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Everyday Stalinism: Life in the Soviet Union, 1928-53: Context

Module description

Stalin’s rule over the Soviet Union is one of the most studied aspects of modern history and has generated fierce debate and a lot of literature on issues such as terror, collectivisation, industrialisation and the nature of Stalinism itself. In this module we will move beyond this ‘traditional’ way of exploring Stalinism to focus on the experiences of Soviet citizens in this era of extraordinary upheaval, violence and repression. The fact remains that despite the social and political turmoil of the era, people continued to fall in love, to have children, to go to school and even rebel; but how did these everyday experiences and rites of passage function under what has traditionally been seen as a totalitarian regime that regulated all aspects of life? And what was life like for those who fell afoul of the Stalinist system?

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to introduce you to some of the cutting-edge developments in the study of Stalinism by getting you to think beyond the political and ideological aspects that have traditionally dominated scholarship and instead engage with ideas surrounding identity, resistance and how citizens negotiated their lives within the parameters of the Stalinist state. This will be achieved through both secondary reading and detailed examination of a range of source material, to include diaries, letters, memoirs and cultural sources such as film, art and literature. You will be actively encouraged to think about how these shifts in scholarship, and increased access to sources following the opening of the Soviet archives after 1991, have impacted upon how we perceive Stalinism and the experiences of those who lived through it.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Evaluate the different complex themes in the history of the Soviet Union under Stalin
• 2. Make close specialist evaluation of the key developments within the period, developed through independent study and seminar work

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Analyse the key developments within the history of the Soviet Union under Stalin
• 4. Focus on and comprehend complex issues
• 5. Understand and deploy relevant historical terminology in a comprehensible manner
• 6. Follow the complex reasoning inherent in the discourse of the period

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Carry out independent and autonomous study and group work, including presentation of material for group discussion
• 8. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument
• 9. Present complex arguments orally

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Bolshevik Visions: An Introduction to Soviet Ideology
• Life in the Metropolis: Industrialisation, Modernisation and Five Year Plans
• Life in the Countryside: Collectivisation and Its Consequences
• Creating the New Soviet Person: Sex, Sexuality and Gender Ideals
• Regulating the Private Sphere: Home and Family Life under Stalin
• Growing Up Under Stalinism: Childhood, Schooling and Youth Movements
• The Great Terror: Show Trials and Purges
• The Great Terror: Everyday Experience
• The Gulag Archipelago: Everyday Life in the Camps
• Holding Out for a Hero: The Everyday and the Extraordinary in Stalinist Culture
• Socialist Realism vs Socialist Reality: Depicting Life in the Stalinist State
• Building the Stalinist State: Architecture and Ideology
• Red Plenty: Consumption, Consumerism, Shortages and Socialism
• Godless Communists?: Religious Belief and Practice in Stalinist Society
• From Deveiling to Deportation: Ethnic Minorities Under Stalin
• The Soviet Experience of the Second World War: On the Front
• The Soviet Experience of the Second World War II: Behind the Lines
• Life After Peace: Dealing with the Legacy of War
• ‘Farewell Father!’: Public Responses to the Death of Stalin
• Rethinking the Stalinist Past: The History of Stalinism Since 1991
• Assessed Presentation Conference
• Assessed Presentation Conference

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Brandenberger, D., National Bolshevism: Stalinist Mass Culture and the Formation of Modern Russia (2002).
• Brooks, J., Thank You, Comrade Stalin!: Soviet Public Culture From Revolution to Cold War (1999).
• Davies, S. and Harris, J. (eds.), Stalin: A New History (2005).
• Davies, S., Popular Opinion in Stalin’s Russia: Terror, Propaganda and Dissent 1934-1941 (1997).
• Edele, M., Stalinist Society (2011).
• Fitzpatrick, S. (ed.), Stalinism: New Directions (2000).
• Fitzpatrick, S. Everyday Stalinism. Ordinary Life in Extraordinary Times. Soviet Russia in the 1930s (1999).
• Fitzpatrick and Geyer, Beyond Totalitarianism: Nazism and Stalinism (2008).
• Hoffmann, D. (ed.), Stalinism: The Essential Readings (2003).
• Hoffmann, D., Stalinist Values (2003).
• Hoffmann, Cultivating the Masses: Soviet Social Intervention in Its International Context (2011).
• Kotkin, S., Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as Civilisation (1997).
• Platt and Brandenberger, Epic Revisionism: Russian History and Literature as Stalinist Propaganda (2006).
• Siegelbaum and Sokolov (eds), Stalinism as a Way of Life: A Narrative in Documents (2000).
• Viola et al (eds), The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside: The War Against the Peasantry, 1927-1930, v. 1 (2005).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=4903 
• Marxist Internet Archive – www.marxists.org 
• Museum of the Russian Poster: http://eng.plakaty.ru/posters 
• Soviet History Online – www.soviethistory.org 
• The Virtual Gulag Museum: http://www.gulagmuseum.org/index_eng.htm 

Key words search

Stalin, Stalinism, Soviet Union