The Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet Union played defining roles in the twentieth century, yet are poorly understood. To help us to better grasp their history, this course will integrate the best scholarship and currently available evidence to provide a broad picture of Soviet history that makes the most sense today. We will begin with the context of the Bolshevik seizure of power. Among other topics, the course will cover the relationship of Marxism to Soviet ideology and practice, the rise of Stalin, the Soviet economy, ethnic policy, World War II, the Cold War, Khrushchev’s “thaw,” and Gorbachev and the ultimate fall of the Soviet system. The goal is to give students a new sense of how Soviet history fits into a broader Russian (and human) history.
