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HIS 342.01: Stalinism COURSE DESCRIPTION: This advanced seminar will concentrate upon the major historiographical divide over Stalinist Russia, and evaluate the evidentiary bases that sustain these interpretations. Traditional historiography has concentrated upon the "totalitarian" model, and has depended upon official documents, as well as the memoirs and public statements of major figures and emigrès. More recent interpretations have sought to complicate the story, and give voice to more ordinary historical actors—as preserved in the archives of the secret police, in private diaries, and in the collections of unprinted denunciations and letters to the editors of Soviet publications and Soviet leaders. Through scrupulous reading of some major representatives of these views, as well as through careful consideration of representative examples of the various sources, participants in the seminar will develop a better understanding of the historiographical issues and the way that these issues inform historical research. The first part of the seminar will depend upon our common reading, and will help develop a sense of the different interpretations as well as the kinds of evidence employed, their limitations and strengths, and how they influence more general interpretations of the Stalin era. Early in the term students will select a project on which to work the whole semester, culminating in a written paper and oral presentation to the seminar. REQUIRED TEXTS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE IN BOOKSTORE (one copy of each text is also available on reserve at Burling Library): Brooks, Jeffrey. Thank you, comrade Stalin! Soviet public culture from revolution to Cold War. Princeton, 2000. Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Stalin’s Peasants. Resistance and Survival in the Russian Village After Collectivization. Oxford, 1994. Hoffmann, David. Stalinist Values: The cultural norms of Soviet modernity, 1917-1941. Ithaca, 2003. Kotkin, Stephen. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a civilization. Berkeley, 1995. Lugovskaya, Nina. Diary of a Soviet Schoolgirl, 1932-37. Trans. Joanne Turnbull. Evanston, 2003. Siegelbaum, Lewis, and Andrei Sokolov. Stalinism as a Way of Life: A narrative in documents (abridged edition). New Haven, 2004. Viola, Lynne, ed. Contending with Stalinism: Soviet power and popular resistance in the 1930s. Ithaca, 2002. ADDITIONAL MATERIALS ON RESERVE IN BURLING LIBRARY (all denoted by an asterisk in the Course Schedule): Alexpoulos, Golfo. “Exposing Illegality and Oneself: Complaint and Risk in Stalin’s Russia,” in Reforming Justice, 1864-1996: power, culture, and the limits of the legal order, ed. Peter H. Solomon, Jr. Armonk, 1997, 168-89. Cox, Randi. “All This Can Be Yours! Commercial Advertising and the Social Construction of Space, 1928-1956,” in The Landscape of Stalinism: The Art and Ideology of Soviet Space, eds. Evgeny Dobrenko and Eric Naiman. Seattle, 2003, 125-62. Fitzpatrick, Sheila. "From Krest'ianskaia Gazeta's Files: Life Story of a Peasant Striver," Russian History/Histoire russe 24, nos. 1-2 (Spring-Summer 1997):215-26. Fitzpatrick, Sheila. "Readers' Letters to Krest'ianskaia Gazeta, 1938," Russian History/Histoire russe 24, nos. 1-2 (Spring-Summer 1997):149-70. Hellbeck, Jochen. “Fashioning the Stalinist soul: the diary of Stepan Podlubnyi, 1931-39,” in Stalinism: new directions, ed. Sheila Fitzpatrick. NY, 2000. 77-116. Hellbeck, Jochen. “Self-Realization in the Stalinist System: Two Soviet Diaries of the 1930s,” in Russian modernity: politics, knowledge, practices, eds. David L. Hoffmann and Yanni Kotsonis. NY, 2000. 221-44. Also in Stalinismus vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Neue Wege der Forschung, ed. Manfred Hildermeier. München: R. Oldenbourg Verlag, 1998. Pp. 275-90. Hellbeck, Jochen. “Writing the Self in the Time of Terror: Alexander Afinogenov’s Diary of 1937.” In Self and Story in Russian History, eds. Laura Engelstein and Stephanie Sandler. Ithaca, 2000. Pp. 69-93. Neuberger, Joan. “The Politics of Bewilderment: Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible in 1945,” in Eisenstein at 100: A Reconsideration, eds. Al LaValley and Barry P. Scherr. New Brunswick, 2001, 227-52. Perrie, Maureen. “S. M. Eisenstein’s Film,” in Perrie, The Cult of Ivan the Terrible in Stalin’s Russia. London, 2001, 149-78. Plamper, Jan. “The Spatial Poetics of the Personality Cult: Circles Around Stalin,” in The Landscape of Stalinism: The Art and Ideology of Soviet Space, eds. Evgeny Dobrenko and Eric Naiman. Seattle, 2003, 19-50. Scott, John. Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia’s City of Steel. Ed. Stephen Kotkin. Bloomington, 1989. COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Participation in the seminar presumes independent work; timely and responsible execution of the assignments is essential, therefore, to the success of the seminar. Students should come to the seminar not only having read the assignments, but also prepared to discuss how the readings affect our view of the Stalin era, and how the sources they describe and depend on may enlarge or restrict our understanding. Each seminar participant will also prepare a major paper (approximately 20 pp.) that either examines a specific kind of source (perhaps letters to the editor, memoirs, reports of foreign observers, novels, cinema, posters, art, etc.) or examines a specific theme of the Stalin era (e.g., collectivization, the Terror, identities, etc.). In the first case, students will appraise the utility of the source and its limits, making reference to materials we have read in the seminar as well as the larger literature devoted to that source. Students examining a specific theme will read several monographs devoted to that theme, paying special attention to the sources used and inferences drawn. They will determine how the new evidence on the 'thirties affects these interpretations. The instructor will provide some sample paper topics early in the semester, but students are free to select their own topic—in close consultation with the instructor. All students must declare a paper topic no later than September 15. Throughout the semester students will have to report—formally—on their progress, supplying a thesis statement and bibliography as stipulated in the syllabus. Completed papers are due no later than Wednesday, November 24. A revised final written version must be submitted no later than Friday, December 10, 4 PM. Each student will also be expected to make an oral presentation in class within the last two weeks of the semester (see Course Schedule below). GRADING:
COURSE SCHEDULE: Thursday, 8/26: Introduction: Understanding Stalinism—Interpretations & Evidence
Tuesday, 8/31: Stalinism as Performance
Thursday, 9/2: Making the New Man and New Woman in Magnitogorsk
Tuesday, 9/7: Stalinism as a Civilization
Thursday, 9/9: Fashioning the Self in Stalinist Russia
Tuesday, 9/14: Fashioning the Self in Stalinist Russia, 2
Wednesday, 9/15: Paper Topic DUE Thursday, 9/16: Participating in Stalinism—Voices from Below
Additional Resources (not required):
Tuesday, 9/21: Stalinism as a Way of Life: Voices from Below
Thursday, 9/23: Stalinism as Way of Life: More Voices
Sunday, 9/26, 7:30 PM, ARH 102: Public Screening of Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible, pt. 1 Tuesday, 9/28: Reading Stalinist Discourses: Cinema
Tuesday 9/28, 7:30 PM, ARH 102: Public Screening of Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible, pt. 2 Thursday, 9/30: Reading Stalinist Images: The Gendered Stalinist Subject
Friday, 10/1: Thesis Statement Due Tuesday, 10/5: Stalinism as Modern Mass Culture
Thursday, 10/7: Reading the Stalinist Image: Heroes, Consumers, Public Space
Tuesday, 10/12: Stalin’s Peasants: Collectivization from Above
Thursday, 10/14: Stalin’s Peasants: Subaltern Strategies
Thursday, 10/26: Resistance to Stalinism
Tuesday, 10/28
Monday, 11/1: Bibliography Due Tuesday, 11/2
Thursday, 11/4
Tuesday, 11/9
Thursday, 11/11
Tuesday, 11/16
Thursday, 11/18
Tuesday, 11/23
Wednesday, 11/25—PAPERS DUE
Tuesday, 11/30
Thursday, 12/2
Tuesday, 12/7
Thursday, 12/9
Friday, 12/10 FINAL DEADLINE FOR REVISED PAPERS ADDITIONAL RESOURCESReference Materials: The American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies... Columbus, Washington, DC, 1965- . Available on-line for post-1990 publications: http://carousel.lis.uiuc.edu/~absees/absees_online.html European Bibliography of Soviet, East European and Slavonic Studies. Birmingham, Paris, 1975- . Also accessible on-line: http://www1.msh-paris.fr/betuee/BD_Bibl_Est_accueil_angl.htm The Cambridge encyclopedia of Russia and the former Soviet Union. Ed. Archie Brown, Michael Kaser and Gerald S. Smith. Cambridge, 1994. The Encyclopedia of Russian History, 4 vols. Ed. James R. Millar. NY, 2004. The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Soviet History (after 1991, The Modern Encyclopedia of Russian and Eurasian History). Ed. Joseph L. Wieczynski. Gulf Breeze, 1976- . Bloomberg, Marty, and Buckley Barry Barrett. Stalin: An Annotated Guide to Books in English. San Bernardino, 1993. McNeal, Robert H., comp. Stalin's Works: An Annotated Bibliography. Stanford, 1967. Fitzpatrick, Sheila, and Lynne Viola, eds. A Researcher's guide to sources on Soviet social history in the 