ONE-PAGE HAND-OUT SYLLABUS
Detailed Academic Calendar
ONE-PAGE HAND-OUT SYLLABUS
Detailed Academic Calendar
Week-by-week summary =
The course definition of "week" is everything from
the first class meeting in each week until the first such meeting in the next
1. Big picture and/or "long duration" | Get started on
exercise one
and exercise two |
Lecture topics
2. Origins
of modern political culture | Get under way with draft essays #1 and #2 [CF=Exercise
three] Lecture topics
3. Era of Great Reforms / Russian Revolutionary Situations
| Begin thinking about exercise six | Lecture topics
4. Era of Great Reforms / Russian Revolutionary Situations
| Exercise four deadline
5. 1905
Revolution | Lecture topics
6. Revolutions of 1917 | Draft essay #3 [ID] completed at home before
exercise five deadline |
Lecture
topics
7. Revolutions of 1917
(continued) | Exercise six under way
8. Stalinist
"totalitarianism" | Lecture topics
9. Gorbachev and
the collapse of the USSR | Lecture topics
10. "New Russia" |
Exercise seven | Lecture topics
FINALS WEEK = Exercise six deadline
Comprehensive or summary list of seven exercises distributed through the term =
1. Purchase and set up your journal (from week 1 through week 10)
2. Learn how to navigate The Student's Annotated Chronology and
Systematic Bibliography (week 1)
3. Research and compose three draft essays in the journal
4. Submit journal, first time, with general
reading/writing entries, plus the first two draft essays (week 5)
5. Take a midterm exam, with general reading/writing
entries, plus the third draft essay (week 8)
6. Research and compose big term paper (due date on
handout syllabus)
7. Submit journal for final evaluation, with results of
continuing reading/writing, plus the fourth draft essay
ONE PAGE HAND-OUT SYLLABUS =
HST 445/545: RUSSIAN POLITICAL
CULTURE = Russia and Democracy
Alan Kimball, McK 367, 346-4813. Office hours: Tue & Thur 10:00-12:00 & by appointment
KIMBALL@UOREGON.EDU
Most course materials are in the Knight Library or course webpages. You will purchase a lab book, and there you will keep a record of library and webpage readings, write four take-home "draft" essays, & write a midterm exam. There will be no final exam in this course. Instead, you will submit a term paper on the first day of finals week. Here is a basic calendar of the term's due-dates=
!! ap29 [TUE]= --------------- 1st SUBMISSION of JOURNAL (w/ 1st 2 draft
essays & thoughts on research topic)
!! my22 [THU]= -------------- MIDTERM EXAM in JOURNAL (including third draft essay)
!! je03 [TUE] = --------------- FINAL SUBMISSION of
JOURNAL|| I'll have them back to you by THU
!! je13 [FRI] by 5pm= ----- BIG RESEARCH PAPER DUE in MY EMAIL BOX (kimball@uoregon.edu)
First exercise = Purchase and set up your journal. Ask at the customer service desk in the basement of the UO Book Store for a blue lab book (the larger one, 11x9 inches; Stock # 43-581, JUST EXACTLY THIS ONE). The first thing I want you to do with your lab book (let’s call it the journal) is paste a white label securely to the outer upper right-hand corner of the front cover (a mailing label will do). Boldly inscribe your name there. Inscribe other personal contact info on the inner face of the cover, and leave the first 4-5 numbered pages blank for keeping your own table of contents through the term, indicating sources consulted. It is your responsibility here to provide a guide to each part of your journal. Leave page 120 blank for instructor comments & grading. In this journal you will enter lecture notes, keep a record of library work and webpage work, research and write take-home "draft" essays, & write your midterm exam.
Second exercise = Locate this course on the following webpage: http://www.uoregon.edu/~kimball/courses.htm.
Add this URL (web address) to your web-browser's "bookmarks" or "favorites" page. You'll go there often this term.
These first two and five further exercises are listed and explained on the course website.
ABOUT GRADES: Essays & exams are due at the time the class meets on the days specified. Late exercises are penalized one grade. Exercises AWOL 24 hours after due date are given a failing grade. Failure to complete any one of the essays or exams will result in a failing grade for the course. Unpenalized postponement of an exercise is possible only when documented illness or happenstance forces delay, or when arranged in writing beforehand. If you attend class regularly, keep good lecture notes, devote nine hours of your outside-of-class study-week to your reading & writing, & keep a good record in your journal, you may be sure that you are meeting course expectations.
