UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
POLITICAL SCIENCE 130AD
POLITICS AND REVOLUTION (I):
POLITICS OF THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION
(581044)
WINTER 2007
DR. GERMAINE A. HOSTON
| Class Meetings: TuTh 3:20-4:50 | Office: 376 Social Science Building |
| 109 Pepper Canyon | Hours: Tu 12:30-1:45 p.m. and by appointment |
| E-Mail: ghoston@ucsd.edu | Telephone: 858.449.0455 |
| Course E-Mail: mailto:russianrevolution@yahoogroups.com | |
| Course Website: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/russianrevolution |
This course is the first of a two-course sequence1 designed to explore the political dynamics of revolutionary change in comparative historical perspective. We will begin by examining key elements of political philosophy in East and West, from Greek antiquity to the turn of the twentieth-first century, which might enable us to comprehend more fully the origins and nature of revolutionary change from above and below. We will scrutinize critically competing social scientific models of political and social revolution and appraise their strengths and weaknesses in explaining the dynamics of the Russian Revolution. Our common point of departure is the French Revolution of 1789, a world-historical event that defined both the notion of revolution itself and the key dynamics that defined its leadership and consequences as revolutionary in nature. We complete this quarter by examining how revolutionary change continues to be a major factor in Post-Soviet Russia and its relations with its neighbors, including the United States of America. The focus on Russia is thus not narrowly constrained to the Russian Revolution of 1905/1917/1917/1991, but rather on the internal and external sources of Russia’s continuing revolution and its successors today.
The following assigned texts are available for purchase Groundwork Books.
All other materials are included in the readers for the course available from University Readers, which will be available for purchase in class ( www.universityreaders.com Tel:800.200.3908/858.552.1120). All the above, as well as other required readings will be available on reserve in the undergraduate library. Graduates students are required to read all the recommended readings as well as the required readings. Other requirements and bases for grading are described in detail on the final page of this syllabus.Stephen F. Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution
Roy Medvedev, Let History Judge (Columbia University Press)
Theda Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions (Cambridge University Press)
Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Marx-Engels Reader (W. W. Norton)
Robert C. Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology (W. W. Norton)
Adam Ulam, The Bolsheviks (Harvard University Press)
Many of the books can be purchased more economically if you can find used copies. Besides Groundworks, you can also search both Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble by clicking on the appropriate icon or inputting the title or author of the book you are seeking in the search box below:
1 The second part of the series is on “The Chinese Revolution” (PS131C). This year it will be taught in Spring 2007. Students may take one or both courses in the sequence.
SCHEDULE OF CLASS SESSIONS AND READINGS:
Week 1:
Jan 9 Course Introduction: Political Thought, Political Legitimacy,
and Revolutionary Change
Jan 11 The French Revolution and the Marxian Paradigm of Revolutionary Change
Required
Readings:
In Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader:
∙ ″Marx on the History of His Opinions″
∙ ″Contribution to the Critique of Hegel´s Philosophy of Right: Introduction″
Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Preface, chaps 2 and 9
Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions, pp.47-67, 112-128, chaps. 4-5
Recommended:
Moore, Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, chap. 1
Week 2: Jan 16-18 Competing Approaches to the Study of Revolution
Required Readings:
Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions, chap. 1
Hoston, The State, Identity, and the National Question, Introduction, chap. 1:"Marxism, Revolution, and the National Question"
In Tucker, ed., Marx-Engels Reader:
∙ ″Theses on Feuerbach″
∙ ″The German Ideology″
∙ ″Manifesto of the Communist Party″
∙ ″Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,″ pp. 594-982
Recommended:
Wolin, ‘The Politics of the Study of Revolutions,” Comparative Politics 5.3 (April 1973): 343-358
James C. Davies, “Toward a Theory of Revolution,” American Sociological Review 27.1 (February 1962): 5-19
Tilly, “Does Modernization Breed Revolution?” Comparative Politics 5.3 (April 1973): 425-447 Ted Robert Gurr, “
The Revolution-Social Change Hypotheses
,” Comparative Politics 5.3, Special Issue on Revolution and Social Change (Apr., 1973), pp. 359-392
2 Brumaire [“Fog”] was the second month of the French revolutionary calendar. See an explanation in the handout that you can download from this site.
Week 3: Week of Jan 23 The Prehistory of the Russian Revolution
Required Readings:
Alexander Gerschenkron, “Problems and Patterns of Russian Economic Development” Robert C. Tucker, “The Image of Dual Russia,” in Tucker, The Soviet Political Mind (New York: Norton & Norton, 1971)
Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions, pp. 81-99
Ulam, The Bolsheviks, chaps. 1 and 2
Deutscher, The Prophet Armed, chaps. 1
Recommended:
Hoston, “Conceptualizing Bourgeois Revolution: The Prewar Japanese Left and the Meiji Restoration” Comparative Studies in Society and History (1990) (copies available from instructor) Assignment #1
Due via e-mail to mailto:russianrevolution@germaineahoston.com
By 10 p.m. PST, Sunday, January 28, 2007
Week 4: Week of January 30 The Transformation of Marxism in Russia
Required Readings:
Ulam, The Bolsheviks, chaps. 4-5
Deutscher, The Prophet Armed, chaps. 3, 5
In Tucker, Lenin Anthology:
∙ “What Is To Be Done?”
