Area Studies : Post-Soviet Russia: Living through the collapse of communism and democracy
Etablissement : ESPOL European School of Political and Social Sciences
Langue : Anglais
Formation(s) dans laquelle/lesquelles le cours apparait :
- Licence de Relations Internationales [ECTS : 3,00]
- Licence Science politique – Parcours Européen [ECTS : 3,00]
Période : S3
The fall of communism and the fall of democracy in Russia took place in staggering succession, in a span of just 12 years. The reverberations of these extraordinary events still mark the politics of post-Soviet Russia to this day. The course objective is to provide students with tools to understand political and social transformations in Russia in the post-Soviet era. The study of political changes will be approached using an inter-disciplinary perspective, utilising historical and comparative approaches (comparative politics, political sociology, conflict studies) as well as engaging with “official” and “unofficial” histories, to illuminate the continuities and ruptures, transformations and adaptations since 1989/1991. Students will be introduced to research approaches that will equip them to interrogate the range of encounters between state and society and transformations in the system of governance, and to begin to understand how political realities, rules, norms and knowledge are produced.
The course is made up of nine sessions and is structured chronologically in three blocks: (1) “The Late-Soviet Period” ; (2) “Transition and Turmoil in Post-Soviet Russia” (1985-1999); (3) “Putin’s Lasting State” (2000-2024). Each session builds on the previous and introduces various research approaches. The syllabus works up to providing students with tools to analyse the current dynamics in the Russo-Ukrainian conflict.
- PART I – The Late Soviet Period
1. Introductory Session. “Scholarly Missions” – Soviet and Post-Soviet Area Studies.
2. Soviet Utopia: the Soviet self, everyday life and the paradoxes of the late Soviet system.
3. The end of history – 1989/1991 and the collapse of the Soviet Union through a multifractal lens. How to study “events” in social sciences? How to interrogate transitions, reforms and revolutions?
- PART II – Transition and Turmoil in Post-Soviet Russia [1985 – 1999]
4. Platforms, constituencies and sources of power – from the last leader of the Soviet Union (Gorbachev) to the first President of Russia (Yeltsin).
5. The “making of capitalism without capitalists”, and how Russians turned against the “curse of democracy”.
6. Session on Writing and Research Skills and Working with Sources.
- PART III – “Putin’s Lasting State” [2000 – 2024]
7. Good Neighbours, Bad Neighbours – post-Soviet wars, “frozen conflicts” and the path to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
8. Approaches to studying the Russo-Ukrainian war – (1) Ukrainian Maidan and the question of national identities.
9. Approaches to studying the Russo-Ukrainian war – (2) the politics of writing history.
