Modern Russia ((4 Credits))

Catalog description

Students will focus on the development and eventual decline of the Soviet Union, from the fall of the Czarist system, which came shortly after the Tsarist system, to the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the development of the Bolshevik movement and its seizure of power, the nature of the Revolution of 1917, Stalin's dictatorship and the purges and the impact on World War II and the Cold war, the postwar struggle between reformers and the status quo, and the nature of the recent effort to democratize Russian politics and the society, and the reimposition of centralized state control will be considered.