HIST
IMPORTANT INFORMATIONBlack text is required.Blue text (except for hyperlinks) is optional.Red text is information for you; be sure to remove it from the final document.HIST ????: CULTURE AND COLLAPSE IN THE SOVIET UNIONFall/Spring/Summer 20XXInstructor InformationInstructor(s):Alexander KellerCourse InformationSection Information:HIST ???. CULTURE AND COLLAPSE IN THE SOVIET UNIONDescription of Course Content:This course will discuss the cultural history of the Soviet Union/Russia between 1974 and 1993 with particular attention to music and literature. Students will learn how the works of authors like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and musicians like Viktor Tsoi challenged the official state narrative and undermined its authority and how controversial musicians like Egor Letov and authors like Eduard Limonov lashed out at the system in revolutionary ways. We will discuss how Perestroika and Glasnost changed Soviet society, weakening it from within. Finally, we will end the class with a discussion of the official collapse of the Soviet Union and how former Soviet dissidents reacted to the defeat of their mortal enemy.Student Learning Outcomes:Students will be able to recall the regions where dissident movements flourished and identify what circumstances allowed this to happen.Students will be able to describe the consequences of dissent in the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia.Students will be able to analyze and interpret texts, poems, song lyrics, art, and events within their historical contexts.Students will be able to evaluate the validity and logic of nostalgia and historical biases.Students will be able to construct an argument and judge what impact culture has on history.Required Textbooks and Other Course Materials:Dropping out of Socialism: The Creation of Alternative Spheres in the Soviet Bloc by Furst et al.Portions of the film Traces in the Snow, directed by Vladimir KozlovOnline articles including interviews with major figures and reports of contemporary events.Descriptions of major assignments and examinations:Students will be expected to write two papers that should be between 4-6 pages long and a final paper that should be 6-8 pages long.Grading InformationGrading:Participation: 15%. Students will be expected to contribute to class discussions over the material and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the topic. Short responses: 15%. Students should expect to write a 250-500 word response to each week’s assigned material. However, I do understand that things come up and life happens. Your lowest grade will be dropped, and only your lowest. Since there are no exceptions, it is in your best interest to save your “skip” only for dire emergencies.First two essays: 20% each. These essays should both be 4-6 pages long and will use the sources covered in their respective portions of the class to make a convincing historical argument. Doing your short responses each week will help you complete these “midterm” essays, which will in turn help you write your final paper.Final paper: 30%. This paper should be 6-8 pages long and use material from the entirety of the class to make an argument that relates to the impact of dissent culture on Soviet society and how the collapse of the USSR affected Russian culture.Papers will be graded according to legibility, use and evaluation of primary and secondary sources, relevance to the assigned topic, and quality of the argument supporting your thesis.Late work policy: For each day that an assignment is late, 5% of the grade for that assignment will be revoked. If you find that you truly need an extension for a good reason (such as serious illness, family issues, etc), email me or talk to me in person and we can figure out the best course of action.Course ScheduleWeek 1: What is “Dropping Out?” - First, a brief overview of Soviet history and its political structure. We will then discuss how the concept of dissent in the Soviet Union differed from what we as Americans see it as today. In doing so, we will define what it means to “drop out” and how doing so fit into socialist society. Read: Parts of A History of the Soviet Union from the Beginning to the End by Peter Kenez (provided in class), Dropping Out of Socialism (DOS) p 1 - 20.Week 2: Brezhnev’s Crackdown - After a period of relatively lax cultural policing, Leonid Brezhnev started a ruthless campaign against dissent, beginning with Solzhenitsyn’s exile in 1974. The following years of stagnation only made things worse. At the same time, we will discuss how an environment of oppression can breed dissent and strengthen drop out culture. Read: New York Times article (), New Yorker article (), parts of The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (provided in class)Week 3: Hippies and Communism - From an American perspective, hippies are often thought of as being “anarcho-leftists.” The Soviet Union was authoritarian leftist. What happened when these two spheres collided? We will consider what the Soviet hippie movement revealed about society. Read: DOS p 41-62Week 4: The Bulldozer Exhibition - In 1974, several modern artists decided to rebel against state-enforced Socialist Realism and put on a show of their own. The KGB responded with almost comical force. We will discuss the Soviet state’s attempts to censor and control the art world and whether or not they were ultimately successful. Read: New York Times article (), Calvert Journal article (), Tranzit archive article ()Week 5: Medicine as a Weapon - The dark legacy of psychiatry in the Soviet Union is its co-opting by the KGB as a weapon to isolate and imprison artists. At the same time, asylums provided some artists an escape from society, becoming a weapon of their own. We will discuss this weaponization of medicine in the Soviet Union and ask if a similar phenomenon happened in America as well. Read: Guardian article on CIA experiments (), DOS p 63-84Week 6: Samizdat and the