Fall 1999	Dr. Petya Nitzova
Class meets: T R 1:30-2:45P	Dale Hall Tower 413
PHSC 416	Tel: 325-6347
E-mail: pnitzova@ou.edu	Office hours: Wed.12: 15-1:15P and by appointment

 
OVERVIEW

The course surveys the dramatic political history of Eastern Europe during half a century, as it sways from the grip of one form of totalitarianism (fascism) to another (communism). We shall start at the point when Nazism, the greatest challenge to humanity in modern times, rose to what seemed to be unlimited political power in Europe, sweeping Eastern Europe under its total control. We shall then discuss how Soviet ambitions for hegemony after World War II engulfed Eastern Europe into "the Eastern bloc", out of which grew the cold war and the arms race. We shall then study the dissident and reform movements that sprang behind the iron curtain and culminated in Gorbachev's policy of "glasnost" (openness) and "perestroika" (restructuring). The next impending emphasis will be on the revolutions of 1989, when the wind of change swept European communism away and returned Eastern Europe on the road to democracy and capitalism. Finally, we shall learn that this road is uneven and different nations make different political choices when they follow it.

REQUIRED MATERIALS

The following required books are available for purchase at the university bookstore:

• Richard Crampton. Eastern Europe in the Twentieth Century - and After (Routledge, 1997)
• Barbara Jelavich. History of the Balkans: Twentieth Century (Cambridge University Press, 1983)
• Michael Roskin. The Rebirth of East Europe (Prentice Hall, 1997)
• Gale Stokes. From Stalinism to Pluralism: A Documentary History of Eastern Europe Since 1945 (Oxford University Press, 1996)

• George Orwell. Nineteen eighty-four.

COURSE FORMAT AND REQUIREMENTS

Class meetings will be conducted in a lecture-discussion format with emphasis on discussion when appropriate to the topic and readings for that session. The readings for every meeting should therefore be read before class. All members of the class are expected to participate in class discussions, and from time to time, members of the class will be asked to assist with discussions, either individually or in small groups. You are required to ATTEND class, frequent absences nearly always result in poor performance in the course.

The three EXAMS will be closed-book and based on the required readings and the lecture material. The last exam will cover only the subject matter of the last third of the course. Every member of the class is expected to take the same exam at the same time as everyone else. In the interest of fairness, make-up exams will be given ONLY in case of a verified serious illness or the verified death of a spouse, parent, or sibling.

Your PAPER will be a think-piece of approximately six to eight pages based on critical assessment of totalitarianism, mostly as portrayed in George Orwell’s masterpiece. Refer to Essay Assignment Guidelines. Your paper is due in class on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1:30p.m. Any delays after the due time will result in reducing your grade with half a letter grade per day of delay.

The weight of each of these components in the final grade will be as follows:

first exam 20%

second exam 20%

third exam 20%

essay 20%

participation 20%

The participation grade is based on a combination of regular attendance, a short presentation (refer to Eastern Europe in Art and Culture: Topics for Presentation), and informed participation in class discussion. Final letter grades will be assigned according to a standard ten-point scale (A = 90 to 100; B = 80 to 89, etc.)

To be eligible for course credit, all three of the exams must be taken and the essay assignment completed and turned in. Failure to take any of the examinations or to turn in the essay assignment will result in failing the course. INCOMPLETES will be given only upon request and for good cause. Incompletes will not be given if the student has missed so much of the course that it is in the practical sense impossible to make up the work. If an incomplete is given, the student will be asked to sign an agreement specifying the work to be completed and the date the work will be due.

Any student in this course who has a disability that may prevent him or her from fully demonstrating his or her potential should contact me personally as soon as possible so that we can discuss accommodations necessary to ensure full participation and facilitate your educational opportunity. University rules against plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct will be honored and enforced (See the OU Student Code). The general rules about plagiarism refer also to material found on the internet.