1930s. Armonk, NY, 1990. Relevant On-Line Reference Materials: Stalin-Era Research & Archives Project: http://www.utoronto.ca/serap Joseph Stalin Reference Archive: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/stalin/ The Joseph Stalin Internet Archive: http://www.ex.ac.uk/Projects/meia/stalin Revelations from the Russian Archives: http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/intro.html Documents from Stalinism as a Way of Life: http://www.yale.edu/annals/siegelbaum/siegelbaum_list.htm Images from Stalinism as a Way of Life: http://www.yale.edu/annals/siegelbaum/images/siegelbaum_photos.htm Cathedral of Christ the Savior (inc. video of its 1931 destruction): http://www.ticketsofrussia.ru/religion/orthodoxy/xxc/destruct/index.htm Hotel Moskva, 1930s Moscow architecture: http://www.muar.ru/eng/ve/2003/hotel_moscow/index.htm Stalinist Skyscrapers (Moscow, 1930s-50s buildings): http://www.kommiekomiks.com/stalin.htm Moscow Metro stations (including historical photos, information on dates of construction, etc; text in Russian): http://www.metro.ru/stations/ Selected Films Of The Stalin Era (Most Available At AV Center In ARH): Aleksandr Nevskii. Dir. Sergei Eisenstein, 1938. RUS-VHS-VT-002/DSK-VD-001 Some Autobiographical Texts In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women From 1917 to the Second World War. Eds. Sheila Fitzpatrick, Yuri Slezkine. Princeton, 2000. Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s. Eds. Véronique Garros, Natalia Korenevskaya, and Thomas Lahusen. NY, 1995. Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet prisons. Ed., trans. Veronica Shapovalov. Lanham, MD, 2001. Till my tale is told: women’s memoirs of the Gulag. Ed. Simeon Vilensky, trans. John Crowfoot, et al. Bloomington, 1999. "Show Trial" Transcripts The Great Purge Trial. Ed. Robert C. Tucker, Stephen F. Cohen. NY, 1965. Report on the Court Proceedings in the case of the anti-Soviet "bloc of Rights and Trotskyites..... Moscow, 1938. Report of Court Proceedings in the case of the anti-Soviet Trotskyite centre... Moscow, 1937. Report of Court Proceedings. The Case of the Trotskyite-Zinovievite
terrorist centre. Moscow, 1936. Reprinted, 1967. Also available
on the web: Additional Primary Materials The Stalin-Kaganovich correspondence, 1931-1936. Ed. R. W. Davies, et al., trans. Steven Shabad. New Haven, 2003. Stalin’s Letters to Molotov, 1925-1936. Ed. Lars T. Lih et al., trans. Catherine A. Fitzpatrick. New Haven, 1995. Makarenko, Anton. A Book for Parents. Trans. Robert Daglish. Moscow, 1954. Makarenko, his life and works: articles, talks, and reminiscences. Moscow, 1963. Makarenko, Anton. The road to life: an epic of education. Trans. Ivy and Tatiana Litvinov. Moscow, 1955. Stakhanov, Aleksei. The Stakhanov Movement explained by its initiator, Alexei Stakhanov. Moscow, 1939. Angelina, Praskovia Nikitichna. My answer to an American questionnaire. Moscow, 1951. Posters Russian Posters 1914-1953: http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~vbonnell/posters.htm Some posters from the Soviet Union: http://www.funet.fi/pub/culture/russian/html_pages/posters1.html Cinema Kenez, Peter. “Soviet cinema in the age of Stalin,” in ibid., 54-68. Taylor, Richard. “’But Eastward, Look, the Land is Brighter’: Toward a Topography of Utopia in the Stalinist Musical,” in The Landscape of Stalinism: The Art and Ideology of Soviet Space. Eds. Evgeny Dobrenko, Eric Naiman. Seattle, 2003, 201-215. Turovskaya, Maya. “The 1930s and 1940s: Cinema in context,” in Stalinism and Soviet Cinema, eds. Richard Taylor and Derek Spring. London, 1993, 34-53. Photography “The Five Year Plan: Vintage Photographs”: http://www.schicklerart.com/auto_exh/5Year_x_Ex_0001 Soviet Photography: An Age of Realism. Eds. Sergei Morozov, et al. NY, 1984. Tupitsyn, Margarita. The Soviet Photograph, 1924-1937. New Haven, 1996. Painting Iskusstvo pervoi piatiletki: zhivopis’ [Art of the First Five-Year Plan], ed. Anatolii Mikhailovich Vysotskii. M, 1983. Iskusstvo vtoroi piatiletki: zhivopis’ [Art of Second Five-Year Plan], ed. Emma Nikolaevna Pugacheva. M, 1984. Bown, Matthew Cullerne. Art under Stalin. NY, 1991. Stamps Dobrenko, Evgeny. “The Art of Social Navigation: The Cultural Topography of the Stalin Era,” in The Landscape of Stalinism: The Art and Ideology of Soviet Space, eds. Evgeny Dobrenko and Eric Naiman. Seattle, 2003, 163-200. [Stalin-era stamps] Karachun, D., and V. Karlinskii, Pochtovye marki SSSR (1918-1968) [Postage Stamps of the USSR 1918-1968]. Moscow, 1969. Katalog pochtovykh marok SSSR: 1918-1980 [Catalog of postage stamps of USSR, 1918-1980], 2 vols. Moscow, 1983-84). Grinnell
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