Social Change under Communism
Level:
Master's CEU credits:
4 ECTS credits:
8 Academic year:
2009/2010 Academic year:
2010/2011 Academic year:
2011/2012 Semester:
Fall Start and end dates:
10 Jul 2009 Co-hosting Unit(s) [if applicable]:
Department of History Stream/Track/Specialization/Core Area:
Social and Political History in a Comparative Perspective CEU Instructor(s):
Jacek Kochanowicz Learning Outcomes:
The aim of this course is to investigate patterns of social change under communism (state socialism): the destruction of the “old order” as a consequence of revolution, the fate of peasantry, the rise of the working class, urbanization, education, growth of the “nomenklatura,” the emergence of the middle class, and the like. The course treats these changes in a comparative way, putting them in a broader context of theories and interpretations of social change. It draws both upon the case of the Soviet Union and those of Central European societies.
Students participating in the course shall gain an understanding of the social processes occurring under state socialism, as well as shall become familiar with relevant historiographic and methodological debates. They will be practicing academic skills—research, presentation, discussion, and writing. Assessment :
The course combines lectures and discussions. Class presence is mandatory. Students are expected to read assigned texts and to assess them critically, in class presentations and in discussion. The reading list is divided into “general” (reference) and “topical” part. Topical readings include different types of texts: older and more recent historical and sociological scholarly works, as well as political essays. Apart of reading the assigned topical readings, students are recommended to use the general books in order to gain a broader understanding of the context. Each student should have at least one class presentation, the text or outline of the presentation should be left with the instructor prior to the class. Presentations may either consist on an analysis of the text for the day, or on treatment of a problem (case) related to the topic of the day.
Part of each weekly meeting will be a lecture, part a class discussion, based upon the lecture, the readings, and the students’ presentations. There will be an open book exam at the end of the course (one 2-3 page essay question, 4-5 half-a-page readings assessment questions). Students also have to prepare a 3 thousands word final essay, the subject (as well as outline and bibliography) to be discussed with the instructor. Paper proposal and bibliography is due no later than class # 5, the paper no later than class # 11. 40 per cent of the final grade will depend on the essay, 30 on class activity (presentation included) and 30 on the exam. Full description:
Schedule of classes
1. Overview of the course.
Chirot (ed.), 3-32. [
pdf]
Malia, p.1-17. [pdf]
Eyal et al., 17-45. [ pdf]
2. Destruction of the Old Order.
Figes, 773-792. [ pdf]
Pipes, ch. 18. [ pdf]
3. Emergence of the Political System.
Malia, ch. 4. 109-138. [pdf]
Hagenloh, 286-308. [pdf]
4. Industrialization.
Kotkin, 37-71. [ pdf]
Lewin, 258-285. [ pdf]
5. Urbanization.
Kotkin, 72-146; 280-354. [pdf]; [pdf]
Volkov, 210-230. [pdf]
Paper proposals due.
6. Peasantry.
Conquest, 85-214. [pdf1][pdf2]
Bell, 155-185. [pdf]
7. Social Change and Personal Identities.
Fitzpatrick, 149-182. [pdf]
Hellbeck, 77-116. [pdf]
8. The New Class?
Trotsky, ch. 5 and 9. [pdf], [pdf]
Djilas, ch. “The New Class” (p. 37-69). [pdf]
Konrad and Szelenyi, 145-252 (optional). [pdf]
9. Modernization as Sovietization
Connelly, 205-282. [pdf], [pdf]
10. The Rise of the Middle Class
Kennedy, 237-339. [pdf]
Szelenyi, 42-60. [pdf]
Kurczewski, 100-126 (optional). [ pdf]
11. Domesticating State Socialism
Wedel, selected chapters.[pdf], [pdf]
Final papers due.
12. Exam.
Reading list
General
Andrle, Vladimir. Social History of Twentieth-Century Russia. London: Arnold, 1994. [pdf]
Berend Ivan T. Central and Eastern Europe 1944-1994: Detour from the Periphery to the Periphery, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. [pdf]
Crampton, R.J. Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century—and After. London: Routledge, 1997.
Kemp-Welch, A. Poland under Communism: A Cold War History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Nove, Alec. An Economic History of the U.S.S.R. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1972.
Rotshschild Joseph, Return to Diversity: a Political History of East and Central Europe since World War II. New York: Oxford University Press 1989.
Topical
Bell, Peter David. Peasants in socialist transition: life in a collectivized Hungarian village. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
Chirot, Daniel (ed.). The Crisis of Leninism and Decline of the Left: The Revolution of 1989. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991.
Conquest Robert. Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
Djilas, Milovan. The New Class: An Analysis of the Communist System. London: Thames and Hudson, 1957
Eyal, Gil, Ivan Szeleny and Eleanor Townsley. Capitalism without Capitalists: The New Ruling Elites in Eastern Europe. London: Verso, 1998.
Figes, Orlando. A People's Tragedy: The Russian Revolution 1891-1924. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1998.
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. The Cultural Front: Power and Culture in Revolutionary Russia. Ithaca, NY, 1992.
Hagenloh, Paul. “ ‘Socially harmful elements’ and the Great Terror,” in: Stalinism: New Directions, ed. by Sheila Fitzpatrick. London: Routledge, 2000, p. 286-308.
Hellbeck, Jochen. “Fashioning the Stalinist soul: the diary of Stepan Podlubnyi, 1931-9,” in: Stalinism: New Directions, ed. by Sheila Fitzpatrick. London: Routledge, 2000, p. 77-116.
Kennedy, Michael. Professionals, Power and Solidarity in Poland: A Critical Sociology of Soviet-Type Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.
Konrad, George and Ivan Szelenyi. Intellectuals on the road to class power. New York, Helen and Kurt Wollf, 1979.
Kotkin, Stephen. Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
Kurczewski, Jacek. The Resurrection of Rights in Poland. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.
Lewin, Moshe. The Making of the Soviet System: Essays in the Social History of Interwar Russia. New York: The New Press, 1995.
Malia, Martin. The Soviet Tragedy: a History of Socialism in Russia, 1917-1991.: New York: Free Press, 1994.
Pipes, Richard. The Russian Revolution. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1990.
Trotsky, Leon. The Revolution Betrayed. New York: Pathfinder, 1972 [1937].
Volkov, Vadim. “The concept of kul’turnost’: notes on the Stalinist civilizing process,” in: Stalinism: New Directions, ed. by Sheila Fitzpatrick. London: Routledge, 2000, p. 210-230.
Weddel, Janine. The Private Poland. New York: Facts on File, 1986.