Spring 2016
Lubar S263, MW 3:30-4:45
Professor Evans
evansce@uwm.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 1-3 or by appointment, HLT 391
History 343: Russia Since 1917
Figure 1 "It's not big, but it does have a telephone!"
This course will introduce students to the complex and fascinating history of the Soviet
Union and post-Soviet Russia, approaching it from a number of perspectives. Although
Russia’s “Soviet experiment” lasted for only 74 years, the lifetime of a single generation,
the memory of Soviet socialism remains very important in Russia today and in our own
national political imagination. We will consider when and whether the 1917 revolution
ended, whether it was betrayed, and the fate of its various utopian dreams through the
transformations of Stalinism, World War, and Cold War. Throughout, we will focus on
how individual people experienced Soviet rule, how the Soviet Union was (or was not)
different from other “totalitarian” states of the 20th Century, how it fits into European
history more broadly, and how the Party and State leadership balanced ideological
imperatives with pragmatic ones as domestic and international conditions changed
dramatically over the course of Soviet history. Finally, we will turn to the post-Soviet
successor states and the question of Soviet “legacies.”
Course objectives:
 Be able to describe major debates about the nature and meaning of the Soviet
experience and its connections to modern European history, pre-Revolutionary
Russian history, and current Russian life.
 Gain and enhance historical reading, research, and analytical skills, including:
-Critical analysis of primary sources, including personal narratives, works
of literature, photographs, movies, television, jokes, and other
multi-media artifacts from the past
-Critical analysis of secondary sources on specialized topics within Soviet
history
-Evaluation and comparison of historical arguments based on primary
source evidence.
Required Reading/Available for purchase at People’s Books Coop:
1. Books to purchase/available on reserve:
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Heart of a Dog (any edition, just make sure it’s the novella, not a
later theatrical adaptation)
Fyodor Mochulsky, Gulag Boss: A Soviet Memoir. Trans. Deborah Kaple. Oxford
University Press, 2012 ISBN-10: 019993486X
Svetlana Alexievich, Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War. W.W. Norton,
2012. ISBN-13: 978-0393336863
2. Textbook: There will also be textbook readings accompanying each week. Because
the main textbook from which these readings will come is expensive new, and we will
only be using a small part of it this semester, I will make it available to you online on our
course D2L site and as a reader from Clark Graphics (2915 N. Oakland Ave.). However,
if you would like to purchase it as a book, for reasons of convenience or reckless desire to
own good books, and especially if you plan to take History 341 next fall (for which this
will also be the textbook), it is:
Nicholas Riasanovsky and Mark Steinberg. A History of Russia. 8th edition.
Oxford University Press USA, 2010. ISBN-10: 019534197X
**Please note—any edition from 2004 or later is acceptable, including the second
volume of the two-volume version of this book (since 1855). Less expensive used
copies are available online. If you plan to take History 341 and wish to purchase
the book to use in both classes, make sure to get the single volume edition, not the
second, since 1855 volume of the two volume series. Amazon also offers this
book for rent for approximately $22/semester. But you can purchase the 7th
edition for that price or less used.
3. Additional primary and secondary sources each week will be available via D2L.
Many are from Ronald Suny, The Structure of Soviet History: Essays and Documents
(Oxford University
Press, 2013)
***The three assigned books and the textbook will be available on reserve at the Media
and Reserves library, located in Golda Meir Library, Lower Level West. If you choose to
purchase the books, they are available at People’s Books Coop, 804 E. Center St. in
Riverwest.