Russia Since Gorbachev Short Program: June 28 - July 1

Thirty years ago, Mikhail Gorbachev became general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He attempted to revive the moribund communism he had inherited in the hope that it could satisfy the essential needs of the Soviet people. Gorbachev's road to reformed communism came to a dead end, and the Soviet colossus collapsed on Christmas Day 1991. The demise of the old regime, however, did not ensure success for the new Russian Republic. Reborn Russia has continued in transition mode, but the journey has been quite turbulent, and the intended destination unclear.

In this Alumni College, we'll analyze Gorbachev's triad of reforms-greater official transparency (glasnost), economic restructuring (perestroika), and transition to democracy (demokratizatsiia)-and their unintended consequences, the most important of which was the growth of a powerful sense of nationalism among Soviet ethnic minorities, which eventually led to the Soviet collapse. President Boris Yeltsin's introduction of market and democratic reforms in the 1990s privatized the stateowned economy and created political pluralism. What ensued were periods of triple-digit inflation, crony capitalism, and a corrupt quasi-democracy. During this time, Russia launched a bloody war to try to prevent the autonomous republic of Chechnya from gaining its independence. Although that military campaign failed, Russia achieved some measure of stability. However, the nation's mounting national debt and the worldwide economic crisis of 1998 caused Russia to default on its debt, which in turn led to the collapse of the ruble and a major setback to the small, emerging middle class.

When Yeltsin resigned on the last day of 1999, his prime minister, Vladimir Putin, became president, and he has dominated Russian politics ever since. We'll examine how Putin launched a second Chechen War, which has largely pacified that area. We'll also explore how he engineered a resurgence of Russian state power by confiscating major portions of the oil and natural gas industries. At the same time, Putin introduced a new authoritarianism by suppressing opposition political parties. Finally, we'll examine Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and support of an insurgency among Russians in eastern Ukraine. In response, Western nations have imposed sanctions on Russia, which have prompted Putin to boycott the importation of Western goods. Putin's new Russian nationalism is seen as a threat by neighboring countries that have large numbers of ethnic Russians. We'll attempt to figure out where Russia goes from here.

Our faculty will include Richard Bidlack, W&L professor of history; Krzysztof Jasiewicz, W&L professor of sociology and anthropology; Allen Lynch, University of Virginia professor of history; and Isaac Webb '13 from the Carnegie Endowment.

Above: left image © RIA Novosti archive, image #770913 / Yuryi Abramochkin / CC-BY-SA 3.0, right image © www.kremlin.ru