PSCI1172 - Russian Politics

Keeping in mind the difficulties of teaching about an adversary embroiled in a war, this course will seek to analyze Russian politics as objectively as possible, with an eye to understanding long-term continuities and changes through alternating periods of stability and turmoil. This necessarily entails a consideration of historical complexities, especially the Soviet era (1917-1991). Thus, the first part of the course examines the origins and evolution of the Soviet regime from Lenin to Gorbachev. The point would be to identify some key continuities and transformations political dynamics, economic development, social conditions, and geopolitical ambitions -- particularly aspects that would later affect the evolution of post-Soviet Russia.  The rest of the course delves into the evolution of politics, economics, society and foreign policy, first during the early years of transition under Boris Yeltsin (1992-99), but primarily under Vladimir Putin (2000 - present). In this section, we track the evolution of Russia’s political system, the fluctuations in economic growth, and changing social conditions over time. In the process, we will consider the rise of the oligarchs, patterns of political protest, social/demographic trends, and the role of natural resources. We will then turn to the drivers of Russia’s foreign policy since the break-up of the USSR, trying to identify the sources for the sharp decline in Russia’s relations with the US/West since even before the invasion of Ukraine. We will trace some of the key forces that paved the way to the invasion of Ukraine, especially and speculate about what the future holds in terms of peace and conflict in the region.  In all these domains analysis will be informed by an underlying question: how “normal” is post-Soviet Russia’s trajectory when compared to non-western powers with their own competing historical inheritances and geopolitical aspirations (e.g. China, India, Turkey, etc.).