Russian Culture: From Peter The Great to Putin

Taught by Vladimir Golstein and Maria Taroutina. An interdisciplinary exploration of Russian cultural history through its literature, art, religion, political thought, and film. This course seeks to encourage thinking in more integrative and interdisciplinary ways about history, arts, and society. We examine a wide range of cultural expressions: visual arts, religion, civic rituals and practices, social customs and popular entertainment. Topics include: conceptions of Russian nationhood; visual arts in the service of Russian Empire, the myths of St. Petersburg and Moscow; the interaction among elites, intelligentsia, and the common people (narod); conflicting appeals of rationality, spirituality, and nihilism. All of these themes and forms will be treated as interrelated, as connected to social and political life, and as part of a larger European culture.