This seminar course will examine Russia’s relations with Western states, how Russians have understood the West, and how Westerners have perceived Russia over the past three centuries. Among the topics to be covered: Russian imperialism (and the varied ways the West has reacted to it), Russia’s tangled relationship with the Balkans, and the origins and outcome of the Cold War.

The course is open to all majors. A basic knowledge of modern European history is expected.

Course Requirements:

Students will be expected to lead at least one discussion, write two 4-6 page reviews of a week's readings (which will be distributed by e-mail before the class meets), and write a research paper of 12 to 16 pages in length.

Syllabus:

Malia, LeDonne, and Zubok are available for purchase at the Book Store. All Readings will on reserve at the Library.

Week 1: Introduction to the Course
Briefly review recent articles on Russia by Henry Kissinger, Charles Krauthammer, Richard Kagan (to be passed out in class)

Week 2: Russia and the West Before Peter
Richard Wortman, Scenarios of Power -- pp. 13-41
Lindsey Hughes, Sophia -- chs. 1, 7-8
William Fuller, Strategy and Power in Russia, 1600-1914 -- Introduction, ch. 1

Week 3: Cutting a Window Through to Europe: The "Westernization" of Russia and Russia's Entrance into Europe
John LeDonne, Russia and the World -- pp. xi-xvii, 1-30, 227-33, 289-95
Martin Malia, Russia Under Western Eyes -- pp. ix-xii, 3-42
Ragsdale and Ponomarev, ed., Imperial Russian Foreign Policy -- ch. 1 (Anisimov)
Evgenii Anisimov, The Reforms of Peter the Great -- pp. 217-243
Fuller, Strategy, -- ch. 2 (skim 37-44)
Hughes, Russia in the Age of Peter the Great, pp. 280-331

Week 4: The Two-Headed Eagle: Expanding Westward, Turning Inward in the 18th Century
Malia -- pp. 42-84
LeDonne -- pp. 30-62, 233-46, 295-300
Rogger, National Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century Russia -- Introduction, chs. 1, 4, 6, Conclusion
Fuller -- ch. 4

Week 5: Savior or Destroyer: Europe to Russia, Russia to Europe
Malia -- 87-159
Nicholas Riasanovsky -- Russia and the West in the Teaching of the Slavophiles, -- chs. 3-4
Petr Chaadaev, "First Philosophical Letter" and "Apologia of a Madman"
Berlin, "Introduction" to the English version of Herzen, From the Other Shore
Herzen, "The Russian People and Socialism"

Week 6: Balkan Entanglements
LeDonne, 89-129, 137-144, 247-272
Barbara Jelavich, Russia's Balkan Entanglements, 1806-1914, chs. 1, 3, 4
Dietrich Geyer, Russian Imperialism, pp. 1-85
 

Week 7: Russia and the Origins of the First World War
Malia, 163-191
LeDonne, 144-51, 272-85, 327-345
D. C. B. Lieven, Russia and the Origins of the First World War (entire)
 
 

Week 8: The Russian Revolution and the Civil War: A New Relationship with the West?
Malia, ch. 4
David Foglesong, America's Secret War Against Bolshevism, Introduction, chs.2, 6-7, Conclusion
Lenin, "Report on War and Peace," "Capitalist Discords and the Concessions Policy" (From The Lenin Anthology ed. by Robert Tucker)
Stalin, "Two Camps"
George Kennan, Russia and the West Under Lenin and Stalin, chs. 3, 5-8

Week 9: Stalin and the Origins of the Second World War
Malia, 290-356
Aleksandr Nekrich, Pariahs, Partners, Predators, Introduction, pp. 1-35, 63-246
Kennan, chs. 17, 20-22

Week 10: The Origins of the Cold War
Malia, 357-73
Zubok and Pleshakov, Inside the Kremlin's Cold War, Preface, Prologue, chs. 1-4
Norman Naimark, The Russians in Germany, chs. 2-3
 

Week 11: The Origins of the Cold War II
Naimark, ch 6
Vojtech Mastny, The Cold War and Soviet Insecurity, Introduction, chs. 1-4, 8, 10, Conclusion
Melvyn P. Leffler, "The Cold War: What Do 'We Now Know'?", American Historical Review, CIV, No. 2 (April 1999): 501-524
Gaddis, We Now Know, chs. 1, 2, pp. 113-38

Week 12: Khrushchev's Western Gambit: The Cuban Missile Crisis
Zubok and Pleshakov, chs. 6, 8
Fursenko and Naftali, One Hell of a Gamble chs. 1-4, 7-11, 15-16
 

Week 13: The Collapse -- and After
Malia, 373-407
Excerpt from Remnick, Lenin's Tomb
Iver Neumann, Russia and the Idea of Europe, chs. 7-8
Leszek Buszynski, Russian Foreign Policy after the Cold War, pp. 1-136

Week 14: Russia and the West -- That which abides. . .
Malia, pp. 411-418
LeDonne, Conclusion
Neumann, ch. 9
Alfred Rieber, "Persistent factors in Russian Foreign Policy: An Interpretive Essay" in Imperial Russian Foreign Policy
Barrington Moore, Soviet Politics: The Dilemma of Power, pp. 350-401
Review Kagan, Kissinger, and Krauthammer pieces passed out at beginning of course

Week 15: Review of Course: Final papers due