HIS 343L - History of Russia to 1917 Unique 39505 REE 335 Unique 44560 Fall 2017 T Th 2-3:30 JGB 2.216 Flag: Global Studies

Prof. Joan Neuberger Office: GAR 2.102 Office Hours: WED 1-3 & by appointment [email protected]

TA: Peter Worger Location: TBA [email protected] Office Hours T 1-2 & Th 4-5

The modern Russian Empire was both authoritarian and revolutionary. It was both a nation state and an empire that covered one-sixth of the world’s land mass. Politically dominated by Russia and Russians, its population was a diverse mix of ethnicities, religions, classes, cultures, and environmental topographies. In 1917, the Russian Revolution changed the world and set the political agenda for the entire 20th century and beyond. In this course, we will examine fundamental issues regarding political, social, cultural life in the modern Russian Empire during the reign of the Romanov dynasty from 1613 to 1917. We will approach this material in three different ways: • as a history of the state and state-building • as a history of empire, with a focus on Crimea as an occasional case study • as a history of culture, with a focus on painting and architecture

Required readings include: Lindsey Hughes, The Romanovs: Ruling Russia, 1613-1917 Valerie A. Kivelson and Ronald Grigor Suny, Russia’s Empires Gary Marker and Rachel May, transl. and eds., Days of a Russian Noblewoman: The Memories of Anna Labzina, 1758-1821 B. Engel & C. Rosenthal, eds., Five Sisters: Women Against the Tsar Sean’s Russia Blog (podcast seansrussiablog.org), selected episodes * W. Bruce Lincoln, Between Heaven and Hell: The Story of a Thousand Years of Artistic Life in Russia

Required readings marked * will be on-line on the course Canvas site (marked here with *) including

Grading & Assignments Map 10% / Three In-Class Exams 25% each / Food blog 5%/ Culture project 10%

ATTENDANCE in class is required.

In case of absence it is your responsibility to find out what you missed including scheduling and other changes. Additional information on exams and assignments will be distributed in class. No make-up exams will be allowed without written documentation of a family or medical emergency. Make-up exams are scheduled by the Department of History not by individual professors and students. Students who will miss class for religious holidays or other University sanctioned events should contact me in advance to make accommodations.

Students with special needs may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities, 471-6259.

All students are required to have functioning email addresses registered with the university. Information about the course will be posted on Canvas and I will send information via Canvas’s email. All students are required to have access to Canvas and to keep their email addresses updated on Canvas.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE 1. Keep up with the assigned reading. Keep up with the assigned reading. Keep up with the assigned reading. 2. Come to class prepared to participate, listen, and think. Listen actively, ask questions when appropriate, try new things! 3. Plan ahead so that you know which weeks require more reading and which weeks require less. Read the syllabus carefully and often. 4. Listen to the kinds of questions I raise in lectures. Think about the subjects I discuss repeatedly. Pay attention to themes that come up over and over again. If you pay attention to the major themes, you will be able to determine which details are important as well. 5. If you find yourself falling behind, please come see me or email me or our TA, Peter Worger. Please don’t just give up and disappear.

THERE WILL BE NO EXAM REVIEW SESSIONS IN THIS CLASS. I know that many students benefit from these, but there are always students who cannot attend sessions, no matter when they are scheduled. So for the sake of fairness, each student will be responsible for studying, for deciding which topics and themes are most important, which arguments are most persuasive, which examples (evidence) support those arguments best.

ACADEMIC HONESTY is important. If you use words or ideas that are not entirely your own without citation or if you copy from other students, you will be guilty of plagiarism. If you have any doubt about the definition of plagiarism, please familiarize yourself with the rules on Academic Dishonesty.

CLASSROOM COURTESY All students are expected to attend each class, to arrive on time, and to stay for the entire class. If you must leave the room for any reason, you may not return during that class session, so be prepared to stay for the entire class when you enter the room. Late arrival, early departure, ringing cell phones, buzzing cell phones, texting, tweeting, surfing, chatting, instagramming, snapchatting, shopping, and sleeping all distract and disrupt the entire class. Turn off your phones and put them away. Your courtesy will be appreciated by everyone in the class.

Laptops are not permitted. There are now multiple studies and ample evidence to show that taking notes by hand improves understanding and retention. New studies show that students who take notes by hand get better grades on exams. If you have a valid reason to use a computer, you may, but you will need to provide documentation from student services.

