Professor Marina Mogilner mmogilne@uic.edu
Office hrs.: Tuesday and Thursday, online 11 am – 2 pm or on any other day by appointment. Please email me in advance if you plan to “visit” me during the office hours. Once we agree on the exact time, I will send you a zoom invitation.
Class: 9:30–10:45 am, Tuesdays, Thursdays
Location: Online
This course covers the medieval and early modern period in the history of Northern Eurasia that witnessed political self-organization of the region along several competing scenarios. Their relative success depended on how well they accommodated people’s interaction with the natural environment and their neighbors; the coexistence of nomads with the sedentary population; and the efficiency of different models of statehood. Eventually, several competing regional powers (Muscovy, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Crimean Khanate) became incorporated into the modern Russian Empire that reconfigured and reinvented the old historical lands and regions. Their distinctive cultures and political traditions became the source of both dynamism and instability of the Russian Empire as a heterogeneous society struggling with the problem of managing human diversity.
As it is an online course, we will have a few zoom discussions and many individual assignments. Please make sure to familiarize yourself with blackboard and zoom, and keep your course syllabus always ready to check for your next assignment and deadline. Lectures for this class are prerecorded and available on Blackboard.
The class uses different textbooks. All assigned pages from the textbooks and other literature can be accessed on blackboard.
Requirements: Students will be evaluated on the basis of two (2-page+) position papers, each worth 15% of the grade; a midterm paper (25%) and a final paper (5 pages or more, 30% of the grade); participation in zoom discussions sessions is worth the remaining 15%.
Required readings have been posted on Blackboard and are marked in the syllabus.
Students are required to download ZOOM application provided by UIC .
Important Course Policies:
Plagiarism and cheating are completely unacceptable. Plagiarism is defined as the act of taking someone else’s written work without proper citation. You must not use someone else’s words without putting them in quotation marks and providing a proper reference. If you borrow an idea from another author, please reference it as well. I am more interested in your original thoughts and in your ability to engage with other people’s ideas than in “correct” and “sophisticated” papers that are stolen and thus tell me nothing about your progress in the course. (Keep in mind that I do not define knowledge as regurgitated information.) Plagiarism may result in an “F” for this class. I will treat it as a very serious offense.
Safe Assign. All papers must be submitted electronically through Safe Assign on Blackboard by the date and time indicated in the syllabus.
Late papers. Late papers will be given a lower grade.
Attendance. I expect students to be present when we have zoom meetings and actively contribute to our discussions and ready to contribute to our common work.
Religious holidays. Students who wish to observe their religious holidays (if they coisnide with our sinchronous class sessions) shall notify me at least five days in advance of the date when you will be absent. I will make every reasonable effort to honor the request.
Disability accommodation. Students with disabilities who require accommodations for access to and/or participation in this course are welcome. Please let me know what kind of personal accommodation you may need, and I’ll do my best to make your participation in this class comfortable.
You may contact Disability Resource Center (DRC) at 312-413-2183 (v) or 773-649-4535 (VP/Relay) and consult the following http://drc.uic.edu/guide-to-accommodations.
Feel free to contact me on email whenever you need help.
Schedule of Topics and Assignments:
This course outline is subject to change during the semester. Students are responsible for all adjustments announced in class.
Week 1
August 25, Tuesday
August 27, Thursday
Reading: Nancy Shields Kollmann, The Russian Empire, 1450-1801 (Oxford UP, 2017), pp. 21-28 Blackboard
1. Introduction [Zoom meeting].
2. Imagining Northern Eurasia: Geographical and Social Landscape [lecture, recorded]
Week 2
Reading: Ilya Gerasimov, Marina Mogilner, Sergey Glebov, New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia, pp. 6-22 (blackboard).
September 1, Tuesday
3. Where is the state? The Phenomenon of Early Statehood; Nomads and Settler communities; Khazar Khaganate and revolutionary change in the nomadic society. [lecture, recorded]
September 3, Thursday
4. Volga Bulgaria and the Emergence of Early Statehood [lecture, recorded]
Week 3
Reading:
Required: David Goldfrank, Medieval Russia’s Epics: Chronicles, pp. 11–13; Primary Chronicle, pp. 43–71; Background reading: Ilya Gerasimov, Marina Mogilner, Sergey Glebov, New Imperial History of Northern Eurasia (manuscript), pp. pp. 1-32 (available in the WEEK 2 folder) (blackboard)
FIRST SHORT PAPER DUE
SEPTEMBER 8, 9 am via Safe Assign
PLEASE WRITE a 2-pp or more PAPER ABOUT THE PHENOMENON OF THE NOMADIC STATE: How would you define the state? Is it a normative (“the state is…”) or a historically-specific definition (“there is no universally applicable definition of the state, it evolved historically and had different forms depending on a region and a culture?”) Did ancient nomadic societies have “the state”? Please provide examples supporting your answer. Refer to the lecture materials and the reading. What do you find particularly interesting and/or problematic about ancient Eurasian nomadic cultures and nomadic states?
