The development of this course has been funded by the Curriculum Resource Center (“CRC”) at the Central European University (“CEU”), whose programs are partially funded by the Higher Education Support Program (“HESP”). The opinions expressed herein are the author’s own and do not necessarily express the views of CEU.

Lecturer: Anna Eremeeva

Host Institution: Kuban State University

Course Title: Russia’s Scientists in the Social-Political Transformation of the 20th Century

Year of CDC Grant: 2002 / 2003

The course is intended for 4th year students, during the first term.

Number of participating students: 12

Course volume - 36 hours (lectures – 14 hours, seminars – 18 hours, presentation of students’ term papers – 2 hours, and final discussion – 2 hours), one semester.

Issue Statement The history of Russian scientists in the social-political transformation of the 20th century is a very topical and interesting subject. There is a good number of scientific books, articles and fiction (including films) touching upon its different aspects in various periods of the Soviet (Russian) history. It is important to understand the evolution of the scientific intelligentsia’s consciousness in order to comprehend the changes, which have taken place in the relations between the intelligentsia and the authority.

The course makes no pretensions to a comprehensive study of the scientific schools or the history of Russian science in the 20th century. In the course we intend to examine a multitude of aspects and of discrepancies in the relations of the Russian (Soviet) scientists and the state. The official policy aimed at changing the theoretical consciousness of scientists, the correction of the methodological basis of their professional activity, the real existence of the political consciousness of scientists in the different periods, and the ways of adaptation and resistance to the state mechanism will also be studied within the framework of the course.

A distinctive feature of the course is that it includes not only the scientific intelligentsia in the capital city, but those from the provincial areas as well. We will make an attempt to compare the sentiments of capital and provincial scientists, the differences in their reactions to various official political actions, and to understand the particularities of the provincial scientific community.

The course is of an interdisciplinary kind and it intends to provide an interweaving of concepts, notions and theories used by different social sciences.

The course is planned for 4th year students (in the first term). The students have already attended such disciplines as History of Russia (USSR) in the 20th century, Political Studies, Sociology, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Psychology, etc. in their previous 3 years. The course will allow them to specify some concepts of theoretical disciplines, forming a new, fuller view of contemporary Russian history and of the development of the active civil position, with special attention to the responsibility of scientists (including humanitarians) in the social-political processes of the society.

Course Goals

Students should be able to:

·  comprehend the position of scientists in Russia (USSR), their role in the creation, strengthening and collapse of political regimes.

·  recognize the features and ways of manipulating the consciousness and political behavior of intellectuals.

·  comprehend the specific features of the provincial scientific community in Russia (USSR).

Course objectives

Students should be able to:

·  define the aims and ways of state influence upon the scientific intelligentsia.

·  recognize and explain the role of the Communist party and the Soviet state in organizing the scientists’ professional activity and forming their political culture.

·  understand the evolution of scientists’ consciousness: the changes in their social identity, relationship to authority, ethic rules, sense of liberty, social justice, democracy, socialism, Soviet state, etc.

·  define the traditional and specific methods of resistance (connected to the scientific activity) and adaptation to the state.

·  develop an ability to analyze and interpret various types of sources and scientific works, including those created under the pressure of censorship, and to acquire the skills of creation, analysis, and using sources of oral history.

Methods used

The course combines the traditional "lecture-seminar" system with new forms of teaching. I expect students to participate actively in the discussions, to read the proposed sources and literature in an analytical and critical way, to make presentations during the classes and to write essays (10-12 pp.).

After the third lesson students are asked to choose a topic for their scientific paper based on the proposed list. The topic may be selected depending on personal student interests.

It is important to give students the possibility of using new sources with regard to the provincial (South-Russian) intelligentsia (above all, materials from the Krasnodar Territory State Archive). Sources of private origin, fiction, and films also have very important role in studying the given subject. During the course students will actively form the source base, creating new sources themselves, such as interviews with witnesses and participants of events – university professors, various scientists, relatives of scientists, former staff of the Communist party, etc. There are many materials within the scope of the theme on the Internet, too. Students have the possibility to get access to these at the Internet Center of the Kuban State University.

