HIST 407/507:
Russian Political Culture:
A Research Group
Instructor Approval required

Professor Alan Kimball (EMAIL OR tel. x4813)
Office hours = TU & TH 10:00-12:00 in McK 367 or by appointment

Table of Contents =

WEEKS ONE and TWO = Establishing shared perspective
 *--Exercise one = General readings
 *--Exercise two = How to use SAC
 *--Exercise three = Search chronologically for a topic
 *--Exercise four = Search some key words for a topic
 *--Exercise five = Prepare a book report for the group
WEEK THREE = Continue
WEEKS FOUR & FIVE = Individual Conferences
WEEKS SIX & SEVEN = Oral Reports
WEEKS EIGHT, NINE & TEN = Written Précis
THE FINAL BIG TASK = Formal Research Report

THIS WEBSITE GROWS AND CHANGES THROUGH THE QUARTER.
IT NEEDS TO BE "REFRESHED" EVERY TIME YOU OPEN IT ON Y0UR COMPUTER.
THIS MAKES SURE THAT YOU OPEN THE LATEST VERSION.
OTHERWISE YOUR COMPUTER MIGHT OPEN THE OLD SITE IT "MEMORIZED" BEFORE THE LATEST CHANGES.

WEEKS ONE AND TWO
(WE WILL PLAN WEEK THREE TOGETHER AS WE GO) =

Each member of the Research Group will devote about eleven hours per week, outside of our meeting times, on our projects (and about twenty hours in the final week of the term as individual research reports are completed [ID])

The purpose of these first three weeks is to read about and to discuss a few general, theoretical perspectives and to discover and define individual research topics, all within the broad range of the Research Group's shared interests. In other words, each researcher should move quickly from a broad focus to a close-up focus on a specific topic.

Here at the beginning, each Researcher should take up the following five reading exercises. These exercises will spill over into week three =

Exercise One
Some general readings to give the research group a degree of shared perspective =

Kimball,"Ways of Seeing History" [TXT] with 3 sub-essays =
(1) Groups [TXT]
(2) perceived interests [TXT]
(3) historical taxonomy [TXT]

How might we define and provide chronological limits to our shared topic?

Consider Christopher Read's historiographic essay on the way late-Imperial Russian history has been narrated

Kimball, "Pre-Soviet Concepts of Civil Society and Their Legacy" [TXT] 
As for "post-Soviet", GO "Kimball, "Madison in Russia" [TXT], especially Madison's "universal doctrine of factions" [TXT]

Exercise Two =

KIMBALL FILES, Student's Annotated Chronology and Systematic Bibliography [SAC] = How to use SAC
EG= Find function and Hypertext LOOP.

Exercise Three =

In search for ideas about your own focused research topic,
surf quickly through these SAC links
to some main moments in the history of Russian political culture =

0. *1814:1825; Vital early episode misleadingly packaged as "Decembrist Movement" [LOOP]
1.  *1850s:1880s; Background = "Era of Great Reforms" and two "Revolutionary Situations"
2.  *1880s:1904; Statist Reaction [LOOP on phrase "tsarist state" (about 15 hops up to the 1905 Revolution)]
3.  *1880s:1904; Public Political Mobilization [LOOP on phrase "political party" (about 7 hops)]
4.  *1905 Revolution ["1905 LOOP" with about 10 hops, many with several entries (definition of SAC entry = text between "<>" and "<>")]
5.  *1907:1912; Era of the Third State Duma [Ca.30 entries from 1907no01 to 1912ap| Brush over entries unrelated to Russia]
6.  *1914:1918; WW1 and Russian Politics [LOOP on "War-time origins of Russian revolutions"]
7.  *1917fe23:1917mr02; Collapse of the Imperial Regime [Six entries between 1917fe23 and 1917mr02]
8.  *1917mr02:1917oc25; Provisional Government [First entry summarizes this period and provides several "hops"]
9.  *1917oc25:1918mr03; The Soviet Revolution [First entry summarizes the period and provides several "hops"]
10. *1918ja16:1920no14; Consolidation of Power and Revolutionary Civil War
11. *1921:1927; "Lenin's Last Struggle" and the era of NEP (New Economic Policy)
12. *1927:1939; Stalinism
13. *1961:+; Era of dissent [LOOP]
14. *1985:1991; Perestroika and disintegration of the USSR
15. *1991:1999; The Yeltsin Era (LOOP begins in Perestroika era)
16. *1999:+; The Putin Era | Mikhail Khodorkovskii

