HST5397 - The Soviet Union: Red Flag Unfurled, 1917-1991

This module will chart the rise and fall of the USSR, from the Russian Revolution of 1917 to the collapse of Soviet Communism in 1991. Along the way, we will meet familiar characters, including Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev. But we will also be introduced to the ordinary people that called themselves Soviets. The module will cover themes including ideology, gender, sex and sexuality, race and anti-racism, religion, and multi-nationalism. We will travel from Moscow to Siberia, via the Caucasus and Central Asia, exploring the Soviet Union through a variety of primary sources, including political writings, party resolutions, newspapers, letters, memoirs, agitation and propaganda, and material history. We will think critically about the historiographical arguments and controversies that have defined Soviet studies.