SEHI6008 History of Russia to 1598

PLEASE NOTE: This module will not be available in 2018-19 

Summative Assessment

Coursework Essay 2000-2500 words (12.5%)

Coursework Essay 2000-2500 words (12.5%)

3 Hour Examination (75%)

Formative Assessment

Student presentations on aspects of the course, questions and oral feedback from other students and from the course tutor

Module Outline

This course provides a broad survey of developments in political, social and cultural history from the 9th to the end of the 16th century, as well as introducing you to debates about Russia’s origins which continue to the present day. You will study the controversy about the origins of the early Russian (or should it be ‘Ukrainian’?) state, the mysteries surrounding the conversion to Christianity in 988, the impact of the Mongol invasion of 1237-40 and the subsequent 250-year occupation, the unification of Russia under the princes of Moscow in the 14th-15th centuries and the shaping of Muscovite ideology and institutions in the 16th. Issues in economic and social history, such as the rise of serfdom, will be examined, as will the role of the Russian Orthodox Church. Individual rulers will also come under scrutiny. Why was Ivan III (1462-1505), the ‘gatherer of the Russian lands’, so successful and so unpopular? Were the policies of Ivan the Terrible (1533-84) the products of a warped and sadistic mind or a rational response to Russia's fundamental needs? You will sample some original sources, such as the Russian Primary Chronicle in translation. Some lectures will be devoted to art, architecture and culture and in some classes film excerpts (e.g. from Eisenstein’s ‘Ivan the Terrible’) will be shown. 

Indicative Texts

• C. EVTUHOV, D. GOLDFRANK, L. HUGHES, R. STITES, A History of Russia: Peoples, Legends, Events, Forces (2004)

• N. RIASANOVSKY, A History of Russia (latest ed. 1999)

• P. DUKES, History of Russia (3rd ed. 1998)

• G. HOSKING, Russia and the Russians (2000)

• L. KOCHAN, The Making of Modern Russia (Penguin, 1983)
• Janet MARTIN, Medieval Russia, 980-1584 (Cambridge UP, 1995, 2nd ed. 2007)

Please note: This outline is accurate at the time of publication. Minor amendments may be made prior to the start of the academic year.