HIST 110

About this course

The Soviet experiment from the Bolshevik coup in 1917 to the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1991. The course explores the circumstances leading to revolution; the revolution itself, including Leninism, the New Economic Policy, and the Civil War; the rise of Stalin and Stalinism; the Soviet experience of World War II; the development of the Soviet bloc and the Cold War; the "stagnation" years; and the collapse. Major themes of the course include the evolution of the world's first socialist experiment; the use of secret police, surveillance and imprisonment as a political tool; social, cultural, and artistic developments and their relationship to the Soviet state; diplomacy, war, and the relationship of the Soviet Union to the world; Soviet nationalities policy and the roots of collapse; and the nature of "socialist" crime, law, and corruption.