131-083 The Decline & Fall of the Soviet Empire

Credit Points

HECS Band

Coordinator

Prerequisites

Usually 25 points of first year history, see Prerequisites, or first year European studies, Prerequisites.

Semester

Subject Description

This subject considers several important aspects of Soviet history, from the death of Stalin in 1953 to the period of administrative reform and de-Stalinisation under Khrushchev; from the period of stagnation and de-Stalinisation under Brezhnev to the period of Glasnost under Gorbachev; and continuing to the August 1991 Coup and its aftermath. On completion of the subject students should have an understanding and analysis of the growth of the Soviet state and Soviet economy in these years, of the unsuccessful attempts at reform and the reasons for the fall of Soviet Communism in December 1991.