HIST 501: After Soviet Empire

After Soviet Empire:

 

This course delves into the histories of the fifteen countries that formed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. For several years before that collapse, protest movements across the Soviet Union threatened to tear the country apart at its seams. Two million citizens of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania joined hands in a “chain of freedom” to call for the end of Soviet rule. Protesters in Georgia who had gathered in the capital city square were massacred by Soviet troops. In Kazakhstan, young people rioted against the Soviet government’s decision to replace an ethnic Kazakh leader with a Russian one. After 1991, the Soviet Union’s successor states navigated their own unique paths of independence. We will learn about the fundamental aspects of the histories of contemporary Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and the states of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Baltic region, as well as the Russian Federation, with a focus on the 1980s and 1990s. Students will write a 10-page research paper on a topic of their choice chosen in conjunction with the professor.

Image titled "Sukhumi 1992" and is by Giorgi Tsagareli.