Russia and Eurasia: Empires and Enduring Legacies
Fall, Winter, Spring, 2006-2007

Program Schedule

Week 1 – Wars, Revolutions, and Revolutionaries

Tues 4/3
Lecture: War and Revolutions
Seminar: Village Life in Late tsarist Russia

Wed 4/4
Film and Discussion: Agoniia (Rasputin)

Fri 4/6
Lecture: The First Two Decades: "Silver Age" Poetry & Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" (video)
Seminar: The State and Revolution
Hosking, chapter 10 (pp. 386-426)

Week 2 –The Crucible of Utopia

Tues 4/10
Lecture: Lecture: Revolutions and Civil War
Seminar: Ali and Nino
“Stalin: The Man and the Communist,” in Daniels, pp. 13-27

Wed 4/11
Film and Discussion: Reds

Fri 4/13
Lecture: Literature and Poster Art of the 1920s: Before the Curtain Fell
Seminar: We
DUE: Prospectus and Bibliography

Week 3 –NEP: “Calm” before the Storm

Tues 4/17
Lecture: Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
Seminar: Cement
               “The Baseline: Revolution and the NEP,” in Daniels, pp. 28-39
               “The Formation of Stalinism,” in Daniels, pp. 40-58
               Hosking: pp. 427-449

Wed 4/18
Film: Commissar

Fri 4/20
Lecture: Socialist Realism: The New Creed
Seminar: The Trial Begins and On Socialist Realism(one book)
“Industrialization and Class War,” in Daniels, pp. 67-79
“Revolution and the Family,” in Daniels, pp. 160-174

Sat 4/21 Special Event: Majestic Music of Russia at the Washington Center for the
Performing Arts. 7:30 pm. 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia

Week 4 –the Darkness: the USSR’s Stalin Era

Tues 4/24
Lecture: Stalin, Collectivization, and the Purges
Seminar: The Master and Margarita, Book 1
“The New Leadership Generation,” in Daniels, pp. 80-95
Hosking, pp. 449-469

Wed 4/15
Film & Discussion: Burnt by the Sun

Thu 4/26 Special Event: Chernobyl Symposium and Commemoration.
TESC, 1:30 – 8:00 pm.

Fri 4/27
Lecture: Documentary: Harvest of Despair; Guest Speaker, Michael Bolotin
Seminar: The Master and Margarita, Book II
“The Cult of Personality,” in Daniels, pp. 196-208
“A New Peter the Great,” in Daniels, pp. 219-233. DUE: Research Paper Outline

Week 5 –Stalin’s pre-War Wagers

Tue 5/1
Lecture: Towards the Second World War; documentary film: The War of the Century
Seminar: Behind the Urals
Hosking, pp. 470-506

Wed 5/2 Film & Discussion: Come and See

Fri 5/4
Lecture: Lecture: Who are we?: The Stalin Cult of Personality in Literature and Folklore and Wartime Literature's Evocation of Mother Russiay
Seminar: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich; documentary: Gulag 113

Week 6 – tHE ussr bEYOND sTALIN

Tues 5/8
Lecture: De-Stalinization and the Khrushchev Reforms
Seminar: A Woman in Amber; Guest Speaker, Ainara Wilder
Hosking, pp. 509-540

Wed 5/9
Film & Discussion: The Cuckoo

Fri 5/11
Lecture: and Shostakovich: Song of the Revolution and Beyond
Seminar: Siberia on Fire

Week 7 – sOVIET "STAGNATION"

Tues 5/15
Lecture: From Brezhnev to Gorbachev
Seminar: The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years
Hosking, pp. 541-568

Wed 5/16
Film & Discussion: Prisoner of the Mountains

Fri 5/18
DUE: 7-10 pp. Draft of Research Paper
Day reserved for individual research & meeting with faculty

Week 8 – Russia the Phoenix: The End of Empire and Beyond

Tues 5/22
Lecture: From Gorbachev to the Present
Seminar: A Week Like Any Other
Hosking, chapter 15 (pp. 569-613)

Wed 5/23
Film & Discussion: documentaries – Yeltsin; and “Against the Current”; “The
Wood Goblin,” from The Glasnost Film Festival

Fri 5/25
Lecture: Who are we?: From the Bards of the 70s to the Rebirth of Popular
Interest in Russian Folklore
Seminar: Omon Ra

Week 9 – pREP wEEK

Tues 5/29
PrepTime: Finish research projects and prepare for final presentations.
(Russian language class continues through end of term at usual times.)

Wed 5/30
Film & Discussion: Repentance
DUE: Final Draft (15-20 pp.) of Research Paper and Course Portfolio

Fri 6/1
Russian potluck: Prepare delicious foods and final presentations
***In CAB 110, 12-2***

Week 10 – pRESENTING rUSSIA AND THE eMPIRE

Tues 6/5
Group presentations

Wed 6/6
Group presentations

Fri 6/8
Group presentations and course wrap-up

Week 11, June 11-15 Evaluation Week—Final Evaluation Conferences

[Top of Page]

Russia and Eurasia: Empires and Enduring Legacies Fall, Winter, Spring, 2006-2007