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HIST 441 Gorbachev and the Collapse of Soviet Communism
Not offered 2001-2002 Upon becoming General Secretary of the Communist party of the Soviet Union in 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev initiated a series of increasingly radical reforms intended to revitalize and strengthen the Soviet Union and to restructure the Soviet system. The outcome of these efforts, however, was the stunning, unexpected, yet relatively peaceful disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Soviet communist experiment in 1991. The purpose of this seminar is to enable students to explore this process of reform, collapse, and renewal through both common readings and a substantial independent research project. Class meetings, therefore, will be devoted initially to the discussion of common readings intended to familiarize students with the main aspects and interpretations of the Gorbachev era and the process of Soviet collapse, and then to helping students with their research. Topics for general discussion will include the motives and prospects for reform of the Soviet system; the interrelationship between economic and political reform and between domestic and international pressures for reform; the relative importance of contingency, context, personality, and systemic weaknesses in causing the collapse of the Soviet empire; and the development and nature of oppositional political groups and alternative political cultures. Research topics will be chosen by each student in consultation with the instructor and can concern any aspect of late Soviet history. Format: seminar. Evaluation will be based on the final research paper, oral presentations in class, and class participation. Although the common readings in the seminar will be in English, the research project will provide an opportunity for students with reading knowledge of Russian to use their language skills if they wish to do so. Enrollment limit: 14 (expected: 5-7). Preference to History majors. Group B W. WAGNER |
