DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY
History 324-01 Dr. Pastor
pastorp@mail.montclair.edu 655-7564
SYLLABUS
Texts used for this course are:
John M. Thompson, A Vision Unfulfilled (Heath)
Richard Sakwa,
The Rise and Fall of the
The above-listed texts are available in paperback. It is strongly recommended that students equip themselves with own copies.
In addition to the assigned readings, the student is required to write a four to five page (double spaced, 10-12 pitch font size) book review on one historical monograph related to the subject of the course (30% of the final grade). Title must be submitted on February 27 to the instructor for approval. (Use a 3x5 index card.) Due date for the book review: April 24. Late papers will be penalized by half of a grade. Instructions for the review are included in the hard-copy syllabus.
There will be two exams for the course (30% each). The exam questions and identifications will be based on the assigned readings illuminated by class discussions and video presentations. These will require essay-type answers.
Date of the Mid-Term Exam:
Date of final exam:
10% of the final grade will be given for class participation.
Please refrain from eating and drinking in class. Also, turn off your cell phone and/or beeper for the duration of the class.
Office Hours: M, W,
Topics and
1. Introduction.
Video: Pictures
2. Background to Soviet History
Video: Nicholas and Alexandra: Anointed by God
3. Dress Rehearsal for Revolution
Video: The Battleship
4. War and Revolution
Video: The Russian Revolution, VT 1786
5. Communism in Power
6. The Peasant Brest-Litovsk
137-138, 140-145.
Video: Stalin, Part I, VT 2458/1
7. The Stalin Revolution
Video: Stalin, Part
8. Mid-Term Exam,
9. Stalin’s Reign of Terror
Video: The Lysenko Affair, VT 24
10. From Cold War to Hot War and Back to Cold War
Video: Stalin, Part
11. The Thaw
Video: Khrushchev, the Bear’s Embrace, VT 731
12. From Reform to Stagnation
Video: Nightfrost in
13. The Attempt to Restructure Communism
Video:
Due date for the
review, April 24.
14. The Collapse of Communism
Video: Yeltsyn
Torture's Long Shadow
By Vladimir Bukovsky
The
This
joke, whispered among those who trusted each other when I was a kid in Moscow
in the 1950s, is perhaps the best contribution I can make to the current
argument in Washington about legislation banning torture and inhumane treatment
of suspected terrorists captured abroad. Now that President Bush has made a
public show of endorsing Sen. John McCain's amendment, it would seem that the
debate is ending. But that the debate occurred at all, and that prominent
figures are willing to entertain the idea, is perplexing and alarming to me. I
have seen what happens to a society that becomes enamored of such methods in
its quest for greater security; it takes more than words and political
compromise to beat back the impulse.
This
is a new debate for Americans, but there is no need for you to reinvent the
wheel. Most nations can provide you with volumes on the subject. Indeed, with
the exception of the Black Death, torture is the oldest scourge on our planet
(hence there are so many conventions against it). Every Russian czar after
Peter the Great solemnly abolished torture upon being enthroned, and every time
his successor had to abolish it all over again. These czars were hardly
bleeding-heart liberals, but long experience in the use of these
"interrogation" practices in
Apart
from sheer frustration and other adrenaline-related emotions, investigators and
detectives in hot pursuit have enormous temptation to use force to break the
will of their prey because they believe that, metaphorically speaking, they
have a "ticking bomb" case on their hands. But, much as a good hunter
trains his hounds to bring the game to him rather than eating it, a good ruler
has to restrain his henchmen from devouring the prey lest he be left
empty-handed. Investigation is a subtle process, requiring patience and fine
analytical ability, as well as a skill in cultivating one's sources. When
torture is condoned, these rare talented people leave the service, having been
outstripped by less gifted colleagues with their quick-fix methods, and the
service itself degenerates into a playground for sadists. Thus, in its heyday,
Joseph Stalin's notorious NKVD (the Soviet secret police) became nothing more
than an army of butchers terrorizing the whole country but incapable of solving
the simplest of crimes. And once the NKVD went into high gear, not even Stalin
could stop it at will. He finally succeeded only by turning the fury of the
NKVD against itself; he ordered his chief NKVD henchman, Nikolai Yezhov (Beria's predecessor), to be
arrested together with his closest aides.
So,
why would democratically elected leaders of the
Even
talking about the possibility of using CID treatment sends wrong signals and
encourages base instincts in those who should be consistently delivered from
temptation by their superiors. As someone who has been on the receiving end of
the "treatment" under discussion, let me tell you that trying to make
a distinction between torture and CID techniques is ridiculous. Long gone are
the days when a torturer needed the nasty-looking tools displayed in the
Now
it appears that sleep deprivation is "only" CID and used on
I
know from my own experience that interrogation is an intensely personal
confrontation, a duel of wills. It is not about revealing some secrets or
making confessions, it is about self-respect and human dignity. If I break, I
will not be able to look into a mirror. But if I don't, my interrogator will
suffer equally. Just try to control your emotions in the heat of that battle.
This is precisely why torture occurs even when it is explicitly forbidden. Now,
who is going to guarantee that even the most exact definition of CID is
observed under such circumstances?
But
if we cannot guarantee this, then how can you force your officers and your
young people in the CIA to commit acts that will scar them forever? For scarred
they will be, take my word for it.
In
1971, while in Lefortovo prison in
The
feeding pipe was thick, thicker than my nostril, and would not go in. Blood
came gushing out of my nose and tears down my cheeks, but they kept pushing
until the cartilages cracked. I guess I would have screamed if I could, but I
could not with the pipe in my throat. I could breathe neither in nor out at
first; I wheezed like a drowning man - my lungs felt ready to burst. The doctor
also seemed ready to burst into tears, but she kept shoving the pipe farther
and farther down. Only when it reached my stomach could I resume breathing,
carefully. Then she poured some slop through a funnel into the pipe that would
choke me if it came back up. They held me down for another half-hour so that
the liquid was absorbed by my stomach and could not be vomited back, and then
began to pull the pipe out bit by bit. . . . Grrrr.
There had just been time for everything to start healing during the night when
they came back in the morning and did it all over again, for 10 days, when the
guards could stand it no longer. As it happened, it was a Sunday and no bosses
were around. They surrounded the doctor: "Hey, listen, let him drink it
straight from the bowl, let him sip it. It'll be quicker for you, too, you
silly old fool." The doctor was in tears: "Do you think I want to go
to jail because of you lot? No, I can't do that. . . . " And so they stood
over my body, cursing each other, with bloody bubbles coming out of my nose. On
the 12th day, the authorities surrendered; they had run out of time. I had
gotten my lawyer, but neither the doctor nor those guards could ever look me in
the eye again.
Today,
when the White House lawyers seem preoccupied with contriving a way to stem the
flow of possible lawsuits from former detainees, I strongly recommend that they
think about another flood of suits, from the men and women in your armed
services or the CIA agents who have been or will be engaged in CID practices.
Our rich experience in
If
Finally,
think what effect your attitude has on the rest of the world, particularly in
the countries where torture is still common, such as
Off
we go, back to the caves.
--------
Vladimir
Bukovsky, who spent nearly 12 years in Soviet
prisons, labor camps and psychiatric hospitals for nonviolent human rights
activities, is the author of several books, including To Build a Castle
and Judgment in