Academic Calendar
In what follows, I try to make each link to SAC [ID] either a single hypertext hop
[ID] or LOOP [ID].
This academic calendar can be taken as a list of potential topics for your draft
essays [ID] written in the journal [ID], or for your
big research report
[ID]
The research report topic may be selected from any part of the
syllabus, early or late.
The topic of your first two draft essays [ID] should probably come from the first half of the calendar (into week 5 [ID]), and the third draft essay topic from the second half.
As you make your choices of topics for draft-essays [ID],
do not let your choices overlap or duplicate one another
Remember the virtue of breadth as you make your selections
You may, however, expand one of your draft essays into the big research report
[ID]
WEEK 1 =
The big picture and/or "the long duration"
EXERCISE ONE =
Purchase and set up your journal.
Ask at the customer service desk in the basement of the UO Book Store for a blue lab book (the larger one, 11x9 inches; Stock # 43-581, JUST EXACTLY THIS ONE). The first thing I want you to do with your lab book (let’s call it the journal) is paste a white label securely to the outer upper right-hand corner of the front cover (a mailing label will do). Boldly inscribe your name there. Inscribe other personal contact info on the inner face of the cover, and leave the first 4-5 numbered pages blank for keeping your own table of contents through the term, indicating sources consulted. It is your responsibility here to provide a guide to each part of your journal. Leave page 120 blank for instructor comments & grading.
Through the whole term, the course requires nine hours a week outside of class time, reading and note-taking, mainly in this journal. I say "mainly in this JOURNAL" because you may toward the end of the term want to do some part of your preparation for exercise six, the big research paper [ID], on your word processor.
Read this extended description of how to use the journal [TXT]
EXERCISE TWO =
Learn how to navigate SAC
Guide to readings throughout the term are provided in lectures outlined on this course webpage and most particularly in the primary and secondary sources indicated in "The Student's Annotated Chronology and Systematic Bibliography" [SAC © Alan Kimball].
Read this extended description of SAC and how to use it [TXT]
You may print any part of the electronic material I provide this class, but do not put printed or photo-copied texts in your journal.The journal is for YOUR WORK.
HOP, if you wish, to EXERCISE THREE
First-week lecture topics
Three interpretive issues =
Ten events, trends or eras of long-term historical significance =
Seven significant implications of the long duration =
(1) Until 1380 [ID] Russian history was thoroughly "contextualized" out on the East European steppes dominated by Byzantine, then Golden-Horde power and culture
(2) From 1380 until well into the reign of Ivan IV [ID], many historians emphasize how Russia's was an "isolated" history, missing four critical episodes of west European "modernization" =
--BUT NB! how complex the issue of "isolation" actually is [LOOP on "isolation"](3) Rise of monarchical absolutism [EG] much earlier and much more pronounced than in the rest of Europe
(4) Russian Orthodox Church became a bureaucratic arm of the tsarist state, alienating millions of intensely religious Christians [EG#1=Old-Ritualists] [EG#2=Slavophiles]
(5) Non-European levels of agrarian poverty were the foundation of the tsarist "service state" [pomeshchiki (ID) and serfs (ID)]
(6) Geo-political insecurity and vulnerability [EG]
(7) "Two cultures" (as per Vladimir Veidle [ID])
Readings in addition to those imbedded in SAC (and relevant to the whole academic term)
(primary sources are in boldface)
Browse through the following three-part list of readings on the big picture and devote about four hours to your choice(s). Search for insight into the long-term Russian political culture. Keep a record of your search in your journal.
