Readings

Recommended Texts

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Sakwa, Richard. The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, 1917-1991. Routledge, 1999.

Khomiakov-Andreev, Gennady. Bitter Waters: Life and Work in Stalin's Russia. Westview Press, 1998.

Pelevin, Victor. Homo Zapiens. USA: Penguin, 2003.

LEC # TOPICS READINGS
1 Introduction to the Course
2 The Setting: Tsarism

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Russian Revolution. Pp. 15-23, and 31-39.

Workers and War

  • "Father Gapon's Petition." Pp. 96-99.
  • "Memorandum to Nicholas II." Pp. 476-478.
  • Trotsky, Leon. "Peculiarities of Russia Development." The Russian Revolution. Pp. 1-10.

The Peasantry

  • Frank. "Popular Justice." Pp. 239-265.
  • Stolypin, Peter. "We Need a Great Russia." Pp. 457-464 (as marked).

The National Question

  • Pipes, Richard. "The National Problem in Russia." The Formation of the Soviet Union. Pp. 1-8.
3 The Revolutionary Tradition

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Pp. 23-31.

Revolutionary Theory I: General

  • Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. Pp. 13-33.
  • Daniels: pp. 23-25 (Trotsky on "Permanent Revolution").

Revolutionary Theory II: Bolsheviks vs. Mensheviks

  • Daniels: pp. 6-17 (Lenin’s Theory of the Party, Lenin on the Party Split, Marxist Reactions to Lenin).
  • Axelrod, Pavel. "The Unification of Russian Social Democracy and Its Tasks." Pp. 48-52.

The National Question

  • Sakwa: 1.17 ("The Right of Nations to Self-Determination").
4 The Revolutions of 1917

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Pp. 40-67.

Revolution and War

  • Sakwa: 2.1-2.3 (Order No. 1, April Theses, Lenin on the Imperialist War).

The Grain Crisis

  • Documents from The Provisional Government: 1917.

Dual Power

  • Suny: pp. 35-38 (A. F. Kerenskii's Statement...., Iraklii Tsersteli's Speech...).
  • Daniels: pp. 44-47 (Lenin on the Dual Power).
  • Suny: pp. 41-43 (Tsereteli and Lenin's Exchange of Words....).
  • Daniels: pp. 57-59 (The Military-Revolutionary Committee).

On Seizing Power

  • Sakwa: 2.9-2.11, and 2.13 (Lenin: For, Kamenev and Zinoviev: Against).
  • Suny: pp. 45-47 (Letter to Central Committee....).

Victory

  • Sakwa: 2.16-2.18, and 2.23 (Victory Address, Izvestiya's Condemnation, Decrees on Peace and Land, and Bogdanov's Criticism). 

Revolution from Below

  • Suny: pp. 43-45 (Report to Commissar).
  • Steve A. Smith. "Petrograd in 1917: The View From Below." Pp. 63-64.
5 The Civil War

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Pp. 68-92.

Eliminating Political Opposition

  • Suny: pp. 67-73 (Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly). 

Withdrawing from War

  • Sakwa: 3.6-3.7.

Running a State, Fighting a War

  • Figes, Orlando. Pp. 1-6, 246-249, and 271-273.
  • Tucker, Robert C. Stalin as Revolutionary. Pp. 181-182.
  • Lincoln, W. Bruce. Red Victory. Pp. 476-478.
  • Trotsky, Leon. "The Train." My Life. Pp. 411-422.
  • Sakwa: 2.11 (review), 3.1, 3.8, 3.10, and 3.18 (Secret Police, Red Army, State Capitalism, Terror).

Red Opposition

  • Suny: pp. 77-82 (Iulii Martov's Letter...).
  • Sakwa: 3.9, 3.11-3.12, and 3.19 (Workers' Control, Left Communists, Democratic Centralists).
6 The Crisis of War Communism & the Shift to NEP

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Pp. 93-106.

Avrich, Paul. "The Crisis of War Communism." Kronstadt 1921. Pp. 7-34.

The Opposition Suppressed

  • Sakwa: 3.22-3.25, and 3.27-3.28 (Party Reform, Workers' Opposition, Kronstadt, Bureaucratism, Ban on Factions, Trade Union Debate).

