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Description: |
We begin this course with an examination of Kievan Rus, which many different societies, including Russian, Ukrainian and Polish have viewed as their point of origin. We then discuss the period of Mongol rule in Russia (1200s and 1300s), the rise of the city of Moscow to a dominant position among the Russian principalities, and Muscovite society, politics, and economics in the 1500s and 1600s. We will examine the origins of Russian serfdom and Russian autocracy and Muscovite relations with other societies, including England, Poland and the Ottoman Empire. Other themes will include the role of witches in Muscovite society, everyday peasant life, and gender dynamics. About one half of class time will be lecture and most of the rest will be discussion of primary sources. |