Russian Communities in Europe

Study Course Description

Course Description Statuss:Approved

Course Description Version:7.00

Study Course Accepted:02.02.2024 12:31:03

Study Course Information
Course Code:		PZK_168		LQF level:		Level 7
Credit Points:		2.00		ECTS:		3.00
Branch of Science:		Politics		Target Audience:		Political Science
Study Course Supervisor
Course Supervisor:		Andrey Makarychev
Study Course Implementer
Structural Unit:		Faculty of Social Sciences
The Head of Structural Unit:
Contacts:		Dzirciema street 16, Rīga, szfrsu[pnkts]lv
Study Course Planning
Full-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)		6	Lecture Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Lectures		12
Classes (count)		4	Class Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Classes		8
Total Contact Hours								20
Part-Time - Semester No.1
Lectures (count)		4	Lecture Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Lectures		8
Classes (count)		2	Class Length (academic hours)		2	Total Contact Hours of Classes		4
Total Contact Hours								12
Study course description
Preliminary Knowledge:
Overall knowledge of the methods and theories in the field of International Relations, as well as general knowledge of the basics of political science.
Objective:
To provide knowledge on the crucial ideas related to Russian minorities in European countries; to contribute to the analytical skillset of the students by examining specific policies and case studies related to Russian diaspora and émigré community.
Topic Layout (Full-Time)
No.	Topic			Type of Implementation		Number	Venue
1	Introductory Lesson: Structure of the Course, Vocabulary, and Main Concepts			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
2	Three Facets of Russian Diaspora Studies: Geo-, Ethno- and Biopolitics			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
3	Compatriot Policies and Russian Foreign Policy: Main Documents and Approaches			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
4	The Russian World Doctrine as a Cultural and Political Construct			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
5	The Russian World and the Orthodox Diplomacy			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
6	The Russophone Community in Estonia: from the Bronze Soldier Incident to the Narva-2024 Project			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
7	Russian German in Kremlin’s Strategy: the Case of the Refugee Crisis			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
8	Russian Diaspora in France: the Case of the Russian Orthodox Church in Nice			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
9	‘Russian World’ and the Conflict in Ukraine (Crimea and Donbas)			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
10	Russians in Finland: Everday Life			Lectures		1.00	auditorium
11	Teamwork Presentations			Classes		3.00	auditorium
12	Summary of Findings, Lessons Learned, Conclusions Drawn			Classes		1.00	auditorium
Topic Layout (Part-Time)
No.	Topic			Type of Implementation		Number	Venue
1	Introductory Lesson: Structure of the Course, Vocabulary, and Main Concepts			Lectures		0.25	auditorium
2	Three Facets of Russian Diaspora Studies: Geo-, Ethno- and Biopolitics			Lectures		0.25	auditorium
3	Compatriot Policies and Russian Foreign Policy: Main Documents and Approaches			Lectures		0.25	auditorium
4	The Russian World Doctrine as a Cultural and Political Construct			Lectures		0.25	auditorium
5	The Russian World and the Orthodox Diplomacy			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
6	The Russophone Community in Estonia: from the Bronze Soldier Incident to the Narva-2024 Project			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
7	Russian German in Kremlin’s Strategy: the Case of the Refugee Crisis			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
8	Russian Diaspora in France: the Case of the Russian Orthodox Church in Nice			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
9	‘Russian World’ and the Conflict in Ukraine (Crimea and Donbas)			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
10	Russians in Finland: Everday Life			Lectures		0.50	auditorium
11	Teamwork Presentations			Classes		1.00	auditorium
12	Summary of Findings, Lessons Learned, Conclusions Drawn			Classes		1.00	auditorium
Assessment
Unaided Work:
The knowledge acquired in the course is tested during group work, discussions on selected texts and topics. Skills are acquired and evaluated by creating an essay on course topics, submitting essays to e-studies. Students independently read the proposed literature and work in groups to prepare presentations of group work and to be able to answer questions and participate in discussions.
Assessment Criteria:
Attendance –10% Group work presentation – 45% Final essay – 45% (1000 words maximum, single spaced, Times New Roman 12 or equivalent)
Final Examination (Full-Time):		Exam (Written)
Final Examination (Part-Time):		Exam (Written)
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge:		Students will study and describe the formation of Russian communities in Europe from a historical perspective and today. Students will analyze and compare the most important Russian communities in Europe, paying attention also to their relations with the Russian state and the influence of the Russian state on their internal dynamics and influence on the socio-political processes of the host country.
