79-389 Stalin and Stalinism

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

Joseph Stalin has been vilified and praised, damned and worshipped. He left behind a mixed and complex legacy. He created an industrialized modern economy in the Soviet Union and won a great and painful victory over the Nazis. At the same time, he built a police state, sent millions to labor camps, and destroyed the possibilities for socialist democracy. When he died, thousands of Soviet citizens wept at his funeral. This course will combine elements of biography and social history to examine Stalin, the man, and Stalinism, the phenomenon. Using history and film, we will explore one of the most complicated and influential dictatorships of the 20th century.

Prerequisites: none listed

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