EXERCISE ONE =
Purchase and set up your journal.

Ask at the customer service desk in the basement of the UO Book Store for a blue lab book (the larger one, 11x7 inches; Stock # 43-581, JUST EXACTLY THIS ONE). The first thing I want you to do with your lab book (let’s call it the journal) is paste a white label securely to the outer upper right-hand corner of the front cover (a mailing label will do). Boldly inscribe your name there. Inscribe other personal contact info on the inner face of the cover, and leave the first 4-5 numbered pages blank for keeping your own table of contents through the term, indicating sources consulted. It is your responsibility here to provide a guide to each part of your journal. Leave page 120 blank for instructor comments & grading.

Through the whole term, the course requires nine hours a week outside of class time, reading and note-taking, mainly in this journal. I say "mainly in this JOURNAL" because you may toward the end of the term want to do some part of your preparation for exercise six, the big research paper [ID], on your word processor.

Read this extended description of journal.

EXERCISE TWO =
Learn how to navigate SAC

Guide to readings throughout the term are provided in lectures outlined on this course webpage and most particularly in the primary and secondary sources indicated in "The Student's Annotated Chronology and Systematic Bibliography" [SAC © Alan Kimball].

Read this extended description of SAC and how to use it.

You may print any part of the electronic material I provide this class, but do not put photocopied text in your journal.

First-week lecture topics

Three interpretive issues =

• Ways of Seeing History (with three sub-essays = Dozen categories of human grouping, Taxonomy of historical experience, and Perceived Interests)
• A definition of "civil society" [TXT]
• Universal doctrine of factions [TXT]

Ten events, trends or eras of long-term historical significance =

• Invitation to the Rus [SAC]
• Church & state =
  --"Universal Christian Monarchy" [SAC],
  --"two swords" [SAC],
  --"symphonia" [SAC],
  --"National baptism" [SAC],
  --"Schism" [SAC],
  --"Crusades" [SAC]
• The Russian heritage of Rechtstaat [rule of law] [LOOP on "law codes"]
• Two centuries under the dominance of the Golden Horde [SAC]
• "Russian Feudalism" = Miliukov's historical explanation [TXT]
  --Aristocracy & state [SAC], with an aside on Montesquieu [SAC] and Speranskii's dour views [SAC]
  --Primogeniture [SAC 2-hop LOOP],
  --Kurbskii [SAC 2-hop LOOP], and
  --the first Russian political thinker, Ivan Peresvetov [SAC]
• Village institutions [TXT] and serfdom [SAC]
• Traditionalist guide to behavior, the Domostroi [SAC]
• Cities, e.g., the fabled Veche [SAC], Voevody, ostrogi and fortresses [SAC]. [TXT re. Russian urban political culture]
• Multi-cultural, multi-national, and other social factions (plus "trans-nationalism") =
  --Cossacks [SAC 17-hop LOOP which you enter in the chronological middle]
  --The great church schism [Raskol] and alienation of Russian "Old-Ritualists" [SAC]
  --Yurii Krizhanich [SAC]
  --Assimilation, e.g., Jews [SAC],
  --Suppression, e.g., Chechens [SAC] &
  --Federalism, e.g., Ukrainians [SAC]
• Petrine transformation [SAC]. Outlook of Petr Saltykov [SAC], of Feofan Prokopovich [SAC], and of Ivan Pososhkov [SAC]
  --"Finger pointing at an empty space" = (1) the absence of John Locke [SAC]
  --"Finger pointing at an empty space" = (2) the absence of Adam Smith [SAC]
  --Social/service hierarchy -- Sosloviia vs. Table of Ranks [SAC]
  --Compare fate of Russian nobility with that of Poland [SAC]

