Studying at York
The Russian Revolution - Semester 2 - HIS00181H
- Department: History
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
Module summary
The course will provide a detailed introduction to the most significant event of the twentieth century using primary and secondary sources. Direct work with primary materials will offer students the chance to study at first hand the materials out of which the historiography of the Revolution has been constructed. Until the recent opening of Soviet archives, not much more information was available to professional historians. The problems associated with the use of documentary evidence, its partial nature, its context, its gaps, assessments of its value will be constantly analysed throughout the course. Primary Sources: For the first part of the course dealing with Revolution from February to October the core text will be the three volume collection of documents edited by Browder and Kerensky. This will be supplemented by memoirs and other documentary collections. For the period of the Civil War we will have a much more eclectic range of documents. These will include material only recently declassified from soviet archives, memoirs, reports from western governments as well as large published collections.
Related modules
Students taking this module must also take the first part in Semester 1.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
Module aims
The aims of this module are:
- To introduce students to in depth study of a specific historical topic using primary and secondary material;
- To enable students to explore the topic through discussion and writing; and
- To enable students to evaluate and analyse primary sources.
Module learning outcomes
Students who complete this module successfully will:
- Grasp key themes, issues and debates relevant to the topic being studied;
- Have acquired knowledge and understanding about that topic;
- Be able to comment on and analyse original sources;
- Be able to relate the primary and secondary material to one another; and
- Have acquired skills and confidence in close reading and discussion of texts and debates.
Module content
Students will attend a 3-hour seminar in weeks 2-4, 6-8 and 10-11 of semester 2. Weeks 5 & 9 are Reading and Writing Weeks (RAW). Students prepare for and participate in eight three-hour seminars in all. A one-to-one meeting between tutor and students will also be held to discuss assessments.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
- The White Armies
- The Terror
- Women in the Russian Revolution
- The Peasantry
- The Nationalities
- The Cossacks
- The Comintern
- Bolshevik Triumph
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
For formative assessment, students submit an essay draft of 2000-words.
For summative assessment, students complete a 4000-word essay relating to the themes and issues of the module. This comprises 100% of the overall module mark. Summative assessments will be due in the assessment period.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Module feedback
Following their formative assessment task, students will receive a one-to-one meeting with the tutor to discuss the essay and their plans for the assessed essay.
Work will be returned to students with written comments in their tutorial and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to make use of their tutor’s student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For summative assessment tasks, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 25 working days of the submission deadline. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
Indicative reading
For semester time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
- Laura Engelstein, Russia In Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914-1921 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
- Steve Smith, Russia in Revolution: An Empire in Crisis, 1890 to 1928 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
- Rex Wade, The Russian Revolution 1917 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005).