After Kiev

The period of time after the break-up of the Kievan state, as the Russian population generally shifted to the northeast, has often been called, "appanage Russia." This is because of the political de-centralization that characterized the time and because the system of granting out lands -- which then became inheritable--that developed within the royal families to allow the support of younger sons and relatives vaguely resembled the feudal system of Western Europe, especially what occurred in medieval France. In this course, we are not going to really address the question of whether or not Russia ever really experienced a "feudal" period, but let's just say that many of the socio-politico-economic practices extant in Russia through the Middle Ages could be viewed within the broad dimensions of the feudal experience.
See the very nice website of the Троице-Сергиева Лавра (The Holy Trinity Monastery of St. Sergei in Sergiev Posad northeast of Moscow, founded in the fourteenth century).

Nina Khrushcheva book on Russia

Take a moment to read the interesting commentary by Robert Fulton on Nina Khrushcheva's new book on Vladimir Nabokov, Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics (2008), www.nationalpost.com/story-printer.html?id=248282.

Kiev, Rus' and Russia

This week in the course you will be studying the origins of civilization in "Russia." I use the quote marks because Ukraine, where the first organized political state emerged, is not part of Russia now, and it technically wasn't also for long periods of time before the seventeenth century. But from a cultural, political and social point-of-view there is a direct continuity from the princes of Kiev in the tenth century to Moscow and Kiev today. Hope that makes sense.
Also, I'd like to call your attention to this website (The Serpents Wall), which has some very interesting pictures, on Kievan history and the battle for Kiev that took place during World War II.

Welcome Spring 2008

Welcome to HIS 241, the History of Russia I. I'm Charlie Evans, your instructor for the course, and this is about the fourth year now that I've had my Russian history course sequence online. This semester we will be trying something new by using a blog to support our experience with Russian history. It should be fun!

Nikita Khrushchev at the UN: Did He or Didn't He Bang His Shoe?

Sergei Khrushchev, at a recent campus event, spoke about the "shoe-banging" incident that allegedly took place in September 1960 at the General Assembly of the UN. You can listen to his remarks at
novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/evans/his242/Notes/shoe/shoe.html

The Caspian Lake, Sea or Pond: A New Near Eastern Conflict Zone?

The recently concluded summit in Tehran, involving the shoreline countries of the Caspian (Russia, Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan), provided another opportunity for Russian President Vladimir Putin to throw Russia's economic weight (natural resources) onto the world stage. Disputes over who should control the oil and natural gas fields of the Caspian (the fish are already dead or dying) between the bordering countries of the water body--there is disagreement over whether it is a "sea" or a "lake"--could get very unpleasant in the near future (unless Putin gets his way).
ps. Technically, the Caspian is not part of the Near East, but what could happen there could very much be of the same model as the discords plaguing the Near East.

Georgian Wine

One of my former students sent me an announcement of a recent cultural event that featured dancers from Georgia. The events was to be followed by a Georgian wine tasting session, and that reminded me of my stay in Russia (still the Soviet Union at that time) when you could still freely, and quite easily, get Georgian wines. We had a lot of Tsinandali, a dry white wine, to drink then. In recent years, Russian authorities have tried to bring economic pressure to bear on Georgia by prohibiting the import of Georgian wines into Russia. Since wines are one of the main currency-producing exports from Georgia, this has considerably hurt the Georgian economy. Fortunately for us in the United States, and especially those who live near DC, with a little looking around, you can buy them here. I found myself a bottle of Tsinandali!

Khrushchev and the Space race

On Tuesday night, we had an interesting session with Professor Sergei Khrushchev--Nikita's son-- who related some first-hand knowledge about the background of the Soviet space program. What was surprising occurred when the floor opened for questions from the audience; there was a high level of hostility apparent in the number of questions about the evilness of communism and the relationship between the US and USSR during the Cold War.

Well, we've got a campus event to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik, the Soviet satellite that started the space race between Russia and the United States on 4 October 1957. The main guest on our program is Nikita Khrushchev's youngest son, Sergei, who will talk about Sputnik, the Soviet Space program and the space race as part of the Cold War. Before he emigrated to the United States, Sergei worked as an engineer on various missile projects in Russia.

Parades in the Soviet Union

I am not sure exactly which holiday is being celebrated in this image of a parade in the Soviet Union, but I suspect that it might be May Day. There used to be a lot of parades on the yearly schedule for the Soviets, but I don't think that there are as many in Russia today.