| CODE | HST3022 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Russia and Eurasia in Global Context | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 6 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 4 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | History | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Russian and Eurasian history is a dynamic and growing area within the field of History. The Eurasian landmass has for long served as a key region at the intersection of shifting regional security interests between Russia and the neighbouring countries in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Standing between Europe and Asia, Russia’s place in the world and history is best understood and analysed when placed in the Eurasian context. Russia’s quest to get ‘closer’ to Europe has taken various forms throughout history ranging from territorial expansion, to modernisation and Europeanisation, from the transfer of the national capital to St. Petersburg, to the extension of interests in the Balkans and the Mediterranean. This drive to adopt Europeanness however was never a desire for uniformity: Russia’s efforts to close the distance between it and the West was more the result of keeping up with European military and technological advances, rather than to adopt its political values. Situated on the European periphery, Russia after all occupied centrality in the Asian sphere where it mastered its very own ‘civilising mission’ ensuring it a certain distinctness. By focusing on the key developments emanating from Russia in the process of the 17th to the 20th centuries, this study-unit will be concurrently re-assessing the position of Eurasia in the global context. Study-unit Aims: - Present the main facts, actors and developments in the history of Muscovite Russia, the Tsarist system and the Soviet Union in the context of Eurasian developments; - Impart knowledge and understanding of history, its processes, structure, actors, factors, and events, and familiarise with the academic understanding of the history specific to the chosen area; - Assist students with comprehending the utility of the theories of Global History with specific relevance to situating Russia's role in the historical process of globalisation; - Process the concepts and conceptual structures relevant for the study of history from an area perspective, i.e. local, national, regional but also transnational and from a comparative, international, and global perspective. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - identify and situate key political developments, events, conflicts in Russia and Eurasia in the correct historical, socio-political and geographical context; - systematically analyse and critically assess the main traits of Russia’s domestic politics under different regimes; - assess the broad impact of Russia’s interaction with other main actors in international relations; - evaluate the centrality of Russia in the Euarsian sphere in the process of globalisation. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - refine the basic research skills in terms of processing information from multiple sources and creating a synoptical understanding of the bigger whole; - grasp the value of the Global History more; - appreciate that the historical weight of a country is best understood not by attempting a complete knowledge of the facts from every historical era making up that country's past, nor from an exclusive focus on the national history, but rather from placing that country in the broader context, in this case, Eurasia; - acknowledge the limitations of the Eurocentric approach by broadening the scope of the study to the spatial unit of Eurasia. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main texts: - Peter Gran, Beyond Eurocentrism: A New View of Modern World History, (Syracuse University Press, 1996). - Mark Bassin, Sergey Glebov, and Marlene Laruelle (eds.), Between Europe & Asia: The Origins, Theories, and Legacies of Russian Eurasianism (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2015). - Elena Korosteleva and Zachary Paikni, 'Russia between East and West, and the future of Eurasian order', International Politics, (2020). - Paul Bushkovitch, A Concise History of Russia (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Supplementary Readings: - R. Service, The Penguin History of Modern Russia: From Tsarism to the Twenty-First Century (Penguin, 2009). - Seymour Becker, 'Russia and the Concept of Empire', Ab Imperio, 3:4 (2000). - David Moon, 'Reassessing Russian Serfdom', European History Quarterly, 26:4 (1996). - Willard Sunderland, 'Imperial Space: Territorial Thought and Practice in the Eighteenth Century', in Russian Empire: Space, People, Power, 1700-1930, edited by Jane Burbank, Mark von Hagen, and Anatolyi Remnev, (Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 2007). - Joshua Sanborn, 'Military Reform, Moral Reform, and the End of the Old Regime', In The Military and Society in Russia: 1450-1917, edited by Eric Lohr and Marshall Poe, (Leiden; Boston, Brill, 2002). - Adeeb Khalid, 'Nationalizing the Revolution in Central Asia. The Transformation of Jadidism, 1917-1920', In A State of Nations. Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, edited by Ronald G. Suny and Terry Martin, (Bloomington/ Indianapolis, Oxford University Press, 2001). - Artemy M. Kalinovsky, 'Not Some British Colony in Africa: The Politics of Decolonization and Modernization in Soviet Central Asia, 1955-1964', Ab Imperio, 2 (2013). - Alvin Z Rubenstein and Oles M. Smolansky, Regional Power Rivalries in the New Eurasia: Russia, Turkey and Iran, (New York, Routledge, 1996). |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Lecture | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Simone Azzopardi |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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