Undergraduate Course: Stalin's Russia, 1921-1941 (HIST10336)
Course Outline
| School | School of History, Classics and Archaeology |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 40 |
ECTS Credits | 20 |
| Summary | This course offers a survey of the revolutionary communist experiments carried out by the USSR from 1921 to 1941, giving the students a chance to engage with the latest debates in Russian history and with in-depth primary source analysis. This period is crucial to understanding the rise and fall of the world's first great socialist state, and provides a Russian perspective on important debates in modern history. |
| Course description |
This is a study of the emergence and evolution of a 'Stalinist' regime, culture and society. There is a wide variety of published translated Russian primary source material available on this subject, giving the students a chance to engage with the latest debates in Russian history. This period is crucial to understanding the rise and fall of the world's first great socialist experiment, and provides a Russian perspective on important debates in modern history: Did communism offer a more viable model of modernity than capitalism? Why did so many European states turn towards political extremism, violence and dictatorship in the early twentieth century? Why did these tyrannous regimes fail?
Content note: The study of History inevitably involves the study of difficult topics that we encourage students to approach in a respectful, scholarly, and sensitive manner. Nevertheless, we remain conscious that some students may wish to prepare themselves for the discussion of difficult topics. In particular, the course organiser has outlined that the following topics may be discussed in this course, whether in class or through required or recommended primary and secondary sources: political, social, and nationalist violence, the use of torture in police investigations, extreme bureaucracy, forced labour, genocidal famine, and mass executions. While this list indicates sensitive topics students are likely to encounter, it is not exhaustive because course organisers cannot entirely predict the directions discussions may take in tutorials or seminars, or through the wider reading that students may conduct for the course.
|
Course Delivery Information
|
| Academic year 2025/26, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
|
Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
400
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 44,
Summative Assessment Hours 3,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 8,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
345 )
|
| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
50 %,
Coursework
50 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Students will complete two essays of 4,000 words and sit one three-hour exam. The final mark will be composed of the essay mark, weighted at 50% of the final mark, and the exam mark, weighted at 50% of the final mark. |
| Feedback |
Students will receive written feedback on their coursework, and will have the opportunity to discuss that feedback further with the Course Organiser during their published office hours or by appointment. |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | | 00 | | | Resit Exam Diet (August) | | 180 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- demonstrate command of the body of knowledge considered in the course;
- read, analyse and reflect critically upon relevant scholarship;
- understand, evaluate and utilise a variety of primary source material;
- develop and sustain scholarly arguments in oral and written form, by formulating appropriate questions and utilising relevant evidence;
- demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
|
Reading List
Philip Boobbyer (ed.), The Stalin Era (London, 2000).
Richard Sakwa (ed.), The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union (London, 1999).
J. Arch Getty & Oleg Naumov (eds.) The Road to Terror (Yale UP, 1999).
Ronald Grigor Suny (ed.), The Structure of Soviet History: Essays and Documents (Oxford, 2003).
Chris Ward, Stalin's Russia (London, 1999).
Simon Sebag-Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (London, 2003).
Robert Service, Stalin: A Biography (London, 2004).
Sarah Davies & James Harris (eds.), Stalin: A New History (Cambridge, 2005). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Stalin's Russia |
Contacts
| Course organiser | |
Course secretary | |
|
|
University Homepage