General accounts of "Long Duration" [TABLE]
(more like reference works, with short interpretive passages indicated) =
Titles offering vast interpretive perspective =
Early Russian history
Imperial Russia
For wider browsing, here are (1) a big "Bone-Yard" bibliography [TXT] and (2) a systematic bibliography of writings on political culture [TXT]
SUMMARY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FIRST-WEEK "HOPS" in re. COURSE STRUCTURE
This electronic syllabus has so far presented internet "hops" to the following auxiliary pages and subpages =
B. SAC
C. JOURNAL
---1. Reading
---2. Draft essays
---3. Exams
D. GEOGRAPHY
E. WAYS OF SEEING HISTORY
---1. Dozen Categories of Human Grouping
---2. Taxonomy of Historical Experience
---3. Interests
WEEK 2 =
Origins of modern political culture
1825 December 14:Petersburg,
Senate Square. Decembrist Uprising
EXERCISE THREE =
Draft essays
Over the term you will compose three "draft essays". The topics of all three draft essays should grow out of your general course work as laid out in lectures and SAC [ID]. You will enter research notes and the draft essays themselves in your journal [ID]
Read this extended description of the draft essay [TXT]
As you devote the nine hours to reading and writing in the journal every week, you will come across primary documents [ID] that you would like to read with closer attention and research more extensively in the secondary and reference literature.
I am ready to help define topics that best suit you. A purely mechanical but quite satisfactory topic might be titled something like this, "The Significance of [fill in some primary source or sources] in the History of Russian Political Culture" or "The Contribution of [fill in some primary source or sources] to my understanding of the History of Russian Political Culture". You will probably find topics that suit you very well as you do the regular weekly reading. But don't hesitate to ask my advice. The draft essays should be thought of as moments of intense reading and writing about primary (and supportive secondary) sources you come across in the process of weekly reading and writing in the journal.
HERE ARE SOME LINKS TO POSSIBLE PRIMARY DOCUMENTS AND THUS TOPICS FOR THE THREE DRAFT ESSAYS =
DRAFT ESSAYS #1 & #2 should be completed before the time of "first submission" [ID]
One more draft essay will follow =
DRAFT ESSAY #3 = The deadline for the third draft essay is midterm time [ID]. Here are some possible primary documents & topics
Second-week lecture topics
(primary source readings embedded in SAC entries) =
Readings in addition to those imbedded in SAC (secondary sources)
WEEKS 3 & 4 =
Era of Great Reforms and/or Russian Revolutionary Situations
Meeting of peasant elders in mirskoi skhod [village assembly]
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
EXERCISE FOUR =
First submission of journal
The course requires a "no-grade" first submission of the journal to me on the first day of class in the fifth week of the term (see one-page syllabus for exact date). By this time please include in the journal the first two of your draft essays [ID], and a clear list of possible research topics [EXERCISE SIX below] so that I might make recommendations to you on that matter. This first submission is also an early check to see if I can give you any ideas how to proceed with your journal and the course in general.
On the last page of your journal, I enter my evaluations, using what I call "Frequently Observed Qualities" [FOQs]
Third- and fourth-week lecture topics =
Phases Preparatory to the revolutions of 1905 and 1917
*1856:1866; The era of "Great Reforms" [LOOP on "great reform"] and "the first Russian revolutionary situation" [SAC]
*1867:1881; Russian populism [SAC] and "the second Russian revolutionary situation" [SAC]
*1881:1899; Reactionary politics [LOOP on reaction]
Reading possibilities, in addition to [TXT] above and those imbedded in SAC
Secondary sources
Primary sources: Populism and rise of organized political opposition
Titles which offer vast interpretive perspective
and which are particularly relevant to the next three weeks topics =
WEEK 5 =
The rise of organized political parties and the 1905 Revolution
Fifth-week lecture topics =
Readings in addition to those
imbedded in SAC, divided into categories
(Readings in boldface are primary sources)
General perspective on late 19th and early 20th centuries =
Economic modernization and politics =
Zemstvo and "liberal" movements =
Marxism =
Peasants and industrial workers =
Revolution of 1905 =
State Duma =
Silver-Age Culture =
WEEKS 6 & 7 =
Revolutions of 1917
Emperor Nicholas II, Supreme Commander
of Russian armies in World War One
Sixth- and seventh-week lecture topics
Special page devoted to the long-term background and consequences of the 1905 Revolution (1860-1927)
Readings in addition to those imbedded in SAC
EXERCISE FIVE =
Midterm exam
A midterm exam will follow a standard form [ID | See one-page syllabus for exact date]
You will write the exam in your journal and submit it to me at the end of the exam period
The journal will already contain your first two draft essays [ID], and now should contain the third
A fourth and final essay is you BIG RESEARCH PAPER [ID].
