THEMES FOR SEMESTRE’S PAPERS ON THE COURSE:

           “THE CURRENT RUSSIAN HISTORY: FROM THE DEATH OF STALIN TILL THE END OF PUTIN”

                          BY PROFESSOR ANDREY ZUBOV (MUNI – 2024 spring)

A student can choose one of the themes and write a paper about 5 pages (size of print – 14, Times
New Roman). He ought to show that he knows a scholar literature on the theme (not less than 5
items). The paper must be written in English.

1/ What was the political and economic situation in Russia before the death of Josef Stalin and why
is it possible to suppose that Stalin was killed by his closest companions?

2/ Why did after the death of Stalin his former companions immediately resolutely change the course
of domestic and foreign politics of the USSR? What examples  can you notice in both home and
foreign politics?

3/ Why did Nikita Khrushchev decide to disclose crimes of the Stalin’s rule on the XX-th Congress
of CPSU though he himself had collaborated in many of these crimes? What were the limits of these
denunciations?

4/ What were  reasons for the revolts in Poland and Hungary in 1956? Why did the revolt in Poland
finish peacefully, and in Hungary not?

5/ What is the political and cultural Thaw in Russia after the death of Stalin and when it was over
and why?

6/ What were the main features of the authoritarian reign of Khrushchev in home and international
politics (1957-1964)?

7/ What were the reasons for the Cuban Missile crises of 1962? Were the chances of a Nuclear war
between NATO and the USSR high in this crisis? What were after-effects of this crises for
Khrushchev politics?

8/ What were the main changes of politics after the  dismissal of Khrushchev in 1964?

9/ What is the “Doctrine of Brezhnev” and how was it connected with the Revolution in
Czechoslovakia of 1968? Was the international activity of the USSR after 1968 really peaceful?

10/ What were the main trends in home politics and in mass conscience in the decades of Brezhnev’s
rule (1964-1982)?

11/ Was the Afghan War (1979-1987) inevitable in the context of the Soviet politics?

12/ What were reasons for the Soviet – Chinese conflict in 1950-70^th, and what were sequences of
this conflict?

13/ Was Perestroyka (Reconstraction, 1985-1991) an objective process in the Soviet politics or a
realization of subjective desires by Mikhail Gorbachev?

14/ What are the main features of the Yeltsin’s period of the Russian history? Were liberalism and
democracy  a real foundation of the Yeltsin’s regime or a pretention only? Your arguments.

15/ Why has the long rule of Putin turned to be a way from plural society to totalitarian system?

16/ What were mistakes of Putin bringing Russia to the full-scale war against Ukraine?

Andrey Zubov