History 523 Dr.
Pastor
History of Soviet Diplomacy Spring 2009
Pastorp@mail.montclair.edu DI
421
Office Hours: M,W, 2:30-3:45
973-6557564
SYLLABUS
Written Report:
One 9-10 page comparative review of three scholarly essays. For instructions, see p. 6 of the syllabus.
Readings:
The texts used for the course are:
MacKenzie, D., From Messianism to
Collapse. Soviet Foreign Policy, 1917-1991 (Harcourt Brace
College Publishers).
R. Craig Nation, Black Earth, Red Star, A
History of Soviet Security Policy, 1917-1991 (Cornell University Press).
Daniels, R.V., A Documentary History of
Communism and the World from Revolution to Collapse (University Press
of New England).
Exam:
The in-class mid-term exam date is March 9, 2009, 5:30-8:00 p.m. The
essay-type questions will deal with the assigned readings, illuminated by class
lectures. The final exam date is May 11,
5:30-7:30 p.m. The final grade will be computed along the following
percentages: Review essay - 30%;
Mid-Term Exam - 30%; Final Exam -
30%. Class participation - 10%.
TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS:
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A. Introduction. Pictures of Russia, VT 1459. |
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B. General Background
Suggested Readings: Dominic Lieven, “The Russian Empire and the Soviet Union as Imperial Polities,” in Journal of Contemporary History 30, no. 4, Oct. 1995, pp. 607-637 (available on JSTOR, through Sprague's homepage); Curtis Keeble, “The roots of Soviet foreign policy,” in International Affairs 60, no. 4, Autumn 1984, 561-579; J. Triska, "A Model for the Study of Soviet Foreign Policy," in The American Political Science Review 52, no. 1, 64-83 (JSTOR). Video: Marxism |
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C. War Communism and Experimentation with
New Diplomacy, 1917-1921 |
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D.
Transition from World Revolution to Revolution in One Country,
1921-1928 Suggested Readings: Evgeny Chossudovsky, “Genoa Revisited: Russia and Coexistence,” in Foreign Affairs 50, no. 3, April 1972, 554-577 (EBSCO); G.H. Mueller, "Rapallo Reexamined: A New Look at Germany's Soviet Military Collaboration with Russia in 1924," in Military Affairs, October 1976, 109-117 (JSTOR); Zygmunt Gasiowski, "The Russian Overture to Germany of December 1924," in Journal of Modern History, Sept. 1961, pp. 292-306 (JSTOR); M.T. Florinsky, "World Revolution and Soviet Foreign Policy," in Political Science Quarterly, June 1932, pp. 204-233 (JSTOR); B. A. Elleman, "Soviet Diplomacy and the First United Front in China," in Modern China, Oct. 1995 (JSTOR). |
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E. The Search for Peace and Security Suggested Reading: C.W. Tinch, "Quasi War between Japan and the USSR, 1937-1939," in World Politics, January 1951, pp. 174-199 (JSTOR). |
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F. The Alliance of the Revisionist Powers Suggested Readings: “New Evidence on Cold War Origins; Review of M.J. Carley, The Alliance that Never Was and the Coming of World War II,” in The American Historical Review, June, 2000, 895-896 (JSTOR or www.historycooperative.org/ahrindex.html ); A. Resis, “The Fall of Litvinov, Harbinger of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact,” in Europe-Asia Studies, Jan. 2000, pp. 33-57 (EBSCO); Peter Pastor, “Hungarian-Soviet Diplomatic Relations 1935-1941: A Failed Rapprochement,” Europe-Asia Studies 56, no. 5, July 2004, 731-750 (EBSCO) ; V. Zaslavsky, “The Katyn Massacre: ‘Class Cleansing’ as Totalitarian Praxis,” in Telos, Winter 1999, pp. 67-108 (EBSCO). |
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G. Mid-Term Exam, March 9. |
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H. The Grand Alliance Suggested Readings: E.F. Ziemke, "Stalin as Strategist, 1940-1941," in Military Affairs, Dec. 1983, pp. 173-180 (JSTOR); S. Judryashov, "Stalin and the Allies: Who Deceived Whom?" in History Today, May 1995 (EBSCO); V. Mastny, "Soviet War Aims at the Moscow and Teheran Conferences of 1943," in Journal of Modern History, Sept. 1975, pp. 481-504 (JSTOR); A. Resis, "Spheres of Influence in Soviet Wartime Diplomacy," in Journal of Modern History, Sept. 1981 (JSTOR); V.O. Pechatonov, "The Big Three after World War II: New Documents on Soviet Thinking about Postwar Relations," working paper #13, Keywords: Cold War Origins (1917-47) - on the internet at http://cwihp.si.edu . Video: The World at War: Operation Barbarosa |
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I. Victory and Discord
