Preliminary programme:

Social structures

18.9. Harri Melin (TAY): Russian social classes in flux

25.9. Jouko Nikula (Aleksanteri institute): Changing Russian countryside

2.10. Irina Sarno (City of Tampere): Russian managers

Traditional and new media

9.10 Svetlana Pasti (TAY): Comparative view on Russian media

16.10. Period break

23.10 Jukka Pietiläinen (Aleksanteri institute): Freedom of speech in post-Soviet media

30.10 Dmitry Yagodin (TAY): Citizen journalism in Russia

Friday 8.11. at 12-14 Markku Lonkila (TAY): Social media and Russian opposition movement, in Paavo Koli auditorium (please note the different day and place!)

Gender and civil society

13.11. Meri Kulmala (Aleksanteri institute): Women in Russian Civil Society

20.11. Freek van der Vet (HY): Diffusion of human rights in Russia

27.11. Laura Lyytikäinen (HY): Russian oppositional youth movement

4.12. Olga Gurova (HY): Consumption patterns in Russia

This is an introductory course to Russian and Soviet history from the 19th to the 21st centuries. The aim of the course is to give a basic chronological information about the political history of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, and to discuss some of the key questions in the Russian history in guest lecturers given by specialists in economic, social and cultural history.

The course is organized in cooperation with Aleksanteri Institute's Russian and East European Master's School.

This course will seek to strengthen our understanding of what is going on in Russian politics today. We will look at formal political institutions and different actors who contribute to Russian politics. We will also discuss practices which characterize the contemporary situation.

The course is arranged in three basic topics. In the ‘Introduction’ I outline some theoretical approaches to the study of popular culture and focus on the current issues that exemplify three levels of analysis of popular culture: texts, practices, and institutions. An interdisciplinary approach to the topic mainly draws on the works in cultural studies (J.Thompson, S.Hall, J.Fiske, A.McRobbie et al.), the ‘production perspective’ for the sociology of culture (R.Peterson, D.Crane),  and ‘economy of culture’ (P.DiMaggio, P.duGay). In the course I apply this ‘optics’ to the study of representation of gender, sexualities, sports, politics and nation building through two discourses pertaining to Russian popular culture - glamour and nostalgia.

 The third part of the course discusses the new landscapes of Russian popular culture asking the question of whether and how cultural practices could be a tool for resistance. More specifically, I focus on three different cases: the representations of migrants in the popular sketch comedies and films, the Do-It-Yourself performance by Pussy Riot, and the recently emerged protesting practices of Russian ‘creative class’ as an element of popular culture.

The course is organized in cooperation with Aleksanteri Institute's Russian and East European Master's School.