NOWAK Andrzej - Russian Ideologies: The Last Two Centuries (from Pushkin and Karamzin to Dugin and Putin) (20h)

One cannot understand contemporary phenomenon of the Russian Federation expansionist policy nor Vladimir Putin’s regime authoritarian tendencies without learning the basics of their ideological foundations. The goal of the course is to provide a platform to discuss these foundations and their developments through the last two centuries.

The course is based on discussion of literary and historical texts and films (Soviet and Russian movies).

The main problems presented: 

1. Holy Russia, the Third Rome and the West: “old Russian” ideological narratives (2 hours)

2. Alexander Pushkin and Nicholas Karamzin – the first „classics” of Russian imperialism (2 hours)

3. Mikhail Bakunin and Alexander Herzen – between “Russian socialism” and liberalism (2 hours)

4. Slavofilism, Panslavism, and Dostoevsky: early versions of the “Clash of Civilisations” (2 hours)

5. Russian Communism: from Lenin to Stalin – a short course (2 hours + 2 hours S. Eisenstein’s classical propaganda movies and discussion)

6. Eurasianism – original and reborn: from Nicholas Trubetzkoy to Alexander Dugin (2 hours)

7. Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the failure of Russian pro-Western orientation (2 hours)

8. Vladimir Putin and his imperial synthesis (2 hours + 2 hours contemporary Russian movies and their ideological content discussion) // ECTS Card

Professor: Andrzej NOWAK