Soviet and Russian Leaders on Ukraine, Empire, and Nation: From Lenin to Putin, 5 cr

This course examines the essays, speeches, and other texts of Soviet and post-Soviet Russian political leaders, and does so using the tools of several disciplines: history, literature, and political science. Our focus will be on texts on empire and the national question, as well as on Ukraine wherever possible. The course will be discussion-based; each week students will closely read and discuss one or more texts by a Soviet or Russian leader. In the first, introductory session the instructor will set the stage with a lecture on the role of political oratory and writing in the tsarist period as well as in the wider global context. Each subsequent session will be devoted to the texts of a single political leader, beginning with Vladimir Lenin. In discussing the readings we will pay close attention to continuity and change as regards central themes and the genres in which they are expressed, e.g., the journal article, speech, published diary entry, and so on. We will close with a discussion of texts by Vladimir Putin, including the two speeches he delivered, on February 21 and 24, 2022, on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Our goal in this course will be not only to provide context with which to better understand Putin’s words, but also to reveal the historical significance of political oratory and writing in the Soviet Union, Russia, and beyond.