Concepts and Interpretations of Russian History - JMMZ081

• Title: Concepts and Interpretations of Russian History
• Guaranteed by: Department of Russian and East European Studies (23-KRVS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2024
• Semester: summer
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: summer s.:written
• Hours per week, examination: summer s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: 1 / unknown (1)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: Mgr. Daniela Kolenovská, Ph.D.
• Teacher(s): Mgr. Daniela Kolenovská, Ph.D.
• Is incompatible with: JTM013, JMM092

Annotation

This course concentrates on framing and interpreting of modern Russian history. It puts an emphasiz on generalizing schemes as well as on Russian links to neighboring countries and brings also examples of national perspectives or politics of history.

Last update: Kolenovská Daniela, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2025)

Aim of the course

Main explanatory schemes and strategies typical for Russian concepts, politics of history and weaponization of historical narratives will be explained.

Last update: Kolenovská Daniela, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2025)

Course completion requirements

Active participation each class (1 absence is allowed) - 50%

Final paper of 2 000 words on topic given by the teacher, written in person during the examination period - 50%

Last update: Kolenovská Daniela, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2025)

Literature

Compulsory:

Berdyaev Nicolas: The Russian idea. Boston: Beacon Press, 1962.

Danilevskii Nikolai Iakovlevich: Russia and Europe: the Slavic world's political and cultural relations with the Germanic-Roman west. Bloomington: Slavica Publishers, 2013.

David-Fox Michael: Crossing borders : modernity, ideology, and culture in Russia and the Soviet Union. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015.

Dugin Alexander: The fourth political theory. London: Arktos, 2012.

McNally Raymond T.: The Major works of Peter Chaadaev, London, 1969.

Stalin Joseph: Leninism. London, Lawrence-Wishart, 1940.

Trotsky Leon: History of the Russian Revolution. Chicago, Ill. : Haymarket Books, 2008.

Trubetzkoy Nikolai S.: The Legacy of Genghis Khan and Other Essays on Russia's Identity. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publ., 1991.

Yurchak Alexei: Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More. The Last Soviet Generation. Princenton: 2005

 

Recomended:

Riasanovsky Nicholas - Mark D. Steinberg: A History of Russia, New York, 2005.

Achijezer Aleksandr Rossija : Kritika istoričeskogo opyta: sociokul'turnaja dinamika Rossii. Moskva: Novyj chronograf, 2008.

Geyer-Fitzpatrick: Beyond totalitarism.

Panarin A.S.: Revanš istorii : rossijskaja strategičeskaja iniciativa v XXI veke. Moskva : Logos, 1998.

Perrie Maureen - Lieven D.C.B. - Suny R.G., The Cambridge History of Russia. Vol. 3: The twentieth century, Cambridge, 2006.

Savranskaya Svetlana, Blanton Thomas (eds.): The last superpower summits : Gorbachev, Reagan, and Bush : conversations that ended the Cold War. Budapest : New York ; CEU Press, 2016.

Vdovin Aleksandr: Russkije v XX veke : tragedii i triumfy velikogo naroda. Moskva: Veče, c2013.

 

on-line resources:

Munikh 38  http://munich.rusarchives.ru/

British-Soviet Relations Archive Project http://www.lse.ac.uk/ideas/projects/british-soviet-archive

Last update: Kolenovská Daniela, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2025)

Teaching methods

Reading, discussion.

Last update: Kolenovská Daniela, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2025)

Requirements to the exam

Course requirements are a) attendance and class participation (50%), b)  a final paper (50%). A passing grade is required for every part in order to successfully complete the course.

a) Attendance and meaningful participation in discussions: Regular reading of the required texts for each class is obligatory for all participants. For each class, specific readings will be disseminated to the students. Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the assigned readings in advance in order to engage in weekly class discussions. For each class, the students are expected to deliver a position paper based on the assigned readings. The position paper should provide a brief summary of the authors' arguments as well as own commentary thereon. The paper should be one page long (corresponding to 300 to 400 words). For most texts, a principal presenter will be selected in advance. After he/she outlines the main ideas of a particular text in an oral presentation, a general discussion will follow.

Students are allowed to miss no more than one week. In case that you cannot participate in a weekly class, please inform the teacher in advance.

b) A Final Paper (Essay) - three pages long, written in person during the exam (topics assigned by the teacher).

 

Grading from the total result is determined as follows:

• 91 and more = A

• 81 - 90 % = B

• 71 - 80 % = C

• 61 - 70 % = D

• 51 - 60 % = E

• 0 - 50 % = F

Last update: Kolenovská Daniela, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2025)

Syllabus

1. Introduction to the topic, Presentations, Requirements
2. Early stages-Pre-historians, Karamzin
3. Search for the national identity: Chaadaev, Milyukov, Danilevskii
4. Marxists - ideas of Trotsky, Lenin
5. Emigration: Savitsky, Berdyaev
6. Post-Soviet discussion - Achiezer, Panarin
7. New Russian idea Barsenkov, Vdovin, Milov
8. Western Sovietology and Russian studies - Totalitarism, Revisionism, Fitzpatrick

Last update: Kolenovská Daniela, Mgr., Ph.D. (04.02.2025)