Week 1

Weds., August 26: Theories of Empire

Terry Martin, “An Affirmative Action Empire: The Soviet Union as the Highest Form of Imperialism,” A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-Making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin, pp. 67-90

Yuri Slezkine, “The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism”

Here is the map of the 15 republics of the USSR, which we discussed in class on Wednesday. Please study it and get a feel for the geography of the Soviet Union.