Russian Culture
Instructor: Roman Ivashkiv
Time:________
Office: _____________________
Place:_______
Telephone: _________ fax: __________
Office Hours:_______
E-mail:
or by appointment
Course Website:__________________________________________________________
Course Description and Objectives:
This course surveys the history of Russian culture and Slavic civilization from the times of
Kievan Rus in the Middle Ages to the present-day post-Soviet Russia. It examines the many
facets that make up culture, including literature, language, folklore, politics, religion, music,
sports, and art. Examples of Russian high culture (i.e. literary works, paintings, films, ballet
performances, etc) will be discussed along with different topics of contemporary Russian
lifestyle (i.e. customs, cuisine, leisure, TV, shopping, traveling, etc) while special attention will
also be given to the sensitive issue of the Russian national identity and Russia’s geopolitical role
at the junction between East and West. In addition to familiarizing students with the various
aspects of specifically Russian culture, the course (wherever possible) will also offer a broader
perspective, comparing Russia with its closest Slavic neighbors (such as Belarus, Ukraine, and
Poland). Although a knowledge of Russian is not required, students will be encouraged to
acquaint themselves with the Cyrillic alphabet and acquire some (very basic) Russian reading
skills.
Upon the completion of the course, students will possess a thorough understanding of major
developments in Russian history; gain familiarity with the Russian language and literature
(including the most prominent writers and their works); be able to discuss in detail (as part of the
final presentation) the accomplishments of at least one famous Russian (poet, painter, composer,
dancer, singer, producer, actor, athlete, politician, etc); and most importantly, be motivated and
prepared to continue their exploration of Russian culture independently in the future.
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Required Texts and Materials:
Massie, Suzanne. Land of the Firebird: The Beauty of Old Russia. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1980. (or any edition)
Rzhevsky, Nicholas. The Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture. Cambridge
companions to culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998. (or any newer edition)
Recommended Texts and Materials:
Bethea, David M. The Pushkin Handbook. Publications of the Wisconsin Center for Pushkin
Studies. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2005.
Hoyt, Henry M, and Aleksandr S. Pushkin. Eugene Onegin: A Novel in Verse. Indianapolis, IN:
Dog Ear, 2008.
Pelevin, Viktor. Omon Ra. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1996.
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Course Outline:
Week 1: “Introduction to Russia”
Main topic: Early Russian history from Kievan Rus to Peter I
Independent readings: geography and demographics; economy, government, and religion
Assignment: read Introduction “Russian Cultural History” and Part I “Cultural Identity” (Origins and
Boundaries) from The Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture. Read chapters 1 – 7
from Land of the Firebird.
Week 2: “A Window to Europe”
Main topic: Reforming Russia: Peter I and Catherine II
Read chapters 8 – 12 from Land of the Firebird.
Week 3: “Revolts, Revolutions, and Wars: Russia in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries”
Main topic: Nicholas I and the Decembrist Revolt
Independent readings: Alexander II and Nicholas II; the Russian Revolution and Civil War
Assignment: read excerpts from from Thomas Riha’s Readings in Russian Civilization, Volume 2:
Imperial Russia, 1700-1917 (to be distributed as handouts).
Week 4: “Soviet and Post-Soviet Russia”
Main topic: Lenin, Stalin and World War II
Independent readings: Khrushchev and Brezhnev; Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Putin, and Medvedev
Assignment: read excerpts from Thomas Riha’s Readings in Russian Civilization, Volume 3: Soviet
Russia, 1917-Present (to be distributed as handouts).
Week 5: In-class exam on Russian History
Week 6: “Russian Literature Part I”
Main topics: “Pushkin is our everything” (according to A. Grigoriev)
“Eugene Onegin: an Encyclopedia of Russian Life” (according to V. Belinsky)
Independent readings and possible final project topics:
- Nikolai Gogol (selected stories from Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka)
- Fyodor Dostoevsky (excerpts from Crime and Punishment)
- Leo Tolstoy (excerpts from Anna Karenina)
Assignment: Read David Bethea’s chapter on Russian literature from The Cambridge Companion to
Modern Russian Culture. Read selected excerpts from Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin in Henry
Hoym’s translation. Read chapters 14 – 16 from The Lang of the Firebird.
Week 7: “Russian Music”
Main topic: Pyotr Illich Tchaikovsky and his opera “Eugene Onegin”
Independent readings and possible final project topics:
- the 18th century (Bortniansky, Berezovski, and Vedel)
- the 19th century: “the Mighty Five” and Mikhail Glinka
- the avant-garde composers (Stravinsky, Scriabin, and Shostakovich)
- the early Soviet and émigré composers (Rakhmaninov, Prokofiev)
- the Russian bards (Vysotsky, Okudzhava, Galich, Rosenbaum)
- Russian pop and rock (Pugacheva)
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Assignment: Read Harlow Robinson’s chapter on Russian music from The Cambridge Companion to
Modern Russian Culture. Read chapter 20 from The Land of the Firebird.
Week 8: “Russian Cinema”
Main topic: Sergei Eisenstein, montage, and his “Ivan the Terrible”
Independent readings and possible final project topics:
- Pudovkin
- Vertov
- Tarkovsky
- Konchalovsky
- Mikhalkov
Assignment: Read Nikita Lary’s chapter on Russian film from The Cambridge Companion to Modern
Russian Culture.
Week 9: Take-home exam due at the beginning of class.
In class: Screening of “The Barber of Siberia” by Nikita Mikhalkov
Week 10: “Ballet and Painting”
Main topics: Serge Diaghilev, Igor Stravinsky and “Ballets Russes”
The State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow
Independent readings and possible final project topics:
- Russian Iconography
- Briulov
- Repin
- Vrubel
- Chagall
- Kandinsky
- Goncharova
- Malevich
Assignment: Read John Bowlt’s chapter on Russian art and Laurence Senelick’s chapter on theatre from
The Cambridge Companion to Modern Russian Culture. Read chapters 24 – 26 from The Land of
the Firebird.
