Postgraduate Course: Society and Culture in the Soviet and Post-Soviet Space (PGHC11419)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
| Course type | Online Distance Learning |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will look at culture and society in 'Russia' as well as Eastern Europe and Central Asia more generally from first years of the twentieth century to the present day. In addition the course will examine recent developments in Russia's relations with her neighbours in historical perspective.
This course is offered first on the basis of 10 spaces for History (ODL) students and 10 spaces for SPS students. If these spaces are not used, then the course may be opened up to others.
This course is taught through a combination of face-to-face seminars and further discussion via discussion forum posts. |
| Course description |
This course will provide an interdisciplinary approach to the history and politics of the Soviet and Post-Soviet space in the Twentieth Century and after, focussing on issues of society, culture and diplomacy. The first part of the course will analyse the Soviet Union's
experiment in creating a new cultural formation, Soviet socialist culture, and will explore the relationship of this experiment to fundamental issues in Soviet social and political history down to 1941. The middle of the course will examine the Jewish experience in Russia/the Soviet Union from the Revolutions of 1917 to the present. The last part of the course will examine developments in Soviet society and culture for the period after the conclusion of the Great Patriotic War down to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and include an assessment of Russian foreign policy during the same period. Finally, the course will also look to examine the development of Russian foreign and energy policy from the Revolutions of 1917 to the present crisis in Ukraine.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate in forum posts and the final essay a detailed and critical command of the body of knowledge concerning the Soviet and Post-Soviet space
- Demonstrate in forum posts and the final essay an ability to analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship, primary source materials concerning, and conceptual discussions about society, culture and diplomacy in the Soviet and Post-Soviet space
- Demonstrate in forum posts and the final essay, an ability to understand and apply specialised research or professional skills, techniques and practices considered in the course
- Demonstrate the ability to develop and sustain original scholarly arguments in seminars and in written assessment by independently formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence considered in the course
- Demonstrate in seminar discussions, forum posts and written assessment originality and independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers; and a considerable degree of autonomy
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Reading List
Katerina Clark, Moscow, the fourth Rome: Stalinism, cosmopolitanism, and the evolution of Soviet culture, 1931-1941 (2011)
Linda Edmondson (ed.), Women and Society in Russia and the Soviet Union (1992)
Sheila Fitzpatrick, Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union, 1921-1934 (2002)
Jonathan Frankel, Crisis, Revolution, and Russian Jews (2008)
Wendy Z. Goldman, Women, the State and Revolution: Soviet Family Policy and Social Life, 1917-1936 (1993)
Roger E. Kanet (ed.), Russian foreign policy in the 21st century (2010)
Alastair Kocho-Williams (ed.), The Twentieth Century Russia Reader (2012)
Stephen Lovell, Shadow of War: Russia and the USSR, 1941 to the Present (2010)
Wendy Lower, Nazi empire-building and the Holocaust in Ukraine (2005)
Robert Service, The Penguin History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-first Century (2009)
Lewis H. Siegelbaum, Soviet State and Society between Revolutions, 1918-1929 (1992)
Ronald Grigor Suny (ed.), The Cambridge History of Russia (2008), Vol. 3, The Twentieth Century and After |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Society,Culture,Soviet |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr David Kaufman
Tel: (0131 6)51 3857
Email: |
Course secretary | Mrs Lindsay Scott
Tel: (0131 6)50 9948
Email: |
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