Exercise Four =

As you work to define your own research topic, skim through some of these hypertext linked suggestions about topics and readings.
Suggestions concentrate on the causes, course and consequences of the 1905 Revolution and are listed alphabetically here.
 These repeat certain points explored under numbers 3, 4 and 5 in Exercise Three above =

Alexandra, Empress of Russia. (Do her early letters express a "political ideology"?)
Aristocratic political culture in the last half century of the Russian Empire [LOOP on "statist reaction"]
Aristocrats and peasants expressed themselves in petitions, etc., some translated in Freeze
"Asiatic Mode of Production" = Wittfogel
Aleksandr Blok (poet)
Childhood and political culture [Example]
Culture and Revolution = Andrei Belyi, Aleksandr Blok, Revolution of the Spirit
Democracy = Jacob Walkin
Durnovo and Russian ministerial reaction [LOOP]
Economic history = "The Witte System"
Ethnic or National minority programs & policies of the imperial state & political opposition = Census | Page on "nationalities"
Eyewitnesses =

Maurice Baring
Albert Beveridge
Custine
Haxthausen
George Kennan
Leroy-Beaulieu
Henry Norman
G. Maurice Paléologue
Bernard Pares |  ?Compare with Samuel Harper [ID]?
Albert Rhys Williams,Albert Rhys, and wife Araidna Tyrkova-Villiams
John Reed
Nikolai Sukhanov
Donald McKenzie Wallace
William English Walling

Exercise Five =

Each researcher will prepare a book report for the Group. Here are some hops to bibliographies that should be helpful as we distribute book reports among us =

Bibliographic Table Arranged by Historical Topics or Eras
"THE GREAT BONEYARD" BIBLIOGRAPHY
Some theoretical titles on "revolution"

Useful "reference works" would include comprehensive monographs,
Knight Library Reference Division encyclopedias and monographs

You might also take note of some anthologies of primary documents

Here is a list of the book reports distributed among the members of the Research Group ["byd" means the link is to the review now posted on the big boneyard bibliography] =

Here are some elementary but useful questions the critical reader can put to any serious text
And here are three rather more specific questions each researcher should ask of these readings =

(1) How do these readings help us define Russian political culture with reference to our theme?
(2) What are the most important insights, general or theoretical perspectives, and/or telling details?
(3) How do your book's main points relate to what you find in one or more of the reference monographs? [EGs]

At the third-week meeting of the Group (see below), researchers should prepare to deliver ten-minute oral reports on their books.

By the end of Friday of week three, these book reports will be written up and submitted as email text to Senior Researcher Kimball.
Kimball will give each review in the LIST above a hypertext link, allowing each Researcher to study their own review and those submitted by fellow Researchers.

Here are some book reports by previous members of the Research Group =

Anweiler,Oskar. The Soviets
Ascher, Revolution
Avrich,Russian Anarchists
Carr, Romantic Exiles
Daly,Jonathan. Autocracy Under Siege: Security Police
Engelstein,Laura. Moscow,1905
Eklof
Froehlich, Emergence
Gammer,Muslim
Hamburg,Chicherin
Harcave,Witte
Kappeler
Kassow,Samuel. Students, Professors and the State
Lampert, Sons
Levin,Alfred. Third Duma
Mazour,First
Mehlinger,Howard, and John M. Thompson. Count Witte
Miliukov,Pavel. The Russian Revolution
Owen,Thomas. Capitalism and Politics in Russia
Pares,Bernard. The Fall of the Russian Monarchy
Pipes,Richard. Russian conservatism
Reed,Christopher. Religion, Revolution
Riasanovsky,Nicholas. A Parting of Ways
Riha,Thomas. A Russian European: Paul Miliukov
Robinson,GT. Rural Russia
Rosenberg,William. Liberals
Saul
Shanin,Teodor. Roots of Otherness v1
Shanin,Teodor. Roots of Otherness v2
Thaden,E. C. Conservative Nationalism
Venturi,Franco. Roots of Revolution
Zuckerman,Frederic. The Tsarist Secret Police

WEEK THREE

Complete discussions of KNIGHT LIBRARY and SAC readings and prepare for weeks four and five

1. Discuss individual book reviews (as outlined above)
2. Compose and email full book reviews to Senior Researcher Kimball by Friday of this third week
---| Once Senior Researcher Kimball has received and hypertexted them, you may click on the list of readings and hop to where they are posted
3. Establish individual "short lists" of research topics prior to first individual meeting in week four (just below)

The purpose of these two individual meetings in weeks four and five is to (1) define individual research interests, (2) rank them according to significance, (3) after discussion, choose one, (4) boil it down to essential details, then (5) adjust focus in view of available primary documentation. Each researcher should come to consultations having made as much progress in these five areas as possible.

