HIST 478

Stalin and After

Don Raleigh

In 1929 the Soviet leadership embarked upon a new course of rapid industrialization and social mobilization, widely known as the Stalin Revolution, which placed the Soviet Union on a new path of historical development.  History 478 begins with this tumultuous recasting of politics and society in the USSR, examines Soviet domestic history through the collapse of Communism in 1991, and surveys post-Soviet Russian history up to the present. 

Assigned readings include a text, a monograph, a memoir, oral histories, a political diary of Putin’s Russia, and a handful of articles.  Students will take an in-class midterm and a final exam, write a short paper (4-5 pages) and a long paper (12-15 pages) based on the readings, and actively take part in class discussions.