HIST2026 Change and Conflict in Russia, 1860-1930

2020

4.5

1 x 60-minute lecture-1 weekly
1 x 60-minute lecture-2 weekly
6 x 60-minute tutorials per semester

HIST3040 has been successfully completed

Associated major: History

This topic is about the Russian revolutions - their contexts, causes and initial results. It covers the period from the end of serfdom and the industrialisation of Russia in the late nineteenth century through to forced collectivisation in 1929-30. In doing so, it will examine five distinct revolutions between 1860 and 1930. At the beginning and the end of the period, two 'revolutions from above': the abolition of serfdom and the destruction of the peasantry. In between, three revolutions from below: the 'dress rehearsal' of 1905, the downfall of the Tsar in 1917 and the establishment of Soviet power in the same year. Students will be able to study the objective and subjective causes of these events, and their contribution to the shape of the Soviet state which existed until 1991.

Students successfully completing this topic should be able to:

• assess the significance of a revolution in a backward country
• identify and analyse different types of revolution
• describe the impact of the victory of Bolshevism
• relate the principal events in the destruction of the old regime and the consolidation of the new one
• reflect on developments within the Soviet regime