2024/25 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

HIST3650 Stalin and Stalinism

40 creditsClass Size: 16

Module manager: Professor James Harris
Email: j.r.harris@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semesters 1 & 2 (Sep to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

This module explores the controversies and heated debates that have characterised the study of Stalin and Stalinism since the early Cold War. At times, the field has pitted those who were hostile to the Soviet experiment against those who were sympathetic to it. In the later Cold War period ‘traditional’ political historians did battle with ‘revisionist’ social historians. The opening of the archives in 1991 added ammunition to old debates, but opened new avenues of research and new controversies. This module explores these evolving debates; challenges students to think about sources, contexts, and biases; and demands that students produce independent, nuanced and clearly reasoned arguments out of complex and apparently contradictory primary and secondary source material.

Objectives

On completion of this module students should be able to:
- analyse and evaluate conflicting historical interpretations;
- critically analyse primary source material;
- investigate a historical topic in depth.

Learning outcomes
1. High-level skills in oral and written communication of complex ideas.
2. Independence of mind and self-discipline and self-direction to work effectively under own initiative.
3. Ability to locate, handle and synthesize large amounts of information.
4. Capacity to employ analytical and problem-solving abilities.
5. Ability to engage constructively with the ideas of their peers, tutors and published sources.
6. Empathy and active engagement with alternative cultural contexts.
7. Skills in interpretation and analysis of complex documentary-based material.

Skills outcomes
Further enhances Common Skills listed below:

- High-level skills in oral and written communication of complex ideas.
- Independence of mind and self-discipline and self-direction to work effectively under own initiative.
- Ability to locate, handle and synthesize large amounts of information.
- Capacity to employ analytical and problem-solving abilities.
- Ability to engage constructively with the ideas of their peers, tutors and published sources.
- Empathy and active engagement with alternative cultural contexts.

Plus:
- Skills in interpretation and analysis of complex documentary-based material.

Syllabus

Josef Stalin ruled the Soviet Union for over a quarter of the twentieth century. Both he, and the particular brand of socialism which bears his name-Stalinism-have long been the subject of heated historical controversy, made sharper by the confrontational atmosphere of the Cold War. The debates have recently acquired extra impetus with the release of large numbers of secret documents from within the former Soviet Union.

The module will make use of these as well as other sources, including film, art and literature, to try to answer questions which remain perplexing:
- How was Stalin able to rise to power and dominate the USSR?
- Why were millions of innocent Soviet citizens exterminated during the 'great terror'?
- How far was Stalin personally responsible for the Terror?
- How did ordinary Soviet people react to Stalin and Stalinism?

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Workshop	4	1.00	4.00
Seminar	22	2.00	44.00
Private study hours			352.00
Total Contact hours			48.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			400.00

Private study

- Reading to prepare for seminars (120 hours)
- Further self-directed reading (66 hours)
- Preparing and researching 4,000-word essay, including formative elements (80 hours)
- Preparing and researching OTA, including formative elements (80 hours)
- Reflection on feedback (6 hours).

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will complete 6 x 400 word essays on the questions set for the seminars (3 in semester 1 and 3 in semester two; two must be related to the gobbet exercises). These essays will be due at least one full day prior to the relevant seminars. Formative feedback will be given before the seminar, and students will be able to read the work of their peers so that there is peer to peer as well as tutor to student feedback. Students will also receive oral feedback on a plan for their 4,000-word essay.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	4000 words	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Exams

Exam type	Exam duration	% of formal assessment
Online Time-Limited assessment	48 hr	50.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)		50.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 18/10/2024

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