Seven significant implications of the long duration =

(1) Until 1380 [ID] Russian history was thoroughly "contextualized" out on the East European steppes dominated by Byzantine, then Golden-Horde power and culture
(2) From 1380 until well into the reign of Ivan IV [ID], Russia's was an "isolated" history, missing four critical episodes of European "modernization" =
 --(a) "waning of the middle ages" --(b) Renaissance --(c) Reformation --(d) commercial revolution
(3) Rise of monarchical absolutism [EG] (much earlier and much more pronounced than in the rest of Europe)
(4) The Russian Orthodox Church became a bureaucratic arm of the tsarist state, alienating millions of intensely religious Christians [EG=Old-Ritualists]
(5) Non-European levels of agrarian poverty were the foundation of the tsarist "service state" [pomeshchiki (ID) and serfs (ID)]
(6) Geo-political insecurity and vulnerability [EG]
(7) "Two cultures" (as per Vladimir Veidle [ID]), one source of which follows =

Readings in addition to those imbedded in SAC (and relevant to the whole academic term)
(primary sources are in boldface)

HERE IS A COMPREHENSIVE ELECTRONIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF
SOME OF THE MOST IMPORTANT PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SOURCES ON
THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN POLITICAL CULTURE

 Now choose some part of the following three-part list of readings (one or more titles) on the big picture and devote about four hours to your choice(s). Search for insight into the long-term Russian political culture. Keep a record of your search in your journal.

General accounts
(more like reference works, with short interpretive passages indicated) =

• Aleksandr Obolonskii, The Drama of Russian Political History (2003) ch1, ch2 and ch3, up to Decembrists. Also check out his conclusions
• Thornton Anderson, Russian Political Thought, pp. 361-373 ("Some Perspectives")
• Barbara Green, The Dynamics of Russian Politics: A Short History (Bold but simplified effort to bridge tsarist, Soviet & post-Soviet eras, to provide transition from old regime and into the Soviet regime)
• Peter Julicher, Renegades, Rebels and Rogues Under the Tsars, pp. 255-259 (Epilogue)
• Sergei Utechin, Russian Political Thought, pp. 103-114 (liberalism)
• James K. Billington, The Icon and the Axe
   

Titles offering vast interpretive perspective =

Early Russian history

• Sigismund von Herberstein, Description of Moscow and Muscovy [SAC]
• August, Baron von Haxthausen-Abbenburg, Studies on the Russian Interior [SAC]
• Marshall T. Poe, The Russian Moment in World History| Argues three main points = (1) For centuries, Russia was the only non-Western power to defend itself against Western imperialism. (2) Russia carved out for itself the only non-Western path to modern society, neither European nor Asian but distinctly Russian and based on autocratic governmental authority and command economics. (3) The Soviet era must be seen as a natural continuation of Russia's long-term past, i.e., points one and two. Does this argument apply also to post-Soviet Russia?
• Sergei Pushkarev, Self-Government and Freedom in Russia
• More focused but still of broad significance for the interpretation of "the long duration" =
  • 1649:Ulozhenie [Law Code] [SAC]
  • Andrei Kurbskii and Tsar Ivan IV, Correspondence (Intro by John Fennell, then a few selections). What was the political status of nobles?
  • Alexander Yanov, The Origins of Autocracy: Ivan the Terrible in Russian History, pp. 1-23, 280-320
  • Charles J. Halperin, Russia and the Golden Horde: The Mongol Impact..., pp. 87-119. What was Mongol impact?
  • Leo de Hartog, Russia and the Mongol Yoke, pp. 128-67. What was Mongol impact?
  • Donald Ostrowski, Muscovy and the Mongols..., pp. 36-63 (significant institutional influences); pp. 85-107 (refutes "Oriental" interpretation)
• Robert Crummey, Aristocrats and Servitors (Introductions and conclusions. What was the political status of nobles?)
• Jerzy Lukowski, Liberty's Folly pp.1-25, 264-7 (re.Poland's social/political decline. Compare Polish and Russian freedoms)