Literary Underground - Samizdat were secret magazines distributed illegally without state approval. We will discuss the strange, interconnected yet isolated samizdat scene and the distribution of banned books. Read: DOS p 107-128Week 7: The “Peaceful Atom” - The Soviet pacifist movement stood in contrast to the threat of nuclear war and the realized war in Afghanistan. How did these dissenters affect popular sentiments about war? We will discuss what impact the pacifists had on Soviet society. Read: DOS p 129-156Week 8: Kinomania: Rock in Leningrad - Kino was the first rock band to make it big in the USSR, even gaining recognition in the West. Neatly coinciding with the end of Brezhnev’s rule, the emergence and popularity of the band signalled a significant shift in Soviet culture. We will also discuss how concerts were performed in secret and how rock artists were compensated. Read: Article on a movie about Kino (), Calvert Journal article (), DOS p 179-206, DOS p 255-277, English translation of “Bezdelnik No. 1” (Tsoi), English translation of “Pachka Sigaret” (Tsoi)Week 9: The “Filthy Youth” - Kino popularized rock music, Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Civil Defense, also called GrOb meaning “coffin”) created punk music in the Soviet Union. From the beginning they sparked controversy, attracting the attention of the KGB and were forcefully broken up at least once. We will discuss how the emergence of punk in lonely Siberia was actually an enormously important event and analyze the wider impact it had on Russian culture. Watch: “Traces in the Snow” documentary by Vladimir Kozlov. Read: DOS p 233-252, English translation of “Vse Idyot Po Planu” (Letov), English translation of “Optimizm” (Letov)Week 10: Punk Feminism - There was exactly one prominent female musician in the punk scene: Yanka Dyagileva. We will talk about what it meant to be a woman in a harshly patriarchal system that was supposedly resisting the authoritarian state around it. Read: English translation of “Pechal Moya Svetla” (Dyagileva), English translation of “Pesenka Pro Pauchkov” (Dyagileva), Alina Simone articles in popmatters () and Washington Post (), blog post in Black Ivory Tower ()Week 11: Magizdat and the Musical Underground - Magizdat was to music what samizdat was to writing: illegal recordings of unauthorized music recorded on tapes and distributed secretly. We will discuss the ways in which musicians defied Soviet authority to spread their songs and the consequences they faced. We will also talk about the curious “X-ray vinyls” and the ingenuity of the dissident movement. Read: “Back in the USSR: The True Story of Rock in Russia” by Artemy Troitsky, selection of “Samizdat and Political Dissent in the Soviet Union” by Ferdinand Joseph Maria Feldbrugge, Dazed interview with Stephen Coates ()Week 12: “Great and Forever” - GrOb and several other bands broke up around 1990. Kino’s Viktor Tsoi died the following August, and just a year later Yanka Dyagileva took her own life. We will discuss how the end of the punk rock scene in Siberia was a canary in the coal mine, foreshadowing the collapse of the entirety of the USSR. Why did dissident art and music survive this cataclysm and what relevance might they have had in the years to come? Read: Adam Curtis’s blog post ()Week 13: The Aftermath - Capitalism did not turn out to be any better for dissidents. The same people who valiantly resisted Soviet oppression found no respite in the post-Soviet world. The names had changed but the system stayed. We will discuss how this failed promise lead to the rise of extremist movements and a strange nostalgia for the system these dissenters fought just years earlier. Read: Guardian article on Eduard Limonov (), Washington University article on Russia in the 1990s (), Encyclopedia Britannica section on the Yeltsin Era ()Week 14: The Russian Field of Experiments - We will continue to discuss how the fall of the Soviet Union as a political entity did not necessarily translate to the cultural sphere and what the consequences were. We will also take time to go over anything we missed and to discuss the final paper. Read: DOS p 303-318.Institution InformationUTA students are encouraged to review the below institutional policies and informational sections and reach out to the specific office with any questions. To view this institutional information, please visit the Institutional Information page () which includes the following policies among others:Drop PolicyDisability AccommodationsTitle IX PolicyAcademic IntegrityStudent Feedback SurveyFinal Exam ScheduleAdditional Information[Additional information specific to your College, School, Departmental, or Program may also be included in the syllabus. Check with your academic unit’s leadership for details.] Attendance:At The University of Texas at Arlington, taking attendance is not required but attendance is a critical indicator of student success. Each faculty member is free to develop his or her own methods of evaluating students’ academic performance, which includes establishing course-specific policies on attendance. As the instructor of this section, [insert your attendance policy and/or expectations, e.g. “I will take attendance sporadically” or “I have established the following attendance policy: …”] However, while UT Arlington does not require instructors to take attendance in their courses, the U.S. Department of Education requires that the University have a mechanism in place to mark when Federal Student Aid recipients “begin attendance in a course.” UT Arlington instructors will report when students begin attendance in a course as part of the final grading process. Specifically, when assigning a student a grade of F, faculty report must the last date a student attended their class based on evidence such as a test, participation in a class project or presentation, or an engagement online via Canvas. This date is reported to the Department of Education for federal financial aid recipients.