HIS 321 - Muscovite and Imperial Russia (1)

This course will examine the fundamental events and changes in Russian politics, intellectual thought, culture, and society from the reign of Peter the Great in the early 1700s, to the outbreak and ultimate collapse of the Russian Empire with the February and October Revolutions in 1917. We will work to understand how Russians lived and gave meaning to their lives during these years. Russia was an eclectic place during these roughly two centuries. The tsars in St. Petersburg ruled with incredible wealth and absolute power, while most of the population lived in grinding poverty as peasants. The Russian Empire came to stretch all the way from the forests of Poland to Alaska, and from the tundra of the Arctic all the way to the mountains and deserts of Central Asia and Afghanistan. This vast geographic expanse made the Russian Empire amongst the most diverse political entities in the world, with a unique mix of European, Asian, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish culture. A major theme of this course will be how Imperial Russia dealt with, or failed to deal with, the creeping advance of modernity. This conflict with modernity resulted in revolutionary violence, government authoritarianism, and the ultimate collapse of the empire in 1917, but it also spurred intellectual and cultural development, the likes of which the world had not previously seen. Prerequisite: junior standing or permisision of instructor. Offered every third year. No alternate grade option.
(Humanities)