Maricopa Community Colleges  HIS275   20092-99999 

Official Course Description: MCCCD Approval: 6-24-2008

HIS275  2009 Spring – 2009 Fall

LEC  3.0 Credit(s)  3.0 Period(s)  3.0 Load  Acad

Russia and the Soviet Union in the 20th Century to Present

Survey of the principal political, military, economic, social, and cultural developments in the Soviet Union from the Communist seizure of power in 1917 to the present. Includes a brief review of the geography, politics, and culture of pre-1917 Russia as a background.

Prerequisites: None.

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MCCCD Official Course Competencies:

 

HIS275  2009 Spring – 2009 Fall

Russia and the Soviet Union in the 20th Century to Present

 

1.

Identify and locate on a map the principal geographic features of the Soviet Union. (I)

2.

Describe, in general terms, the history of czarist Russia in the last decades of the 19th century. (II)

3.

Compare and contrast the variants of Marxism, with specific reference to Germany and Russia before World War I. (II)

4.

List and explain the forces which led to the revolutions of 1905 and 1917. (II)

5.

List the reasons which led to the creation of the New Economic Policy (NEP). (III)

6.

Compare and contrast the personalities and policies of Stalin and Trotsky, with specific reference to the political climate of the early 1920s. (III)

7.

Describe Stalin's industrialization policy in the late 1920s and early 1930s, with specific reference to the party and military purges. (III)

8.

List the salient characteristics that made up Stalin's cultural and foreign policy prior to World War II. (III)

9.

Describe the major forces in World War II that contributed to Stalin's post WWII domestic and foreign policy. (IV)

10.

Compare and contrast the Khrushchev and Brezhnev eras. (V)

11.

List and explain the forces that led to the rise of Gorbachev and the subsequent coup. (V)

12.

List and explain the forces that led to the rise and fall of Yeltsin, 1991-1999. (V)

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MCCCD Official Course Outline:

 

HIS275  2009 Spring – 2009 Fall

Russia and the Soviet Union in the 20th Century to Present

 

I. Geography of the Russian Federation

A. Political boundaries

1. With other countries

2. The former republics

B. Political boundaries pre 1917

C. Physical geography

1. Climate

2. Soil and natural resources

II. Czarist Russia (pre 1917)

A. The autocracy

B. Slavophilism and the intelligentsia

C. Marxism

D. The revolution of 1905

E. Stolypin

F. Rasputin's influence, 1905-1916

G. World War I's impact H The 1917 revolutions

III. The Soviet Union between the world wars

A. The Civil War

B. NEP

C. The death of Lenin

D. Stalin, Trotsky and struggle for leadership

E. Industrialization

F. The purges

G. Cultural and foreign policy

H. Collectivization and famines

IV. World War II

A. Hitler-Stalin pact

B. War strategy

C. Yalta-Potsdam-Teheran conferences

V. Post World War II

A. Warsaw Pact

B. Khrushchev era

C. Brezhnev era

D. The rise of Gorbachev

E. The coup and Yeltsin

F. Putin

1. Remilitarization

2. Rising fuel wealth

3. Renewed state control of key industries

4. Increased hostility with the West

G. Term Limits - Dimitry Medvedev and the next Leaders of Russia

 

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