Suggested Readings: George F. Kennan, “Containment Then and Now,” in Foreign Affairs 65, no. 4, Spring 1987, 885-890 (EBSCO); G Murashenko and A.F. Noskova, “Stalin and the National-Territotial Controversies in Eastern Europe, 1945-47 (Part 1),” in Cold War History 1, no. 3, April 2001, 161-173 (EBSCO); Elena Aga-Rossi, “Roosevelt’s European Policy and the Origins of the Cold War: A Reevaluation,” in Telos, no. 96, Summer 1993, 65-86 (EBSCO); “More New Evidence on the Cold War in Asia," in Cold War International History Project Bulletin, nos. 8-9, Winter 1996/1997, 220-257 (available through http://cwiph.si.edu ); K. Weathersby, "Korea, 1949-1950, To Attack or Not to Attack? Stalin, Kim Il Sung, and the Prelude to War," CWIHP Bulletin, no. 5, Spring 1995, 1-10 (available through http:// cwihp.si.edu ); K. Persak, "Stalin as Editor: the Soviet Dictator's Changes to the Polish Constitution of 1952," CWIHP Bulletin, no. 11, Spring 1999. |
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J. Video: The Cold War |
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K. Peaceful Coexistence |
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L. Video: Nightfrost in Prague |
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M. Détente Suggested Readings: John Lewis Gaddis, “The Rise, Fall and Future of Détente,” in Foreign Affairs 62, no. 2, Winter 1983/84, p354-573 (EBSCO); James F. Burke, “Gorbachev's Eurasian Strategy,” in World Affairs 155, no. 4, Spring 1993, 156-168 (EBSCO); Charles Gati, Gorbachev and Eastern Europe,” in Foreign Affairs 65, no 5, Summer 1987, 958-975 (EBSCO); “Reagan and the Gorbachev Revolution: Perceiving the End of Threat,” in Political Science Quarterly 116, no. 2, Summer 2001, 225-252 (EBSCO). Comparative Review of Three Articles on the Same Theme. (For 30
percent of the final grade.) Select three Russian history articles that relate to the subject of the course. They should be on the same or similar theme. Each article, which should be selected from a scholarly journal, should be approximately 20-25 pages in length. Use Ebsco, or JSTOR for browsing and selecting. These data bases are available through the online catalog of Sprague Library. Articles could also be found in edited collections published mostly by university presses. The Essay and General Literature Index found in the reference section of the library could also help you to find articles that were published in edited books. Your selected articles have to be approved by the instructor. You should submit the titles of your selections on a 5” by 3” index card not later than March 9, 2009. The review of 9-10 pages (excluding the title page) must be submitted as a hard copy document on the last day of classes, on May, 4, 2009. The review should be typed or word-processed, double spaced, with approximately twenty-five lines, or 250 words per page. Guidelines for the comparative review: On the cover page: 1. At middle of the cover page identify the two articles: First Name, Last Name of the author, "Title of the Article," Title of Journal vol. no, issue no (date): page-page. 2. On the bottom of the page, left column: History of Soviet Diplomacy Professor Pastor On the bottom of the page, right column: Name of the Student May 4, 2009 Contents of the paper: 1. Introductory statement with some background information. 3. State the common theme of the essays 4. Identify the thesis of each author 5. Identify the sources used by each author to buttress the thesis. Are these primary or secondary sources, or both? Are the primary sources from recently opened archives? Are the secondary sources recent publications? Monographs or articles? (The evidence can be found in the footnotes of the article.) 6. Describe the arguments of each author to support his/her own thesis. Are these backed by hard evidence or only by inference? 7. Describe the views of the authors that they have in common and where do they diverge? 8. Are the authors convincing in their arguments? 9. Is there anything that you wish he/she, or they would have covered in their essays? 10. Do they offer new interpretations that are not covered in the textbook, or perhaps contradict the authors’ interpretation? In your essay you should not deal with one article followed by the other, but use the comparative approach. Try not to use too many quotes from the articles, paraphrase instead. In both cases identify the author and page number in the text and in put these into parentheses. |
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Internet Sources:
WWW Virtual Library: REESWeb-Russian and East European Studies
( www.ucis.pitt.edu/reesweb/
)
Revelations from the Russian Archives
( http://lcweb.loc.gov/exhibits/archives/intro.html
)
American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies Home Page
( www.fas.harvard.edu/~aaass )
H-Russia: Slavists' Virtual Lounge Home Page
( www.h-net.msu.edu/~russia )
H-Net Book Reviews
( www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews )
Cold War International History Project of the Woodrow Wilson International
Center for Scholars
(http://cwihp.si.edu )
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Questions or comments: goscinskis@mail.montclair.edu