Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: Politics, Media, and War in Putin’s Russia

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In 1987, the Soviet Union was the largest political entity on the planet. Four years later, it had vanished from the map entirely. In this interdisciplinary course, you will learn about the ‘new Russia’ that has emerged in the three decades since this stunning collapse. Drawing on an array of resources in English translation, you will explore the politics, media, and culture of the post-Soviet period: from the lawless years of the “wild 90s” under Boris Yeltsin to the return of totalitarianism under Vladimir Putin and his brutal invasion of Ukraine. In so doing, your study of contemporary Russia will lead us to discuss some of the most pressing questions in global politics today. What is the nature of truth and power in Putin’s dystopian propaganda state? Should the current leadership in Russia be described as a fascist regime or neo-Soviet? And, perhaps most importantly, how did Russia’s democratic experiment ultimately end with the launch of the largest war in Europe since 1945—and what lessons might this failure hold for America and the rest of the world?