September 8, Tuesday
September 10, Thursday
5. The Formation of the Rus’ Land [lecture, recorded]
6. From the Varangians to the Greeks [lecture, recorded]
Week 4
Reading: David Goldfrank, A History of Russia, pp. 13-37; 42-46. Valerie A. Kivelson, Ronald Grigor Suny, Russian Empires, pp. 27-37 (blackboard)
September 15, Tuesday
September 17, Thursday
7. The Dilemma of the Sovereign and the State: Kiev Rus’ (11th–12th centuries) [lecture, recorded]
8. State Building in Northern Eurasia (11th–13th centuries): scenarios of power [lecture, recorded]
SECOND SHORT PAPER DUE
SEPTEMBER 22, 9 am via Safe Assign
PLEASE WRITE a 2-pp PAPER ABOUT THE SO-CALLED ORIGIN MYTH: why the story about the invitation of Varangians turned out to be so important and so controversial? Please consider possible interpretations of this story. Do you know other historical myths and legends about the origin of a state or a dynasty? If so, please describe them briefly and compare their historical and political implications to that of the Varangian story. Why, in your opinion, modern states and rulers search legitimacy in ancient myths of origin?
Week 5
Reading: David Goldfrank, A History of Russia, pp. 13-37; 42-46. Valerie A. Kivelson, Ronald Grigor Suny, Russian Empires, pp. 27-37 (blackboard)
The movie Mongol (watch at home) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxGpFY6OJWg
We will meet in ZOOM on September 24 at 9.30 am. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion questions on blackboard and be prepared to answer them in class.
September 22, Tuesday
September 24, Thursday
9. Political Integration of the Steppe: The Mongol Empire [lecture, recorded]
10. The movie “Mongol”: discussion. (ZOOM)
Week 6
Reading: David Goldfrank, A History of Russia, pp. 61-74. Valerie A. Kivelson, Ronald Grigor Suny, Russian Empires, pp. 38-43 (blackboard)
September 29, Tuesday
October 1, Thursday
11. Rus’ under the Golden Horde [lecture, recorded]
12. Lithuania: The Birth of the Forest Monarchy; Northern Eurasia in the 1230–40s [lecture, recorded]
Week 7
Reading: Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Mark D. Steinberg, A History of Russia, pp. 54-70; David Brandenberger, “The Popular Reception of S. M. Eisenstein’s Aleksandr Nevskii,” in Platt and Brandenberger (Eds.), Epic Revisionism: Russian History and Literature and Stalinist Propaganda (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), 233-252 (blackboard)
October 6, Tuesday
October 8, Thursday
13. The Great Duchy of Lithuania [lecture, recorded]
Independent work
Watch the movie, Alexander Nevsky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nRev9FvsBU), read carefully David Brandenberger’s chapter and prepare for the discussion.
Week 8
The movie, Alexander Nevsky http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nRev9FvsBU
Reading: David Brandenberger, “The Popular Reception of S. M. Eisenstein’s Aleksandr Nevskii,” in Platt and Brandenberger (Eds.), Epic Revisionism: Russian History and Literature and Stalinist Propaganda (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), 233-252.
October 13, Tuesday
Discussion of the movie Alexander Nevsky. We will meet in ZOOM at 9.30 am. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion questions on blackboard and be prepared to answer them in class.
October 15, Thursday
Working on you Midterm paper.
Individual consultations (if needed) via zoom. Please contact me in advance to schedule a meeting.
