PLCP3210. Russian Politics. Spring 2016

 

Mr. Lynch

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 2-3:15 pm, Clark 107

Office hours: Tuesdays, 3:30-4:45 pm; Thursdays, 12:30-1:45 pm at 397 Gibson (So. Lawn).

 

This course offers an interpretation of Russian politics, in both historical and contemporary perspective. There will be three take-home essays due on February 19, March 18 and May 6. These assignments will be analytical essays conducted on an open-book, open-notes basis. Work will be evaluated according to the following criteria: degree of command of readings and lectures, respectively; incisive and coherent analytical faculty, as well as sound and original judgment. A grade of “A” denotes excellence on all counts. Please keep in mind that a grade of “B” denotes “good” performance. The first essay will count 20% toward your final grade; the second and final essays will count 40% each. In addition, students will have the option of submitting one extra-credit essay (to be determined).

 

 

Books Ordered for Purchase:

 

Richard Pipes, Russia Under the Old Regime

Martin Malia, The Soviet Tragedy

Lilia Shevtsova, Russia: Lost in Transition. The Yeltsin & Putin Legacies

Stephen White & Richard Sakwa, eds., Developments in Russian Politics, 8 (2014).

 

All other readings are available on the course Collab site, indicated by “(C)”.

 

 

 

 

Schedule of Classes:

 

January 21. Introduction to the Class.

 

January 26. Environmental Factors Shaping Russian Political Development.

Read: Richard Pipes, Russia under the Old Regime, 1-26; Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy, The Siberian Curse, 26-56 (C); Allen Lynch, How Russia is Not Ruled, ch1, 18-46 (C).

 

January 28. The Concept of Patrimonialism in Russian & Comparative Perspective.

Read: Pipes, 27-83; George Vernadsky, The Mongol Impact on Russia (C).

 

February 2. The Anatomy of Russian Patrimonialism.

Read: Pipes, 84-140.

 

February 4. The Russian Political Accomplishment.

Read: Pipes, 141-90; Marshall Poe, The Russian Moment in World History (C).

 

February 9. The Russian Dilemma.

Read: Robert Wesson, The Russian Dilemma (C); Pipes, 191-248.

 

February 11. Toward the Russian Revolutions: A Classic Crisis of Political Development.

Read: Pipes, 249-318; Martin Malia, The Soviet Tragedy, 21-78.

 

February 16. The Russian Revolutions, 1905, 1917: Class & National Uprisings.

Read: Malia, 81-138; Richard Pipes, ch.11, 1917 & the Disintegration of Russia (C); E.H. Carr, Soviet Impact on the Western World (C).

First take-home assignment to be distributed: due in paper form at 5 pm on Friday, February 19 at 397 Gibson. (20%)

 

 

February 18. The Politics of the New Economic Policy, 1921-27.

Read: Malia, 139-226; Rolf Theen, Lenin (C).

 

February 23. Stalinism.

Read: Malia, 227-314; Aleksandr N. Yakovlev, A Century of Violence in Soviet Russia (C).

 

February 25. Nikita Khrushchev & Destalinization.

Read: Malia, 315-350; William Taubman, Khrushchev, ch. 11, 270-99 (C).

 

March 1. Why Gorbachev? Legacies of Stagnation, 1964-85.

Read: Malia, 351-401; Georgy Arbatov, The System, ch. 9 (C, in three parts).

 

March 3. Gorbachev’s Strategies & Results.

Read: Malia, 405-444; Allen C. Lynch, Soviet and Chinese Reform Strategies: Deng & Gorbachev Compared (C).

 

March 8 & 10: No Class. Spring Break.

 

March 15. The Collapse of the Soviet Union (and of the Russian Empire, again).

Read: Malia, 445-490; Jack F. Matlock, Jr., Autopsy of an Empire (C).

Second take-home assignment to be distributed; due in paper form by 5 pm on Friday, March 18 at 397 Gibson. (40%)

 

 

March 17. The Post-Soviet “Transition”: Privatization or Piratization?

Read: Malia, 491-520; Marshall Goldman, The Piratization of Russia (C); Varese, Is Sicily the Future of Russia? (C).

 

 

 

March 22. Conceptual Issues of post-Communist “Transition.”

Read: Alexander J. Motyl, Dilemmas of Independence (C); Sarah Mendelsohn, Democratic Assistance & Russia’s Transition (C).

 

March 24. The Russian 1990’s: Another “Time of Troubles.”

Read: Lilia Shevstova, Russia: Lost in Transition, 1-35; Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization & its Discontents (C); Tanya Frisby, The Rise of Organized Crime in post-Communist Russia (C).

 

March 29. Wars in Chechnya and Russian Politics.

Read: Shevtsova, 37-149; Anna Politkovskaya, A Small Corner of Hell (C).

 

March 31. From Yelstin to Putin.

Read: Shevtsova, 36-65.

 

April 5. The Political Socialization of Vladimir Putin.

Read: Allen C. Lynch, Vladimir Putin & Russian Statecraft, 1-26 (C); Vladimir Shlapentokh, Hobbes and Locke at Odds in Putin’s Russia (C).

 

April 7. The Anatomy of Putin’s Political Machine.

Read: Shevstova, 97-148; Stephen White and Richard Sakwa, eds., Developments in Russian Politics, 8, 19-59.

 

April 12. Society and the State.

Read: White & Sakwa, Developments, 8, 117-144, 192-210.

 

April 14. Is the Russian Federation a Federation?

Read: White & Sakwa, Developments, 8, 157-172, 145-156.

 

April 19. Public Opinion & Electoral Behavior.

Read: White & Sakwa, Developments, 8, 60-116.

 

April 21. Putin’s “Militocracy”.

Read: White & Sakwa, Developments, 8, 231-246; Olga Kryshtanovskaya, Putin’s Militocracy (C).

 

April 26. The Political Economy of Fossil Fuels.

Read: White and Sakwa, Developments, 8, 173-191; Richard Rose, Popular Support for an Undemocratic Regime, 142-176 (C).

 

April 28. Anti-Americanism in Russian Politics.

Read: White & Sakwa, Developments, 8, 211-230; Shevtsova, 220-268; William Zimmerman, The Russian People & Foreign Policy (C); Dmitri Trenin, Russia Leaves the West (C).

 

May 3. The Crisis of 2014-16 & the Russian Future.

Read: Thomas Ambrosio, Insulating Russia from a Color Revolution (C); White and Sakwa, Developments, 8, 247-263; Richard Rose, Presidential Succession: a Family Problem (C).

 

(A) All extra-credit assignments due by May 3 (in class) in paper form.

 

(B) The final take-home assignment will be distributed. It is due at 397 Gibson in paper form on Friday, May 6 at 12 noon.