The History of
Imperial Russia 		Dickinson State
University


Course Overview

America's interest in Russian history is largely the consequence of the Cold War. Russian Communism, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, appeared as an enigma wrapped up in a mystery. Nicolas Berdyaev's The Origin of Russian Communism (1937) outlined the nature of this problem within the context of Russian history. Berdyaev's account emphasized the differences between being Russian and part of the West as the key to understanding the nature of the Russian soul. Understanding Marxism was no part of that key.

Russia's two-fold nature can be defined as (a) international; and a world phenomenon and (b) as national and Russian. Spiritually, the Russian people are an Eastern people. As Berdyaev saw it, Russia is the Christian East, which was for two centuries subject to the powerful influences of the West, and whose cultured classes assimilated every Western idea. The fate of the Russian people in history has been an unhappy one and full of suffering. It has developed at a catastrophic tempo through interruption and change in its type of civilization.

Modifying Berdyaev's vision slightly, one can identify six different Russias in history: the ussia dominated by Kiev, the Russia of the Tartar period, the Russia of the Moscow period, the imperial Russia of Peter the Great, Soviet Russia, and the revived nationalist Russia of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). It would not be true to say that Russia is a land of new culture, that not long ago it was still half barbarous; in a definite sense Russia is a land of ancient culture. The Russia of the Kiev period gave birth to a higher culture than that of the contemporary West. Already in the fourteenth century there existed in Russia a classically perfect iconography and a remarkable architecture. Russia of the Moscow period developed a very high culture in the plastic arts with an organic integrated style and highly finished forms of life. This was an Eastern culture -- the culture of the Christianized Tartar Empire.

The culture of Moscow was developed in constant opposition to the Latin West and to foreign customs. But in the Muscovite Empire intellectual culture was very weak and lacked expression. The Muscovite Empire was almost without thought and speech, but during this period, in addition to the development of the plastic arts, the elemental basis of the life of the time was given significant form; and this was lacking in the Russia of Peter the Great, though the latter awoke to the expression of ideas in words. Thinking Russia, which produced a great literature and sought after social justice, was dismembered and styleless and had no organic unity.

The inconsistency of the Russian spirit is due to the complexity of Russian history, to the conflict of the Eastern and Western elements in her. The soul of the Russian people was molded by the Orthodox Church -- it was shaped in a purely religious mould. And that religious mould was preserved even to our own day, to the time of the Russian nihilists and communists. But in the Russian soul there remained a strong natural element, linked with the immensity of Russian itself, with the boundless Russian plain.........These are the basic elements with which this course will deal as we move from the from the ninth century to the revolutions of twentieth.

Assignments

All students will have their final grades based on at least the following factors: a midterm (25% of the total grade) and a final examination (with the first hour covering materials since the midterm examination and 50% of the final grade). In addition, there will be three in-class book reviews.

The two examinations will consist entirely of questions taken from Study Guides sheets that will be handed out to the class periodically, usually one or two for each week. (The Study Guide sheets will include reading assignments, guides for written assignments, identification terms, and important information.) Each examination will consist of two sections: (1) identifications (30% of the grade) and two essays (70% of the grade). The first hour of the final examination will consist of one out of three or four broad based questions covering certain aspects of the entire course. These questions will be chosen by the instructor from a special Study Guide that will be handed out to the class well before the study period for the final examinations.

Each student will be required to write three analytical reviews of four to six pages each (hand-written and in class) based on assigned paperback books. Each paper will take up one broad question out of several that will provide an opportunity to incorporate material from the entire book. All three together represent 25% of the total grade.

Policy on Academic Misconduct

Dickinson State University does not sanction or tolerate academic misconduct by students. Academic misconduct such as cheating on exams, plagiarism, et cetera, are defined in the Dickinson State University Student Guide under Article III.A. - Academic Misconduct. When the instructor has substantiated evidence that such an academic misconduct has occurred, the instructor can determine the degree of penalty ranging from loss of points to receiving an "F" as the semester grade.

Back-Up Copies of Papers and Graded Materials

Students are asked to retain copies of all papers which they submit as insurance against lost or misplaced papers. Graded materials returned to you should be carefully stored away as insurance against an incorrect or incomplete grade at the conclusion of the semester. You may be called upon to return some graded materials to the instructor from time to time. Students are encouraged to study their graded materials in order to improve their performance during the course of the semester.

Student Learning Outcomes (Institutional, Program, and Course Outcomes)

Institutional Student Learning Outcomes

Consistent with Dickinson State University's six Institutional Student Learning Outcomes, this course will develop higher order and critical thinking skills by comparing and contrasting the perspectives offered from a wide variety of politicians, thinkers and writers from those events perpetuated over the centuries regarding the course and consequences of the history of Russia from the earliest times through the revolutions of 1917. Second, students will be expected to demonstrate the aforementioned skills through two in-class written examination as well as through three in-depth book reviews. Third and fourth, history as an essential liberal arts discipline serves to enhance these values while this course reinforces the student's depth of knowledge in the field of history. Fifth and sixth, this type of course is essential to developing substantial depth of knowledge in a content area, in the pursuit of advanced degrees in history, and in preparing the student to handle a wider array of changes relevant to the use of history in everyday life.

Program Student Learning Outcomes

Specifically, the History of Russia serves the various history majors and minor fields. It provides the student with an upper-division class designed provide the student with the a more in depth study of Russian history in the fulfillment of graduation requirements for the major/minor in question. Its unique contribution is in the presentation of unique elements of historical analysis and research which have had a dynamic impact on the course of world history.

Course Student Learning Outcomes

These outcomes follow closely the materials outlined within the table of contents of your textbook and in the items described in class. The definition of the items listed and their historical significance is the intended subject of the course and constitutes the core of the lectures presented during the class. Given the limitations of student knowledge of foreign languages and relative inability to access the materials through either the Internet or through published works, lectures will provide the key means by which students will develop a proper understanding of the materials over which they will be tested.

General Overviews

General overviews of the materials covered in lecture (and study topics) can through the Gateway to World History and through the World Cultures Internet Resource. Both offer substantial links with other sites related to Russian history as well as many other sites of interest. For the more aggressive person looking for everything in one place, check out Planet Earth!

More seriously, it is important to do some early exploring to discover for yourself something of the resources -- and their limitations -- which are currently available through the World Wide Web. I would also suggest looking into the following sites:

© 2003 by David A. Meier