THE MIDTERM PAPER IS DUE VIA SAFE ASSIGN BY 9 PM, OCTOBER 20
PLEASE WRITE a 5-page (or more) long PAPER ON ONE OF THE FOLLOWING TOPICS:
Contemporary interpretations of pre-modern history: the movie Mongol
Or
Contemporary interpretations of premodern history: the movie Alexander Nevsky
Week 9
Reading: “Orison on the Downfall of Russia” (13th c.) blackboard
October 20, Tuesday
October 22, Thursday
14. Golden Horde and Its Rus’ ulus (principality) [lecture, recorded]
15. The End of the Epoch of Religious Tolerance: The Great Dutchy of Lithuania, Halych-Volhynian Principality and their Neighbors [lecture, recorded]
Week 10
Read: Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Mark D. Steinberg, A History of Russia, pp. 70-104; Sofony of Riazan, Zadonshchina; Donald Ostrowsky, “Memoir of a Tatar Prince Ismail ibn Ahmed” (blackboard)
October 27, Tuesday
16. The Great Duchy of Muscovy and Its Neighbors; Building the Post-Mongol Sovereignty of Muscovy [lecture, recorded]
October 29, Thursday
17. Kazan Khanate and the Crises of Vassal Relationships: lecture and discussion of Donald Ostrowsky, “Memoir of a Tatar Prince Ismail ibn Ahmed”. We meet in Zoom on October 29 at 9.30 am. Please see discussion questions in advance and be ready to discuss “Memoir”
Week 11
Reading: David Goldfrank, A History of Russia, pp. 118-138; David Brandenberger and Kevin Platt, “Terribly Pragmatic: Rewriting the History of Ivan IV’s Reign, 1937−1956” in Platt and Brandenberger (Eds.), Epic Revisionism: Russian History and Literature and Stalinist Propaganda (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), 157-178 (blackboard)
The movie: Ivan the Terrible https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5EWgWEcoxM (Part 1)
November 3, Tuesday
18. Ivan IV and the Problem of Absolute Power [lecture, recorded]
November 5, Thursday
19. Discussion: the historical Ivan IV and the movie. ZOOM meeting
We will meet in ZOOM on November 5 at 9.30 am. Please familiarize yourself with the discussion questions on blackboard and be prepared to answer them in class.
Week 12
Reading: David Goldfrank, A History of Russia, pp. 139-157 (blackboard)
November 10, Tuesday
November 12, Thursday
20. Reformation, Counter-Reformation: The Case of Poland-Lithuania and Its Neighbors [lecture, recorded]
21. The Time of Troubles [lecture, recorded]
Week 13
Reading: David Goldfrank, A History of Russia, pp. 179-186; Chechesh Kudachinova, “The Muscovite silver crusade: Power, Space and Imagination in Early Modern Eurasia,” Ab Imperio 4 (2019): 49-71 (go to UIC library website; select Database; find Project Muse; there search for Ab Imperio; then search for the article and access it online) (blackboard)
November 17, Tuesday
November 19, Thursday
22. Integrating Northern Eurasia: Siberia in the Orbit of Muscovy; The Church Schism [lecture, recorded]
23. Muscovy as a Gunpowder Empire [lecture, recorded]
Week 14
Reading: David Goldfrank, A History of Russia, pp. 164-177 (blackboard)
November 24, Tuesday
November 26, Thurssday
24. Peter the Great – The Emergence of Modern Empire [lecture, recorded]
Thanksgiving. No class
Week 15
Reading: Reading: David Goldfrank, A History of Russia, pp. 203-239; Nicholas V. Riasanovsky, Mark D. Steinberg A History of Russia, pp. 207-209 (blackboard)
December 1,Tuesday
25. Final Discussion: Evaluating Peter the Great.
Please don’t forget to check out the discussion folder and read the historical sources that we will discuss in class!
Q&A about the final paper ZOOM
We will meet in ZOOM on December 1 at 9.30 am.
December 3, Thursday
Independent work for the final paper. Please let me know if you want to have a personal consultation with me and we will schedule your consultations during the time of the class or later, when it works better for you.
Week 16
December 7-10
FINAL PAPER IS DUE VIA SAFE ASSIGN BY 2 PM, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10
Please write a five-page (or longer) paper on one of the topics:
1. Contemporary interpretations of premodern history: the movie Ivan the Terrible.
2. The Revolution of Peter the Great – competing evaluations. Please provide arguments and examples in support of your position.
You can choose any other topic, but it should be approved by me during an individual consultation.
The Writing Center (located in Grant Hall 105) offers one-on-one consultation with student writers who need help developing ideas, or need advice, guidance or additional instruction on any aspects of writing in any class. Tutors are prepared to spend fifty minutes per appointment, and there is no limit to the number of tutoring sessions you can have each semester. You can find out how do they work online and schedule an appointment. Show tutors the paper on which you're working, as well as any related drafts or notes, and information about the assignment. For an appointment, call the Writing Center at (312) 413-2206, or stop by room 105 of Grant Hall. Visit the Writing Center website at www.uic.edu/depts/engl/writing for more information.
Enjoy your holiday season!