German 059

Fall Semester 2020

Professor David Pike

dpike@email.unc.edu

Office hours: By appointment

Moscow 1937: Dictatorships and their Defenders

This course offers a novel approach to the study of recurrent problems of enormous consequence: (1) the origins and emergence of dictatorships that engage in grievous practices of repression and mass murder, (2) in what ways these regimes are understood, and by whom, as they develop and "mature" - philosophically, ideologically, historically; (3) and how such regimes tend often to be enveloped in justifications by "outside observers" that help keep them in existence. The Soviet Union, particularly during the thirties and the blood purges, serves as the axis. However, a main objective is to use this particular "case study" - to branch off into different directions of student inquiry. We will attempt to establish prevalent historical opinion about these phenomena in order to contrast - favorably and unfavorable - contemporary treatments of the Soviet Union during these horrible years of bloodshed.

Aside from regular class attendance* and participation in discussions, each student in the classwill be asked to write two papers in the course of the semester. The first, a 6 page paper, is due shortly after spring break; the final paper, no less than 10 pages, is due at the time of our regularly scheduled final exam, which is CLEARLY set. Please consult this university site and make your own note of when the final exam for this class is scheduled:

http://registrar.unc.edu/academic-calendar/final-examination-schedule-spring/

For your papers, the choice of topic is open - entirely up to each student, though students are encouraged to discuss their choice of topics with me if they have any doubts or reservations about it..

*Course attendance policy: I follow generally university policy. There is no such thing as a, sort of, preexisting excused absence. If you have to miss class, you are required by me to send me, in advance, an email informing me of your absence and its reason. Even then, barring very dramatic circumstances, each absence during the semester beyond THREE results in a lowering of your grade by a half-point. Four absences lower your grade from A to A-, five absences lower it from A- to B+, and so on.

Additionally, each of you is expected to keep his or her own precise record of days and dates missed, and for each day missed, please copy the text of the email you sent me into your own list.

Readings

Marx: The Communist Manifesto