LECTURE TOPICS AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
 
 

MAP

FILM: "Berlin-Prague-Budapest" ("Travels in Europe")

"Romania’s Castles"

MYTH: Dracula

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Roskin: "East Europe as a Unit of Study," and "Caught between Empires" (Introduction, chapter 1, pp. 1-25)

from Stokes: "The Tragedy of Central Europe" (pp. 217-223)
 
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Jelavich: "The rise of Soviet and German Influence," pp. 192-199.

from Crampton: "Ideological Currents in the Inter-War Period" (chapter 11, pp. 152-176)

FILM: "Mein Kampf"
 
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Crampton: "The Second World War in Eastern Europe" (chapter 12, pp. 179-209)

from Jelavich: "The Balkan States in World War II" (chapter 7, pp. 247-276, 298-300)

FILM: "Stalingrad" ("The World at War")
 
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Roskin: "East Europe and World War II" (pp. 59-64)

from Stokes: "Yalta" and "Spheres of Influence" (pp. 12-32)

FILM: "Beyond Hitler’s Grasp"

FIRST EXAM – Sept. 21

PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSION
 
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Roskin: "The Communist Takeovers" (chapter 4, pp. 66-79)

from Crampton: "The Communist Takeovers" (chapter 13, pp.211-239) , "The Purges of the Late 1940s and early 1950s" (pp. 261-274)

from Yelavich: "The Establishment of the Communist Regimes" (pp. 287-298)

from Stokes: "The Purge Trials" (pp. 66-77)

FILM: "Joseph Stalin: Red Terror" ("Biography")
 
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Roskin: "The Start of the Cold War" (pp. 79-83)

from Yelavich: "The Cold War" (pp. 333-335)

FILM: "The Berlin Wall"
 
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Jelavich: "The Communist Governments, 1950-1980" (chapter 9, pp. 336-364),

"The Yugoslav Developments," "Repercussions in the Soviet Bloc," "Albania Changes Direction," (pp. 314-333), "Albania," and "The Yugoslav Variant" (pp. 378-405)

from Crampton: "The Communist System" (chapter 14, pp. 240-254)

from Stokes: "The New Class" (pp. 101-106), "The Expulsion of Yugoslavia" (pp. 57-65)
 
 

SECOND EXAM – Oct. 19

PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSION
 
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Roskin: "The Rumblings of Freedom" (pp. 96-103)

from Crampton: "The Retreat from Stalinism, 1953-6" (chapter 16, pp. 283-303)

From Stokes: "Reform Communism" (pp. 82-87)

FILM: "Sweepers of Squares" ("The Struggles for Poland")
 
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Crampton: "Czechoslovakia, 1968-9" (chapter 18, pp. 326-341).

from Stokes: "The Prague Spring," and "The Brezhnev Doctrine" (pp. 122-134).

FILM: "We don’t want to live on our knees"
 
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Yelavich: "Romania" (pp. 370-378)

from Stokes: "The Helsinki Accords," "Charter 77," and "The Power of the Powerless" (pp. 160-174)

"Ketman" (pp. 51-56)

FILM: "Ceausescu: Eastern Europe’s Last Dictator"

"Vaclav Havel"
 
 

Paper due in class on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1:30 p.m.

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Crampton: "The Solidarity Crisis, Poland 1980-1" (chapter 20, pp. 367-376)

from Stokes: "Pope John Paul II Speaks in Victory Square" (pp. 200-203), and "Gorbachev’s Legacy" (pp. 289-291)

FILM: "Gorbachev and Glasnost"
 
 

Happy Thanksgiving!

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Roskin: "1989: The Gorbachev Factor" (chapter 7, pp. 126-147).

from Crampton: "The Revolutions of 1989-91" (chapter 22, pp. 391-415)

FILM: "The Fall of Communism"
 

READING ASSIGNMENT:

from Roskin: "The Struggle for Democracy," and "The Horrors of Yugoslavia" (chapters 8 and 9, pp. 148-187)

FILM: "Yugoslavia: The Death of a Nation", parts 1 and 2
 
 

PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSION

THIRD EXAM – Dec. 15, 1:30 p.m.