The university classroom must be a place where students can try out new ideas and experience feelings about unfamiliar topics. The university as a whole should be a place students feel safe to grow as individuals and as members of new communities. In order for this to happen, all students must express themselves with respect for every other member of the university community. This ought to be a no-brainer, but extreme examples of disrespect will not to be tolerated if they occur.

Title IX makes it clear that violence and harassment based on sex and gender are Civil Rights offenses subject to the same kinds of accountability and the same kinds of support applied to offenses against other protected categories such as race, national origin, etc. If you or someone you know has been harassed or assaulted, you can find the appropriate resources here: http://catalog.utexas.edu/general-information/appendices/appendix-d/ http://www.cmhc.utexas.edu/vav/index.html

GUNS UT Austin is obliged to follow a law that allows the concealed carry of loaded handguns in our classrooms. A gun owner who moves further than arm’s reach away from their handgun while in the classroom is in violation of the law and policy. Course participants with a license to carry a handgun must keep it concealed and on their person in a proper holster at all times. Handguns may not be brought to the classroom in backpacks, bags, or purses. That is because course participants will be called on at unpredictable times to move about the room for the purposes of group work or presentations causing them to be separated from their belongings. The law bars instructors from prohibiting guns in our classrooms but I am allowed to say that I would prefer to teach in a gun-free space. And I am allowed by law to point out that my preference is not based on a naïve belief that nothing dangerous ever happens in classrooms, but is based on reliable studies that show that carrying a gun might make people feel safer but does not, in fact, make people safer. I would prefer to teach in a gun- free space because I believe that the potential for the presence of loaded, concealed guns prevents the full practice of free expression.

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CLASS SCHEDULE AND READING

Aug 30: Introductions/ Where and Who is “Russia?”

Sept 5-7 Tsars Mikhail & Aleksei Romanov READ: Romanovs: 7-54, Empires: 1-16, 44-88 *Lincoln, “Holy Moscow,” 35-53 [108pp]

Sept 12 Peasants/Nobles/Imperial Subjects READ: *Peter Kolchin, “The Origin and Consolidation of Unfree Labor,” Unfree Labor: American Slavery and Russian Serfdom (Belknap/Harvard, 1987), 1-46 *Matthew Romaniello, “Irregular Subjects” in The Elusive Empire: Kazan and the Creation of Empire, 1552-1671 (Oxford, 2012), 146-176 *Neil Kent, “Ottoman Encroachment on Crimea and its Russian Annexation,” Crimea: A History (Hurst, 2016), 49-58 [86pp] LISTEN: [optional] Erika Monahan, “The Merchants of Siberia,” Sean’s Russia Blog (Oct 10, 2016)

Sept 14 Peter the Great READ: Romanovs: 55-81, Empires: 89-98, *Dmytryshyn “Reorganization of Russia by Peter the Great” 13-23 [49pp]

Sept 19 Peter the Great *Lincoln, 54-85 *Christine Ruane, “Fashion and the Rise of Consumer Capitalism in Russia,” Christine Worobec, “How one Runaway Peasant Challenged the Authority of the Russian State,” David L. Ransel, “Life on the River: The Education of a Merchant Youth,” The Human Tradition in Imperial Russia, Christine Worobec, ed. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), 1-40 [73pp]

Sept 21 Catherine the Great READ: Romanovs: 105-131, Empires: 98-115 *Lincoln, 86-125 [83pp]

Sept 26 Catherine, Empire, and Nation in the 18c READ: Empires, 116-139 *Richard Wortman, “Texts of Exploration and Russia’s European Identity,” Russia Engages the World, 1453-1825, ed. Cynthia Hyla Whittaker (Harvard, 2003), 91-115 *Kelly O’Neill, “Constructing Russian Identity in the Imperial Borderland: Architecture, Islam, and the Transformation of the Crimean Landscape,” Ab Imperio 2 (2006): 163-192 [79pp (lots of pictures!)]

Sept 28: Power, Culture, Gender in 18c READ: Days of a Russian Noblewoman: the Memories of Anna Labzina, Introduction vii-xxxii + 3-116 (don’t skip intro!) [138pp]

Oct 3 Exam BRING BLUE BOOK

Oct 5 Tsars Paul and Alexander I/ War and Peace READ: Romanovs: 133-158, Empires: 140-154 *Lincoln, 126-152 [68pp]

Oct 10 The Decembrists READ: Empires: 154-157, *Marc Raeff, The Decembrist Movement, 30-32, 44-57, 100-105, 119-123, 162-179 [50pp]

