Blackness in Russian Political and Cultural History

Catalog description

This course provides a historical, literary, and political survey of Russia’s encounters with different ideas of “blackness,” from the rise of Abram Gannibal as a prominent black intellectual and statesman during the reign of Emperor Peter the Great, to Russia’s response to BLM during President Vladimir Putin’s current administration. Drawing on a variety of sources, including novels, biographies, film, media reports, and contemporary scholarly research, the course explores the concepts of race, belonging, otherness, and duality as they evolved in Russia’s varying historical contexts. Particular attention is paid to comparisons of racialization and racial injustice in America and in Russia. From classic Russian literature, to Soviet propaganda, to contemporary geopolitics, the course asks: How has “blackness” been historically understood and/or used by Russians, and what cultural and political legacies has that left in Russia’s post- imperial and post-Soviet space?