Tsardom to Empire: Russian History 1480 to 1917

Description

The course provides a critical survey of Russian history from medieval times to the fall of the monarchy in 1917, with particular emphasis on the Russian autocratic tradition from Ivan the Terrible to the last Romanovs. It examines how Russian tsars and emperors single-handedly ruled the country's vast Eurasian expanses, often bringing about enormous political and social transformations by decree. In this class, our driving questions will be: what held the empire together for so long and what eventually tore it apart? We will give particular attention to: the interactions between reform and revolution; the growth of Russia’s multi-ethnic, multi-confessional empire; political terrorism and socialism; and the vexed question of Russia’s identity as а Eurasian polity.  We will reflect on these political forces in Russian culture, particularly where they contributed to Russian cultural specificity and distinguished the Russians from other European nations.