Soviet Union

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.