HIST 162: History of Russia from 1861 to the Present
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Course Overview
HIST 162 surveys Russian political, social, economic, and cultural history from the middle of the nineteenth century until the present. Through readings, discussions, and writing assignments, you will examine themes and issues that shaped Russia's past and inform its present. Primary documents, secondary sources, memoirs, literature, and Internet resources contribute to your study of the following topics:
- reforms of the 1860s-1870s, 1960s, and 1980s
- the revolutionary movement; the 1905 and 1917 revolutions
- the Civil War
- origins and dynamics of Stalinism
- the impact of World War II and the Cold War
- first-hand accounts about daily life in the Soviet Union
- history of non-Russian peoples in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union
- the fall of communism
- economic and social challenges facing the New Russia.
Course Objectives
This course will help you:
- deepen your knowledge of modern Russian history by becoming familiar with major themes, developments, and events
- strengthen your ability to articulate ideas through exams, online discussions, and essays
- cultivate your ability to think critically and historically by reading and writing about primary and secondary sources.
Required Texts
- Evtuhov and Stites, A History of Russia: Peoples, Legends, Events, Forces Since 1800 (Houghton Mifflin, 2004)
- Engel and Posodskaya-Vanderbeck, editors, A Revolution of Their Own: Voices of Women in Soviet History (Westview Press, 1998)
- Raleigh, Russia’s Sputnik Generation: Soviet Baby Boomers Talk About Their Lives (Indiana University Press, 2008)
You can order these texts from the Higher Grounds bookstore at the Friday Center either online or by using the book order form.
Recommended Reading
I would be happy to recommend outside readings that fit your interests. I also encourage you to keep up with news from Europe, especially Russia, via one or more of the following sources:
- The New York Times: International: Europe
- BBC News: Europe
- The Economist: World: Europe
- Gateway to Russia
- Moscow Times
- The Moscow News
- The Russia Journal Daily
- ITAR-TASS (English version)
- Interfax (English version)
Course Requirements
You will participate weekly in the course discussion forum, take weekly quizzes, take a midterm exam, and write a final paper.
This is a fast-paced class, and it is important not to fall behind. Therefore, I do not accept late assignments. I will post grades in the Blackboard site's online gradebook, where you will be able to view them as soon as they're ready.
(Note that percentages given here are approximate.)
| Discussion forum participation | 30% | |
| Quizzes | 20% | |
| Midterm | 25% | |
| Final Essay | 25% |
Late assignments
Try not to wait until the last minute to submit your work. You may encounter technical difficulties, such as a server being down, that will cause you to miss the deadline. I will accept late assignments, but out of fairness to the other students who meet the deadlines, your paper will be graded down by a third of a letter grade (for example from a "B" to a "B-") for every 24-hour period for which it is late. Computer failure or limited access to a computer are not legitimate excuses for late assignments.
Quizzes
After you complete your readings but before you start posting to the discussion forum, you will be responsible for completing a multiple-choice quiz. The quiz will have ten questions drawn from that week’s textbook reading. There will be eleven quizzes total throughout the semester. The lowest quiz grade will be dropped. This means that you can either skip a quiz or I will automatically drop the lowest score.
You will be able to access the quizzes each week on the Blackboard site (see Course Mechanics). The quizzes are closed book. The quizzes will be available to you at the beginning of each lesson period, from 1 pm Friday afternoon until 3 pm the following Tuesday. Please note that each quiz will be timed to exactly 20 minutes. That means that once you access the quiz you must complete it within 20 minutes of opening it.
Discussion Forums
The discussion forum is a central component of this course. Since both the quality and quantity of your participation are vital to the success of this course, the participation grade counts for one-third of your grade.
In order to simulate and foster a true discussion forum atmosphere, I propose the following rules:
- Compose a minimum of three thoughtful contributions to the discussion forum each week, and post on at least two different days.
- The first contribution should be posted before 3 pm Tuesday each week--though you are naturally welcome to post sooner. The third discussion response should be posted before 5 pm Friday. I encourage you to use the weekend to complete the next week's reading.
- In answering the questions, draw on the textbook and the supplementary readings (if applicable), citing the text and page number when appropriate.
- This is an excellent opportunity to exercise precision in writing. Make your postings concise and convincing. Argue forcefully and clearly.
It is crucial that you engage other students in the forum. In order to avoid repetitive or unrelated posts, try to use other students' posts and build off of them. It is equally important that you engage your colleagues as it is to raise issues that you feel have not been raised during the discussion.
In order to get full credit for this component of the course, kindly follow these requirements. During the first five weeks of the course, I will provide you individual guidance via e-mail and will subsequently offer you with periodical assessments of your progress. At the end of each week I will assign you a grade for that week's discussion forum. All the grades will be available on the course Blackboard site (for information on how to access the Blackboard site, see Course Mechanics).
