Undergraduate Course: The End of the Soviet Era, 1953-1991 (HIST10365)

Course Outline
School	School of History, Classics and Archaeology	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate)	Availability	Available to all students
SCQF Credits	20	ECTS Credits	10
Summary	This course examines the history of the Soviet Union from 1953 until its disintegration in 1991. The aim of the course is to examine internal and external factors that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union. Taking a chronological approach, the students will be offered a survey of Soviet state and society during the de-Stalinisation under Khrushchev, the 'developed socialism' under Brezhnev and the radical reforms under Gorbachev. They will study the changes in the political system, economic, cultural and foreign policies, response of the society to the policies initiated by Moscow and the role of non-Russian republics and ethnic groups in Soviet state-building and state-disintegration. This course will give students a solid understanding of Soviet history in the second half of the 20th century and enable them to more fully contextualise the developments of the Cold War. At the same time, the course aims to provide students with a different perspective on important contemporary debates: Did the collapse of the Soviet system contain any lessons that are relevant to Western democracies? Why do the new independent states that emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union struggle to adopt democracy and the rule of law and does an understanding of their history lead to any policy recommendations that would facilitate their institutional development? The course is inspired by the course organiser's research interest in history of the Soviet Union and Ukraine.
Course description	Not entered

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	A pass or passes in 40 credits of first level historical courses or equivalent and a pass or passes in 40 credits of second level historical courses or equivalent. Before enrolling students on this course, Personal Tutors are asked to contact the History Honours Admission Secretary to ensure that a place is available (Tel: 503783).

Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisites	Visiting Students should usually have at least 3 History courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this) for entry to this course. We will only consider University/College level courses.

Course Delivery Information

Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)		Quota: 24
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 172 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 50 %, Coursework 40 %, Practical Exam 10 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Students will complete one essay of 3,000 words and sit one two-hour Degree Examination. The final mark will be composed of the essay mark, weighted at 40 per cent of the final mark, mark for oral presentation at 5 per cent, mark for participation in seminars at 5 per cent, and the exam mark, weighted at 50 per cent of the final mark
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No Exam Information

Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)		Quota: 26
Course Start	Semester 2
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 172 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 50 %, Coursework 40 %, Practical Exam 10 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Students will complete one essay of 3,000 words and sit one two-hour Degree Examination. The final mark will be composed of the essay mark, weighted at 40 per cent of the final mark, mark for oral presentation at 5 per cent, mark for participation in seminars at 5 per cent, and the exam mark, weighted at 50 per cent of the final mark
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Academic year 2014/15, Part-year visiting students only (VV1)		Quota: 3
Course Start	Semester 1
Timetable	Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info)	Total Hours: 200 ( Seminar/Tutorial Hours 22, Summative Assessment Hours 2, Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 172 )
Assessment (Further Info)	Written Exam 50 %, Coursework 40 %, Practical Exam 10 %
Additional Information (Assessment)	Students will complete one essay of 3,000 words and sit one two-hour Degree Examination. The final mark will be composed of the essay mark, weighted at 40 per cent of the final mark, mark for oral presentation at 5 per cent, mark for participation in seminars at 5 per cent, and the exam mark, weighted at 50 per cent of the final mark
Feedback	Not entered
No Exam Information

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: By the end of this course, the students are expected to emerge with: A sound and coherent grasp of key political, economic, social, cultural and ethnic developments in the Soviet Union in the period from 1953 until 1991; A better understanding of the developments of the Cold War that involved the participation of the Soviet Union; A familiarity with a change in the historiography on the Soviet Union in the designated period and understanding of how and why historiography on the USSR has developed over time; A capacity to engage critically with the relevant textual and non-textual primary and secondary sources.

Reading List
Allen, Robert C., Farm to factory : a reinterpretation of the Soviet industrial revolution (2003) Brown, Archie, Seven years that changed the world : perestroika in perspective (2007) Gill, Graeme, Symbols and Legitimacy in Soviet Politics (2011) Half-lives and half-truths : confronting the radioactive legacies of the cold war, ed. by Barbara Rose Johnston (2007) Hosking, Geoffrey A., A history of the Soviet Union (1992) Kenez, Peter, A history of the Soviet Union from the beginning to the end (1999) i oi a n, S. A., The Soviet Cuban missile crisis : Castro, Mikoyan, Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the missiles of November, (2012) Tompson, W., Khrushchev: A Political Life (1994) Tompson, W., The Soviet Union under Brezhnev (2003) Yurchak, A., Everything was Forever, Until it was no More: The Last Soviet Generation (2006)

Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills	Students will develop further their capacity to pursue independent lines of research; work in groups; present their individual conclusions both in writing and orally.
Keywords	End_of_Soviet_Era

Contacts
Course organiser	Dr Nataliya Kibita Tel: Email: nkibita@exseed.ed.ac.uk	Course secretary	Miss Annabel Stobie Tel: (0131 6)50 Email: Annabel.Stobie@ed.ac.uk