Soviet Empire: Ukraine, Cultural Imperialism, and the Red Century

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

What was the Soviet Union? How does our understanding of Soviet history and culture change when we look through the lens of Kyiv or Kharkiv rather than Moscow or Leningrad? Why does Vladimir Putin refer to the origins of the Soviet Union in his war of aggression against today’s Ukraine? This course offers students a command of Soviet history and an unconventional exploration of politics and culture full of shock and surprise. It uncovers banned works, recovers lost films, and follows underground movements across Soviet Ukraine. We learn why the Soviet Union arose as a “union” of national republics and why it dissolved into a collection of nation-states. We also chronicle the long struggle and eventual triumph of the Ukrainian Catholic Church against the Kremlin. This urgent interdisciplinary course equips you with knowledge and skills that hold the key to understanding Russia's war on Ukraine, the gravest threat to Europe since World War II.