The Ethnic and Religious Design of Modern Russia

Ethnic and religious processes in the USSR and subsequently in Russia have been particularly striking since the end of the 1980s. After the demise of the Soviet Union, followed by the crisis in Soviet identity, ethnic and religious factors have become key elements in the emergence of a new system. Various political groups began to take advantage of this situation. At the same time, as the state gradually gained strength, its role in these processes grew. Thus comprehension of peculiarities and features of these trends is crucial to an understanding of today’s Russia. The aims of this course include providing information on major religious and ethnic groups and denominations in today’s Russia, as well as major terms and concepts related to these issues used in publications and colloquial Russian; studying the most pressing problems of ethnic and religious culture, as well as patterns of cross-cultural communication influencing the quality of life in present-day Russia; and examining the influence of various political, fiction and nonfiction texts on multi-ethnic and religious dialogue in Russia. The course will be accompanied by literary texts and documentary movies and will employ interactive methods. Students will be required to participate actively in class discussions and comment on assigned readings, to make an in-class presentation, and to write brief assignments and a final exam or paper.