Soviet History: Russia in the Age of Transformation

This course examines the history of the 20th century Russia in the context of multiple transformations, ranging from global political events to internal cultural changes. We will go through key stages of Soviet and Post-Soviet Russian history from 1917 to 2000 by looking at the interplay between global and local developments. The main question of this course is how did the Soviet Union develop in this age of many rapid and deep transformations? What the Soviet culture, ideology, society, economy, technology, and environment were about? How did the Soviet system develop and why did it fail? What was Soviet failure and success to the nation and globe? How did the country survive post-socialist period? And, in general, how to interpret this age? The course will discuss such questions as: the new Soviet man and its destiny; political regime and the borders of control; Soviet technological innovations, science and technology; nature and environment; economic choices and pitfalls; Soviet consumer; Soviet and post-Soviet regime and globalization of tastes and production; memories about the Soviet.