Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, 1917 to the Present
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this history and political science course tracing the Soviet state from the 1917 Revolution to present-day Russia. It covers the Bolshevik seizure of power, the causes and character of the Stalin revolution, attempts at reform under Khrushchev and later leaders, and the political and economic pressures that led to the Soviet collapse in 1991. The final unit connects that history to current developments inside Russia. Materials include a full syllabus, weekly readings drawn from primary sources and scholarly accounts, and assignments used in the original MIT course, all free to access through OCW. There is no fee to study the material, though no certificate is offered. The course suits anyone wanting a structured, chronological grounding in twentieth-century Russian and Soviet political history rather than a general survey.