Prof. Julie Hessler

Office hours: M 3:00-4:20 (McKenzie 351)

Th 2:00 - 2:50 (PLC 271)

Telephone: 346-4857 (o), 302-9032 (h)

hessler@uoregon.edu

HISTORY 428 EASTERN EUROPE SINCE WORLD WAR I

MWF 2:00 - 2:50, Pacific 30

Course description : This course is intended to provide an intensive introduction to the history of Eastern Europe in the twentieth century. The course has no prerequisites, and assumes no specific knowledge of Eastern Europe, but does presuppose some familiarity with European history. Themes for the quarter include the territorial settlements after World War I and the emergence of the new states; national minorities and nationalism; economic development in Eastern Europe; Soviet and Nazi occupation; the communist takeovers; Stalinism and destalinization in Eastern Europe; intellectual responses to communism; civil society in the Soviet bloc; the collapse of communism; the Yugoslav wars; Eastern Europe and the European Union.

Format : Lecture and discussion.

Grades will be based on:

Map quiz, 5%; midterm, 25%; final exam, 35%; paper proposal, 5%, final paper, 30%. Participation is also expected; active, thoughtful participation may raise your grade by up to two percentage points.

Required books (available at bookstore):

Joseph Rothschild, East Central Europe between the Two World Wars

Ben Fowkes, Eastern Europe, 1945-1969: From Stalinism to Stagnation

Gale Stokes, The Walls Came Tumbling Down

Additional required readings are on Blackboard.

TOPICS :

Week 1. The legacy of World War I. Reading: East Central Europe between the Two World Wars , 137-201 (“Hungary”); Raymond Pearson, “A New Europe,” from his National Minorities in Eastern Europe (Blackboard).

Mon., Jan. 7 Introduction: themes, fissures, and constraints in interwar Eastern Europe

Wed., Jan. 9 The postwar settlements, ethnic minorities, and “artificial states.” Discuss Pearson, “A New Europe.”

Fri., Jan. 11 Political turmoil in a defeated state: Hungary. Discuss Rothschild, “Hungary.”

Week 2. Politics, economy, and culture in the 1920s. Reading: East-Central Europe Between the Two World Wars , 323-56 (“Bulgaria”); Hugh Seton-Watson, Eastern Europe Between the Wars, 1918-1941 , pp. 75-122 (“The Peasantry”) (Blackboard).

Mon., Jan. 14 A defeated state in the southeast: Bulgaria. Discuss Rothschild, “Bulgaria.” Map quiz .

Wed. Jan. 16 Land reform, economic development, and the Great Depression. Reading: Hugh Seton-Watson, “The Peasantry.”

Fri., Jan. 18 Ethnic minorities and conflict: case study of southern Dobruja. In-class film An Unforgettable Summer .

Week 3. Right-wing politics and the Czechoslovakian exception. Reading: East Central Europe Between the Two World Wars , 73-136 (“Czechoslovakia”); Eugen Weber, “Romania,” from Hans Rogger, ed., The European Right (Blackboard); .

Mon., Jan. 21 Martin Luther King Day - No class

Wed., Jan. 23 The League of the Archangel Michael: Romanian fascism. Discuss Weber, “Romania.”

Fri., Jan. 25 Czechoslovakia: Oasis of democracy. Reading: Rothschild, “Czechoslovakia.”

Week 4. Poland in peace and war. Readings: East Central Europe Between the Two World Wars , 27-72 (“Poland”); Ezra Mendelsohn, “Interwar Poland: Good for the Jews or Bad for the Jews?” in The Jews in Poland , ed. Chimen Abramsky et al., 130-139 (Blackboard). Jan T. Gross, “Neighbors,” from The New Yorker (March 12, 2001); Emanuel Ringelblum, Polish-Jewish Relations during the Second World War , pp. 190-248 (Blackboard); Tadeusz Borowski, This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen , pp. 29-49 (Blackboard); Kazimierz Wyka, “The Excluded Economy” from Janine Wedel, The Unplanned Society (Blackboard).

Mon., Jan. 28 Interwar Poland. Discuss Rothschild, “Poland,” and Mendelsohn,“Interwar Poland: Good for the Jews or Bad for the Jews?”

Wed., Feb. 30 German occupation, collaboration, and genocide in Poland. Discuss Borowski, This Way to the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen , 29-49; Ringelblum, Polish-Jewish Relations , 190-248; Gross, “Neighbors.”

Fri., Feb. 1 German occupation from the Polish point of view. Two versions: Heroism and resistance (film clip: Kanal ) or corruption (discuss Wyka, “The Excluded Economy”).

