Description

This course covers the history of Russia in its various incarnations-Imperial Russia from the end of Catherine the Great's reign the Soviet Union, and today's Russian Federation. We use both historical works and literature to get a better understanding of the Imperial state, the nature and the social bases of autocracy, the ideologies and actions of the movements that supported the Empire and those that opposed it. We cover the cataclysms of World War I, the Revolutions, Civil War, and the Soviet period (preparing the student for the course on "Stalin's Russia", 43.374). We examine the causes and events involved int he decline and collapse of the Soviet Union, and the rise and emerging patterns of behavior of the Russian Federation.