History of Russia: From Peter the Great to Gorbachev

Description

It’s difficult to imagine a nation with a history more compelling for Americans than Russia. Yet many Americans have never had the opportunity to study Russia in depth, and to see how the forces of history came together to shape a future so different from the dreams of most ordinary Russian people, eager to see their nation embrace Western values of progress, human rights, and justice.

This course focuses on 300 years of Russian history from Peter the Great to Gorbachev by examining the lives of the men and women who, in fact, were Russia. This is history told through biography.

Now a much-honored teacher has created a series of 36 lectures designed to give you one of the deepest glimpses into Russia you’ve ever had—a vivid journey through 300 years of Russian history as seen through the eyes of her own people.

In this course, you'll examine key individuals and groups, the contexts in which they thought and acted, and their driving ideas.

Topics include:

• the revolution of Peter the Great,
• Catherine the Great,
• the Decembrist Uprising,
• Belinskii and the early years of Russian Socialism,
• Alexander II,
• Nicholas II,
• Stalin, Gorbachev, and Communism, among others.

Discover historical themes made clear not by discussing treaties, war declarations, or economic statistics —but by examining the lives and ideas of the men and women who were Russia: tsars, emperors, Communist Party leaders, writers, artists, peasants, and factory workers.

Grasp what Russian life was like as Professor Steinberg analyzes ideas of power not only from the viewpoint of its rulers, but also from that of the ruled; the theme of happiness and its pursuit that resonates throughout Russian history, and ideas of morality and ethics as wielded by both the Russian state and its critics.

Professor Steinberg draws on his own years of experience as an author, a student in the Soviet Union in the 1980s, and, more recently, as a world-class historian granted access to once-secret government archives. Listen as he brings alive the vibrant Russian imagination—so willing to visualize a different kind of life for its people, yet so burdened by its darker sides of doubt and pessimism that those visions were rejected.

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