Imperial Russia

• Nikolai Karamzin, Memoir on Ancient & Modern Russia (1811) pp.3-92 (Richard Pipe's introduction) [SAC]
• Donald Mackenzie Wallace, Russia, ch.5 ("Social Classes") or the whole of part 1, "State and Society" [SAC]
• Maksim Kovalevskii, Russian political institutions... [Excerpted TXT] [SAC]
• Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians
• Paul Miliukov, Russia and Its Crisis (1905) ch4 "The Political Tradition". Try this web summary. [SAC]
• Bernard Pares, Russia and Reform ch.1 (1-15), class system (ch3, 71-108), conclusions (424-425) [see below] [SAC]
• Leon Trotsky, 1905, ch 1 (TXT on Russian historical development), ch 4 (TXT on driving forces of revolution), ch 27 (TXT of polemic with Marxist historian M.N. Pokrovskii) [SAC]
• Boris Mironov, A Social History of Russia 2vv
• Aleksandr Kornilov, Modern Russian History
• Richard Pipes, Russian conservatism and its critics: A study in political culture (2005) [CF=Yanov]
• George Frost Kennan, The Marquis de Custine and His Russia in 1839 (1971) introduction. What is timeless in Custine? [SAC]
• Marc Raeff,  Understanding Imperial Russia (1984) pp. 35-111 (chs. 2-4; all three or only one). What did Peter I do?
• Theodore Von Laue, "Imperial Russia at the Turn of the Century: The Cultural Slope and the Revolution from Without", in 1961jy:CSinSH
• More focused but still of broad significance for the interpretation of "the long duration" =
  • Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy (1891-1924), pp. 808-24 (conclusions)
  • Jacob Walkin, The Rise of Democracy in Pre-revolutionary Russia (1860s to 1917) pp. 3-24 ("long-range characteristics of Russian Society"); pp. 245-252 (Epilogue); pp. 293-300 ("critical bibliography", still useful evaluation of primary documents)
  • Cynthia Whittaker, Russian Monarchy: Eighteenth-Century Rulers and Writers in Political Dialogue

SUMMARY OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FIRST-WEEK "HOPS" in re. COURSE STRUCTURE

This electronic syllabus has so far presented internet "hops" to the following auxiliary pages and subpages =

A. THE RESERVE BOOK ROOM
B. SAC
C. JOURNAL
 a. Reading
D. WAYS OF SEEING HISTORY
 a. Dozen Categories of Human Grouping
 b. Taxonomy of Historical Experience
 c. Interests

WEEK 2 =
Origins of modern political culture

1825 December 14:Petersburg, Senate Square. Decembrist Uprising

EXERCISE THREE =
Draft essays

Over the term you will compose four "draft essays". The topics of all four draft essays should grow out of your general course work as laid out in lectures and SAC [ID]. You will enter research notes and the draft essays themselves in your journal [ID]

Read this extended description of the draft essay

As you devote the nine hours to reading and writing in the journal every week, you will come across primary documents [ID] that you would like to read with closer attention and research more extensively in the secondary and reference literature

DRAFT ESSAYS #1 & #2 should be completed before the time of "first submission" [ID]

Two more draft essays will follow =

DRAFT ESSAY #3 = The deadline for the third draft essay is midterm time [ID].

DRAFT ESSAY #4 = The deadline for the fourth and final draft essay is final submission of the journal to me [ID]

I am ready to help define topics that best suit you. A purely mechanical but quite satisfactory topic might be titled something like this, "The Significance of [fill in some primary source or sources] in the History of Russian Political Culture" or "The Contribution of [fill in some primary source or sources] to my understanding of the History of Russian Political Culture". You will probably find topics that suit you very well as you do the regular weekly reading. But don't hesitate to ask my advice. The draft essays should be thought of as moments of intense reading and writing about primary (and supportive secondary) sources you come across in the process of weekly reading and writing in the journal.

