Russian History: From Lenin to Putin

This course examines Russian history from the end of the Tsarist regime to Putin’s autocracy.  At its center was the Bolshevik Revolution, which raised hopes among many for sweeping progress for the masses and which, under Stalin, propelled the Soviet Union into industrialization and superpower status. At the same time, however, Stalin condemned tens of millions to famine, terror, and the Gulag, and his successors could not stave off economic decline and the system’s stunning collapse. The class will explore these events, so crucial to the history of the 20th century, as well as introduce students to crucial historical debates, including: was totalitarianism the inevitable result of Marxist-Leninist ideology, or the product of Stalin’s personality?  Could reformers such as Khrushchev and Gorbachev have succeeded in undoing Stalinist excesses while preserving the Communist system?  Finally, does Putin represent more of a break from the Communist past, or the continuation of a Russian authoritarian tradition?

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