University of Maryland

GVPT 359

Fall 2004

Tu-Th:  11:00-12:15

Rise and Fall of Communism in the 20th Century:

Rethinking Political Radicalism

In December 1991, the USSR, the first communist state and the West’s main rival in the Cold War, ceased to exist. Two years earlier, the Soviet bloc disintegrated as a result of a series of revolutionary upheavals in East and Central Europe. The aftermath of these earth-shattering events has been a new world, one with more liberties, but also one full of unprecedented dangers. This course examines the rise and fall of communism both as a utopian theory and an institutional practice in the 20th century. Lectures and class discussions will explore the role of prominent personalities in both the making and dissolution of communist regimes. (Who was Marx? Who was Lenin? Who was Trotsky? Who was Mao? Who was Stalin? Who is Fidel Castro?) We will discuss communism’s main ideological sources and key notions, as well as the most significant events in the dynamics of communism: the October Revolution, the establishment of the USSR, Lenin’s Bolshevism, Stalinism versus Trotskyism, the interaction between Stalinism and Nazism, the Stalinization of Eastern Europe, Khrushchev and the first reformist wave, the Hungarian revolution, the Prague Spring, the revolutions of 1989, Gorbachev and the end of the Soviet Union. Special attention will be paid to the role of intellectuals in communist movements: partisanship, commitment, faith, and, in many cases, disillusionment. The course will explain the appeals of  revolutionary politics and the role of “true believers” in totalitarian mass movements.

Requirements

Students are required to read the assigned readings before each class period.  In addition, students are expected to read one newspaper on a daily basis (either Washington Post or New York Times).  Participation in class discussions is strongly encouraged.  Grades will be based on a mid-term in-class exam (25%), a final in-class exam (50%), two unannounced quizzes (each one 10%) and class participation (5%).  Extra credit can be earned by preparing a short class presentation on a relevant topic; the time and details must first be approved by the teaching assistant.

Readings

1. Gale Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism

2. Arthur Koestler, Darkness at Noon

3. Martin Malia, The Soviet Tragedy

4. Adam Michnik, Letters from Prison

5. Richard Pipes, Communism: A History

6. Richard H. Crossman, The God that Failed

Recommended readings

1. Vladimir Tismaneanu, The Revolutions of 1989

2. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

3. Leon Trotsky, The Revolution Betrayed

Note: Please keep in mind that this week-by-week syllabus is subject to modification, in connection to extended class discussions on certain topics, ongoing events in the former Soviet bloc, film presentation, etc. The syllabus is meant to give students a structural view of the topics approached in this course.

Week 1: Main components of Marxism: revolutionary utopia, class struggle and class consciousness, role of the proletariat.  Historical materialism and Marx’s dialectics.  The First International.  The Paris Commune.

Readings: Malia, Chapter 1

Week 2: Second International, evolutionary versus revolutionary Marxism.  Western versus Russian Marxism.  From Marx to Lenin.

Readings: Malia, Chapter 2

Week 3: Revolutionary traditions in Russia: populism, revolutionary terror, the Russian intelligentsia’s salvationist dreams.  Lenin’s Marxism and the split with the Mensheviks.  The nature and logic of Bolshevism.  The October Revolution and the fate of socialism in Russia.  The Third (Communist) International – the Comintern: the Soviet Union as the center of a world revolution.

Readings: Malia, Chapters 3 and 4

Additional recommended reading: James Billington, Fire in the Minds of Men

Week 4: From Leninism to Stalinism.  The main features of Stalinism.  The struggle for Lenin’s mantle.  Stalin versus Trotsky.  The building of the Stalinist state (industrialization, collectivization, ideological regimentation, police state, cult of the “charismatic” leader). Political purges and the Great Terror.  Ideology, power, and the rise of the totalitarian state.  Stalinism and Fascism: a comparative analysis.

Readings: Malia, Chapters 5, 6, 7

Koestler (all)

Recommended: Trotsky

Week 5: Secular religion, search for salvation, and mass totalitarian movements. Communism as an opiate for the intellectuals. Class discussions on the books by Pipes and Crossman.  Special focus in the Crossman volume on essays by Arthur Koestler, Ignazio Silone, Richard Wright and Louis Fischer.  Questions to be addressed: Why did morally driven individuals join communist parties?  What did communism offer in terms of psychological comfort in turbulent times?  What are the main features of Messianic revolutionary movements?

Readings: Pipes (all)

Crossman (all)

Week 6: World War II and the road to the Cold War.  Conclusions on Stalinism.

Readings: Malia, Chapter 8

Stokes, Introduction & Part I “The Stalinist Moment” (through Chapter 6)

Possible film presentation: the Russian film The Thief (special screening)

TENTATIVE MIDTERM EXAM

Week 7: Divisions within world communism: The Communist Information Bureau (Cominform), Josip Broz Tito, the Yugoslav schism, Yugoslavia’s excommunication.  The formation of the Soviet bloc and the Cold War.  Stalinism in East-Central Europe: show trials, purges, repression.  Class discussion on the communist mind.

Readings: Malia, Chapter 8

Stokes, Chapter 7-11

Film presentation on the Slansky affair: A Trial in Prague

Week 8: Khrushchev and de-Stalinization; the 20th Party Congress (February 1956) and the disintegration of Stalin’s myth.  The Hungarian Revolution, Polish reforms, and the role of critical intellectuals.  The revisionist illusions.

Readings: Malia, Chapter 9

Stokes, Part II “The Marxist Critique” (through Chapter 18)

Michnik, pp. 133-248.

Recommended: Solzhenitsyn (all)

Weeks 9-10: Ideological erosion, political decay and economic crisis of Soviet-style regimes (Brezhnev’s period of “stagnation”).  Bureaucratic centralism versus socialism with a human face: Dubcek, the Prague Spring, and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.  Everyday life under communism in the 1980s. 

Readings: Malia, Chapter 10

Stokes, Chapters 19-29

Michnik, pp. 248-333

Week 11: The independent union Solidarity and the collapse of Polish socialism.  Solidarity, Charter 77, and other illustrations of the rise of civil society.  Perestroika, glasnost and Soviet reform under Mikhail Gorbachev.  Gorbachev’s strategy and the causes of its failure.  The revolutions of 1989 and the end of the Soviet bloc: causes, meanings, consequences.  The demise of the USSR.  Nationalism, democracy, and civil society in East-Central Europe.

Readings: Stokes, Chapters 30-43

Michnik, pp. 1-133

Malia, Chapters 11 and 12

Recommended: Tismaneanu, Introduction & Part I “Causes”

For special credit:

Suggested additional readings (PLEASE CONSULT WITH THE TA): International symposium in the journal East European Politics and Societies on the 10th anniversary of the revolutions of 1989.

Week 12: The main problems of post-communism: The Leninist legacies and the search for pluralism.  The fateful logic of utopia: Malia’s critique of Soviet-style socialism: was socialism Russia’s curse, or was it the Russian tradition that de-humanized socialism?  Is liberalism possible in post-communist countries?  Main threats to liberal democracy: populist collectivism, clericalism, ethnic fundamentalism, and imperialist militarism in Russia.  Ethnic furies in post-communist societies: the breakdown of Yugoslavia. 

Readings: Stokes, Chapters 44-53

Malia, Chapter 13 and Epilogue

Recommended: Tismaneanu, ed., “The Year of Truth”, “The Meanings of 1989”, “The Post-Totalitarian Blues”, “The Velvet Restoration”

NOTE: These topics will be addressed in lectures and class attendance is absolutely critical for keeping pace with the sweeping changes in the post-communist world.