Introduction to Russian Civilization

This course is designed as an introduction to the rich and complex culture of Russia, the world’s largest country. Topics for class meetings and assignments are deliberately interdisciplinary. They range from medieval Russian art to twentieth-century Socialist Realism, from the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky to the balladeers of the 1970s, from the poetry of Alexander Pushkin and the soul-searching of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky to contemporary, post-Soviet Russian writers including Svetlana Alexievich and Mikhail Shishkin.

We will focus on learning to analyze and interpret key works of Russian literary, artistic, musical, and cinematic culture, with particular focus on the historical and stylistic development of Russian cultural life. Want to learn more about Ivan the Terrible? The Romanovs... and Rasputin? Russian ballet and film? Siberia? Stalin? The Cold War? Vladimir Putin? This is the course for you!

There are no prerequisites for this course. No knowledge of Russian or Russia required. This course fulfills the Carolina Core AIU requirement (Aesthetic/Interpretive Understanding). It may also be used towards GLD: Global Learning. RUSS 280 counts towards a minor or cognate in Russian and is a prerequisite for the major in Russian.

Learning Outcomes

After successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Identify and recall key trends, figures, and practitioners in Russian culture spanning the past 1,000 years.
• Describe and explain major events in Russian history and their relationship to cultural developments of the same period.
• Analyze connections between Russian historical events and cultural works, showing how social, political, and artistic forces interact.
• Employ techniques such as close reading, visual analysis, and contextual interpretation to examine Russian cultural texts across media.
• Evaluate Russian cultural works and movements by articulating reasoned arguments about style, meaning, and significance.
• Create and present well-organized, persuasive arguments in written form that demonstrate critical engagement with Russian cultural styles, figures, and works.