1. Demonstrate an understanding of the security concerns associated with the Russian state from the early modern to the contemporary period

2. Review security issues from multiple perspectives and with varying priorities or values

3. Approach and explain complexities in the history of Russian security with an appreciation for their wider context

4. Communicate complex ideas clearly and succinctly in writing and verbally

Topic Report (30%, 2,000 words) Learning Outcomes Knowledge & Understanding, Analysis, Communication This essay will give students an opportunity to analyse an episode in Russia’s history of security from a world-historical perspective. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the episode in its context.



Interview (30%) Learning Outcomes Knowledge & Understanding, Communication Students will engage in a short interview with the module leader, with another member of staff present to ensure good academic practice and equity. Students will be interviewed on a case study in the module, giving them the chance to demonstrate their ability to acquire knowledge and deploy it appropriately and strategically in a spontaneous manner.



Essay (40%, 2,000 words) Learning Outcomes: Knowledge & Understanding, Reflection, Analysis, Communication

Students will respond to one of a number of standard essay questions, giving them the chance to put all the module’s various skills and areas of knowledge into practice. This is the final holistic assessment.



Key Information Set Data:

Coursework 70%, Examination (Interview) 30%

This module offers students a long-term historical perspective on the security threats posed in Russian lands, from their period as an empire through the Soviet era and up to the present day, and reviews patterns and (dis)continuities in the responses of the Russian state. Key topics include the invasion of the Eurasian nomads, intelligence operations during the Cold War, and nationalist-separatist movements still operating today.

How does the world appear from the Russian Kremlin? This module offers you a long-term historical perspective on the security threats posed in Russian lands, from their period as an empire through the Soviet era and up to the present day, and reviews patterns and (dis)continuities in the responses of the Russian state. Key topics include the invasion of the Eurasian nomads, intelligence operations during the Cold War, and nationalist-separatist movements still operating today.

Lectures will be arranged in rough chronological order of topic, and seminars will focus on group discussion and collaboration. Students will be encouraged to delve deep into the historiography and contemporary scholarship on Russian security, and at all times to relate to and empathise with Russian policy-makers. Students should become conversant in key debates within the discipline and able to speak through them with confidence and clarity. Independent study hours will require reading and reflection as well as preparing for seminar discussion and assessments.

Iraj Bashiri, The History of the Civil War in Tajikistan (Academic Studies Press, 2020)



John Connelly, From Peoples Into Nations: A History of Eastern Europe (Princeton UP, 2020)



Jeremy Friedman, Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World (UNC Press, 2015)



S. Keller, Russia and Central Asia: Coexistence, Conquest, Convergence (university of Toronto Press, 2019)



R. G. Suny, The Soviet Experiment Second Edition, (Oxford University Press, 2011)

Library and Blackboard access. Teaching space with digital projection.