Second-week lecture topics
(primary source readings embedded in SAC entries) =

• 1770s:Nikolai Novikov and termination of transition to civil society [SAC]
• 1790s:Aleksandr Radishchev and progressive statism [SAC]
• Statist reform in the time of Alexander I [SAC 7-hop LOOP]
• 1814:1825; Decembrists [6-hop LOOP] NB! Mikhail Lunin on "secret societies" [Excerpted TXT]
• Reactionary reform in the time of Nicholas I [10-hop LOOP]
• Library section books on the long history of Russian police
• "Official nationality" vs. "unofficial" nationality (Slavophiles) [SAC] Ivan Kireevskii compared Russia with Europe [TXT]
• 1849:Petrashevtsy [SAC] NB! especially this section on "raznochintsy"
• Alexander Herzen [SAC] and an essay on Herzen [TXT]
• A Russian contribution to world history = Intelligentsia [TXT]

Readings in addition to those imbedded in SAC (secondary sources)

• Aleksandr Obolonskii, The Drama of Russian Political History, ch.4 & ch.5
• Thornton Anderson| Russian Political Thought (1967), pp.173-231
• Daniel Field, The End of Serfdom: Nobility and Bureaucracy.., intro & conclusion
• Abbott Gleason, Young Russia: The Genesis of Russian Radicalism ..., intro. & on Yakushkin
• Frederick Starr, Decentralization and Self-Government in Russia, 1830-1870
• Jonathan Daly, Autocracy Under Siege: Security Police and Opposition in Rus.., intro. & ch of choice
• Sergei Utechin, Russian Political Thought: A Concise History, ch.4, ch.5 & ch.6
• Franco Venturi, Roots of Revolution, ch.1 ch.2. ch.3

WEEKS 3 & 4 =
Era of Great Reforms and/or Russian Revolutionary Situations

Meeting of peasant elders in mirskoi skhod [village assembly]
Victoria and Albert Museum, London

EXERCISE FOUR =
First submission of journal

The course requires a "no-grade" first submission of the journal to me on the first day of class in the fourth week of the term (see one-page syllabus for exact date). By this time please include in the journal the first two of your draft essays [ID], and a clear list of possible research topics [EXERCISE SIX below] so that I might make recommendations to you on that matter. This first submission is also an early check to see if I can give you any ideas how to proceed with your journal and the course in general.

FOQs =
Frequently Observed Qualities
of Student Journals

After reading journals, I enter comments on the last page. These comments are divided into evaluative categories (depending on the stage of the game and the specifics of this particular syllabus) =

(A) journal as a whole
(B) draft essay(s)
(C) exam. 

Within each of these categories, certain issues stand out. I have numbered them within each of the three evaluative categories below. On that last page of your journal I will often simply enter one of these numbers in order to free my time for more individualized narrative. I will put a circle around the number when I want it to communicate praise and encouragement to keep up the pace. I will put a square around the number when I want it to communicate criticism and encouragement to improve things.

(A) JOURNAL AS A WHOLE

1. Evidence of 9 hours/week reading and writing
2. Attention to journal-worthy exercises enumerated on electronic syllabus
3. Distribution of attention and selection from recommended library readings
4. Coordination of SAC and library reading
5. Developing your own interests while adhering to syllabus
6. [BLANK]
7. [BLANK]
8. [BLANK]
9. Bold and clear name label on journal cover
10. Comprehensive table of contents clearly identifies and locates notes on lectures, journal-worthy exercises, SAC and library readings, as well as draft essays and exams
11. Very solid, convincing and creative journal
12. Too much mechanical recording of SAC entries without attention to some of the suggested texts, to the detriment of your personal engagement with the issues

(B) DRAFT ESSAYS

1. Informative title
2. Clear expression of “theme” or “main point”
3. Organization and explication via intro and conclusion
4. Good mixture of “facts” and “interpretation”
5. Primary document(s) at the center of attention
6. Secondary source(s) aid interpretation of primary source(s)
7. Sources clearly identified
8. Devoted to theme or topic assigned, or a persuasive substitute
9. Clearly based on materials or themes presented by course

(C) EXAMS 

1. Exam essays make clear historical statements and display a subtle awareness of different interpretational possibilities
2. Historical detail from course readings and lectures backs up interpretive points
3. IDs place greatest emphasis on "historical significance"
4. Exam choices demonstrate breadth of learning (i.e., little significant overlap among exam choices and draft essays)
5. Judicious use of exam time-period