∙ “The Right of Nations to Self-Determination”
Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, chap. 1
Recommended Readings:
S. H. Baron, “Plekhanov and the Origins of Russian Marxism,” Russian Review, 13.1 (January 1954): 38-51, available online:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00360341- %28195401%2913%3A1%3C38%3APATOOR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6
S. H. Baron, “The Transition from Feudalism to Capitalism in Russia,” American Historical Review 77.3 (June 1972): 715-729
Week 5: Week of Feb 6 Thought and Practice in the Russian Revolution from 1905 to 1917
Required Readings:
Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, chap. 2
Knei-paz, Social and Political Thought of Leon Trotsky, chaps. 3 and 4
In Tucker, ed., The Lenin Anthology:
∙ “Two Tactics of Social Democracy”
∙ “Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism”
∙“The April Theses”
Recommended:
S. H. Baron, “Plekhanov, Trotsky and the Development of Soviet Historiography,” Soviet Studies 24.3 (July 1974): 380-395, available online at:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0038-
5859%28197407%2926%3A3%3C380%3APTATDO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W
Samuel H. Baron, “The Resurrection of Plekhanovism in Soviet Historiography,” Russian Review 33.4 (October 1974): 386-404, available online at:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0036- 0341%28197410%2933%3A4%3C386%3ATROPIS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S
Week 6: Week of Feb 13 Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers in the Russian Revolution
Required Readings:
Ulam, The Bolsheviks, chap. 7
Lenin, “The Dual Power,” in Tucker, Lenin Anthology
Paul Avrich, “Russian Factory Committees in 1917”
Ferro, “The Russian Soldier in 1917: Undisciplined, Patriotic, Revolutionary”
Alexander Rabinowitch, “The Petrograd Garrison and the Bolshevik Seizure of Power,” pp. 172-191, in Alexander and Janet Rabinowitch, eds. Revolution and Politics in Russia (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1972) Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions, pp. 128-140
Recommended:
Allan Wildman, “The February Revolution in the Russian Army,” Soviet Studies 22.1 (July 1970): 3-23
Thursday, February 15, 2007
In-Class Midterm Examination
Week 7: Week of Feb 20 The Consolidation of Power and War Communism
Required Readings:
Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, chaps. 3-4
Lenin, “State and Revolution,” in Tucker, The Lenin Anthology
Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions, 206-220
Ulam, The Bolsheviks, chap. 8
Alexander Rabinowitch, “The Evolution of Local Soviets in Petrograd, November 1917-June 1918: The Case of the First City District Soviet,” Slavic Review 46.1 (Spring, 1987):20-37
Week 8 Week of Feb 27 NEP and the Debate on Soviet Economic Development
Required Readings:
Smolinsky, “Planning without Theory”
Ulam, The Bolsheviks, chap. 9
Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, chaps. 5-9
Recommended:
Moshe Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, Intro., chaps. 1-6
Thomas P. Bernstein, “Leadership and Mass Mobilisation in the Soviet and Chinese Collectivization Campaigns of 1929-30 and 1955- 56: A Comparison,” China Quarterly no. 31 (July- September 1967): 1-47
Robert Conquest, Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), chaps. 1-5
Due in Class, Tuesday, February 27:
Preparation of a position
in the Soviet economic debates of the 1920s
Week 9 Week of Mar 6 Stalinism and Forced Collectivization
Required Readings: Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions, chaps. 6
Cohen, Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution, chap. 10
Medvedev, Let History Judge, chaps. 3-4, 6, 9
Recommended:
Lewin, Russian Peasants and Soviet Power, chaps. 7-17, Conclusion
Conquest, Harvest of Sorrow, chaps. 6-10
Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: A Reassessment, (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), chaps. 1-3
Week 10 Week of Mar 13 Stalinism, De-Stalinization, and a Fourth Revolution
Required Readings:
Medvedev, Let History Judge, chaps. 11, 15, and Conclusion
Khrushchev, “Secret Speech to the Twentieth Party Congress of the CPSU,” (“Crimes of the Stalin Era” and “Lenin’s Testament”) in Khrushchev Remembers
Pipes, “Toward the Police State”
Skocpol, States and Social Revolutions, Conclusion
Recommended:
Conquest, The Great Terror, chaps. 4-15
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Lectures and discussions will be held each Tuesday and Thursday from 3:30 p.m. to 4:50 p.m. in Pepper Canyon Hall 109. Readings should be completed before class, so that discussions can be wide-ranging and productive.
Discussion Assignments: There will be two assignments designed to promote discussion in class and online. Since the class is large, to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to participate, preparations for these are short (1-2 pages) and need to be submitted in writing online.
Exams:
• Midterm Examination. There will be an in-class midterm on Tuesday, February 15.
• Take-home Final Examination. A take-home final examination based on the entire quarter’s work will be distributed on or before Thursday, March 8 and is due between 3:00 p.m. and 5:59 p.m. on Tuesday, March 20, 2007 in the room designated for the final exam.
The following statement must appear, with your signature, on the final page of all your written work:
″The above represents my own work in accordance with Academic Senate in accordance with Academic Senate guidelines on academic integrity.″
If you wish to have your graded final examination available for pickup in a public accessible area of the Department of Political Science (301 Social Science Building), a signed Buckley Waiver must also appear on the front page of the examination.
Grading:
|
NOTE: All students are required to attend all class meetings.3 This portion of the grade includes online ontributions as well as “live” participation in class discussions. Students who are shy talking in front of others can take advantage of opportunities to contribute to the Yahoo! Group discussions. You can ask questions, answer questions posed by others, help plan review and other study sessions, etc. The point is that active, as opposed to passive, engagement with the material is much more conducive to learning and understanding any material. | ||
|
|||
|
3 The exception to this rule is in case of illness. If you are sick, please do not come to class and expose others to your illness. When you have recovered and return to class, bring a note from your doctor, and your absence will be excused.