History 277: Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe
MWF 9:50-11:00 in Main Hall 211
Professor Peter A.
Blitstein
310 Main Hall
832-6955
peter.a.blitstein@lawrence.edu
Office Hours: MW 2-4, Th 10-11, or by appointment
This course surveys the history of the countries and peoples of Eastern Europe from the First World War until the collapse of Communism. Themes include the fall of empires and rise of nation-states, revolution and counter-revolution, the consequences of relative economic backwardness, and the impact of “totalitarian” ideologies such as fascism and communism on the everyday lives of people. The main question we will be asking is: What is Eastern Europe? Do the countries and peoples of this region share a common history arising from the themes of the course? We will focus on Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria.
(1) Class Participation (20%): including general class discussion, surprise quizzes (if necessary!), and other in-class exercises I might dream up in the course of events.
(2) A Map and Cultures Quiz on October 7. This will be graded on a pass-fail basis. If you fail the quiz, you will need to take it again until you pass. You must pass the quiz to pass the course. See the handout for more details.
(3) Three 4-5 page analysis papers (50%). Specific topics will be announced at least one week before the deadlines. They are due on: October 21, November 14, and December 4. Click here for guidelines for writing your papers.
(4) A Final Examination (30%) on December 11 at 8:30 am.
Note: You must satisfy all requirements to pass the course.
I will conduct this class through a combination of lecture and discussion. The course calendar describes which sessions will be devoted to each format. Regular attendance and participation is important. If you miss more than a few classes or remain silent, your participation grade will suffer. If your absences or lack of participation threaten your grade, I will warn you.
Although the assigned readings do not require the level of close analysis that, say, those in Freshman Studies might, you nevertheless must read them carefully and be prepared to discuss them in class. This means jotting down notes on them, either as you read or immediately afterwards. Merely highlighting as you read will not prepare you for class.
Good participation requires: coming to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings, listening to other members of the class carefully and commenting on their statements, suggesting topics for discussion, and encouraging others to speak up. Discussion means listening and responding as well as talking. It’s perfectly acceptable (indeed it is encouraged) to disagree with your colleagues and with the professor. Always remember to be respectful of one another in doing so.
Your participation grade is based on both the quantity and, especially, quality of your participation in class. I grade participation daily and will provide you with a midterm evaluation of your participation with advice about how to raise your grade. Participation will be graded on the following basis:
I will then scale the participation grades such that one point per day will be equivalent to a “B”. Little or no participation with regular attendance will be equivalent to a “C”. Consistently excellent participation will lead to an “A”.
I do not accept late assignments without advance agreement. If you believe that you will not be able to hand in a paper on time, we can discuss your reasons and hopefully come up with a solution. Examples of bad reasons: too much work in another class, trips across the country to visit boyfriends and girlfriends, too much partying the night before. Examples of good reasons: acts of God, serious illness, major family crises. I am generally sympathetic to students who normally have their act together but occasionally fall into trouble.
Absent advance agreement, I will mark down late papers by one-third of a grade for each day the paper is late. For example, if a paper due in class on Tuesday would have received a “B+”, but is not submitted until Friday morning, it would receive a B instead. I will count weekends as one day, and will use my judgment, absent direct evidence, as to when a paper was submitted.
The best way to contact me is by email or in office hours. If you call my office and leave a message I will endeavor to return your call as soon as possible. If you call me at home (738-6796), please do so before 9:30 pm.
Books to Purchase (Available at Conkey’s)
Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998).
Jan Gross, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
Heda Margolius Kovály, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 (New York, 1996).
Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, tr. Aaron Ascher (New York: Harper Perennial, 1999).
Gale Stokes, ed. From Stalinism to Pluralism: A Documentary History of Eastern Europe since 1945, 2d ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).
N. Swain and G. Swain. Eastern Europe since 1945. 2d ed. (Palgrave/St.Martin's, 1998).
All of these books are also available on reserve; purchasing them is not mandatory. In addition, there is a course reader available for purchase in the Main Hall Office.
“*” indicates that the assigned reading is in the course reader.
I advise you to do the readings for a particular session in the order they are listed. I reserve the right to make changes to the calendar.
