DePauw University

Political Science 351

Government and Politics of the Soviet Union, Russia and the CIS

Professor O. Ralph Raymond Spring 2001

This course explores, among other things, what kind of a society the Soviet Union was, and why, the Soviet Union, one of the world's two superpowers at the time, suddenly collapsed at the end of 1991. This course further inquires into what has been happening in the Russian Federation, as well, though to a lesser degree, in the other "successor states," at least those which have remained loosely attached to Russia in the so-called Commonwealth of Independent States (the former constituent or "union republics" of the defunct USSR, minus the Baltic States.) We will also examine the foreign policy record of the Soviet Union and assess Russia’s search for a new place in international affairs under both Presidents Yeltsin and Putin.

All this means a number of things: first, it means that there will be much of what we might call "current events" in this course. In particular, we will want to examine post-Soviet efforts at political democratiz-zation and market transformation, and whether that transformation, both political and economic, is at a point now of beginning to reverse itself and to retreat towards a more traditionally authoritarian and statist construct. We will study the nature of the two presidential regimes since the implosion of the Soviet system and the relationship between the presidency and other institutions of the Russian state, as well as the increasingly successful effort on the part of President Putin to re-centralize the Russian Federation. New political parties and groups will be looked at, as will the short-lived revitalization of the communist movement during the Yeltsin period, leading, however, to its further erosion under Putin. Increasing Russian nationalist reassertion across the ideological spectrum, left, center, and right, since Putin launched the second Chechen war in 1999, will be examined as a clue to Russia’s future aspirations. This course will discuss Putin’s ability to portray the Russian war effort against Chechnya as a part of the American "war on terrorism," thereby excusing the genocidal consequences of the Chechen war, but at the same time casting a shadow on Russia’s "Western choice." The course will take note, too, the post-1998 economic resurgence of the Russian economy on the basis of energy and raw material exports, and the use of energy for geopolitical pressure on the CIS states.

The political course of Russia following the end of the Soviet Union has been shaped by the Soviet past, just as the Soviet period represented continuity as much as change from the autocratic and imperialist experience of Russia’s tsarist heritage. And yet, whatever the elements of political and cultural continuity, the Soviet Union was a distinctive political and economic experiment. Just as one cannot fully grasp the significance of the Soviet experience, so an understanding of the recent course of Russian politics at home and abroad cannot be understood apart from an historical exploration of that Soviet past. Thus, we must begin with the Bolshevik movement within the context of Tsarist Russia. We must proceed to the Russian revolutions of 1917; we must examine the nature of the Soviet state and party system, the costs and achievements of crash industrialization and agricultural collectivization the ‘thirties, the terror and bloodletting of Stalinism during the Great Purges, the national achievement of endurance and victory over Nazi aggression in World War II, post-war political and economic reconstruction–restoration of the Stlainist status quo ante, and the repeated and failed attempts at post-Stalin reform under Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Kosygin, and Gorbachev.

The basic assumptions underlying this course are: political change in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union (as well as the East European extensions of the Soviet imperium) was to a large measure a reaction against the stagnation and multiple failures of the Soviet system. Just as the Soviet system was deeply shaped by traditional Russian political culture, as well as by Marxist-Leninist ideology, post-Soviet Russia will find it difficult to overcome elements of the authoritarianism, arbitrariness, lethargy, and absence of individual responsibility and initiative characteristic of the Soviet period. The difficulties of post-Soviet transition-democratization, marketization, and the development of a new political culture–both more individualistic and less imperial in nature–are rooted in the Soviet and Russian past. Progress has been made, but relapse is a continuing danger. For all these reasons, it is essential, if the directions, possibilities and limitations of political and economic change in the former Soviet Union are to be understood, that considerable attention be devoted to the political, economic, and social characteristics of the Soviet Union before its collapse, and even to the nature of Russian society and culture before the Revolution of 1917.

Besides assigned course readings students will be expected to keep abreast of current developments in Russia and the CIS. This will be facilitated by items drawn from various news analyses which the instructor will forward to students by e-mail. Each student will regularly be asked to present and discuss such a news item in class. Class discussion of such presentations will seek to place the substance of the report in the broader context of Russian, Soviet, and post-Soviet politics, economics, and culture as addressed by assigned readings.

