Maryland has much to offer for students at all levels interested in Russian and Eurasian history. Faculty strengths in modern Russian and Soviet political and cultural history are complemented by the History Department's related program in Central and East European history. Maryland greatly benefits from the presence in College Park of a top Russian studies journal,Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History . The Washington area is an excellent location for the study of Russia and the Newly Independent States. Students take advantage of the area's unparalleled library and archival resources, and faculty and students alike are regularly seen at other area institutions, from the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies to the active Washington-area Russian History workshop.
Maryland's Department of History offers a concentration in Russian and East European history and a full range of Russian history courses, including Russian Civilization (HIST 237), Early Russia (HIST 424), Imperial Russia (HIST 425), Revolutionary Russia (HIST 344), and Twentieth-Century Russia (HIST 442).
Students are encouraged for comparative purposes to take courses in West European, Central European, and East European History.
In recent years, capstone seminars (HIST 408) have been offered on such topics as "Mythologies of the City: Petersburg and Moscow in Russian Culture" and "Intellectuals, Communism, and Fascism."
Students have the opportunity to study history and language in the Russian Federation for a summer, a semester or a full academic year. Maryland students have often chosen programs in St. Petersburg or Moscow.
Others have received academic credit by serving in an internship in the Russian field in Washington's rich array of institutions and cultural organizations.
Undergraduate Program Homepage
Undergraduate Course Catalog | Current Course Offerings [Testudo]
Graduate students in Russian and Eurasian history at Maryland are carefully mentored and form a lively and close-knit community. A number of them have worked as editorial assistants at Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History , where they have gained invaluable experience and contacts.
We currently consider applications from prospective graduate students interested in working on the nineteenth or twentieth centuries.
Graduate readings courses (generally under the rubric of HIST 759, Readings in Russian and Soviet History) are revised and updated each year, changing their thematic and temporal focus. Recent incarnations include "Topics in the Historiography of the Russian Revolution", "New Approaches and New Sources in Late Imperial Russian and Early Soviet History," "Imperial Russia: Politics, Culture and Society in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," "Soviet Communism and Its Transformations," and "Russia and the West."
Russian history graduate students have been successful in recent years in winning departmental, university, and prestigious national fellowships and prizes.
Graduate Course Catalog | Current Course Offerings [Testudo]
Maryland offers an undergraduate major,Central European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (CERES), which encourages students to study the region with a high level of language study and the multiple perspectives of history, literature, politics, economics, and other disciplines. Students may double-major in History and CERES.
CERES sponsors a range of the university's cultural events, concerts, lectures, and academic conferences relating to Russia and Eurasia.
Russian-related activities at Maryland are given a boost by strong language programs in the Department of Asian and East European Languages and Cultures. Students often take part in the University Russian Club and the St. Mary's Language House located just opposite Jiménez Hall.
Maryland's Department of Government and Politics is the home of the Center for the Study of Post-Communist Societies.
The Iris Center, based at Maryland's Department of Economics, works on economic analysis, legal reform, civil society, and other issues of great concern to Russia, Eastern Europe, and the countries of the former Soviet Union.
Since its founding in 2000, Kritika , a quarterly journal based at the University of Maryland, has rapidly become one of the most avidly read and innovative journals in the field. It is at the forefront of new debates and discussions that influence new directions in Russian and Eurasian history in the United States and internationally. Many Maryland graduate students have worked as editorial assistants for the journal, where they come into contact with leading scholars around the world, and students in Russian history and other fields have attended Kritika workshops and conferences.
Electronic version, Project MUSE
Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (Washington, DC)
U.S. National Archives (College Park, MD)
Library of Congress European Reading Room, Center for LC's Russian and Eurasian resources
The Center for Advanced Holoacust Studies, United States Memorial Holocaust Museum (Washington, DC) sponsors research and collects archival material on the Nazi occupation of the Soviet Union during WWII and the Holocaust in the Soviet Union.
Last updated: October 6, 2007