Use this handy calendar to skip to the appropriate day:
| 9/30 | 10/2 | 10/4 | 10/7 | 10/9 | 10/11 | 10/14 | 10/16 | 10/18 | 10/21 |
| 10/23 | 10/25 | 10/28 | 10/30 | 11/1 | 11/4 | 11/6 | 11/8 | 11/11 | 11/13 |
| 11/15 | 11/18 | 11/22 | 11/25 | 11/27-29 | 12/2 | 12/4 | 12/6 |
| I. Eastern Europe before the First World War | |
| 9/27: Introduction to the Course | |
| 9/30: What is Eastern Europe? (Discussion) |
*Gale Stokes, “Eastern Europe’s Defining Fault Lines,” in Three Eras of Political Change in Eastern Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 7-22. Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis, xxi-xxiv, 3-23. *Larry Wolf, Inventing Eastern Europe (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1994), 1-16. |
| 10/2: Societies and Cultures (Lecture) |
*Aviel Roshwald, Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires (London: Routledge, 2001), 8-19. Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis, 24-47. |
| 10/4: Politics and Ideologies (Lecture) | Iván
Berend, Decades of Crisis, 48-83. *Aviel Roshwald, Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires (London: Routledge, 2001), 34-49. *Leon Trotsky, “The Enigma of Bulgarian Democracy,” (1912) in Trotsky, The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913 (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1980), 47-52. |
| II. War and Revolution | |
| 10/7: World War One
(Lecture) Map and Cultures Quiz Today! |
*Aviel Roshwald, Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires, 70-90, 116-119, 125-140. *Holger H. Herwig, The First World War: Germany and Austria-Hungary (London: Arnold, 1997), 272-283, 361-365. *Peter Hanák, “Vox Populi: Intercepted Letters in the First World War, in Hanák, The Garden and the Workshop. Essays on the Cultural History of Vienna and Budapest (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 179-189, 200-204, 208-212. |
| 10/9: Social Revolutions and Counterrevolutions (Discussion) |
Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis, 115-133, 138-144. *T. Hajdu, “Socialist Revolution in Central Europe,” in Roy Porter and Mikuláš Teich, eds., Revolution in History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 101-118. *Oscar Jászi, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Hungary (London, 1924), 35-38. |
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10/11: Peacemaking (Discussion) Discussion Questions for Today
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Woodrow Wilson’s “Fourteen Points” online at http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wilson14.htm Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis, 145-154 *Aviel Roshwald, Ethnic Nationalism and the Fall of Empires, 156-171. * “The Minorities Treaty for Poland” and Alfred Cobban, “National Self-Determination and the Peace Treaties of 1919,” in Geraismos Augustinos, ed., The National Idea in Easter Europe (Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1996), 30-44. |
| III. Making States and Nations: the 1920s | |
| 10/14: National Revolutions (Lecture) | Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis, 154-159, 163-190. |
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Terms to Know
for this Week
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10/16: Problems of Nation-Building (Discussion)
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*Joseph Roth, “The Bust of the Emperor,” in The Collected Stories of Joseph Roth (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001), 227-247. *Noel Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History (New York: New York University Press), 264-288. *Irina Livezeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), 189-208. *Derek Sayer, The Coasts of Bohemia (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), 163-176. |
| 10/18: Politics and Society in Crisis (Lecture) |
Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis, 190-202, 224-245. |
| IV. Political and Economic Instability:The 1930s | |
| 10/21: The Great Depression in Eastern Europe (Lecture) First Paper Due Today! |
Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis, 249-277, 287-299. |
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10/23: Rise of the Radical Right (Discussion)
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Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis, 300-302, 308-318, 324-345. *Irina Livezeanu, Cultural Politics in Greater Romania (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995): 297-309. *Mihail Sebastian, “Friends and Fascists,” The New Yorker, October 2, 2000, 106-109. [through 1940] *Istvan Deák, “Hungary,” in Hans Rogger and Eugen Weber, eds. The European Right (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), 364-397. |
| V. World War II in Eastern Europe | |
| 10/25: War and Occupation (Lecture) |
Iván Berend, Decades of Crisis, 398-405. *Istvan Deák, “Hungary,” in Hans Rogger and Eugen Weber, eds. The European Right (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), 397-405. *John R. Lampe, Yugoslavia: Twice there was a Country, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 197-222. *Mihail Sebastian, “Friends and Fascists,” The New Yorker, October 2, 2000, 109-113. |
