the exam in your journal and submit it to me at the end of the exam period. The journal will already have contained your first two draft essays [ID], and now should contain the third. (The fourth and final will be in the journal at the final submission [ID].)

Here are specific instructions for the midterm exam =

I will select four of the following essay topics for the midterm exam. From among these you will then select two as the subject of your exam essays. Mini-max strategists among us instantly see that they may now, if they wish, set aside one of the topics on the list just below. If you do that, consider setting aside the topic below that most nearly replicates one of your draft essay topics. That way you can avoid repetition and show wholesome breadth of learning in your journal. In any event, if your draft-essay topics are both among the four I select (highly unlikely), you will still have the other two to write about.

I ask the same question about each of the following topics = "What does the following person, group, epoch, trend or episode contribute to our understanding of Russian political culture?" (Topics are here linked to SAC for study purposes)

The long-duration, the origins of Russian political culture, and
the "Era of Great Reforms" [weeks 1, 2, 3 & 4] =

Mercantilist political order
Novgorod, Hanseatic League, and urban self-governance in the Veche
Two centuries of dominance under the Golden Horde [LOOP]
Social/service hierarchy [SAC]
Paul Miliukov, Russia and Its Crisis (1905) ch4 "The Political Tradition". Try this summary TXT
1815:1825 Decembrists [a 4-hop LOOP]
1849:Petrashevtsy [SAC] NB! especially this section on "raznochintsy"
Intelligentsia [TXT]
Russian Civil Society and Political Crisis, 1859-1863 [TXT]
Terrorism [SAC]
Parliament (Duma) [SAC 18-hop LOOP]

The exam will also have a short-answer section. I will select some of the following and give you a degree of choice among them as you compose brief statements about the identity and significance of your choices. As in everything, avoid duplication with take-home draft essay and essay topic above.

Civil Society [TXT]
Universal doctrine of factions [TXT]
Social estate [soslovie] and bureaucratic rank [chin]
Invitation to the Rus [SAC]
Village institutions (mirskoi skhod; obshchina) [TXT]
Traditionalist guide to behavior, the Domostroi [SAC]
Andrei Kurbskii [SAC]
1770s:Nikolai Novikov [SAC] and
Alexander Herzen [SAC]
Mikhail Bakunin and Sergei Nechaev [SAC]
Women in Russian political culture, 19th-century [SAC] and early 20th-century [SAC]
Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Reflections of a Russian Statesman [SAC]

 

WEEKS 6 & 7 =
Revolutions of 1917


Emperor Nicholas II, Supreme Commander
of Russian armies in World War One


Sixth- and seventh week topics

Readings

EXERCISE SIX =

You will write a BIG RESEARCH PAPER submitted by email [ID]. (I call exercise six "big research paper" to distinguish it from the "draft essays" [ID]) The research paper is conceptually different from, and in addition to, earlier draft essays in the journal. The draft essay is like take-home exam questions on general themes. The research paper is an individualized and more focused topic. As you complete EXERCISE FOUR above, be sure to submit in the journal a list of possible research topics. I will help you make a decision on that matter.

Here is a page which provides suggestions about how to structure a research report.

The deadline for submission of the research paper is indicated on the one-page syllabus.

 

WEEK 8 =
Stalinist "totalitarianism"

Stalin-post49.jpg (28722 bytes)
 1949: Portrait of Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin
The red banner behind him reads:
V[sesoiuznaia] K[ommunisticheskaia] P[artiia] (b[ol'sheviki])
or
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
by B. N. Karpov et al.
[SOURCE with many other examples of art in the era of "Socialist Realism" (1934 +)]

 

Eighth-week topics =
  • Stalin in a general European era of "statism" [SAC]

Readings

English-language research materials =

The Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System Online

Titles offering vast interpretive perspective
relating to the Soviet period

 

WEEK 9 =
Gorbachev and the collapse of the USSR

Readings

 

WEEK 10 = 
"New Russia"


Women at political rally in Leningrad (St.Petersburg) after USSR dissolved

Tenth-week topics =

  • Vladimir Putin in his own words [TXT]

  • What light does our knowledge of the long-duration of Russian political culture shed on the years since the dissolution of the USSR?

  • What light does our knowledge of Russian political culture shed on certain well-known general theories about politics?
    James Madison and post-Soviet Russia [TXT]
    Review essay on pre-Soviet Russian concepts of civil society [TXT]
    George Orwell [ID]
    Hanna Arendt [ID]
    Milovan Djilas [ID]

Readings =

*--James Alexander, Political Culture in Post-Communist Russia (2000)

EXERCISE SEVEN =

ON THE LAST DAY OF REGULAR CLASS MEETINGS, SUBMIT YOUR JOURNAL WITH ALL THE WORK YOU HAVE PUT IN IT SINCE THE MIDTERM EXAM, INCLUDING YOUR FOURTH DRAFT ESSAY [ID]

You may submit a self-addressed and stamped envelope of proper dimension to me at this time, and I will mail your journal and big research paper to you after grades are submitted. Or email me sometime after the next term begins asking to pick up your journal. I will reply telling you where and when you may do that.

REMEMBER, EXERCISE SIX, THE BIG RESEARCH PAPER, IS DUE THE FOLLOWING MONDAY (FINALS WEEK)  (See the one-page syllabus for exact date and time.)

Good luck to all.