Bachelor of Arts (BA)
BA Ancient History and History
- Typical A-level offer: AAB including specific subjects
- Typical contextual A-level offer: ABC including specific subjects
- Refugee/care-experienced offer: ACC including specific subjects
- Typical International Baccalaureate offer: 35 points overall with 6,6,5 at HL including specific subjects
Course unit details:
Culture, Media and Politics in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia
Unit code | RUSS30601 |
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Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 3 |
Teaching period(s) | Semester 1 |
Available as a free choice unit? | Yes |
Overview
This course explores the relationship between culture and power under state socialist system and in contemporary Russia. The first part of the course will analyse the policies of the Soviet government towards the media, as well as towards writers, artists, musicians and other cultural figures and the response of the latter to these policies. Students will be introduced to relevant theoretical frameworks, particularly those developed by Pierre Bourdieu and Michel Foucault, and encouraged to consider the extent to which these frameworks can help us understand the processes in societies which are politically and socially different from those of the ‘West’.
The discussion of cultural developments in the Soviet Union will be linked to major historical events of the twentieth century, such as the Russian Revolution, Stalin’s terror, the Second World War, Cold War, De-Stalinisation and the fall of the communist regime. Cultural figures will be presented as, simultaneously, beneficiaries and victims of the government’s approach to cultural matters. On the basis of selected case studies, the final part of the course will explore the ways in which the Soviet past has been reinvented in the cultural production of Putin’s Russia.
Pre/co-requisites
Please note that the knowledge of the Russian language is not required.
Aims
The aim of the course are:
• to introduce students to the complexity the relationship between political authorities and intellectuals in the state socialist system
• to explore how the relationship between culture and power has changed in Russia post-1991.
By the end of this course students will be able to:
• Demonstrate a systematic knowledge of Soviet government policies towards various forms of cultural activities
• Appreciate the changing dynamics of the relationship between the government and cultural figures in different periods of Soviet history
• Consider changes and continuities between Soviet and post-Soviet periods of Russian history
• Evaluate critically different types of sources
• Demonstrate originality and independent thinking in tackling complex issues
Syllabus
Sessions 1-2: Russian culture and the new political order
Sessions 3-5: Culture and power under Stalin
Sessions 6-7: De-Stalinisation, Russian nationalism and the new role of the intelligentsia
Sessions 8-9: Politics of culture during perestroika
Sessions 10-11: Reinventing the past in Putin’s Russia
Teaching and learning methods
The course is taught through a combination of lectures and seminars. Seminars will take the form of student presentations and group discussions around questions and topics to be supplied by the tutor in advance.
The course is very well supported through blackboard. The Bb site contains copies of all the assigned seminar readings; lecture PowerPoints; seminar questions and group-work exercises; and detailed instructions about how the assessments should be completed.
Knowledge and understanding
By the end of this course students will be able to appreciate and understand:
• the complexity of the relationship between culture and power under state socialism
• the changing nature of the politics of culture in different periods of Soviet history
• the extent to which 1991 was a major divide in Russian political history
• the relationship between the politics of culture and identity politics during the post-Soviet period
• the role of 'history wars' in Europe in the first decade of the new millennium
Intellectual skills
By the end of this course students will be able to:
• evaluate scholarly debates pertaining to Soviet history and Russian politics of culture and identity
• evaluate the applicability of particular theoretical frameworks to the Soviet/Russian case
• analyse different types of primary sources
Practical skills
By the end of this course students will be able to improve their:
• oral communication and presentation skills
• team-working skills
• analytical skills
• writing skills
Transferable skills and personal qualities
By the end of this course students will be able to:
• present their written work in a coherent and well structured form
• make effective use of relevant sources
• give an effective oral presentation
• work successfully as a team with other students
Employability skills
- Other
- The following skills, which students will develop through the course, are important for their employability: ability to assess information critically ability to analyse different types of sources ability to give oral presentations ability to write clearly and coherently
Assessment methods
Assessment Tast | Summative or Formative | Weighting within unit (if summative) |
Essay 1 (due around week 7) | Summative | 40% |
Essay 2 (due January exam period) | Summative | 60% |
Resit Assessment:
Essay
Feedback methods
Feedback method | Formative or Summative |
Written feedback on all components of the assessment | Summative |
Additional one-to-one feedback (during consultation hour or by making an appointment) | Formative |
Recommended reading
- Katerina Clark and Evgeny Dobrenko, Soviet Culture and Power. A History in Documents, 1917-1953 (New Haven, 2007)
- Sheila Fitzpatrick, The Cultural Front. Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia (Ithaca, 1992)
- David Brandenberger, National Bolshevism: Stalinist Mass Culture and the Formation of Modern Russian National Identity (1931-1956) (Cambridge MA, 2002)
- Polly Jones, ‘Memories of Terror or Terrorizing Memories? Terror, Trauma and Survival in Soviet Culture of the Thaw’, Slavonic and East European Review, 82,2, 2008
- Thomas Lah, Late Soviet Culture: from Perestroika to Novostroika (Durham, N C, 1993)
- Ellen Mickiewicz, Television, Power and the Public (Cambridge, 2008)
- Alexei Miller and Marina Lipman, eds., The Convulsions of Historical Politics (Budapest, 2013)
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
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Lectures | 11 |
Seminars | 22 |
Independent study hours | |
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Independent study | 167 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
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Vera Tolz-Zilitinkevic | Unit coordinator |
Additional notes