Programme

Introduction: from Kevian Rus' to Ivan IV the Terrible; The First modernization of Russia: Peter the Great and the birth of an European power; The long Russian Nineteenth century from Napoleonic wars to Alexander II's reforms; Nicholas II, the last tzar and his empire: the contradiction of an impetuous and disorderly development; the World War One and the end of a world; the Russian revolutions; The rise of Lenin and the Bolshevik; The Bolshevik party his origins ad his success; The Russian civil wars and the origin of the Soviet state; The NEP; The rise of Stalin: Collectivization, industrialization and the birth of a new Soviet Russia; The Great Terror; the Comintern the foreign communist parties and the PCUS hegemony; The "double" Soviet foreign policy and the origin of the Second World War; The War; After the war: the birth of a super-power; Soviet Russia, western powers and the Cold War; Nikita Khrushchev and a very turning point in the soviet history: the XX Congress, The Brezhnev years: consolidation and stagnation; the impossible reform attempt: Gorbachev between Perestrojka and Glasnost'; the fall of the USSR and the birth of the Russian Federation; Yeltsin and the shady era; a new strong man? Vladimir Putin and the new Russia.

Core Documentation

1) A. Graziosi, L'Unione Sovietica 1914-1991, Bologna, Il Mulino

2) G. P. Caselli, La Russia nuova. Economia e Storia da Gorbacev a Putin, Milano - Udine, Mimesis


for non-attending students:

Paul Bushkovitch, Breve storia della Russia. dalle origini a Putin, Torino, Einaudi. Also the english version

Type of delivery of the course

lectures online mode with active participation of students and interventions by specialists.

Attendance

Class attendance is optional but strongly recommended.

Type of evaluation

the oral exam will include all aspects of the program. In the next summer session, the oral examination will take place in online mode.