An important component of the teaching process is the reader. It includes most of the mandatory readings listed in the bibliography of the seminars and lectures.

Requirements

·  Essay: 50% - students present their papers at one of the last lessons of the course.

·  Active participation (working in groups, presentation and the discussion of one of the required texts in class): 50%


COURSE PROGRAM

Topic 1. Introduction (6 hours)

Lectures: 2 hours, seminars: 4 hours

Lecture: Scientific intelligentsia as a subject of investigation and studying.

Intelligentsia studies (intelligentovedenie) – a new field of the interdisciplinary scientific knowledge. “Intelligentsia”: the modern interpretations of the concept. Scientific intelligentsia: its main features. The peculiarities of professional activity, ideology, culture. The specific features of the corporate consciousness.

The scientific intelligentsia in provincial Russia. The main characteristics of the provincial scientific communities.

The historiography of Russia’s scientific intelligentsia: the main tendencies.

Bibliography

Russkaia intelligentsiia: istoriia I sud’ba. M., 1999.

Danilov A., Memetov V.: Intelligentsiia provintsii v istorii I kul’ture Rossii. Ivanovo, 1997. Part 1.

Posokhov S.I.: Sotsial'naia istoriia sovetskoi nauki (konets 1920-h – nachalo 1940-h : problemy istoriographii. Kharkov, 1994.

Ethan Pollock: Science under Socialism in the USSR and Beyond / Contemporary European History. Pp. 524-535 (Reader, pp.19-26)

Loren R. Graham: The Birth, Withering, and Rebirth of Russian History of Science / Kritika. Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. Spring, 2001. Vol. 2. #2. (Reader, pp.35-41)

Seminar 1.1. The source basis of investigating and studying the scientific intelligentsia. The major categories of sources on the subject. The sources of private origin. Fiction as a documentary source. The specific features of interpreting sources published under censorship.

Presentation and analysis of the mandatory texts:

Marsh, Rosalind J.: Fiction as documentary source / Soviet Fiction Since Stalin: Science, Politics, and Literature. Crom Helm. London & Sydney, 1986. Introduction. Pp. 2-15. (Reader, pp.27-34)

Memoirs: Landau-Drobantseva K. Akademik Landau. Kak my zhili. Vospominaniia. M.: Zakharov, 2002.

Fiction: Kopylov G.I. Evgeniy Stromynkin (roman v stikhakh) // VIET. 1998. #2. Pp.96-122. (Reader, pp. 193-221)

Recommended parallel reading:

Akademik P.V. Volobuev: Neopublikovannye raboty. Vospominaniia. Stat’i. M.: Nauka, 2000. Pp. 170-228.

Nauka I vlast’. Vospominania uchenyh – gumanitariev I obshchestvovedov. M., 2001.

Lartsev V.G. Nauka I sovremennaia sovetskaia poeziia. Tashkent: Nauka, 1965.

Video: Zhukovsky. Producers – V. Pudovkin, A. Vasil’ev. “Mosfil’m”, 1950.

Seminar 1.2. Oral history and reconstructing the history of the scientific intelligentsia. Oral history and the researching process. The methods of preparing questions for interviews, application forms and the analysis of documents.

Presentation and analysis of the mandatory text:

Doel Ronald E.: “Ustnaia istoriia” v istoriografii sovremennoi nauki: opyt I problemy // Voprosy istorii estestvoznaniia I tekhniki (hereafter VIET). 2000. #4. Pp.44-58. (Reader, pp.19-26)

Recommended parallel reading:

Interv’u s Pavlom Vasil’evichem Volobuevym // Akademik P.V. Volobuev. Neopublikovannye raboty. Vospominaniia. Stat’i. M.: Nauka, 2000. Pp. 7-44.

