Princeton University History 362

Professor Kotkin Spring 2014

SOVIET EMPIRE

Course Description: This course traces the transformation of the Russian Empire into the Soviet
Union – right up to the shocking dissolution of the USSR in 1991, which left fifteen independent
states struggling with a contradictory inheritance. We examine the invention and unfolding of
single-party revolutionary politics, the expansion of the machinery of state, the onset and
development of Stalin’s personal despotism, the violent attempt to create a non-capitalist
society and a non-imperialist empire, the experiences and consequences of the monumental
war with Nazi Germany, the extension of Soviet borders and the acquisition of satellites in East
Asia and Eastern Europe, and the post-World War II efforts to reform (or not reform) the Soviet
order, which culminated in collapse. Special attention is paid to the creation and dynamics of a
new socialist society and economy, the connections between the state and everyday life, the
relations between the ethno-territorial republics and the Union, and the position of the Soviet
Union in the wider world. This is a class about geopolitics, institutions, and ideas – in one word,
power.

Preceptors: James Pickett and Brittany Holom, PhD students

Assignments: a map quiz; a take-home midterm (2000-2500 words) due no later than 3 pm on
March 14; a final paper (3000-3500 words) due no later than 3 pm on May 13; and a final
examination consisting of identifications, date to be announced.

Text: Geoffrey Hosking, The First Socialist Society, 2nd ed. (Harvard University, 1993)*
Most students find it necessary to read the textbook to pass the course.

BOOKS marked * have been ordered through Labyrinth (122 Nassau Street).

ALL other readings are on E-RESERVE

 WEEKLY READINGS

1. Introduction: the Russian Empire enters the Twentieth Century?

John Channon with Robert Hudson, The Penguin Historical Atlas of Russia (New York:
Penguin, 1995), 36-39, 50-57, 66-67, 72-75, 86-87, 90-91 E-RESERVE
“Durnovo’s Memorandum [to Nicholas II, February 1914],” in Frank Golder (ed.),
Documents of Russian History (NY-London: The Century Co. 1927), 3-23 E-
RESERVE

2. 1917-1918: War, Revolution, Coup?

Sergei Mstislavskii, Five Days Which Transformed Russia (Bloomington: Indiana U.,
1989), 17-56, 111-68 E-RESERVE
“The Abdication of Nicholas II,” “The Promises of Revolution,” in Robert Daniels (ed.),
The Russian Revolution (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1972), 20-21, 153-63 E-
RESERVE
Stalin on the Nature of Soviet Power: Jonathan Daly and Leonid Trofimov (eds.), Russia
in War and Revolution, 1914-1922: a Documentary History (Hackett Publishing,
2009), 113-5 E-RESERVE
German Subventions for the Bolsheviks: Z.A.B. Zeman, Germany and the Revolution in
Russia 1915-1918 (London, 1958), 94-5 E-RESERVE
“Lenin: a Pen Portrait,” in Martin McCauley (ed.), The Russian Revolution and the Soviet
State 1917-1921: Documents (London and Basingstroke: Macmillan, 1975), 282-3
E-RESERVE
Panteleymon Romanov, “About Cows,” “Inventory,” “A Gift of God,” and “the Beautiful
Trousers,” in Mirra Ginsburg (ed.), The Fatal Eggs and other Soviet Satire 1918-
1963 (NY: Grove, 1964) E-RESERVE
Yevgeny Zamyatin, “Comrade Churygin Has the Floor,” in Fatal Eggs E-RESERVE

3. Civil War and Reconquest: Whose Revolution?

William Rosenberg (ed.), Bolshevik Visions, Part I (Ann Arbor: Ardis, 1984), 21-49, 67-98,
130-38, 185-89, 219-33, 248-53 E-RESERVE
Israel Getzler, Kronstadt: 1917-1921: The Fate of a Soviet Democracy (New York:
Cambridge University, 1983), 205-45 E-RESERVE
Lenin, “The Lessons of Kronstadt,” in V.I. Lenin and L.V. Trotsky, The Lessons of Kronstadt
(New York: Monad, 1979), 44-47 E-RESERVE
Lenin, “Our Revolution (Apropos of N. Sukhanov’s Notes),” Lenin, Selected Works
(Moscow, 1967), III: 767-8 E-RESERVE
 3

4. 1920s: Recovery? Lost Revolution?

