deptlogo    Geography
            RUSSIA and Its Neighbors Spring 2004
Spring Semester 2004                 MW 3:30 - 4:45 PM  LA4-107                Instructor: Dr. Dmitrii Sidorov
http://www.csulb.edu/~dsidorov/geog318_S04.html                  
Office: LA4-206c, MW 1:45–3:15, or by app.    E-mail:dsidorov@csulb.edu (pref.)  phone: 51861 (don’t use)

 Texts:
Sidorov, Orthodoxy and Difference: Essays on the Geography of Russian Orthodox Church(es) in the 20th Century
        Princeton Theological Monograph Series 46 (San Jose, CA: Pickwick Publications)
French, Plans, Pragmatism and People  
Trenin, The End of Eurasia.  (html) http://www.carnegie.ru/en/pubs/books/36275.htm
                                                (PDF):  http://www.carnegie.ru/en/pubs/books/2129dt0103all.pdf
Items with* -- in PDF format on reserve (http://ereserves.library.csulb.edu)

Description of the course: .This is an intermediate course on the dynamic geography of Russia and its neighbors (a.k.a. the Russian Empire, Russian Realm, the former Soviet Union; Eurasia).  The objective of this course is to introduce students to the paradoxical mixture of opposite tendencies of diversification and unification characterizing this spatially exceptionally dynamic realm.  We will pay particular attention to three themes: cultural geography (Russia of Russians/Orthodox foundations), urban geography (Russia of cities/Soviet transformations), and geopolitics (Russia of regions/Eurasia’s futures).  The approach taken in the course is a traditional combination of topical and regional analysis.  Its organizing principle is a chronological and spatial arrangement: from earlier, pre-Soviet, to more recent, post-Soviet, themes and from central, Russian, to more marginal, non-Russian, topics and regions.  Correspondingly, the course material is divided into three sections, each followed by an examination.

DATE
 TOPIC
 FILMS
 READINGS
 EXTRAS / LINKS

RUSSIA of RUSSIANS/
 /ORTHODOX FOUNDATIONS/
 /CULTURAL HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
Jan 26 M
 Introduction
Sidorov, Review of Shaw (handout) [2]
 		Optional, reserved in the library: Dewdney, J. A Geography of the Soviet Union (a Cold War textbook; concise; useful for maps/data)
Jan 28 W
 The Physical Setting of Russian Culture
 Vologda: Farming in Flux;   The Steppes of North Caucasus
 Milner-Gulland*, Rus as Land and People, 1-36 [35]
 		Andrei Parshev Why Russia Is Not America? (in Russian)
Feb 2 M
 Spatial History I: Kiev/Orthodoxy
 The Face of Russia 01: The Face on Firewood
 Billington*, Kiev, 3-15; Sidorov, 39-60,103-8,253-255 [39]

 Optional: Massie*, The Land of Firebird, 21-39; Trenin, Ch. 1
Lev Gumilev (on the nomads and life cycles of empires); Anatolii Fomenko (on a new chronology of history) -- both controversial and in Russian
Solovki (Solovetskii) monastery images
Feb 4 W
 Spatial History II: Moscow/People
Russia: Land of the Tsars [Kiev/Mongols/Moscow];
The Temple [Trinity St. Sergii Monastery]
 Massie*, The Land of Firebird, 40-60 [20]
Feb 9 M
Spatial History III: St. Petersburg/Autocracy
The Face of Russia 02: The Facade of Power
 Billington 2*, Aristocrats and Ch 2, 73-102 [29]

 Optional: Massie*, The Land of Firebird, 89-107 [18]
The Empire That Was Russia (Color [!] Photographs by Prokudin-Gorskii, 1909-1912, 1915)
Feb 11 W
 Marxism and the Catastrophe of 1917
 Marxism [Isms series], Lenin [fragments]
 Sidorov, 109-122 [13]
 Through the Russian Revolution an eye-witness account by Albert Rhys Williams, online text Illustrated with rare photographs and Russian posters
Feb 16 M 
 President’s Day Campus Closed


Feb 18 W
 Spatial History IV: Overview/Cathedral
 The Face of Russia 01: The Face on Firewood;     The Temple [fragments showing the assult on churches/Cathedral]

 Sidorov, 191-234 [43]
 		The Cathedral of Christ the Savior its official site: images, direct online service broadcast, videos etc.
Feb 23 M
 The Traditional Russian City/Review
French, Ch.1, 1-28 [28]
Feb 25 W   
TEST #1    Studyguide