Here are specific instructions for the midterm exam =
I will select four items from the following list of topics for the midterm exam. From among these you will then select two as the subject of your exam essays. Mini-max strategists among us instantly see that they may now, if they wish, set aside one of the topics on the list just below. If you do that, consider setting aside the topic below that most nearly replicates one of your draft essay topics. That way you can avoid repetition and show wholesome breadth of learning in your journal. In any event, if your draft-essay topics are both among the four I select (highly unlikely), you will still have the other two to write about. Don't worry. No one will be "snookered". I want you to know something about all these things, but I also want to make sure you are able to show what you have learned, not what you might, just might, not have learned.
I ask the same question about each of the following topics = "What does the following person, group, epoch, trend or episode contribute to our understanding of Russian political culture?" (Topics are here hypertext linked to facilitate study)
On the last page of your journal, I enter my evaluations, using what I call "Frequently Observed Qualities" [FOQs]
EXERCISE SIX =
BIG RESEARCH PAPER
You will write a BIG RESEARCH PAPER submitted by email [ID]. (I call exercise six "big research paper" to distinguish it from the "draft essays" [ID]) The research paper is conceptually different from, and in addition to, earlier draft essays in the journal. Draft essays are like take-home exam questions on general themes. The research paper is an individualized and more focused topic. As you complete EXERCISE FOUR above, be sure to submit in the journal a list of possible research topics. I will help you make a decision on that matter.
Here is a page which provides suggestions about how to structure a research report.
The deadline for submission of the research paper is indicated on the one-page syllabus.
WEEK 8 =
Stalinist "totalitarianism"
1949: Portrait of Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin
The red banner behind him reads:
V[sesoiuznaia] K[ommunisticheskaia] P[artiia] (b[ol'sheviki])
or
All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
by B. N. Karpov et al.
[SOURCE
with many other examples of art in the era of "Socialist Realism" (1934 +)]
Eighth-week lecture topics =
Readings
in addition to those
imbedded in SAC
[TABLE]
CHOICES: CUSTOM RESOURCES FOR POLITICAL SCIENCE, pp. 33-62, 82-95 [Excerpts from RPR7]
Titles offering vast interpretive perspective WEEK 9 = Reading = CHOICES: CUSTOM RESOURCES FOR POLITICAL SCIENCE, pp. 2-32,
139-170 [Excerpts from RPR7] Here is a new and very highly coded
datafile on the era of Gorbachev and Yeltsin Ninth-week lecture topics = SAC LOOP on Gorbachev and the years of reform = "Perestroika" EXERCISE SEVEN = ON THE LAST DAY OF REGULAR CLASS MEETINGS NEXT WEEK,
SUBMIT YOUR JOURNAL WITH ALL THE WORK YOU HAVE PUT IN IT SINCE THE MIDTERM
EXAM.
(See the one-page syllabus for exact due-date.) You may submit a self-addressed and stamped envelope of proper dimension
to me at the end, and I will mail your journal to you after grades are
submitted. Beforehand, purchase the envelope and address it to yourself. Then place your journal in it and ask at the Post Office
what the proper postage should be. These rates change, but I can tell you that in 2012 the postage was ca. $2.20.
Place the proper postage on the self-addressed envelope and submit it with the
journal at the end. I will mail it to you after grades are
posted. Or email me that you wish to pick up your journal. I will reply
telling you where and when you may do that. Good luck to all. REMEMBER, EXERCISE SIX, THE BIG RESEARCH
PAPER, IS DUE in FINALS WEEK (See the one-page syllabus for exact
date and time.) Good luck to all. WEEK 10 =
Women at political rally in Leningrad (St.Petersburg) after USSR
dissolved
relating to the Soviet and post-Soviet period
Gorbachev and the collapse of the USSR
Final journal submission
"New Russia"
Tenth-week lecture topics =
*--Three hard-hitting political-economic assessments of the
Russian situation = Witte,
Stalin,
Putin
*--James Madison and Boris Yeltsin in post-Soviet Russia [TXT]
*--Khodorkovskii LOOP
*--What light does our knowledge of the long-duration of Russian
political culture shed on the years since the dissolution of the USSR?
*--What light does our knowledge of Russian political culture shed
on certain well-known general theories about politics?
Readings in addition to those imbedded in SAC =