Instructions:
Choose one primary source, either from the list below or from anywhere on our syllabus. Your assignment is to critically read and analyze that source while making a historical argument about it. Your argument may concern what the source reveals about its author or the historical moment in which it was produced; how it fits into contemporaneous political, social, or cultural debates; or the insight it gives us into broader trends in Russian and Soviet history. Your paper should focus directly on the primary source you have chosen. You may use our secondary sources for context, but you do not need to do any outside research. For the purpose of this assignment, you can treat any information you learned from lecture or classroom discussion as common knowledge.
You are welcome to choose a source (either from the syllabus or the list below) that belongs to a context we haven’t yet studied. In that case, you should plan to do a little background reading. There are several good Russian history textbooks in the library, the best of which is Gregory Freeze’s Russia: A History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
Please note: The library’s resources are limited! If you are using a print source, please scan or xerox the pages you intend to use and return the book to the library, so others can use it, too.
Mechanics:
Your essay should be 1200 words long (yes, I will count them!). Remember to put your name and title on the first page and number your pages. You must use 12-point font and double-spacing. Though you are only working with one source, you still must provide properly formatted citations for all quotations. You may use either internal citations or footnotes. Either way, they must conform to The Chicago Manual of Style, which you can access online for free through the Library’s website.
DON’T PLAGIARIZE! I am all-seeing and all-knowing, and I will figure it out if you plagiarize any part of your essay. If you have a question about how to avoid plagiarism, please feel free to ask me.
You must submit your essay via Moodle no later than FRIDAY, October 13 at 10pm. Late papers will be penalized 1/3 of a letter grade per day. Good luck!!! If you have any questions, please talk to me before or after class, during my office hours, or via email.
Available Sources
*In addition to this list, you may use any of the primary sources on our syllabus.
Riha, Thomas, ed. Readings in Russian Civilization, v.2: Imperial Russia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969)
Nicholas Karamzin, “Memoir of Ancient and Modern Russia”
Alexander Herzen, “Young Moscow”
Nikolai Dobrolyubov, “What Is Oblomovism?”
Katerina Breshkovskaia, “Going to the People”
Raeff, Marc, ed. Russian Intellectual History: An Anthology (NY: Harcourt, Brace, 1969)
Feofan Prokopovich, “Sermon on Royal Authority and Honor”
Nikolai Novikov, “On the Upbringing and Instruction of Children”
Peter Chaadaev, “Letters on the Philosophy of History”
Konstantin Aksakov, “On the Internal State of Russia”
Aleksandr Blok, “The People and the Intelligentsia” and “The Intelligentsia and the Revolution”
Dmytryshyn, Basil, ed. Imperial Russia: A Sourcebook, 1700-1917 (NY: Holt, 1990)
Mikhail Bakunin, “Catechism of a Revolutionary”
“Demands of Narodnaia Volia”
“Programs of Russian Political Parties”
Fitzpatrick, Sheila and Yuri Slezkine, eds. In the Shadow of Revolution: Life Stories of Russian Women from 1917 to the Second World War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000)
Anna Litveiko, “In 1917”
Valentina Bogdan, “Students in the First Five-Year Plan”
17 Moments in Soviet History (soviethistory.msu.edu)
P.I. Lebedev-Polianskii, “Revolution and the Cultural Tasks of the Proletariat”
Narkompros, “On Popular Education”
John Scott, “A Day in Magnitogorsk (Construction Accidents)”
Pravda, “Chaos Instead of Music”
Ol’ga Berggolts, “This is Radio Leningrad!”
Andrei Sakharov, “Progress, Coexistence and Intellectual Freedom (Liberal Dissent—Sakharov)”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Letter to the Soviet Leaders (Conservative Dissent—Solzhenitsyn)”
Mikhail Gorbachev, “Report to the Plenary Session of the CPSU Central Committee (Gorbachev Challenges the Party)”
Other Sources
Alexandra Kollontai, “Sexual Relations and the Class Struggle” (https://marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1921/sex-class-struggle.htm)
Vassily Grossman, Everything Flows, chapter 14
“The Bulldozer Exhibition” in Laura Hoptman and Tomáš Pospiszyl, eds. Primary Documents: A Sourcebook for Eastern and Central European Art since the 1950s, pp. 65–77 [You will need to order this book through Summit]
Isaac Babel, Red Cavalry (this is a collection of short stories; you may choose up to three)
Yevgenia Ginzburg, Into the Whirlwind, chapters 10-18
Anna Politkovskaya, A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya (this is a collection of journalistic pieces; you may choose up to three)
Natalya Baranskaya, “A Week Like Any Other,” A Week Like Any Other Novellas and Short Stories