   
RUSSIA of CITIES/
 /SOVIET TRANSFORMATIONS/
 /URBAN GEOGRAPHY
Mar 1 M
 Town and Revolution 1
Sotsgorod: Cities for Utopia 1
 French, Ch. 2, 29-50 [21]
 Russian Utopia  a geography of Russian collective dream: visionary architecture
Mar 3 W
 Town and Revolution 2
 Sotsgorod: Cities for Utopia 2
 Kopp*, Town and Revolution, pp. 163-188 [25]
 The Sotsgorod Project: Western Utopias of the Eastern Bloc
Mar 8 M
 Myths and realities of the Stalin period
 Solovki Power
 French, Ch. 3, 51-68 [17]
 Optional: Solzhenitsyn*, The GULAG Archipelago, Ch.1, "The Archipelago Rises from the Sea," 25-70
Solovki (Solovetskii) monastery images.  
Stalin's skyscrapers in Moscow (history and images, in Russian)
Mar 10 W
 The Great Fatherland War
 Why We Fight (v.5 Battle for Russia); Schindler’s List [fragments]
 Suny*, The Great Fatherland War, 309-334 [25]
Mar 15 M
 The post-war city
 Noril'sk: Life in the Arctic (New Russia)

French, Ch. 4, 69-95 [26]
Mar 17 W
 Problems of the Soviet city’s legacy
St. Petersburg (Power of Place)
 French, Ch. 5, pp. 97-130 [33]
 Seversk-- an official web-site of the largest of the closed cities (ZATO).  All in Russian, but you may find interesting the images (Âèäû ãîðîäà)
Mar 22 M
 Changing social and political geography
  Bratsk; Nizhnii Novgorod [Russia Today]
 French, Ch. 6, 131-158 [27]
 Virtual Vladimir the site's interactive map ("KAPTA" in Russian) has clickable streets with photos of every single building in the city!  You could study housing types, analyze land use patterns, or just virtually walk through the city to decide if the the current cityscape is being changed or preserved.
Mar 24 W
 Urban transportation. Conservation
French, Ch. 7, 159-176 [17], Ch. 8, 177-94 [18]
Mar 29 M
 TEST #2    Studyguide


Mar 31 W
 Cesar Chavez Day (campus closed) 



Apr 5-9
 Spring Recess (classes not in session)



RUSSIA of REGIONS/
 /EURASIAN TRANSFORMATIONS/
 /GEOPOLITICS
Apr 12 M
 Post-Soviet Transitions: Culture/Economy
The Moscow Region (New Russia)

Sidorov, 153-187 [35]
Apr 14 W
 Nationalities Policies and Federalism
 Dagestan
 Shaw*, Smith*, Ethnic Relations, 23-45 [21]
Apr 19 M
 Russia: identity, geopolitics and homeland
Colonialism [Isms]; Why We Fight (v.5 Battle for Russia) [fragment]
 Smith*, Russia: identity, 47-73 [26]
 Gumilevica (a site on Lev Gumilev, in English)
Eurazia -- a site of Alexandr Dugin's Eurasian party (in English)
Apr 21 W
 The Break-Up of the USSR: A Break in Continuity
Soviets: The True Story of Perestroika  
 Trenin, Ch 2, 87-145 [58]
Apr 26 M
 The Western Façade: Ukraine and the Baltics 
Ukraine, The Baltic States [Video Visits]
Trenin, Ch 3, 145-176 [31
 Kiddofspeed -- images from the Chernobyl zone
Apr 28 W
 The Southern Tier: Caucasus and Central Asia
Central Asia [Globe Trekker]; Uzbekistan (by Sidorov)
 Trenin, Ch 4, 177-207 [30]
May 3 M
 The Far Eastern Backyard: Siberia and China
 Post-Soviet Siberia; The BAM zone  
 Trenin, Ch 5, 208-237 [29]
May 5 W
 Domestic Boundaries and the Russian Question
 The Volga River, The Kuzbass
 Trenin, Ch 6, 237-277 [40]
May 10 M
 Fitting Russia In
 Russia Today: Ten Years After the Fall of the Soviet Union
 Trenin, Ch 7, 278-312 [44]
May 12 W
 Conclusion: After Eurasia Review of the Course
 Stereotypes  
 Trenin, Conclusion, 313-338 [25]
May 19 W            TEST #3 2:45-4:45 p.m. arrow   Studyguide


COURSE REQUIREMENTS    To receive a grade for this course you are required to complete the three exams and a project.  In addition, you will receive some credit for your other activities (attendance, responses, assignments, pop-quizzes).

