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THE STALIN PERIOD David Brandenberger This interdisciplinary course investigates one of the most debated and daunting issues of the Soviet period through contemporary literature and history. The study of culture, from “elite” forms to low-brow mass propaganda, challenges canonical views of stalinism and provides for a rich appreciation of the era. Topics include: revolutionary idealism and the meaning of revolution, everyday life, the politics of official culture, the nature of “popular” mass culture, the end of the avant-garde, the advent of Socialist Realism, the impact of propaganda, the purges, the wartime apocalypse, the legacy of Stalinism since 1953 and the politics of historical biography. Each unit juxtaposes traditional historical sources with competing interpretations and interdisciplinary material drawn from literature, film and the arts. “The Stalin Period” is a seminar, with background lectures on Mondays leading to broad discussions on Wednesday and Fridays. As such, attendance is mandatory--please contact the instructor ahead of time if you need to miss class for any reason. Attendance, preparation and participation in discussions account for a quarter of the course’s grade. Five response papers of approximately 500 words in length are due before reading period. These papers are to be based on questions sets distributed by email several days before each class and are to be emailed to the instructor by 9pm on the night before class. These papers account for another quarter of the seminar’s grade. Two essays are also to be written, the first (5-7pp) due March 28 and the second (10-15pp) due May 9. Topics will be distributed, but students are also encouraged to propose topics of their choosing as well. These essays should be submitted in hardcopy (no email submissions unless by prior agreement) and account for the final two quarters of the seminar’s grade. SCHEDULE OF READINGS (note: † denotes source packet) WEEK 1: revolution! January 24: introduction, background January 26: revolution or coup? interpreting October 1917 “Toward a World Commune (Scenario),” in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 29-32† L. Trotsky, “Conclusion,” in The History of the Russian Revolution, 1188-1193† Time of Troubles: the Diary of Iurii Vladimirovich Got’e, excerpts from 70, 72, 80-81, 103† film clips from October (S. Eisenstein, 1927) January 28: visions of 1917 A. Gastev, “We Grow Out of Iron”; V. Kirillov, “The Iron Messiah”; M. Gerasimov, “We”; Dem’ian Bednyi, “Send Off: a Red Army Song”; A. Bezymenskii, “The Young Guard”; V. Krutin and P. German, “The Brick Factory”; in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 3-6, 13-14, 69-70 A. Blok, “The Twelve” (1918), in The Twelve and Other Poems, 141-161†   WEEK 2: civil war January 31: utopian dreams and internecine strife February 2: the Cossacks are coming! V. Mayakovsky, “Order No. 2 to the Army of the Arts,” in The Bedbug and Selected Poetry, 144-149† D. Furmanov, “Chapaev,” in From Furmanov to Sholokhov: An Anthology of the Classics of Socialist Realism, 39-127† February 4: writing about Cossacks Isaac Babel, “Crossing the Zbrucz,” “The Konzapas Commander,” “Gedalli,” “My First Goose,” “The Rebe,” “The Way to Brody,” “The Death of Dolgushov,” “Kombrig 2,” “The Cemetary in Kozin,” “Prishchepa,” “Squadron Commander Trunov,” “The Rebbe’s Son,” in Collected Stories: Red Cavalry, 91-93, 101-103, 116-137, 150-156, 182-190, 225-227† Babel, 1920 Diary, 4-21, 29-51, 68-77, 87-89, 102†   WEEK 3: the first revolutionary decade, 1917-1927 February 7: the New Economic Policy film screening this week: Man with a Movie Camera (D. Vertov, 1929) February 9: NEP society “Blue Blouse Skit,” in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 85-86 M. Zoshchenko, “The Lady Aristocrat,” Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 54-56 Zoshchenko, “Crisis,” “Poverty” and “The Story of a Man who was Purged from the Party,” in Nervous People and Other Satires, 137-143, 197-199† February 11: representing the Soviet “experiment” M. Bulgakov, The Heart of a Dog V. Mayakovsky, “Back Home!” in The Bedbug and Selected Poetry, 183-189†   WEEK 4: the Stalin revolution February 14: palace coup or succession? Stalin’s rise to power February 16: Stalin’s leadership style selections from Lenin, Sukhanov, Trotskii, Barmine, Fischer, Davies, Duranty, Hilger, Smith, Djilas, E. H. Carr, Robert C. Tucker, etc., in Stalin, 68-93, 94-110† The Diary of Georgi Dmitrov, 62-71, 88-89, 104-107† Molotov Remembers—Inside Kremlin politics (conversations with Felix Chuev), 177-183, 212-215† February 18: biography as history E. Yaroslavsky, Landmarks in the Life of Stalin, 120-132† L. Trotskii, Stalin, 384-390, 402-403† R. Tucker, Stalin as Revolutionary, 488-493† E. Radzinsky, Stalin, 211-228† S. Sebag-Montefiore, Stalin: the Court of the Red Tsar, 30-37†   WEEK 5: Socialist Realism February 21: literature, the arts and the fate of the avant garde February 23: the prototype Soviet novel F. Gladkov, Cement, 1-149 (to Chap. 10) February 25: heroic verisimilitude? Gladkov, Cement, 151-311   WEEK 6: building “socialism” February 28: industrialization & collectivization March 2: representing collectivization “Swell the Harvest;” F. Panferov, “Rammed it