Week 11: “Russian Literature II”
Main topic: Viktor Pelevin and his Omon Ra
Independent readings and possible final project topics:
- the Silver Age poets (Alexander Blok)
- Anna Akhmatova, Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelstam, Boris Pasternak and Mikhail Bulgakov
- Russian avant-garde (Vladimir Mayakovsky)
- The great émigré writers (Vladimir Nabokov, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Joseph Brodsky)
- Russian postmodernism (Andrei Bitov, Venedikt Yerofeev, Vladimir Sorokin, Tatyana Tolstaya,
Liudmila Petrushevskaya)
Assignment: Read Viktor Pelevin’s novel Omon Ra.
Week 12: Presentation of final projects and course summary
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Useful Resources:
The Great History of Russian Ballet: Its Art and Choreography. Bournemouth: Parkstone Press,
1998.
Auty, Robert, Dimitri Obolensky, and Anthony Kingsford. An Introduction to Russian Art and
Architecture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Beumers, Birgit. A History of Russian Cinema. Oxford: Berg, 2009.
Bird, Alan. A History of Russian Painting. Boston, Mass: G.K. Hall, 1987.
Borenstein, Eliot, and M N. Lipovetskii. Russian Postmodernist Fiction: Dialogue with Chaos.
Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999.
Bouis, Antonina W, and Solomon Volkov. The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture
from Tolstoy to Solzhenitsyn. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.
Cornwell, Neil. The Routledge Companion to Russian Literature. Routledge companions.
London: Routledge, 2001.
Fisher, Burton D. Eugene Onegin. Opera Journeys mini guide series. Coral Gables, Fla.: Opera
Journeys, 2000.
Garafola, Lynn, and Nancy V. N. Baer. The Ballets Russes and Its World. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1999.
Gilbert, Martin. The Routledge Atlas of Russian History. London: Routledge, 2007.
Guthrie, Anna L. Russian Literature: A Study Outline. New York: The H.W. Wilson Co, 1917.
Jones, Malcolm V, and Robin F. Miller. The Cambridge Companion to the Classic Russian
Novel. Cambridge companions to literature. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
Kelly, Catriona. Russian Literature: A Very Short Introduction. Very short introductions, 53.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
Kuritsyn, Vyacheslav. Russkii Literaturnyii Postmodernizm. Moskva: OGI, 2000.
Langston, Brett, and Alexander Poznansky. The Tchaikovsky Handbook: A Guide to the Man and
His Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002.
Maes, Francis. A History of Russian Music: From Kamarinskaya to Babi Yar. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2002.
Millar, James R. Encyclopedia of Russian History. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2004.
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O'Mahony, Mike. Sergei Eisenstein. London: Reaktion Books, 2008.
Proffer, Carl R, and Ellendea Proffer. The Silver Age of Russian Culture: An Anthology. Ann
Arbor: Ardis, 1975.
Riha, Thomas, ed. Readings in Russian Civilization, Volume 1: Russia Before Peter the Great,
900-1700. Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press, 1969.
---, ed. Readings in Russian Civilization, Volume 2: Imperial Russia, 1700-1917.
Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press, 1969.
---, ed. Readings in Russian Civilization, Volume 3: Soviet Russia, 1917-Present.
Chicago, IL, USA: University of Chicago Press, 1969.
Taruskin, Richard. On Russian Music. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
Volodarskiii, V M. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow: Russian Painting. New York: H.N. Abrams,
1979.
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Grade Distribution (see “Explanatory Notes”):
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
10 weekly 300 to 500-word reaction papers (except weeks 5 and 9) --- 20%
1 in-class exam on Russian history (week 5)
--- 20%
1 take-home exam (week 9)
--- 20%
Final project
--- 30%
Participation in discussions
--- 10%
Explanatory Notes on Assignments:
1) Every week students will be expected to hand in a reaction paper on a topic assigned by the
instructor. The topic will be covered both in class and in the corresponding readings. The
papers are not formal papers or essays but should rather be students’ own opinions or
reflections on the material.
2) At the end of week 5 there will be a written in-class exam consisting of multiple choice and
essay questions.
3) At the beginning of the first class of week 9, students will be expected to submit their takehome exams, which will consist of three essay questions. Answers should both be based on
the assigned reading and reflect students’ thorough understanding of the material covered.
4) The final project for this course is a creative assignment. Students will be expected to create
a website/blog/wiki page on a topic relevant to the course. Topics may be chosen by students
according to their liking but must be approved by the instructor. The same (or very similar)
topic may not be chosen by two people. Some examples of possible topics are outlined in the
syllabus. More suggestions will be made in class. The website is supposed to be interactive
(as much as the students’ computer expertise allows) and in addition to quotations from
and/or references to authoritative academic sources (i.e. books and articles) should include
pictures and videos. Every student will have about 5 minutes to present their work to
classmates during the last week of the course. The final project will be graded on content,
presentation, sources, and originality.
5) Half of your participation grade will depend on the feedback to two of your classmates’ final
projects. More details on how this feedback is to be provided will be given in class. In
addition, everyone is expected to ask questions during lectures and participate actively in
discussions.
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[THIS SECTION WILL BE COMPLETED ACCORDING TO THE UCI STANDARDS]
Required Notes:
--- Academic honesty and integrity
--- Code of Student Behavior
Plagiarism and Cheating:
Attendance, Absences, and Missed Grade Components:
Policy for Late Assignments:
Grading:
Marks for assignments, tests, and exams are given in percentages, to which letter grades are also
assigned, according to the table below:
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