The Shift to NEP

  • Tucker, Robert C., ed. The Lenin Anthology. Pp. 511-517 (Importance of Gold Now and After...).
7 Defining Bolshevism

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. "The Bolsheviks' Dilemma: The Class Issue in Party Politics and Culture." The Cultural Front. Pp. 16-36.

Solts, A. A. "Communist Ethics." Pp. 42-54.

Wood, Elizabeth. The Baba and the Comrade. Pp. 123-26, 147-53, and 194-208.

Renewed Opposition and its Demise

  • Sakwa: 4.7-4.8, 4.18-4.20, and 4.22 (Declaration of the Twenty-Two, Workers' Truth, Declaration of the Forty-Six, the New Course, Stalin on Dictatorship).
  • Suny: pp. 124-126 (Bukharin and Dzerzhinskii Disagree...., Letter from Nikolai Bukharin...., Letter from Dzerezhinskii).

The Lenin Cult

  • Suny: pp. 126-128 (Joseph Stalin, " The October Revolution...").
Film: Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks
8 The Politics and Economics of NEP

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Pp. 106-119, and 124-129.

Nove, Alec. An Economic History of the USSR. Pp. 101-114. (Also review Wood, pp. 123-126.)

Monetary Reform

  • Maiakovskii, Vladimir. "Burzhui, Say Goodbye to Your Pleasant Money."

Lenin's Last Thoughts

  • Sakwa: 4.13, and 4.15-4.16 (Lenin's Last Testament, Socialism in Russia, Better Fewer, But Better).

The Party Opposition: The Left, United, and the Right

  • Daniels: pp. 144-147 (The Zinoviev-Kamenev Opposition).
  • Daniels: pp. 151-153 (Bukharin on the United Opposition).
  • Sakwa: 4.27 (Bukharin Warns against Stalin).

The Industrialization Debate: Stalin vs. Bukharin

  • Sakwa: 4.24-4.25 (Socialism in One Country, Primary Socialist Accumulation).
  • Stalin. "On the Grain Crisis," and "Siberian Speech." Pp. 159-162, and 41-48 (as marked).
  • Daniels: pp. 162-163, and 166-169 (Bukharin on Peasant Policy, Equilibrium).

The National Question

  • Suny: pp. 122-124 (The Question of Nationalism....).
9 The Great Break: Collectivization & Industrialization

Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Pp. 120-124, and 129-141.

Collectivization

  • Fainsod, Merle. "Collectivization: The Method." Pp. 95-106.
  • Sakwa: 5.3-5.6 (Liquidation of Kulaks, Dizzy with Success, Bolshevik-Leninist Opposition).

Industrialization

  • Kotkin, Stephen. "Peopling a Shock Construction Site." Magnetic Mountain. Pp. 72-82, and 86-103 (as marked).
  • Stalin's Letters to Molotov. Pp. 168-169, 175, 200-201, 209, and 218-221.
  • Sakwa: 5.7-5.8, 5.16 (Stalin on Industrialization, Against Wage Equality, Forward, Oh Time!).
10 The New Economy Khomiakov-Andreev, Gennady. Bitter Waters. Pp. 185-188, 4-13, 22-25, 39-55, 69-85, and 105-122.
11 Purge and Terror Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Pp. 163-170.

Tucker, Robert C. Stalin in Power. Pp. 441-478.

"Last Plea of the Accused Bukharin." The Great Purge Trial. Pp. 327-328, and 656-668 (as marked).

Sakwa: 5.17-5.19, 5.23-5.24, 5.30, and 5.32 (Ryutin Group, Congress of Victors, Kirov Murder, Purge Plenum, Show Trials, Criticisms).
12 World War II Barber, John. The Soviet Home Front. Pp. 19-44, and 59-67.

Sakwa: 6.1-6.5, 6.7-6.9, 6.11-6.26, 6.28, 6.30-6.32, and 6.39 (Soviet-Nazi Pact, War, Appeals to Patriotism, Mass Deportations, Victory Toast).

Khomiakov-Andreev, Gennady. Pp. 146-151, and 163-171.
13 The Origins of the Cold War

Suny: pp. 273-285 ("The Premises of Policy." From Stalin and the Bomb).

Ending World War II

  • Sakwa: 6.33-6.36.