Week 5. War and Holocaust, cont . Raymond Pearson, “War and the Minorities” from his National Minorities in Eastern Europe (Blackboard); World War II maps (Blackboard)

Mon., Feb. 4 World War II as civil war in Yugoslavia (lecture)

Wed., Feb. 6 War, Holocaust, and Porajmos: review. Discuss Pearson, “War and the Minorities.”

Fri., Feb. 8 Midterm exam

Week 6. The communist seizure of power. Readings: Fowkes, Eastern Europe 1945-1969 , 1-40; Bradley F. Abrams, “The Second World War and the East European Revolution,” from East European Politics and Societies , vol. 16, no. 3 (2002): 623-64 (Blackboard).

Mon., Feb. 11 The legacy of the war and the communist takeovers. Discuss Abrams, “The Second World War and the East European Revolution” and Fowkes, Eastern Europe , 17-40.

Wed., Feb. 13 Reschedule class for 2-hour film by Vojtech Jasny, All My Good Countrymen

Fri., Feb. 15 Discuss film; lecture on agriculture and rural life in the 1940s-50s.

Week 7. Stalinism. Readings: Fowkes, Eastern Europe, 1945-1969 , 41-63, 107 and 111-20; From Stalinism to Pluralism , 43-77 (Stalinism documents), 81-93 (Hungarian Revolution documents), 57-65 and 94-105 (Tito documents) (Blackboard).

Mon., Feb. 18 Stalinist repression and political culture. Discuss Stalinism documents and Fowkes, Eastern Europe , 41-55, 107. Paper topics and preliminary bibliography for final research paper due.

Wed., Feb. 20 Stalin's death, the “New Course,” and the uprisings of 1953, 1956. Discuss Hungarian Revolution documents and Fowkes, Eastern Europe , 56-63 and 111-20.

Fri., Feb. 22 Yugoslavia in the Tito era: from Stalinism to federalism (lecture and discussion; prepare Tito documents).

Week 8. A cultural revolution? Reading: Fowkes, Eastern Europe , 64-94; From Stalinism to Pluralism , 122-36 (Prague Spring documents - Blackboard); Vaclav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless,” (Blackboard) (from his Open Letters 125-214); Slavenka Drakulic, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed , pp 21-32, 82-92, 179-89 (Blackboard).

Mon., Feb. 25 Prague Spring: cultural revolution, controlled liberalization, intervention (lecture and discussion; prepare Prague Spring documents and Fowkes, Eastern Europe , 64-82).

Wed., Feb. 27 The philosophy of dissent. Discuss Havel, “The Power of the Powerless”

Fri., Feb. 29 Economic development and the cultural meanings of consumption. Discuss Fowkes, Eastern Europe , 82-94; Drakulic, How We Survived Communism .

Week 9. From Solidarity to the revolutions of 1989. Readings: Stokes, The Walls Came Tumbling Down , 3- 217; From Stalinism to Pluralism , 204-14 (Solidarity documents); 225-48 and 257-64 (1980s documents); 217-23 (Havel, “New Year's Address”) (Blackboard).

Mon., Mar. 3 Solidarity. (lecture and discussion, with film clip from Andrzei Wajda's Man of Iron ; prepare Stokes, Walls Came Tumbling, 3-45 and Solidarity documents).

Wed., Mar. 5 Towards revolution: Poland, Hungary, and the USSR in the 1980s. Discuss Stokes, Walls Came Tumbling , 46-134, and 1980s documents (Blackboard).

Fri., Mar. 7 1989: Year of revolution and after. Discuss Stokes, Walls Came Tumbling , 135-217; Havel, “New Year's Address.”

Week 10. Brave new world. Readings: Stokes, Walls Came Tumbling , 218-60 and From Stalinism to Pluralism , 273-88 (Yugoslavia documents) (Blackboard). Maps of post-communist Eastern Europe (Blackboard).

Mon., Mar. 10 The breakup of Yugoslavia and the wars of succession (discuss Stokes, Walls Came Tumbling , 218-52)

Wed., Mar. 12 Yugoslavia and its successors, cont. Reading: TBA. Guest lecturer: Dijana Ihas

Fri., Mar. 14 Eastern Europe today. Reading: Stokes, Walls Came Tumbling , 253-60.

Final paper due Monday, March 17, at 9:00 a.m. in my office, McKenzie 351 (slide under the door).

Final exam: Wednesday, March 19, at 3:15 (2 hours - bring 2 exam booklets).