Mikhail Bulgakov, Heart of a Dog (New York: Grove, 1994)*

Mikhail Zoshchenko, “Dog Scent,” “The Crisis,” and “Poverty,” in High McLean (ed.),
Nervous People and Other Satires (Bloomington: Indiana U, 1963) E-RESERVE
Vyacheslav Shishkov, “The Divorce,” in The Fatal Eggs E-RESERVE
“A Second Red October?” in Helmut Gurber (ed.), International Communism in the Era
of Lenin: a Documentary History (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor, 1972), 377-402 E-
RESERVE

5. Socialism in the Village?

Merle Fainsod, Smolensk Under Soviet Rule (Boston: Unwin, Hyman, 1989), 238-79
E-RESERVE
Lev Kopelev, “The Last Grain Collections,” The Education of a True Believer (NY: Harper
and Row, 1980), 224-86 E-RESERVE
Joseph Stalin, “Differences on Internal Policy” and “The Fight Against the Right
Deviation,” in Selected Writings (New York: International, 1942), 94-115, 131-33
E-RESERVE

6. Socialism in the City?

John Scott, Behind the Urals (Bloomington: Indiana University, 1989)*

“Order by Marshal Voroshilov Concerning a Counterrevolutionary Fascist Organization in
the Red Army, June 7, 1937,” in Diane Koenker (ed.), Revelations from the
Russian Archives (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1997), 112-4 E-RESERVE

Take-home midterm due NO LATER THAN

Friday, March 14, 3 pm, in 129 Dickinson Hall

7. Socialism as Union?

Stalin, “A Letter to Comrade Kaganovich and other Members of the Politburo [1926],” in
Rudolff Schlesinger (ed.), The Nationalities Problem and Soviet Administration
 4

(London: Routledge & Kegan Paul), 78-81 E-RESERVE

Joshua Kunitz, Dawn over Samarkand: the Rebirth of Central Asia (New York: Covici
Friede, 1935), 11-24, 169-78, 217-50, 274-301 E-RESERVE
“USSR Constitution” (1936)
1936: http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/1936toc.html

8. Great Fatherland War: Triumph and Disaster?

Hitler and Barbarossa: Jeremy Noakes and G. Pridham (eds.), Nazism 1919-1945, 4 vols.
(Exeter, Devon: University of Exeter, 1988, 1997), III: 201-22 E-RESERVE
Alexander Werth, Russia At War 1941-1945 (New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1964), 213-
42, 318-35, 473-507, 534-63, 604-18, 884-99, 951-70 E-RESERVE
“Diary of a German Soldier,” Sources of the Western Tradition, vol. II, 2nd ed., (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1991), 361-65 E-RESERVE
“The Life of a Soviet Soldier,” “A Life of Ordeals” in Louis Fischer (ed.), Thirteen Who Fled
(New York: Harper Brothers, 1949), 25-39, 232-39 E-RESERVE

9. Postwar: Clampdown, Expansion, Defeat in Victory?

Stalin election campaign speech (1946), in Daniels, A Documentary History of

Communism, II: 142-7 E-RESERVE
George Kennan, “The Long Telegram” (1946):
http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/coldwar/documents/episode-1/kennan.htm
Czeslaw Milosz, The Captive Mind (NY: Vintage, 1981)*, vii-xiv, 3-174

10. De-Stalinization: Gulag and Thaw?

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (NY: Bantam Classics,
1984)*
Giuseppe Boffa, Inside the Khrushchev Era (New York: Marzani and Munsell, 1959), 9-17,
34-43, 121-25 E-RESERVE
Khrushchev and Nixon: the Kitchen Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CvQOuNecy4
“The ‘New Course’ in Eastern Europe,” “Anatomy of a Revolt,” in Lyman Legters (ed.),
Eastern Europe: Transformation and Revolution (Lexington: Heath, 1991), 146-57
E-RESERVE
 5

11. Developed Socialism: Gerontocracy and Polish Threat?

Vladimir Voinovich, The Fur Hat (New York: Harvest/HBJ, 1991)*

“Before the Occupation: The Political Crisis in Czechoslovakia,” “‘2000 Words’: A
Statement on Democratization,” in Legters, Eastern Europe, 206-22 E-RESERVE
“The Brezhnev Doctrine,” “Pope John Paul Speaks in Victory Square, Warsaw,” “The
Gdańsk Agreement,” “Solidarity’s Program,” “General Jaruzelski Declares Martial
Law,” in Gail Stokes (Ed.), From Stalinism to Pluralism: A Documentary History of
Eastern Europe since 1945 (New York: Oxford, 1991), 132-34, 200-15 E-RESERVE

12. Perestroika: Reform as Dissolution?

George Orwell, Animal Farm (NY: Signet Classics, 2004)*

“Housing,” “Nationality and Culture,” “Question and Answer,” “Politics and Military,” in
Ron McKay (ed.), Letters to Gorbachev: Life in Russia Through the Postbag of
Argumenty i fakty (London: Michael Joseph, 1991), 7-9, 36-37, 53-55, 80-81,151-
53, 161-62 E-RESERVE

Final paper due NO LATER THAN

Tuesday, May 13, 3 pm, in 129 Dickinson Hall