Department of Russian History of the 20th Century

Detailed information

Department Head: Distinguished Professor of Moscow State University Y.S.Kukushkin, Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).

The department incorporates the Laboratory on the History of Interethnic Relations and Interethnic Policy, headed by Associate Professor Dr. A.I.Vdovin.

The main fields of research and specialization for students of the department are as follows:

  • Revolutionary Events in 1917, the Establishment of Soviet Power in Russia, the Formation of the New State and its Economic, Social and Cultural Policies

  • Civil War in Russia

  • Soviet History during the period of New Economic Policy (NEP) in the 1920s

  • The History of the Formation of the USSR: the Emergence of a Union

  • Republics and Autonomous Republics, Interethnic Policy, History of Nationalities

  • The History of the Soviet State and its Institutions, the History of the Communist Party, Trade Unions and Other Popular Organizations

  • The Policy of Industrialization in the USSR, in its Republics and Regions

  • The Policy of Collectivization and its Regional Variations

  • Social Development of Soviet Society (the History of the Working Class, Peasantry and Intelligentsia)

  • State Scientific and Cultural Policy; Intellectual and Cultural Developments

  • Foreign Policy of the USSR: 1917-1941

  • Russian Emigre Communities in the 20th Century

  • History of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945

  • Economic, Political, Social, Cultural and Intellectual Developments in the USSR in the late 1940s and early 1950s

  • Political, Economic and Social Reforms of the Late 1950s and Early 1960s; Developments in Culture

  • Political, Social and Cultural Development of Soviet Society; the Economic Policy of the USSR in the late 1960s - early 1980s

  • Foreign Policy of the USSR, 1945-1985

  • USSR in the Period of "Perestroika": the Reform of the Political System, Changes in the Economy, "New Thinking" in Foreign Policy, Glasnost' and Ideological Changes, Interethnic Relations and Conflicts, the Disintegration of the USSR

  • History of the Russian Federation, 1991-1999: Establishment of the New Russian State System, Institutions of Power and their Interaction (Parties, Movements, Unions, Economic Reforms, Social Policy, Cultural Development); New Regional Policy and the Federation, Interethnic Relations and Conflicts; the Commonwealth of Independent States, the History of Newly Independent States (Former Union Republics), Foreign Policy