At the third-week meeting of the Research Group, each member will have indicated which of the sixteen time slots identified in the table below work for them. The distribution of names will be posted in the table below by the weekend of week three. After names are posted in the time slots, each Researcher should check for errors or problems and bring them to the attention of Senior Researcher Kimball.

WEEKS SIX & SEVEN =
Brief oral presentations and discussion during the Group's regular meeting time
In the table below, the first column lists presenters.
By the end of week five, the second column will also identify individual research topics, with hypertext link to SAC (when possible).
The third column indicates who will serve as "interlocutor" for each oral report.
The "interlocutor" is the Research Group member responsible to open the discussion and keep it moving along,
but everyone is expected to participate
Therefore, every member of the research group (especially the interlocutors) should prepare themselves to participate in group discussions.
One good way to prepare is to hop off the topical links to SAC [ID].
Here is a reminder of what is meant by SAC "LOOP".
Interlocutors should also look up their presenter's topic in MERSH
or one of the reference monographs before the meeting,
better to carry out their leadership role in discussion.
When we discuss the work of fellow researchers, we can use that set of critical questions we used for the early monograph reports.
Our purpose is to learn from the presenter and to contribute to the progress of the presenter
toward preparation of the précis [ID]
and the final research paper [ID].

WEEK SIX =

WEEK SEVEN =
The Research Group will proceed as in the introduction to the previous week

WEEKS EIGHT, NINE AND TEN =
Brief written précis
Here is a definition of the précis
Before noon Friday of the previous week,
each presenter listed for the week ahead will send Senior Researcher Kimball
<kimball@uoregon.edu>
an electronic copy of their précis.
"Cut" and "paste" the précis into an email text.
Avoid sending reports as attachments.
Senior Researcher Kimball will then distribute these texts by email to all members of the Research Group.
Each member of the Research Group should print out the copies they receive for careful reading and annotation.
At the following Group meeting, we will all discuss the submitted texts.
The "interlocutor" is the Research Group member responsible to open the discussion of the text and keep it moving along.
But everyone is expected to participate, just as in the earlier discussions of oral reports.
At the end of each of these meetings,
members of the Research Group will hand their annotated copies of the précis to Senior Researcher Kimball
who will then distribute them to those who have made the reports, for their use and benefit.

WEEK EIGHT =

WEEK NINE =
The Research Group will proceed as in the introduction to the previous week

WEEK TEN =
The Research Group will proceed as in the above introduction to these final weeks

FINALS WEEK =
Submit individual, original, formal research report [ID]
The research report should be an appropriately expanded full narrative account, based on the brief written précis.
The research report should grow naturally from the précis but be about twice or three times longer,
once you have inserted further detail and narrative interpretation,
and attached a final bibliography.
Submit the final research report as a Microsoft-compatible formatted text attached to an email
and sent to Senior Researcher Kimball <kimball@uoregon.edu>.
Submit the final research report on the last day of finals week at 5pm (early submissions welcome).
Senior Researcher Kimball at this time will have been transformed, like Gandalf, into Editor Kimball.
Editor Kimball is not the evil twin of Senior Researcher Kimball, but he does perform a different role.
Thus transformed, Editor Kimball will judge each project as would a fellowship foundation committee,
or a press editor,
or a personnel manager of a firm you would like to join.
Kimball will judge the report as if it were an application
for a research grant,
for a monetary advance on a manuscript for publication,
or for a job.
You want to present your report in the finest way you can.
Your goal should be technical perfection and the highest level of persuasive clarity you can achieve.
Don't let anyone tell you the university is not "the real world".
It is both the real and the actual world.
For the most part, only those who have been to the university know there is a distinction.
For those who would like to explore the possibility of publishing their research report, one option would be the journal The Historian,
issued on behalf of Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society.
They have a good record of publishing quality work by undergraduates and graduate students,
as well as by seasoned scholars.

ARE YOU LOOKING AHEAD to NEXT YEAR?

TBA

TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE 10-WEEK STRUCTURE OF THE TERM RETURN TO TOP

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin (1876-1942), illustrator
A visual idealization of tsarist authority
based on the lines

"Our Tsarevich, much amazed,
At a spacious city gazed...."

from
Skazki by Alexander Pushkin

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