HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN CULTURE

The course falls into the learning area "Literatures and cultures" and is entitled “SOVIET CULTURE IN THE ERA OF THE GREAT TERROR". The Era of the Great Terror in Stalinist Russia is examined through its cultural production and contemporary critiques of ideology. The primary materials are Soviet visual and literary culture of the 1930s and 1940s, as well as fiction, biographies, memoirs and illustrative material on film, art and architecture of the Stalin era and beyond. The purpose of the course is to discuss traditional approaches by ‘totalitarian’ and ‘revisionist’ theories and histories in the context of various cultural manifestations of Stalinist Russia. Readings from sources such as critical and historical studies, diaries and literary works, and visual material from film, art and architecture will enable students to historicize the concept of ‘totalitarian culture’.

1. Knowledge and understanding
● Acquisition with the Russian culture in the formative period of Russian history of the 20th century, key approaches and major sources.
● Familiarization with the diverse corpus of texts from diaries and memoirs to official historical records and biographies, from films and visual art to literary texts both in Stalin and post-Stalin periods.
● Understanding of the most important methodological approaches to Soviet history (Sovietological, revisionist, post-revisionist).
● Development of cultural awareness, critical analysis, creative thinking and intellectual independence.

2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
● To develop analytical skills, such as analytical thinking, information gathering, and identifying and resolving problems.
● To gain an awareness of the importance of the institutional and political context in which Soviet culture developed under Stalin.
● To demonstrate a basic knowledge of key features of cultural and historical analysis of historical, literary and visual material.
● To use a basic special vocabulary for discussing Soviet history, how to build a structured and reasoned argument to support ideas about it and evaluate primary and secondary sources, both orally and in writing.
● To interpret historical and cultural contexts of the artistic products.
● To discuss key critical concepts in the context of various manifestations in the Soviet history.
● To critically analyse and apply theoretical approaches to the material.

3. Judgment capacity
● To demonstrate a basic knowledge of key features of cultural and historical analysis; use a basic special vocabulary for discussing cultural history development of a structured and reasoned argument to support ideas about a historical or literary text and evaluate secondary sources.
● To interpret historical and cultural events of the Stalin Era in its historical context and view them through the prism of two most distinctive methodological and ideological approaches, namely “Sovetological” (“totalitarian”) and “revisionist”; they will be able to discuss these approaches in the context of various manifestations of Stalinist Russia and be able to critically analyse and apply theoretical approaches to the cultural material.
● To gather, process and evaluate critically information from a variety of paper and electronic sources both primary and secondary.
● To develop skills for independent research and the ability to analyse critical texts.

4. Communication skills
● Students will learn how to share and negotiate ideas in a group.
● Students will develop verbal and written communication skills as well as oral presentation skills in English.

5. Learning skills
● Students will develop skills for independent research and the ability to analyse various cultural and historical documents, such as diaries, literary works, critical and historical resources, various visual materials including film, visual art and architecture.
● Students will be able to gather, process and evaluate critically information from a variety of paper, audio-visual and electronic sources in the process of preparation of class presentations. Students will develop conceptual approach to the materials they will be working with and will learn how to provide at the exam substantial proof for the ideas that were developed as a result of their individual research.
● Development of awareness of and engagement with a range of debates and critical (secondary) works on the subject.
● Development of independent analyses and interpretation with primary sources.

The knowledge of the basic historic and cultural evolution of Russia in the 20th century. English language at B1/B2 level is required.

Students will be acquainted with the most decisive moments in Russian history of the 20th Century: post-Revolutionary social and cultural shifts, industrialization, collectivization, the Great Terror of the 1930s, political and ideological campaigns of Post-WWII years; demonstrate a basic knowledge of the history and culture of Stalin Era. The lectures and seminars will cover the following topics: Social, Political, Historical and Cultural Origins of Stalinist Dictatorship; Culture of Social Mobilization; Social and Cultural consequences of Industrialization and Collectivisation; From Cultural Revolution to the ‘Great Retreat’; Everyday Life in the Era under Stalin; Stalinist Subject; The Great Terror: Sovetological Perspective; Coming to Grips with the Great Terror: Revisionist Perspective; Memory and Repression: Post-Stalin perspective; Culture of Camps; Representation of the Great Terror in Post-Soviet culture; Stalin and Stalinism in Putin’s Russia.

This is a general preliminary list. Students will receive a list of reading materials for each class with specific pages/chapters to read. Their reading of both primary and secondary sources will be determined by the chosen examination topic.

• C. Kelly, D. Shepherd (eds.) Russian Cultural Studies. An Introduction (Oxford: OUP, 1998).
• Stephen Kotkin. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization (Berkeley, 1995).
• Andrei Siniavsky. Soviet Civilization: A Cultural History (New York, 1990).
• Moshe Lewin. The Making of the Soviet System (London: Methuen, 1985).
• Chris Ward. Stalin’s Russia (London, 1999).
• Chris Ward (ed.). The Stalinist Dictatorship (London, 1999).
• Sheila Fitzpatrick. Cultural Revolution in Russia, 1928-1931 (Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1978).
• Hans Gunther. The Culture of the Stalin Period (London: Macmillan, 1990).
• Leona Toker. Return from the Archipelago. Narratives of GULAG survivors (Bloomington: Indiana UP).
• Varlam Shalamov. Kolyma Tales (London: Penguin, 1994).
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn. One Day in Life of Ivan Denisovich.
• J. Arch Getty, Roberta T. Manning. Stalinist Terror: New Perspectives (Cambridge: CUP, 1993).
• History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (bolsheviks): Short Course (Moscow, 1939).
• Robert Conquest. The Great Terror. Reassessment (Oxford: OUP, 1990).
• Veronique Garros, Nataliia Korenevskaya, Thomas Lahusen (eds.). Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s (New York, 1995).
• Sheila Fitzpatrick. Everyday Stalinism (Oxford: OUP, 1999).
• Vasily Grossman. Forewer Flowing (London: Colling Harvill, 1986).

The oral exam (in English) will be held as follows: all students will receive a list of questions that were discussed during the course in lectures and seminars. Questions will only be on the topics presented during the classes. From this list, each student will choose three topics and prepare them. During the exam the student will answer one of three topics selected by the examiner. Each exam will last up to 30 minutes.

Lectures and seminars with the professor.

English

oral