The Collapse of the Soviet Union (PO31011)
Module Convenor: Dr Cameron Ross
Credit Rating: 30 SCQF credits
Level: Level 3 optional module
Module Content
- Key features of Soviet politics on the eve of Gorbachev’s accession to power
- The Soviet succession crisis 1982-5
- Gorbachev’s rise to power
- Gorbachev’s key reforms: Perestroika, Glasnost and Democratisation
- The rise of nationalism and demands for secession
- New thinking in Soviet foreign policy
- The key factors which led to the failed 1991 August Coup
- Reasons for the collapse of the USSR
Module Aims
- Provide students with a good grounding in the political science literature on Soviet politics and the academic debates over the collapse of the Soviet Union.
- To place the study of Soviet politics within a comparative politics framework and the wider study of communist systems.
- To introduce students to a wide range of theoretical models and hypotheses drawn from the field of political science.
- To encourage and facilitate student participation in seminar discussions and debates and advance the students essay writing and oral skills.
Intended Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and understanding
Having successfully completed this module, students should have:
- An in depth knowledge of the key literature on Soviet Politics and Gorbachev’s reforms: perestroika, glasnost and democratization
- A knowledge of the key debates concerning the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet Union
- A knowledge of the relevant comparative politics literature
- Improved oral skills and essay writing skills
Skills
Students will be able to present and critically analyse, in both oral and written form, the standard works on Russian politics and the theoretical studies on the collapse of the USSR.
Teaching
The module will be delivered through one weekly lecture over eleven weeks and one weekly seminar.
Assessment
- Coursework comprises two 3,000 word essays 25% each = 50%.
- Final unseen examination (2 hours) = 50%.
Indicative Reading
- Rachel Walker, Six Years That Shook The World (1993)
- Harley D. Balzar, Fire Years that Shook the World (1991)
- Archie Brown, The Gorbachev Factor (Oxford University Press, 1997)
- Archie Brown, 7 Years that Changed the World (2007)
- David Remnick, Lenin’s Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (1993)
- Richard Sakwa, Soviet Politics in Perspective (1998)
- Richard Sakwa, Gorbachev and His Reforms, 1985-90 (1990)
- Stephen White, After Gorbachev (4th ed. Cambridge UP, 1993)
- S. White, A. Pravda and Z. Gitelman, Developments in Soviet Politics (various editions)
- A. Dallin and G. Lapidus, The Soviet System in Crisis (1992)
- John Morrison, Boris Yeltsin: From Bolshevik to Democrat (1991)
- John Miller, Mikhail Gorbachev and the End of Soviet Power (St Martin's Press, 1993)
- M. I. Goldman, What Went Wrong with Perestroika (W.W. Norton, 1992)
- G. W. Lapidus, V. Zaslavsky and P. Goldman eds., From Union to Commonwealth: Nationalism and Separation in the Soviet Republics (Cambridge University Press, 1992)
- Vera Tolz, The Demise of the USSR (1995)
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