The course meets twice a week for two hours each. Reading assigned materials beforehand is essential if class sessions are to be meaningful and discussions to be effective. Otherwise, you run the risk of a professorial monologue-a fate worse than death, certainly something which neither the instructor nor you would knowingly choose.

Grading will be based on 1) class preparation and discussions (20%); 2) student presentations (10%); 3) hour exams (two) (15% each); 4) course paper (15%); 5) final exam (25%.)

REQUIRED READINGS:

The following are required reading and are available at the Fine Print Book Store in the Greencastle town square (except for Medish, which will be supplied.) E-mail transmissions should also be considered as required material. (The instructor reserves the right to add a limited amount of additional post-Soviet reading not included at the present moment in this syllabus.)

1. Robert Service, A History of Twentieth Century Russia, 1997

2. Edvard Radzinsky, Stalin, 1997

3. Thomas F. Remington, Politics in Russia, 2d ed., 2001

4. Andrew Meier, Black Earth, A Journey Through Russia after the Fall, 2003

5. Lilia Shevtsova, Putin’s Russia, 2003

6. Robert H. Donaldson, Joseph L. Nogee, The Foreign Policy of Russia: Changing Systems, Enduring Interests

7. Vadim Medish, The Soviet Union, 4th ed., ch. 4, "The Party," ch. 5, "The State," ch. 6, "The Economy" [xeroxed, supplied]

Order of Class Discussions with Readings


I. THE INCREASINGLY DISTANT, BUT STILL RELEVANT, PAST: THE ANCIEN REGIME

Service, A History of Twentieth-Century Russia, Introduction, ch. 1, "And Russia, 1900-1914;" ch. 2, "The Fall of the Romanovs, 1914-1917"

II. THE EFFORT AT REVOLUTIONARY CHANGE: LEAP INTO THE FUTURE

Service, ch. 3, "Conflicts and Crises, 1917;" 4, "The October Revolution, 1917-1918"

III. INTRODUCTION TO A BOLSHEVIK: THE YOUNG STALIN

Radzinsky, Stalin, Prologue, parts one and two, "Soso: His Life and Death;" "Koba"

IV. RECAPTURING THE TSARIST-AND ETHNIC-PATRIMONY

Service, ch. 5, "New World, Old World;" ch. 6, "Civil Wars"

IV. INTERNATIONAL REVOLUTION OR STATE BUILDING? WAR COMMUNISM, THE BEGINNINGS OF THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY, IMPERATIVES OF FOREIGN POLICY

Service, ch. 7, "The New Economic Policy, 1921-1928"

Donaldson, Nogee, The Foreign Policy of Russia, Introduction, ch. 1, "Tsarist Roots," ch. 2, "From Revolution to Cold War," pp. 37-58.

V. STALIN AND THE TRANSITION TO SOVIET TOTALITARIANISM

Service, ch. 8, "Leninism and Its Discontents;" ch. 9, "The First Five Year Plan, 1928-1932;" ch. 10, "Fortresses under Storm: Culture, Religion, Nation"

Radzinsky, part three, "Stalin: His Life, His Death": ch. 10, "The October Leaders Meet Their End: Lenin;" ch. 11, "The End of the October Leaders;" ch. 12, "The Country at the Breaking Point;", ch. 14, "The Congress of Victors"

VI. STALINISM: MATURATION OF THE SYSTEM

Service, ch. 11, "Terror upon Terror, 1934-1938"; ch. 12, "Coping with Big Brothers"

Radzinsky, ch. 15, "The Bloodbath Begins," ch. 16, "‘The People of My Wrath’ Destroyed;" ch. 17, "The Fall of ‘The Party’s Favorite’;" ch. 18, "Creation of a New Country;" ch. 19, "Night Life;", ch. 20, "Tending Terror’s Sacred Flame;" ch. 21, "Toward the Great Dream"

VII. PARTY AND STATE IN THE SYSTEM OF COMMUNIST RULE: STRUCTURE AND PROCESSES OF THE MATURE MONOLITH

Medish, The Soviet System, ch. 4, "The Party," ch. 5, "The State" [supplied]