Ronald J. Grele: Movement without Aim. Methodological and Theoretical Problems of Oral History // The Oral History Reader. Ed. by Robert Perks and Alidtair Thomson. London and New York, 2000. Pp. 38-52.

Topic 2. Russian scientific world in the late Russian Empire (4 hours)

Lecture - 2 hours, seminar – 2 hours

Lecture: The emergence of the scientific intelligentsia in Russia: the main tendencies. The system of official and public scientific enterprises before the revolution of 1917. The social and status characteristics of scientists in the late Russian Empire.

The main periods in the genesis of scientific institutes in the Russian province: the geography of provincial scientific centers in the beginning of the 20th century. The provincial scientific organization in pre-revolutionary Russia: a typology.

Scientists and political movements. The First Russian Revolution and the political differentiation of the intelligentsia. Membership in political parties. Discussions about the intelligentsia in Russia and the position of the scientific intelligentsia. The Vekhi: the debate and its intellectual background.

Bibliography

Vekhi. Intelligentsiia v Rossii. Sborniki statey. M., 1991.

Berlyavsky I.G.: Gosudarstvennoe upravlenie naukoi v Rossii (konets XIX – nachalo XX v.) // Izvestiia vuzov Severo-Kavkazskogo regiona. Obshchestvennye nauki. 1995. #1. Pp. 33-44.

Volobuev P.V.: Nauka I tekhnika v dorevolutsionnoi Rossii (konets XIX v. – 1917 god) // Akademik P.V. Volobuev. Neopublikovannye raboty. Vospominaniia. Stat’i. M.: Nauka, 2000. Pp. 93-132.

Volobuev P.V.: Nauchnye obshchestva I s’ezdy v kontse XIX veka // Akademik P.V. Volobuev. Neopublikovannye raboty. Vospominaniia. Stat’i. M.: Nauka, 2000. Pp. 133-151.

Danilov A., Memetov V.: Intelligentsiia provintsii v istorii I kul’ture Rossii. Ivanovo, 1997. Ch. 2.

Krementsov N.: Science in the Russian Empire, 1890-1917 / Stalinist Science. Princeton University Press, 1997. Pp. 13-16.

Shirinyans A., Shirinyans S.: Rossiyskaya intelligentsiia na rubezhe vekov: zametki o politicheskoi kul’ture. M., 1997.

Isaeva R.M.: Is istorii nauchno-tekhnicheskikh obshchestv (na primere Terskogo otdeleniia Russkogo tekhnicheskogo obshchestva // // Rossiiskaia intelligentsia I noosphernaia dinamika. Ivanovo, 2001. Pp. 41-44

Seminar: The First World War and the scientific intelligentsia. The specific features of professional activity in war conditions. Social initiatives. Patriotism and pacifism.

Presentation and analysis of the mandatory texts:

Ivanov A.E.: Rossiiskoe “uchenoe soslovie” v gody “vtoroi otechestvennoi voiny” (ocherk grazhdanskoi psikhologii I patrioticheskoi deyatel’nosti // VIET. 1999. #2. Pp. 108-127. (Reader, pp. 42-51)

Dmitriev A.A.: Mobilizatsiya intellekta: Pervaya mirovaya voina I mezhdunarodnoe nauchnoe soobshchestvo // Intelligentsiia v istorii. Obrazovannyi chelovek v predstavleniyah I sotsial’noi deistvitel’nosti. M.: IVI RAN, 200. Pp.196-135. (Reader, pp. 52-71)

Recommended parallel reading:

Bastrakova M.S.: Akademiia nauk I sozdaniie issledovatel’skikh institutov (Dve zapiski V.I. Vernadskogo) // VIET. 1999. #1.

Topic 3. Scientists in the epoch of the revolution and the civil war (1917-1920) (2 hours)

Lecture – 2 hours.

The revolution of February 1917 and the position of the scientific intelligentsia. Between the ideals of democracy and the fear from radicalism.

The revolution of October 1917, The civil war and the division among intelligentsia.

The idea of preserving the Russian scientific potential as a dominant one in the scientists’ consciousness.

