HIST2042 The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire

2012

4.5

1 x 2-hour lecture per semester
6 x 50-minute tutorials per semester

HIST3043 has been successfully completed

Associated majors: History; International Relations

The Topic looks at the history of the Soviet Union during the consolidation, rapid rise and subsequent decline of the Soviet state. It begins with the industrialisation of a backward, agrarian economy to the point where it could successfully resist and beat back the Nazi onslaught from 1941. Then we consider the sort of society that evolved in the emerging superpower during the Cold War. Students will examine the faultlines that opened up in Soviet society - revealed by Khrushchev's reforms, but covered over again during Brezhnev's twenty year rule. Finally we will look at Gorbachev's major attempt to reform and preserve the Soviet union - an attempt that ultimately ended in failure and collapse.

This topic aims to:

• enable students to acquire knowledge by examining the development of the Soviet state, specifically its rise to 'Great Power' status by the 1950s and its subsequent decline
• have students apply that knowledge in analysing Soviet riseand decline and determining to what extent it was internally and externally driven
• enable students to study the objective and subjective causes of these events and their contribution to shaping the Soviet state that existed until 1991
• help students communicate their knowledge and analysis effectively in both collaborative (discussions) and independent (the written word) ways.

Student successfully completing this topic should be able to:

• Assess the significance of revolution in a backward country
• Identify and analyse phases of Soviet development
• Relate and reflect on the principal events in the consolidation of the Soviet regime
• Describe and evaluate the various accounts of the Soviet collapse