VIII. THE COMMAND ECONOMY: FROM ECONOMIC MODERNIZATION TO ECONOMIC DOUBT

Medish, ibid., ch. 6, "The Economy" [supplied]

IX. SURVIVING STALIN'S CULT AND HITLER'S WAR: COLLECTIVE SECURITY, WAR, AND POST-WAR RECONSTRUCTION

Service, ch. 13, "The Second World War;" ch. 14, "Suffering and Struggle, 1941-1945;" ch. 15, "The Hammers of Peace," ch. 16, "The Despot and His Masks"

Radzinsky, ch. 22, "Two Leaders," ch. 23, "The First Days of War;" Interlude, A Family in Wartime, ch. 24, "Onward to Victory," ch. 25, "The Leader’s Plan," ch. 26, " The Return to Fear;" ch. 27, The Apocalypse that Never Was;" ch. 28, "The Last Secret;", Afterword

Donaldson, Nogee, " ... From Revolution to Cold War," pp. 58-74

X. AFTER STALIN: FITFUL REFORMS AND RETREAT: KHRUSHCHEV AND BREZHNEV

Service, ch. 17, "De-Stalinization, 1953-1964; ch. 18, "Hopes Unsettled, 1961-1964" [Khrushchev]; ch. 19, "Stabilization,, 1964-1970;" ch. 20, "‘Developed Socialism’ 1970-1982"; ch. 21, "Privilege and Alienation" [Brezhnev]

XI. SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY BETWIXT EAST AND WEST

Donaldson, Nogee, "Soviet Foreign Policy: The Cold War"

XII. GORBACHEV’S PERESTROIKA: REFORMING THE UNREFORMABLE: DIALECTS OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES; CRISIS AND COLLAPSE

Service, ch. 22, "Towards Reform, 1982-1985;" ch. 23, "Glasnost and Perestroika, 1986-1988;" ch. 24, "Imploding Imperium, 1989;" ch. 25, "Hail and Farewell, 1990-1991"

Remington, Politics in Russia, ch. 1, "Rebuilding Russia’: ch. 2, "The Soviet System and Its Demise"

XIII. ORDO NOVUS: YELTSIN AND POLITICAL CHANGE

Remington, ch. 3, "Russia and the Post-Soviet Constitutional Order;" ch. 4, "Political Participation and Recruitment;" ch. 5, "The Dynamics of Political Culture;" ch. 6, "Interest Groups and Political Parties"

Shevtsova, Putin’s Russia, Prologue, ch. 1, "The Kremlin’s Power Play;" ch. 2, "Yeltsin on the Wane"

XIV: FROM COMMAND ECONOMY TO THE MARKET: THE WILD EAST

Service, ch. 26, "Power and the Market;" ch. 27, "And Russia?"; "Afterword: Past and Prospects"

Remington, ch. 7, "The Politics of Economic Reform," ch. 8, "Towards the Primacy of Law"

Shevtsova, Putin’s Russia, Prologue, ch. 1, "The Kremlin’s Power Play;" ch. 2, "Yeltsin on the Wane"

Andrew Meier, Black Earth, A Journal Throw Russia after the Fall, ch. 1, "Moscow: Zero Gravity;"

ch. 3, "North: To the Sixty-Ninth Parallel"; ch. 4, "West: The Skazka"

XV: POST-SUPERPOWER QUEST FOR AN INTERNATIONAL IDENTITY AND ROLE

Remington, ch. 6, "Russia and the States of the CIS," ch. 7, "Russia and the West," ch. 8, "Russia and the Non-West"

Meier, ch. 2, "South to the Zone;" ch. 6, "Moscow: ‘Everything Is Normal"

XV: PUTIN, MAN WITH THE KGB SOUL, FROM NOWHERE TO MASS ADULATION

Shevtsova, ch. 3, "Putin, the New Russian Leader," ch. 4, "Moment of Truth," ch. 5, "Power in One Fist, ch. 6, "Russia Tranquilized"

Meier, ch. 5, "East: To the Breaking Point"

XVI: CONSOLIDATION OF AUTHORITY: BACK TO THE FUTURE?

Shevtsova, ch. 7, "The Long-Awaited Breakthrough;" ch. 8, "On the Eve of a New Race;" ch. 9, "An Unfinished Story: How Russia Responds to Its Challenges"