BA Modern Language and Business & Management (Russian) / Course details

Year of entry: 2024

Course unit details:
100 Years of Revolution: from Lenin's Soviet Union to Putin's Russia

Course unit fact file
Unit code RUSS10242
Credit rating 20
Unit level Level 1
Teaching period(s) Semester 2
Available as a free choice unit? Yes

Overview

This course unit explores the creation, evolution and subsequent disintegration of the Soviet Union, as well as the emergence of a new Russia from the wreckage of the world’s first socialist state. Emphasis is placed on key political, social and cultural developments, seen within the context of Soviet, post-Soviet and, more broadly, European history.

Aims

  • To help students develop a solid understanding of Soviet and post-Soviet Russian history;
  • to provide students with the necessary analytical skills to achieve this understanding;
  • to develop students’ skills at analysing and understanding primary sources;
  • to develop students’ skills at presenting cogent arguments, both in writing and orally.

 

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course students will be able to:

  • critically evaluate different approaches to and interpretations of events in Soviet and post-Soviet Russian history;
  • make effective use of relevant resources;
  • present their written work in a coherent, well-structured and well-articulated form;
  • present and defend their views orally;
  • manage their time effectively.

Syllabus

  • Week 1: The Russian Empire on the Eve of Revolution
  • Week 2: The Bolshevik Revolution and the Civil War
  • Week 3: The New Economic Policy and the rise of Stalin
  • Week 4: Stalin’s ‘second Revolution’
  • Week 5: The ‘Great Patriotic War’ and its aftermath
  • Week 6: The Khrushchev ‘Thaw’ and the dilemmas of de-Stalinisation
  • Week 7: ‘Re-Stalinisation’ and the Reassertion of Control
  • Week 8: The ‘Era of stagnation’ and its legacy
  • Week 9: Gorbachev and perestroika
  • Week 10: The collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of post-Soviet Russia
  • Week 11: The Putin era

Teaching and learning methods

One 2-hour lecture and one 1-hour seminar per week.

The Blackboard site will contain an extensive range of materials including the course syllabus; lecture handouts and slides; seminar assignments; supplementary readings and audio-visual materials; and coursework assignments and guidance on how to complete them.

Knowledge and understanding

By the end of this course students will be able to:

  • understand the historical development of Soviet and post-Soviet Russia;
  • have a clear knowledge of the different periods of Soviet and post-Soviet Russian history;
  • understand the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union;
  • understand the form of political and societal systems which emergedin post- Soviet Russia.

Intellectual skills

By the end of this course students will be able to:

•    explore a variety of texts on Soviet and post-Soviet history;
•    differentiate between varying interpretations of historical events;
•    understand the Marxist ideas that underpinned Soviet social and political attitudes and approaches;
•    understand the concept of ideology and how it differs from one society to the next.

Practical skills

By the end of this course students will be able to:

•    analyse and understand primary and secondary sources of various types;
•    make effective use of primary and secondary sources to develop cogent arguments, both in writing and orally;
•    present their written work in a coherent, well-structured and well-articulated form;
•    work successfully in groups with others.

Transferable skills and personal qualities

•    the ability to gather, synthesise and organise material from a variety of sources and to critically evaluate their significance;
•    the ability to construct and defend arguments, both in writing and orally;
•    the ability to work in a team, recognising different opinions and approaches and using them to best advantage;
•    the ability to work to deadlines.

Employability skills

Other
The development of the skills outlined above can all be translated into in-demand employability skills.

Assessment methods

Assessment taskFormative or SummativeWeighting within unit (if summative) 
Primary Source Analysis (Semester 2, Week 7)Summative40%
Essay (Semester 2, Week 12)  Summative60%

Resit Assessment:

Essay

Feedback methods

Feedback method  
Individual written feedback on the Primary Source Analysis  

Individual written feedback on the Essay

  
Additional one-to-one feedback (during consultation hour or by making an appointment), on the understanding that this de-anonymises marking  

 

Recommended reading

  1. Peter Kenez, A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to its Legacy, 3rd edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016)
  2. Robert Service, The Penguin History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty First Century (London: Penguin, 2015)
  3. Ronald Grigor Suny, ed. The Cambridge History of Russia, Volume 3: The Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
  4. Seventeen Moments in Soviet History: An on-line archive of primary sources (2015) http://soviethistory.msu.edu 

Study hours

Scheduled activity hours
Lectures 22
Seminars 11
Independent study hours
Independent study 167

Teaching staff

Staff member Role
Rachel Platonov Unit coordinator

Additional notes

 

 

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