Midterm Exam
With each lesson, I will provide you with terms, historic personages, and dates that are of particular significance; these will appear in each lesson under the heading “Significant Concepts.” The midterm will consist of a selection of ten of these concepts, and you will be asked to write a paragraph identifying each one. It would be best if you jot down ideas and observations while you are reading the textbook and/or make a note of where in the textbook you found the information. This habit will make studying for the midterm more manageable.
A successfully written identification is much like an encyclopedia entry. An effectively executed identification does the following three things:
- It places the term within its proper historic and temporal context.
- It relates the most significant characteristics of the term/person/date. Naturally, identifying some persons might involve several characteristics. Focus on the most salient ones.
- It discusses the term's importance and historic significance. This last component is not, for the most part, uniform. Interpretations on significance can vary, depending on the perspective of the author.
Example: If Yuri Gagarin was one of your options on the midterm you should attempt to point out the following:
- Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet astronaut/cosmonaut. In 1961 he was the first man to be launched into space.
- Following World War II and the successful use of nuclear bombs by the United States, the Soviet authorities poured more money and resources into science and technology. It was after I.V. Stalin’s death in 1953 that the Soviet Union became even more substantively engaged in developing its technology. Stalin’s successor, N.S. Khrushchev, was responsible for what became known as the Scientific Technical Revolution. During Khrushchev’s reign the Soviet Union poured significant resources into research dealing with robotics, spacecraft, and nuclear power. The result of their efforts was the launch of a first man-made satellite, Sputnik, which orbited the earth for the first time in 1957. The launch of Sputnik was soon followed by Gagarin’s flight into space in 1961.
- Gagarin’s flight into space had far-reaching consequences. It justified Khrushchev’s insistence that more money should be diverted into missile research rather than traditional military spending. This led to the arms race buildup, as Americans began to take the Soviet space race and arms race more seriously. The ability of the Soviets to launch a man into space brought them advantage in the Cold War and prestige among countries emerging from colonialism.
This is just a model to give you a rough idea of what I consider to be a thoughtfully composed identification that is both factual and interpretative. This kind of exercise will strengthen your ability to discuss the most relevant information in a concise and precise manner.
Final Essay
Instead of a final exam, you will be responsible for writing an essay approximately 1,800 words long (seven pages). You will submit a thesis statement and well-developed outline of your essay to me about a week before the essay is due (see the course schedule for due dates). There will be two possible essay topics. I am providing you with the questions at the very beginning of the course so you might begin thinking about these issues now; this way, you will have an easier time choosing your topic and constructing a firm argument at the end of the semester.
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The first essay question is largely based on materials in Barbara Alpern Engel's and Donald Raleigh's oral interview collections. You will be asked to consider how an ordinary citizen of the Soviet Union would define what “being Soviet” meant—either during a particular period or how this understanding changed over time. For example, did “being Soviet” mean different things during the Stalinist period and during the Khrushchev period? Also, you could write an essay discussing what it meant to be Soviet during the Khrushchev period during the 1960s. How did people define themselves? Were their core values stagnant or changing?
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The second question examines the history of Soviet nationalities in general and Central Asian republics in particular. Was Soviet rule overall beneficial or detrimental to non-Russian peoples? Did the Soviet attitude toward non-Russians change over time? What are the likely perspectives for the former Soviet republics in the near future?
Documentation and Citation
To avoid plagiarism in your writing, you must cite or document not only direct quotes, but all ideas that you get from someone else. I'm not too picky about which citation style you use, but I ask you to choose one and stick with it. Two common citation styles, either of which is fine with me, are Chicago (see Michael Harvey's Chicago style page and MLA (see the UNC Writing Center's MLA Style Guide). The main difference between them, for your purposes, is that Chicago uses footnotes for citation while MLA uses parenthetical references and a Works Cited page.
Writing Assistance
I encourage you to take advantage of the UNC Writing Center's helpful online resources. Specifically, I would like to draw your attention to the following Writing Center handouts for students of history:
- History
- Argument
- Thesis Statements
- Introductions
- Conclusions
- Proofreading
- Style
- Plagiarism
The Writing Center also offers one-on-one tutoring to student writers, either in person or online. You can make an appointment in the physical Writing Center or submit a draft over the Web to the Online Tutor.
I also heartily recommend Michael Harvey's Web page The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing.
Honor Code
Like the entire University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill community, I take academic honesty seriously. I have reported and will report potential offenses to the Office of the Undergraduate Student Attorney General. When you signed up for this course, you agreed to abide by the UNC Honor Code. Familiarize yourself with the UNC-Chapel Hill Honor System. As a Carolina Courses Online student, it is your responsibility to obey and support the enforcement of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, and stealing. If at any time you are unsure what plagiarism is, please contact me.