Through;” V. Kirshon, “Bread;” M. Doroshin, “Pavlik Morozov;” etc., in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 142-156 Miron Dolot, Execution by Hunger: the Hidden Holocaust, xiii-51 March 4: memoirs—remembering collectivization Dolot, Execution by Hunger, xiii-xvi (again), 52-150 (or further, if you like), 229-231   WEEK 7: Speaking Bolshevik? March 7: motivating socialist society: enthusiasm or coercion? Jochen Hellbeck, “Fashioning the Stalinist Soul: the Diary of Stepan Podlubnyi,” Jahrbuecher fuer Geschichte Osteuropas 44:4 (1996): 233-273† “The Diary of S. F. Podlubnyi,” in Intimacy and Terror: Soviet Diaries of the 1930s, 302-8, 323-31† March 9: Homo Soveticus? S. Davies, “‘Us Against Them’: Social Identity in Soviet Russia,” Russian Review 56:1 (1997): 70-89† March 11: ambiguous judgments Andrei Platonov, “Makar the Doubtful,” in Russian Literature of the Twenties: An Anthology, 353-369† IIya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov, “How Robinson was Created,” in Russian Literature of the Twenties: An Anthology, 371-374†   WEEK 8: spring break (March 12-20)   WEEK 9: Everyday Life March 21: “becoming cultured” film clips from The Radiant Path (G. Aleksandrov, 1940) March 23: making a life J. Scott, Behind the Urals: An American Worker in Russia’s City of Steel, 164-187† A. Platonov, “Fierce, Fine World,” in Russkii kharakter: rasskazy sovetskikh pisatelei, 104-133† V. Lebedev-Kumach and I. Dunaevskii, “March of the Happy-Go-Lucky Guys,” “Sportsmen’s March;” Lebedev-Kumach and A. Aleksandrov, “Life’s Getting Better;” etc. in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 234-238, 243-258, 271-273 March 25: getting by G. Andreev-Khomiakov, Bitter Waters: Life and Work in Stalin’s Russia, 1-96, 127-138, 146-151 G. Alexopoulos, “Portrait of a Con Artist as a Soviet Man,” Slavic Review 57:4 (1998): 774-790†   WEEK 10: the Great Terror, 1936-1938 March 28: explaining the purges—debates and controversies first paper dueMarch 30: witnessing the terror L. Chukovskaya, Sofia Petrovna, 144pp. April 1: terror & the creative intelligentsia Jochen Hellbeck, “Writing the Self in a Time of Terror: Alexander Afinogenov’s Diary of 1937,” in Self and Story in Russian History, 69-93† A. Akhmatova, “Requiem,” in Poems of Anna Akhmatova, 23-32†   WEEK 11: propaganda and mass mobilization April 4: soviet ideological dynamics, 1917-1941 film screening this week: Aleksandr Nevskii (Eisenstein, 1938) April 6: advance or retreat? Sergei Eisenstein, “My Subject is Patriotism” (1939), reprinted in The Film Factory, 398-404† Nicholas Timasheff, The Great Retreat: The Growth and Decline of Communism in Russia, 151-181† David Hoffmann, Stalinist Values: The Cultural Norms of Soviet Modernity, 146-183† film clips from Aleksandr Nevskii (Eisenstein, 1938) April 8: winds of war A. Gaidar, “Timur and His Squad”; V. Lebedev-Kumach and the Pokrass Brothers, “If Tomorrow Brings War”; B. Laskin and the Pokrass Brothers, “Three Tank Drivers”, “Legend of Voroshilov”; etc., in Soviet Mass Culture, 298-321   WEEK 12: armageddon April 11: the Great Patriotic War April 13: mobilizational literature and poetry K. Simonov, “Wait for Me,” “Smolensk Roads”; V. Lebedev-Kumach, A. Aleksandrov, “Holy War”; A. Korneichuk, “The Front”; A. Tvardovskii, “Vasilii Terkin”; Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 335-407 April 15: in the name of Russia or the USSR? K. Simonov, “The Third Adjutant,” in Russkii kharakter: rasskazy sovetskikh pisatelei, 134-150† A. Tolstoi, “The Russian Character,” in Russkii kharakter: rasskazy sovetskikh pisatelei, 151-169†   Week 13: after armageddon April 18: after the war April 20: stalinism revived or reforged? Boris Polevoi, “The Story of a Real Man,” in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 416-421 Gennady Fish, “The Man Who Did the Impossible,” in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 431-442 S. Antonov, “In a Quiet Village,” in Russkii kharakter, 170-207† April 22: the cult film clips from Fall of Berlin (M. Chiaureli, 1949) Davies, “Stalin and the Making of the Leader Cult of the 1930s,” in The Leadership Cult in Communist Dictatorships, 29-46 Boris Polevoi, “To Stalin from the Peoples of the World,” in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 455-459   WEEK 14: end of an era April 25: cold war April 27: intolerance, xenophobia Zoshchenko, “Story of a Monkey” (handout) D. Belyaev, “Stilyagi,” in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 450-453 Mark Edele, “Strange Young Men in Stalin’s Moscow: The Birth and Life of the Stiliagi, 1945-1953,” Jahrbuecher fuer Geschichte Osteuropas 50:1 (2002): 37–61 “Aviation (From the Great Soviet Encyclopedia),” in Mass Culture in Soviet Russia, 479-486 April 29: incipient destalinisation? Juliane Fuerst, “Prisoners of the Soviet Self? Political Youth Opposition in Late Stalinism,” Europe-Asia Studies 54:3 (2002): 353-375† Hiroaki Kuromiya, “’Political Youth Opposition in Late Stalinism’: Evidence and Conjecture,” Europe-Asia Studies 55:4 (2003): 631-638†   WEEK 14: judgments May 2: death of a dictator film screening this week: Burnt by the Sun (N. Mikhailkov, 1995) May 4: Khrushchev and the Secret Speech N. Khrushchev, “Secret Speech,” in The Anti-Stalin Campaign and International Communism, 1-89† May 6: judgments May 9: final paper due, 12 noon