2024/25 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

HIST5720M Revolution and Rebirth: Eastern Europe and the USSR, 1985-99

30 creditsClass Size: 10

Module manager: Robert Hornsby
Email: r.hornsby@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2024/25

This module is not approved as an Elective

Module summary

This module explores the collapse of communism and its aftermath in Eastern Europe and the former USSR during the 1980s and 1990s. The first part of the module examines the causes of collapse and the ways in which different revolutions played out during 1989-1991. The second part of the module looks at what came next as capitalist democracy was (almost everywhere) built on the ruins of communist dictatorship. This was a period not just of great change, but also one of high aspirations for the future, clashes of ideas and ideals, as well as a range of important continuities that spanned the ideological divide between the communist and post-communist eras.

Objectives

The purpose of this module is to familiarise students with a crucial period in which Europe and the wider world were dramatically re-shaped as communist regimes declined, collapsed and were then replaced in the likes of Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. The module explores both causes and consequences of these revolutions, addressing subjects including national and ethnic struggles, political reforms, regime violence and public violence, legacies of communist rule, the creation of democratic institutions and economic and social change across the region.

Learning outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following learning outcomes relevant to the subject:
1. Analsye effectively why and how communist regimes suddenly fell across the region, much to the surprise of almost all contemporary experts.
2. Critically evaluate approaches to the shifts from communism and dictatorship to capitalism and democracy and how they played out at both institutional and social levels.
3. Apply different historiographical approaches to the communist past and the fall of communist regimes, as well as different experiences of revolution and post-communism.

Skills Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the module students will have demonstrated the following skills learning outcomes:
4. Analyse a range of primary source materials, including media coverage, video footage, images and regime-generated documents and integrated them into own work.
5. Draw meaningful comparisons and contrasts from the experiences of one country to another, and from communist to post-communist periods across the region.
6. Present, research, and discuss complex and sensitive issues still ‘live’ today.
7. Apply fundamental standards and practices of historical study for research, discussion, and assessed work.

Syllabus

Topics may include the following: The communist world of the long 1970s; Gorbachev, glasnost’ and perestroika; Peaceful revolutions of 1989: Poland, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia; Revolution in Ceausescu’s Romania; Independence struggles and ethnic conflicts in the USSR; War in the former Yugoslavia; The new democratic politics; Social and cultural history of 1990s post-communism; Living with the communist past: retribution and nostalgia

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Seminar	11	2.00	22.00
Private study hours			278.00
Total Contact hours			22.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will receive formative feedback both through in-class discussions and through one-to-one discussions in office hours. Students will also receive tailored feedback (both in written form and in-person) on each piece of formal assessment (one presentation and two essays).

Students will each give one ten-minute presentation on their chosen primary source text ahead of the submission of the source commentary exercise. Written feedback on this presentation will feed into the summative primary source exercise. The source exercises will support the writing of the 4,000-word essay, which has a strong primary source element.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Assignment	Source commentary (2000 words)	30.00
Essay	Essay (4000 words)	70.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

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: 13/05/2024 11:55:45

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