The Rise of Rivalry

  • Sakwa: 7.2-7.5, and 7.13 (Two Camps, Long Telegram, Iron Curtain, Mr. X).
  • "The Novikov Telegram." Pp. 3, 8, and 12-16.

Internal Consolidation

  • Sakwa: 7.8, and 7.14 (Attack on Cosmopolitanism, Preserving Peace).

Khrushchev and Kennedy

  • Zubok, Vladislav, and Constantine Pleshakov. Inside the Kremlin's Cold War. Pp. 182-188, and 236-74.
Film: Cranes are Flying
14 The Khrushchev Years: Thaw and Social Change

Zubok, Vladislav, and Constantine Pleshakov. Inside the Kremlin’s Cold War. Pp. 175-182.

Agrarian and Political Reform

  • Medvedev, Roy, and Zhores Medvedev. Khrushchev. Pp. 30-45, 56-65, 94-101, and 117-122.
  • Sakwa: 8.1-8.3, 8.4, 8.6, 8.10, and 8.12 (The New Course, Virgin Lands, Secret Speech, Annulling Deportations, 1961 Party Program).

Foreign Policy

  • Sakwa: 8.16-8.17 (Peaceful Coexistence, Imperialist Threat).

Opposition, Dissent, and Khrushchev's Fall

  • Sakwa: 8.7, 8.15, and 8.19-8.21 (Anti-Party Group, Solzhenitsyn, Khrushchev's Ouster).
15 The Brezhnev Era: Politics and Economics

Colton, Timothy. "Brezhnev's Ambiguous Legacy." The Dilemma of Reform in the Soviet Union. Pp. 6-31.

Yeltsin, Boris. Against the Grain. Pp. 43-56, and 61-82.

The Brezhnevite System and Foreign Policy

  • Sakwa: 9.1-9.4 (1965 Reforms, Stagnation, Detente, Developed Socialism).

End of the Thaw and the Rise of Dissent

  • Sakwa: 9.17, 9.19 (Call for Reform, KGB Surveillance).
16 The Brezhnev Era: Social Change

Colton, Timothy. "What Ails the Soviet System?" The Dilemma of Reform in the Soviet Union. Pp. 32-67.

Society

  • Suny: pp. 360-379 (The "New Soviet Man" turns Pessimist, The Little Deal....).

The Andropov Years

  • Sakwa: 9.32-9.35 (Continuity, Flexibility, Ideology, Novosibirsk Report).
17 Gorbachev's Political Revolution

McFaul, Michael. "Gorbachev's Design fro Reforming..., The End of the Soviet Union." Russia's Unfinished Revolution; Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin. Pp. 33-86.

Economic Reform

  • Sakwa: 10.1-10.6 (Anti-Alcohol Campaign, Perestroika).

Political Reform

  • Sakwa: 10.8-10.18 (Seventieth Anniversary Speech, Nina Andreeva, Nineteenth Party Conference, Congress of People's Deputies, Abolition of the Party's Leading Role, New Political Thinking).
18 Nationalism

Hosking, Geoffrey. "The Flawed Melting Pot." The Awakening of the Soviet Union. Pp. 82-88.

The Baltics and Central Asia

  • Zaslavsky, Victor. "The Evolution of Separatism in Soviet Society Under Gorbachev." Pp. 71-79.

Georgia

  • Brook, Stephen. "Civil War or Ice-Cream." Claws of the Crab. Pp. 6, 8, 17, and 21-33. 

Russia

  • Szporluk, Roman. "Dilemmas of Russian Nationalism." Pp. 441-462.
19 Collapse of the Soviet Union McFaul: pp. 86-117 (The End of the Soviet Union).

Humphrey, Caroline. "'Icebergs,' Barter, and the Mafia in Provincial Russia." Pp. 8-13.

Sakwa: 10.20-10.22, 10.24-10.32, and 10.37 (Sovereign Russia, Union Treaty, Referendum, August Coup, Suspension of Communist Party, Gorbachev's Resignation).
20 New Russia Emerges, 1991-1993 Remnick, David. "The October Revolution." Resurrection. Pp. 37-83.
21 From Yeltsin to Putin, 1993-2001 Suny: pp. 564-573 (What Russia Teaches Us Now: How Weak States Threaten Freedom).
22 Contemporary Russia Pelevin, Victor. Homo Zapiens.