{"id":26790,"date":"2025-05-16T09:41:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T13:41:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/?page_id=26790"},"modified":"2026-04-01T13:53:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:53:22","slug":"hist-3820a-explorations-in-historical-theory-the-russian-revolution","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/hist-3820a-explorations-in-historical-theory-the-russian-revolution\/","title":{"rendered":"HIST 3820A: Explorations in Historical Theory: The Russian Revolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        HIST 3820A: Explorations in Historical Theory: The Russian Revolution\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">HIST 3820A: Explorations in Historical Theory: The Russian Revolution<\/span><br><\/u>Fall 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Instructor: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/cu-people\/erica-l-fraser\/\">Professor Erica Fraser<\/a><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"320\" height=\"320\" src=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/05\/image-3.png\" alt=\"books standing up against a grey background\" class=\"wp-image-26795\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/05\/image-3.png 320w, https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2025\/05\/image-3-200x200.png 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 100vw, 320px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Source: Haymarketbooks.org<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>What caused the Russian Revolution?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That\u2019s easy, you might be thinking. Lenin did, through his actions in convincing his Bolshevik party to seize power in October, 1917, leading to the establishment of a communist government in Russia. But what if you wanted to minimize Lenin and argue that the masses of workers on strike in the cities actually played a decisive role? Or, what if you think none of that would have happened if not for the women marching through the capital city of Petrograd way back in February of that year, demanding food for their families?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Which one of these interpretations is \u201cright\u201d? \u2013 the Great Man theory, the Marxist focus on the working class, the point of view of gender history \u2013 or something else entirely? If you are interested in these kinds of questions, congratulations! You are interested in exploring historical theory: how historians conceive of past events and people, and what theoretical or conceptual influences shape their narrative decisions in writing about what happened, how, and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using the case study of the Russian Revolution, this course will introduce students to some of the main theories of historical study today, including those listed above as well as power and discipline, public and private spheres, postmodernism, postcolonialism, history \u201cfrom below,\u201d queer theory, cultural history, experiential history, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No matter your area of interest and specialization, this course and its case study will help you interpret, recognize, and apply theoretical frameworks to your own writing of history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>* This class fulfills the 0.5 credit theory requirement for History majors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Online class format:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This online class will be conducted asynchronously, which means we will <em>not<\/em> meet at any set time. The course materials will consist of my lecture videos that you can watch any time during the week, supplementary videos or podcasts, weekly readings, and weekly writing exercises designed to keep you on track. I also play an active role in working through the material with you, but you must be prepared to manage your time well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prerequisites:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Students must be History majors and must pass HIST 2809 (The Historian\u2019s Craft) before enrolling in this class. HIST 2600 (History of Russia) is recommended but not required. I understand that HIST 3820 is required for your major, and not all students will be specialists in Russian history. That\u2019s OK. Come prepared to think and learn, and you will be able to succeed even if you have never studied Russian history before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(If you are truly not interested in this case study, you should consider taking a different section of the course in the Winter term).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Assignments<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Weekly reading responses or discussion group posts, weekly quizzes, 2 essays, and a take-home final exam.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Texts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Readings will consist of journal articles available electronically through the library catalogue or other resources available for free online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Questions?<\/strong> Feel free to email me at <a href=\"mailto:erica.fraser@carleton.ca\">erica.fraser@carleton.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HIST 3820A: Explorations in Historical Theory: The Russian RevolutionFall 2025 Instructor: Professor Erica Fraser What caused the Russian Revolution? That\u2019s easy, you might be thinking. Lenin did, through his actions in convincing his Bolshevik party to seize power in October, 1917, leading to the establishment of a communist government in Russia. But what if you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":26792,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cu_dining_location_slug":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_page_type":[303],"class_list":["post-26790","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","cu_page_type-general"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26790"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27508,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26790\/revisions\/27508"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_page_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/history\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_page_type?post=26790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}