Radical Russia

Catalog description

One of the most striking—and appealing—aspects of modern Russian culture is the abundance of figures radically opposed to the existing status quo, and willing to sacrifice their well-being and life by challenging it. Starting from the Old Believers, this course goes systematically through Russia’s major radicals until the present day: Cossacks, Decembrists, Populists, Anarchists, Socialists, Soviet-era Dissidents, contemporary liberals, performance artists, and leftists of different stripes. In the process, students will become familiar with some of the central Russian thinkers—Herzen and Chernyshevsky, Bakunin and Lenin, Tolstoy and Kollontai—and the echoes of their tradition in the Putin era.