Throughout the course, including in your postings to the discussion forum, you must respect the work and views of others, develop your own ideas, and honestly document sources. The final essay in this course is open book and open notes, but the work you do must be your own. Be careful with your note taking; do not accidentally mix your original work and someone else's work. Bookmark Web sites. As you take notes, include quotation marks and citations. Always give citations for ideas that are not your own, whether or not those ideas have been written down somewhere. If an author or a classmate comes up with a brilliant example and you use it in your paper, then you must cite him or her (see the section on "Documentation and Citation" above). Do not "cut and paste" text from the Internet into a paper or exam. Read through the Writing Center's handout on plagiarism. Please e-mail me at marko@unc.edu and verify that you have read and understand this section on the importance of the Honor Code.
Religious Holidays
I will make every effort to accommodate student observances of religious holidays. You must, however, consult with me well in advance.
About the Instructor
Contact Information
There are several ways to get in touch with me:
Blackboard: I will check the Blackboard discussion forum at least once a day. Feel free to ask questions about the course, the readings and the assignments, especially questions that other students might want to know the answer to. I will post grades in the Blackboard site's online gradebook, where you will be able to view them as soon as they're ready.
E-mail: Please e-mail any time with questions that you don't wish to post on Blackboard. I will send comments about your work via e-mail. If you are not comfortable with receiving such comments electronically (for example, if you share your e-mail account with someone else), please contact me and we can make other arrangements. I will not send grades via e-mail (see above).
Please note that some Carolina Courses Online students have experienced difficulties with Hotmail e-mail accounts. If at all possible, do not use a Hotmail account.
Phone: You can call my cell phone any time. If I don't want to receive calls, I turn it off, so don't worry about disturbing me.
In person: If you are in or near Chapel Hill and you want to have a face-to-face conference, I will be more than happy to meet with you.
Course Mechanics
Some of your class components (discussion forums, announcements, gradebook) are accessed through a software package called Blackboard, and you will need to log in to Blackboard using a unique identifier known as your UNC Onyen (Only Name You'll Ever Need) and Onyen password.
If you do not already have a UNC Onyen, go to the Onyen Web site and follow the instructions for creating an Onyen. If you have an Onyen but have forgotten it (or the password), you will find help on the Onyen Web site.
There is a link to the Blackboard site in the gray navigation bar at the top of every page in this course. Click on that link, and then use your Onyen to log in to Blackboard. Click on the "HIST 162" link, and you will see navigation buttons on the left side of the screen labeled Announcements, Discussion Forum, and so on.
If you experience problems accessing Blackboard, this is who you should contact:
- If you have your Onyen but can't log in to Blackboard, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
- If you can log in to Blackboard but can't find this course listed, contact Janice Durham at the Friday Center.
- If you can't locate an exam or discussion forum in Blackboard, contact the Instructional Designer.
- If you have other technical problems while using Blackboard, contact Blackboard Help (use the Help button in Blackboard, or call 919-962-HELP).
Library Services and E-reserves
Students enrolled in Carolina Courses Online can access online library resources from the UNC Library System by linking to Library Services for Distance Education Students. This site includes information on using general online reference works as well as accessing e-reserves. If you are using an off-campus computer, you will need to enter your UNC Onyen and password to access the readings that are available through the e-reserve system. The UNC library staff is available to assist any students who have difficulties accessing online library resources. If you encounter difficulties, please visit this Web page for reporting a problem and the Proxy Server Team will respond.
You will receive e-mail messages regarding the course at your UNC e-mail address. Off-campus users can access their UNC e-mail account using Webmail. You can have your UNC e-mail forwarded to a different e-mail address by clicking "Forward e-mail" at the Onyen Web site.
If you use a filter on your e-mail account, you are responsible for ensuring that it does not prevent you from receiving messages from me, the course listserv, or Friday Center staff. Hotmail users should be aware that Hotmail will block messages sent from within Blackboard because Blackboard uses "blind carbon copy" to protect privacy. We recommend that you use your UNC Onyen e-mail account rather than Hotmail for this course.
Submitting Assignments
It is extremely important for you to save copies of any work you send to me via e-mail. If I don't receive your work, you must have a duplicate copy, indicating the date sent, to prove that you submitted the assignment on time. It is your responsibility to maintain copies of your sent e-mails, as there is no way to guarantee that any e-mail message will be delivered.
Please check your e-mail software to see how it manages sent and saved messages. Some software automatically deletes messages one month after they have been sent; others only save messages if they are filed in folders; others save messages received but not those sent. You may need to send yourself a copy of your e-mailed assignment at the same time you send it to me, or you may need to print a copy of the e-mail message and any attachments to keep in your paper files. No matter how your system works, make sure you know how to save a copy of all work that you submit to me and that you save the copy for several months beyond the end of the course.
If you have questions regarding the content of the course and your progress, contact me (your instructor). There is a link to my e-mail address at the top of every lesson page. Please include "HIST 162 CCO" and your name in the subject line of your e-mail.
If you find a problem with this Web site, including bad links, contact the Instructional Designer at the Friday Center.
If you have any questions about enrollment, Onyen, credits, withdrawal, and so on, contact the Student Services staff at the Friday Center for Continuing Education (phone 919-962-1134 or 800-862-5669).