This is a video-intensive course; we will watch a number of films.  At least for that reason attendance of all classes is required.  Furthermore, the course will be much more interesting if you actively participate in class.  For each attended class 2 points will be added (2 deducted if missed; 0 if absence is excused).

Each time we meet, you are expected to submit a half- page response letter.  It should be typed, and submitted to instructor in advance via email.  No responses will be accepted after class begins. Ideally, they shall: 1. show your familiarity with the text; 2. reflect your critical analytical reading of the text; 3.  highlight what you find interesting in each chapter and what could be done better.  Although any opinion along these lines is welcome, it might be worth providing some formal guidelines for the responses.  Let’s agree that the minimal content would include the following:  a) brief synopsis of the reading material;   b) what is unclear to you; c) two true/false based on the reading material, and e) three multiple choice questions (the most professional questions indeed will be used for examinations!).

Three take-home assignments and their deadlines will be discussed in class.
The project is a review of Russia-related feature film(s).  The projects particulars will be explain in class.


GRADING      The maximum number of points that can be achieved in the course is 486.  They will be distributed in the following way: 
Exams 97 x 3 = 291
Attendance 24 x 2 = 48     
Responses 24 x 3 = 72      
Assignments 3 x 15 = 45  
Project 30
The exams will cover lecture/textbook material, therefore it is important for you to attend class and read the text.  The points on the examinations (#1-3) will be distributed as follows (total 97):
    True-False/Multiple Choice/Short Answer on Reading/Lecture Material            80
    Map Quiz                                                                                                                    20
Grades will be posted on the course web-site using as identifiers the last four digits of students’ ID numbers.  If you object to using portion of your ID for that purpose, provide the instructor with an alternative number.


MAKEUP POLICY    Makeups are possible only in the event of a documented unexpected emergency (such as health problem) or through prior arrangement with the instructor when the student has advance knowledge of a compelling conflict in schedule. Makeups under these two circumstances will be only symbolically penalized (1-2 points deducted). All other makeup requests are subject to denial or serious penalty (at least 10 points for each postponed day).

UNIVERSITY WITHDRAWAL POLICY     It is the student's responsibility to withdraw from classes.  Instructors have no obligation to withdraw students who do not attend classes and may choose not to do so. Withdrawal from a course after the first two weeks of instruction requires the signature of the instructor and department chair, and is permissible only for serious and compelling reasons. During the final three weeks of instruction, withdrawals are not permitted except in cases such as accident or serious illness where the circumstances causing withdrawal are clearly beyond the student's control and the assignment of an incomplete is not practical. Ordinarily, withdrawals in this category involve total withdrawal from the university. The College of Liberal Arts adheres to this policy strictly, and does NOT sign withdrawal forms in the final three weeks of class for other reasons.

SCHOLASTIC CONDUCT     As a student at Cal State University, you are part of an academic community and expected to behave in a manner that is respectful of that community, by not engaging in academic misconduct. 

Academic misconduct is an act in which a student:   
    a) seeks to claim credit for the work or efforts of another without authorization or citation;    
    b) uses unauthorized materials or fabricated data in any academic exercise;
    c) forges or falsifies academic documents or records;
    d) intentionally impedes or damages the academic work of others;
    e) engages in conduct aimed at making false representation of a student's academic performance;
    f) assists other students in any of these acts. 

Examples of academic misconduct include, but are not limited to: 
•    cheating on an examination;
•    collaborating with others in work to be presented, contrary to the stated rules of the course;
•    submitting a paper or assignment as one's own work when a part or all of the paper or assignment is the work of another;
•    submitting a paper or assignment that contains ideas or research of others without appropriately identifying the sources of those ideas;
•    stealing examination or course materials;
•    submitting, if contrary to the rules of a course, work previously presented in another course;
•    tampering with the laboratory experiment or computer program of another student;
•    knowingly and intentionally assisting another student in any of the above, including assistance in an arrangement whereby any work, classroom performance, examination or other activity is submitted or performed by a person other than the student under whose name the work is submitted or performed.