Uses of History, Myth, and Ideology in Putin’s Russia

(HIST/POLI/REES 209)

Course Description:

In the Russian language, there is a specific phrase that conjures up historical periods of chaos brought on by domestic disorder/disintegration and foreign threat: “smuta”, or, “smutnoe vremya” [time of troubles]. Several moments in Russian history can be interpreted as contributing to a deep cultural consciousness of “smuta,” but we will begin with the most recent “smuta” of Russia’s 1990s transition out of the Soviet Union. We will move on to explore the last two decades of Vladimir Putin’s political influence and its effects on both the state and society in Russia. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which Putin: 1) has responded to Russia’s difficult experience with transition by marshaling this and other historical memories to his aid in national mythmaking; and 2) has attempted to forge Russia’s own unique, “special path” under such ideological monikers as “conservative modernization” and “sovereign democracy.” Of crucial importance in this course are the ideational rather than institutional components of Putin’s regime: how has Putin marshalled history and myth to forge powerful ideological tools, and how have these ideological tools been put to work in and variously received by Russian society?

Students first will gain historical knowledge of Russia’s difficulties with the transition period of the 1990s and, then, use the framework of “smuta,” or “time of troubles,” to describe and contextualize the rise of Vladimir Putin at the turn of the century. Then, students will become familiar with the basic tenets of Putin’s ideological stance by identifying and discussing the political, economic and social mechanisms through which Vladimir Putin has enacted his ideologically reactionary response to Russia’s experience of the 1990s. What will be emphasized is not the institutional workings or procedures related to Russia’s experience of these mechanisms, but Putin’s discourse around them and society’s response to them. Finally, students will apply their knowledge and demonstrate comprehension of the courses’ main themes—historical and mythic memory, ideology formation, and state-society relations—by analyzing recent media targeted at bolstering or criticizing Putin’s regime, from Russian state media to Pussy Riot.

Selected Key Texts:

Tsygankov’s The Strong State in Russia

Hill and Gaddy’s Boris Yeltsin and the Time of Troubles

Smith’s Mythmaking in the New Russia

Rutland’s Putin’s Path to Power

Petersson’s twin Political Myths in Contemporary Russian Politics

Tolz’s Forging the Nation

Herpen’s Putinism

Chebankova’s Contemporary Russian Conservatism

Nelson’s History as Ideology: The Portrayal of Stalinism and the Great Patriotic War…

Chandler’s Pronatalism and Family Politics under Putin’s Presidency

Yusupova’s Pussy Riot: A Feminst Band Lost in History and Translation

Lipman’s How Putin Silences Dissent

Zvyaginstev’s film Leviathan

Navalny’s film Don’t Call Him Dimon

Sorokin’s novel Day of the Oprichnik