The migration of the capital intelligentsia to the outlying Russian districts. The intellectual growth of the provincial scientific communities. The appearance of the new scientific organizations and universities in the conditions of the civil confrontation.

The scientific intelligentsia’s role in the emergence of the various political regimes and their activity.

The mass emigration of intellectuals from Russia.

Bibliography

Vernadsky V.: Dnevniki. 1917-1921. Kiev: Naukova dumka, 1994.

Alexeev P.: Revolutsiia I nauchnaya intelligentsiia. M., 1987.

Belyavsky I.G.: Fevral’skaia revolutsiia 1917 goda I rossiiskie uchenye // Izvestiia vuzov Severo-Kavkazskogo regiona. Obshchestvennye nauki. 1995. #2. Pp. 47-51. (Reader, pp. 72-76)

Borisov V.P.: Nauchnoe zarubezh’e Rossii: istoki I formirovanie // VIET. 1993. #3. Pp. 27-34.

Esakov V.D.: Ot imperatorskoi k rossiiskoy: Akademiia nauk v 1917 godu // Otechestvennaya istoriya. 1994. #6. Pp. 120-132.

Eremeeva A.: Stolichnaya intelligentsiia v sotsiokul’turnom prostranstve Yuga Rossii revolutsionnyh let (1917 – pervaia polovina 1920 h gg.) // Intelligentsiia Rossii v istorii Severnogo Kavkaza. Stavropol’, 2000. Pp. 94-103.

Intelligentsia I revolutsiia. XX vek. M., 1985.

Ivanova L.V.: Formirovanie sovetskoi nauchnoi intelligentsii (1917-1927). M., 1980.

Soskin V.L.: Sibir’. Revolutsiia. Nauka. Novosibirsk, 1988.

Topic 4. The 1920s and 1930s: The Scientific Intelligentsia and the Soviet Authority (6 hours)

Lecture – 2 hours, Seminars – 4 hours

Lecture: The 1920s: Hopes and Temptations

The Bolshevik party’s policy in the field of sciences. The reconstruction of the system of scientific organizations in the capital and in the provinces. The Academy of Sciences: combining professionalism and politics.

Proclaiming the new “universal science” of Marxism-Leninism and other sciences as a tool in building communism. Humanitarians: between science and politics. The evolution of the principles of scientific activity. Repression against humanitarians. “Philosophical ship”.

The new conditions in the work and welfare of scientists. The activity of the Committee for Improving Scientists’ Life Level (TSEKUBU) and its regional branches. The foreign contacts of Soviet scientists in the 1920s.

Patriotism, the hope for the liberalization of the regime as an important argument to the selfless labor of scientists.

The Russian scientific intelligentsia abroad. “Smena Vekh”.

Bibliography

Glavatsky M.E.: Philosophskiy parokhod. God 1922. Istoriographicheskie etiudy. Ekaterinburg: UrGU, 2002.

Eremeeva A.N.: NEP I nauchnaia intelligentsiia Kubani // NEP I stanovlyenie grazhdanskogo obshchestva v Rossii: 1920-e gogy I sovremennost’. Krasnodar, Kuban Gos. Uiversitet, 2001. Pp. 165-168.

Kvakin A.V.: Ideyno-politicheskaia diffenentsiatsiia rossiiskoi intelligentsii v period nepa. 1921-1927. Saratov, 1991. Pp. 83-117.

Kolchinsky E.I.: Dialektika biologii (diskussii I repressii v 20-e – nachale 30 h gg. XX veka) // VIET. 1997. #1. Pp.39-64.

Raev M.: Rossiya za rubezhom. Istoriya kul’tury russkoi emigratsii. M., 1994.

Sobolev V.S.: Akademiia I vlast’(1918-1930) // Vestnik RAN. 1998. Vol.68. #2. Pp. 176-182.

Tolz V.: Russian Academicians and the Revolution: Combining professionalism and Politics. Hound mills, Eng., 1997.