Prof. Julie Hessler

hessler@uoregon.edu

tel: 346-4857 (office), 302-9032 (home)

Office hours: Mon., 12:30-1:30, in PLC 271

Fridays 12:30 - 2:00 in McKenzie 351

History 608 Historiography of the Soviet Union

Wednesdays, 2:00 - 4:50, in McKenzie 375

Description: This course is designed to introduce you to some recent trends in the English-language historiography of the Soviet Union. All of the assigned books have been published since the year 2000. The course is reading-intensive rather than oriented primarily toward scholarly writing. Grades will be based on: a) general preparedness for class (it is possible that I will occasionally give you a written quiz on the assigned texts). b) two 4-5 page book reviews of assigned readings, prepared in advance, plus your leadership of class discussion on the days that you have a book review. c) short final assignment - details to come later.

Wednesday, April 5 Organizational meeting

Wednesday, April 12 Reading: Francine Hirsch, Empire of Nations: Ethnnographic Knowledge and the Making of the Soviet Union

Wednesday, April 19 Reading: Terry Martin, An Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939, pp. 1-208, plus two of the following five articles (your choice): a) Adrienne Edgar, “Genealogy, Class, and ‘Tribal Policy’ in Soviet Turkmenistan, 1924-1934,” Slavic Review 2001, 60 (2): 266-88. b) Shoshana Keller, “The Central Asian Bureau: An Essential Tool in Governing Soviet Turkestan,” Central Asia Survey 2003, 22 (2-3): 281-97. c) Shoshana Keller, “Trapped between State and Society: Women’s Liberation and Islam in Soviet Uzbekistan, 1926-1941,” Journal of Women’s History 1998, 10 (1): 20-44. d) Douglas Northrop, “Subaltern Dialogues: Subversion and Resistance in Soviet Uzbek Family Law,” Slavic Review 2001, 60 (1): 115-39. d) “Languages of Loyalty: Gender, Politics, and Party Supervision in Uzbekistan, 1927-41,” Russian Review 2000, 59 (1): 179-200.

Wednesday, April 26 Reading: Terry Martin, An Affirmative Action Empire, pp. 209-461.

Wednesday, May 3 Reading: Igal Halfin, Terror in My Soul: Communist Autobiographies on Trial, plus two of the following three articles by Jochen Hellbeck: a) “Fashioning the Stalinist Soul: The Diary of Stepan Podlubnyi (1931-1939),” Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 1996, 44(3): 344-373. b) “Speaking Out: Languages of Affirmation and Dissent in Stalinist Russia,” Kritika 2000, vol. 1 (1): 71-96. c) “Working, Struggling, Becoming: Stalin-Era Autobiographical Texts,” Russian Review 2001, vol. 60 (3): 340-59. I’ll also pass out a 2002 interview (in Russian) from the Russian journal Ab Imperio with both authors for those who are interested.

Wednesday, May 10 Reading: Stephen Lovell, Summerfolk: A History of the Dacha

Wednesday, May 17. Reading: Barbara Walker, Maximilian Voloshin and the Russian Literary Circle, plus Barbara Walker, “On Reading Soviet Memoirs: A History of the ‘Contemporaries’ Genre as an Institution of Russian Intelligentsia Culture from the 1790s to the 1970s,” Russian Review 2000, 59 (3): 327-52. Guest lecturer: Barbara Walker (University of Nevada, Reno).

Wednesday, May 24. Reading: Julie Hessler, A Social History of Soviet Trade

Wednesday, May 31. Reading: Catherine Merridale, Ivan’s War

Wednesday, June 7. Reading: Amir Weiner, Making Sense of War