| 10/28: Genocide (Discussion) | Jan Gross, Neighbors, entire. |
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10/30: Resistance and Collaboration
(Discussion)
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Kovály, Under a Cruel Star, 5-51. |
| VI. From Liberation to Stalinism | |
| 11/1: “Liberation” and People’s Democracies (Lecture) |
Swain and Swain, 10-47. *Jan Gross, “War as Revolution,” in Norman Naimark and Leonid Gibianskii, eds., The Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe (Boulder: Westview Press, 1997 17-35. “Report of the Crimea Conference (Yalta),” Charles E. Bohlen, “The Yalta Negotiations” and “Poland at the Tehran Conference,” Winston S. Churchill, “The Percentages Agreement,” Harry S. Truman, “The Truman Doctrine,” and Andrei Zhdanov, “The Two-Camp Policy“ in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism 13-27, 29-32. |
| 11/4: East-European Stalinism (Discussion) |
Swain and Swain, 48-66. Kovály, Under a Cruel Star, 52-168. Jakub Berman, “The Case for Stalinism,” Czesław Miłosz, “Ketman”, and “The Slánský Trial,” in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 44-56, 71-77. |
| 11/6: Yugoslav Revisionism (Lecture) Terms to Know |
Swain and Swain, 67-70. “The Tito-Stalin Correspondence” and Milovan Djilas, “The Origins of Self-Management in Yugoslavia,” in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 58-65, 95-96. |
| 11/8 Mid-Term Reading Period | |
| VII. After Stalin | |
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11/11: The “New Course” and the Hungarian
Revolution, 1956 (Lecture) Terms to Know |
Swain and Swain, 71-93. Imre Nagy, “Reform Communism,” in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 82-87. Documents on Hungary 1956: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1956hungary.html |
| 11/13: Actually-Existing Socialism (Discussion) |
Swain and Swain, 94-117 Milovan Djilas, “The New Class” and Václav Havel, “The Power of the Powerless”, in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 101-106, 168-174. *Slavenka Drakulić, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed (New York: Harper Collins, 1991), 21-32, 82-92. *Katherine Verdery, “The ‘Etatization’ of Time in Ceauşescu’s Romania,” in Verdery, What was Socialism and What comes Next? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996), 39-57. |
| 11/14:
Second Paper Due Today!
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| 11/15: Reform and "Polycentrism" (Lecture) |
Swain and Swain, 118-140 Jacek Kurón and Karel Modzelewski, “Open Letter to the Party” and Janos Kornai, “Soft Budget Constraints, in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 108-114, 184-187. |
| VIII. The Beginnings of the End | |
| 11/18: Prague Spring and Neo-Stalinism (Discussion) |
Kovaly, 169-192. Swain and Swain, 140-152, 156-165. Zdeněk Mlynář, “Towards a Democratic Political Organization of Society,” Ludík Vaculík, “Two Thousand Words to Workers, Farmers, Scientists, Artists, and Everyone,” Leonid Brezhnev, “The Brezhnev Doctrine,” Willy Brandt, “Ostpolitik,” “The Helsinki Accords,” and “Charter 77, “in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 123-134, 156-165. |
| 11/20:The Polish Revolution (Lecture) |
Swain and Swain, 165-172. György Konrád, “Antipolitics,” “KOR’s Appeal to Society,” “Pope John Paul II Speaks in Victory Square, Warsaw,” “The Gdánsk Agreement,” “Solidarity’s Program,” and “Jaruzelski Declares Martial Law,” in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 175-180,194-215. |
| 11/22: Class will not be held today | |
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11/25: The Central European Alternative (Discussion) Today's Discussion |
Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, entire. Milan Kundera, “The Tragedy of Central Europe,” in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 217-223. |
| 11/27 and 11/29: Thanksgiving Holiday | |
| IX. Velvet and Violent Revolutions | |
| 12/2: "Refolutions" of 1989 (Discussion) |
Swain and Swain, 173-195. *Timothy Garton Ash, The Magic Lantern, (New York: Random House, 1990), 78-130. Adam Michnik, “Letter from Gdánsk Prison and Václav Havel, “New Years’ Day Speech, 1990,” in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 225-228, 249-253. |
| 12/4: Wars of
Succession in Yugoslavia (Lecture) Third Paper Due Today! |
Swain and Swain, 153-156, 195-199. “Memorandum of the Serbian Academy of Sciences,” in Stokes, From Stalinism to Pluralism, 275-280. *Franjo Tudjman, “The Sources, Changes and Essence of the National Question in the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia,” In Peter F. Sugar, ed. Eastern European Nationalism in the Twentieth Century (Washington: American University Press), 322-332. |
| 12/6: Review (Discussion) |
*Slavenka Drakulić, How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed, 179-189. |
The Final Examination will be on December 11 at 8:30 am in our usual room.