[Important! Be sure that you include this section on attendance, even if you do not track attendance or factor attendance into the grade. It is important that students understand that any attendance rules applied in your course are your own and not a matter of institutional policy. Doing so will keep the University in compliance with Federal regulations as they apply to Title IV funding. If you are teaching a course in which attendance / hours must be tracked to meet other non-institutional requirements (e.g., to earn an academically-grounded professional credential), be sure to clearly indicate the agency that has established the requirement. Lab Safety Training:[Required for laboratory courses in the Colleges of Engineering and Science where students may be working with chemicals, biological material, radiological material or lasers] Students registered for this course must complete all required lab safety training prior to entering the lab and undertaking any activities. Once completed, Lab Safety Training is valid for the remainder of the same academic year (i.e., Fall through Summer II) and must be completed anew in subsequent years. There are no exceptions to this University policy. Failure to complete the required training will preclude participation in any lab activities, including those for which a grade is assigned.Emergency Exit Procedures:[Required for face-to-face courses; should be omitted for online courses] Should we experience an emergency event that requires evacuation of the building, students should exit the room and move toward the nearest exit, which is located [insert a description of the nearest exit/emergency exit]. When exiting the building during an emergency, do not take an elevator but use the stairwells instead. Faculty members and instructional staff will assist students in selecting the safest route for evacuation and will make arrangements to assist individuals with disabilities.[This section requires faculty members to be fully aware of the exits nearest their classrooms, even before the semester begins. Evacuation plans may be found at Evacuation Route Maps (Buildings). In the case that you are unable to ascertain this information in time for your syllabus, you must be sure to explain to your students on day one how best to exit the building. Inclusion of this verbiage as well as a brief discussion on the matter with your students at the beginning of the term is mandated by UT Arlington Procedure 7-6: Emergency/Fire Evacuation Procedures.[Should you learn that your class roster includes students with physical/sensory disabilities, you should arrange to meet in private with each of these students to discuss their needs for assistance in the event of an emergency evacuation.]Students should also be encouraged to subscribe to the MavAlert system that will send information in case of an emergency to their cell phones or email accounts. Anyone can subscribe at Emergency Communication System. Student Success Programs: [Required for all undergraduate courses] UT Arlington provides a variety of resources and programs designed to help students develop academic skills, deal with personal situations, and better understand concepts and information related to their courses. Resources include tutoring by appointment, drop-in tutoring, etutoring, supplemental instruction, mentoring (time management, study skills, etc.), success coaching, TRIO Student Support Services, and student success workshops. For additional information, please email resources@uta.edu, or view the Maverick Resources website.The IDEAS Center () (2nd Floor of Central Library) offers FREE tutoring and mentoring to all students with a focus on transfer students, sophomores, veterans and others undergoing a transition to UT Arlington. Students can drop in or check the schedule of available peer tutors at uta.edu/IDEAS, or call (817) 272-6593.The English Writing Center (411LIBR):[Optional.] The Writing Center offers FREE tutoring in 15-, 30-, 45-, and 60-minute face-to-face and online sessions to all UTA students on any phase of their UTA coursework. Register and make appointments online at the Writing Center (). Classroom visits, workshops, and specialized services for graduate students and faculty are also available. Please see Writing Center: OWL for detailed information on all our programs and services.The Library’s 2nd floor Academic Plaza () offers students a central hub of support services, including IDEAS Center, University Advising Services, Transfer UTA and various college/school advising hours. Services are available during the library’s hours of operation.Librarian to Contact:[Optional.] Each academic unit has access to Librarians by Academic Subject that can assist students with research projects, tutorials on plagiarism and citation references as well as support with databases and course reserves. Emergency Phone Numbers[Optional but strongly recommended] Enter the UTA Police Department’s emergency phone number into your own mobile phone.] In case of an on-campus emergency, call the UT Arlington Police Department at 817-272-3003 (non-campus phone), 2-3003 (campus phone). You may also dial 911. Non-emergency number 817-272-3381Library InformationThis final section is not part of the syllabus template, but a message from the UT Arlington Library.Faculty members should feel free to incorporate any of the following information into your course syllabus or other course materials.Research or General Library HelpAsk for HelpAcademic Plaza Consultation Services?(library.uta.edu/academic-plaza)Ask Us?(ask.uta.edu/)Research Coaches ()ResourcesLibrary Tutorials?(library.uta.edu/how-to)Subject and Course Research Guides?(libguides.uta.edu)Librarians by Subject (library.uta.edu/subject-librarians)A to Z List of Library Databases?(libguides.uta.edu/az.php)Course Reserves?()Study Room Reservations?(openroom.uta.edu/)####### ................
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