Oct 12 Guest Lecture: Dr. Marina Alexandrova READ: TBD

Oct 17 Nicholas I/Official Nationality/Crimea READ: Romanovs, 159-176; Empires: 157-182 *Kent, “The Consolidation of Crimea Under Russian Control,” 59-70 LISTEN: Constantine Pleshakov, “The Crimean Nexus,” Interview on Sean’s Russia Blog, podcast. [56pp]

Oct 19 Serfdom/Intelligentsia READ: *M. E. Vasileva, “Notes of a Serf Woman” 146-58 *Rodney Bohac, “The 1827 Uprising at Bernovo,” 55-67 *Alexander Herzen, 271-84, Konstantin Aksakov, “Free Word,” 284-85, Basil Dmytyrshyn, Imperial Russia: A Source Book (1990). [48pp]

Oct 24 Alexander II/Emancipation of the Serfs READ: Romanovs: 177-188; Empires: 183-191 *Richard Wortman, “Lubki of Emancipation,” Picturing Russia: Explorations in Visual Culture eds. Valerie A Kivelson and Joan Neuberger (Yale, 2008), 90-95, *Peasants’ Petitions after Emancipation, From Supplication to Revolution: A Documentary Social History of Imperial Russia, Gregory Freeze, ed. (Oxford, 1988), 170-85 [43pp]

Oct 26 The Great Reforms READ: Empires 192-215 *Lincoln, 153-197 [optional 198-220] [59pp]

Oct 31 The Origins of Modern Terrorism READ: Five Sisters 3-142 (don’t skip intro!) [140]

Nov 2 Exam BRING BLUE BOOKS

Nov 7 Alexander III and Nicholas II READ: Romanovs: 189-207; Empires: 215-226 *Lincoln, 221-240 [52pp]

Nov 9 Village Life After Emancipation READ: Olga Tian-Shanskaia, Village Life in Late Tsarist Russia, 1-170. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16xwcbv

Nov 14 Political Polarization at the end of the 19c READ: Empires: 227-240 *“Pobedonostsev’s Criticism of Modern Society,” 382-393 *Allan Wildman, The Making of a Worker’s Revolution, 1-26 *S. I. Kanatchikov, “From the Story of My Life,” The Russian Worker, ed. Victoria Bonnell (University of California, 1983), 36-71 *Barbara Engel, “Women, Men, and the Languages of Peasant Resistance,1870-1907,” Cultures in Flux: Lower-Class Values, Practices, and Resistance in Late Imperial Russia, (Princeton, 1994), 34-53 [109pp]

Nov 16 Empire in Art and on the Streets READ: *Lincoln, 241-266 *Ronald Grigor Suny, “Tiflis: Crucible of ethnic Polics,” The City in Late Imperial Russia, Michael Hamm, ed. (Indiana, 1986), 248-81 LOOK/READ: Vasily Vereshchagin [60pp]

Nov 21 An Imperial Russian Feast In preparation for this class, small groups of students will prepare a classic Russian or Georgian dish using a recipe from one of Darra Goldstein’s cook books (the recipes will be provided). Bring the dish to class to share with the rest of us. Delicious fun will be had. WRITE: a 500-word blog about what you learned about Russia and/or Georgia by preparing food from the region. Due Nov 28 LOOK: Darra Goldstein: Beyond_The_North_Wind (Instagram) READ: *Darra Goldstein, “Introduction,” A La Russe: A Cookbook of Russian Hospitality, 3-16. *Darra Goldstein, “Introduction,” The Georgian Feast: The Vibrant Culture and Savory Food of the Republic of Georgia, xiii-xxv *Darra Goldstein, “Tolstoy’s Table,” The Winter Vegetarian,” 205-217

Nov 28-30 1905 and Its Aftermath READ: Romanovs: 207-16, Empires: 227-54 *Lincoln, 267-307 *Joan Neuberger, “Culture Beseiged: Hooliganism and Futurism,” Cultures in Flux, 184-203 [96pp]

Dec 5-7 War and Revolution READ: Romanovs: 217-48 Empires: 255-289 *Voices of the Russian Revolution Sarah Badcock, “The 1917 Peasant Revolutions,” Jacobin, Aug 23, 2017. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/1917-peasant-revolutions-russia-serfs-bolsheviks

LISTEN: Mark Steinberg, “Experiencing the Russian Revolution” Sean’s Russia blog (Apr 3 2017) LISTEN: 15 Minute History <15minutehistory.org> Ep 1 Russia’s February 1917 Revolution and Ep 7 Russia’s October 1917 Revolution