This will be your final essay which examines the connection between Stalinism and Putin’s Russia today.
In this essay please characterize briefly the Russian imperial and Soviet historical legacy, and how this legacy determines the patterns of change and evolution of post-communist Russia during Putin’s presidency.
In the first section, please elaborate on Stalinism and its major traits. Can we characterize Stalin as a heir of Ivan the Terrible? You also need to briefly describe the external environment of Soviet development in the 1920-40s, and especially the features of the Stalinist state that emerged before the war, and evolved after the war.
In the second section, please examine the depth of Khrushchev’s reforms, especially de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union. What parts of the Stalinist system, in your view, actually left unchanged even after Stalin?
In the era of Brezhnev and Gorbachev, the system evolved further toward post-totalitarianism. In Linz and Stepan’s methodological article you may find the difference between the two. Could you please try to find some concrete examples of this transition – from totalitarianism toward post-totalitarianism? Here you also need to provide your mini-conclusion about the remnants of Stalinism in the era of stagnation and reforms. What happened to the Party? How did the bureaucracy change?
The era of Yeltsin-Putin represents the slide toward authoritarianism. The same methodology helps us figure out the features of the system. Please find the very concrete evidence showing the short-lived democracy in Russia and the reverse toward autocracy. Please try to formulate the reason explaining the failure of democratization in the New Russia.
Finally, please compare the current Putinism and his regime and the Stalinist system. You may want to find some recent publications on this – for example, here https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/stephen-kotkin-putin-russia-ukraine-stalin (Links to an external site.)
Could we speak of Russia’s path dependency? In what way? Can this path dependency be overturned – and by what means?
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