Skills:		Students will independently analyze different types of sources about the development of Russian communities in Europe, critically selecting information, presenting their conclusions and answering questions in debates with lecturers and other students. Students will explain the role of Russian communities on the politics of European countries in an argumentative and in-depth way, as well as model the development of this role in perspective.
Competencies:		Students will develop papers based on interdisciplinary scientific literature, analyzing Russian domestic policy issues in a historical and regional context. Students will appreciate the interdisciplinary nature of complex problems and combine research results and methods from different fields in analyzing Russian communities in Europe.
Bibliography
No.	Reference
Required Reading
1	Visa literatūra ir angļu valodā un piemērota gan latviešu, gan angļu plūsmas studentiem
2	Berg, Eiki (2002) Local Resistance, National Identity and Global Swings in Post- Soviet Estonia, Europe-Asia Studies, 54:1, 109-122
3	Engström, Maria (2014) Contemporary Russian Messianism and New Russian Foreign Policy, Contemporary Security Policy, 35:3, 356-379
4	Fedor, Julie (2018) Spinning Russia’s 21st Century Wars, The RUSI Journal, 163:6, 18-27
5	Fein, Lisa and Jeremy B. Straughn (2014) How citizenship matters: narratives of stateless and citizenship choice in Estonia, Citizenship Studies, 18:6-7, 690-706
6	Gaufman, Elizaveta, Putin’s Pastorate: Post-structuralism in post-Soviet Russia, Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 2017, Vol. 42(2) 74-90
7	Gerrits, Andre and Max Bader (2016) Russian patronage over Abkhazia and South Ossetia: implications for conflict resolution, East European Politics, 32:3, 297-313
8	Hale, Henry, Oxana Shevel & Olga Onuch (2018) Believing Facts in the Fog of War: Identity, Media and Hot Cognition in Ukraine’s 2014 Odesa Tragedy, Geopolitics, 23:4, 851-881
9	Harris, Kira (2018): Russia's Fifth Column: The Influence of the Night Wolves Motorcycle Club, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 2020, 43 (4), p.259-273. DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2018.1455373
10	Hopf, Ted. ‘Crimea Is Ours’: a Discursive History, International Relations 2016, Vol. 30 (2) 227–255
11	Hosaka, Sanshiro. Welcome to Surkov’s Theater: Russian Political Technology in the Donbas War, Nationalities Papers (2019), 47: 5, 750–773
12	Jašina-Schäfer, Alina and Ammon Cheskin (2020) Horizontal citizenship in Estonia: Russian speakers in the borderland city of Narva, Citizenship Studies, 24:1, 93-110
13	Juurvee, Ivo; Mattiisen, Mariita. The Bronze Soldier Crisis of 2007: Revisiting an Early Case of Hybrid Conflict. Tallinn: International Center for Defense and Security, August 2020.
14	Kaiser, Robert. Reassembling the event: Estonia’s ‘Bronze Night’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 2012, volume 30, pages 1046 – 1063
15	Kattago, Siobhan. War Memorials and the Politics of Memory: the Soviet War Memorial in Tallinn, Constellations Volume 16, No 1, 2009.
16	Kolsto, Pal (2019) Is Imperial Nationalism an Oxymoron? Nations and Nationalism 25 (1), 18-44.
17	Koplatadze, Tamar (2019) Theorising Russian postcolonial studies, Postcolonial Studies, 22:4, 469-489
18	Laruelle, Marlene. Back from Utopia: How Donbas Fighters Reinvent Themselves in a Post-Novorossiya Russia, Nationalities Papers, nr 47, 2019: 719-733.
19	Laruelle, Marlene. The Izborsky Club, or the New Conservative Avant-Garde in Russia, The Russian Review 75 (October 2016): 626–44
20	Linde, Fabian. The Civilizational Turn in Russian Political Discourse: From Pan-Europeanism to Civilizational Distinctiveness, The Russian Review 75 (October 2016): 604–25
21	Makarychev, Andrey & Alexandra Yatsyk (2018) Illiberal geographies: popular geopolitics and Russian biopolitical regionalism, Eurasian Geography and Economics, 59:1, 51-72
22	Makarychev, Andrey and Alexandra Yatsyk (2018) Russian Worlds in Muslim Milieus: Meeting Points in Adjara and Tatarstan, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 38:4, 453-474
23	Makarychev, Andrey & Alexandra Yatsyk (2019): Europe's frontline of information wars: Russophone communities in Estonia and Germany, National Identities
24	Pigman, Lincoln (2019) Russia’s Compatriots: Instrument or Responsibility?,The RUSI Journal, 164:2, 24-35
25	Pieper, Moritz (2018): RusskiyMir: The Geopolitics of Russian Compatriots Abroad, Geopolitics. 2020, 25 (3), 756-779. DOI: 10.1080/14650045.2018.1465047
26	Pridham, Geoffrey (2018) Latgale and Latvia’s post-Soviet democracy: the territorial dimension of regime consolidation, East European Politics, 34:2, 194-216
27	Sjöstedt, Roxanna (2018) Beyond Compliance: Recognition, Solidarity and Minority Rights in Post-Accession Estonia, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 24:2, 158-180
28	Smith, David (2019) The “Quadratic Nexus” Revisited: Nation-Building in Estonia Through the Prism of National Cultural Autonomy, Nationalities Papers, 1–16
29	Tabachnik, Maxim (2018): Defining the nation in Russia’s buffer zone: the politics of citizenship by birth on territory (jus soli) in Moldova, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, Post-Soviet Affairs
30	Vetik, Raivo (2019) National Identity as Interethnic (De)mobilization: A Relational Approach, Ethnopolitics, 18:4, 406-422
31	Yudina, Natalia and Alexander Verkhovsky (2019) Russian Nationalist Veterans of the Donbas War, Nationalities Papers, 47: 5, 734–749
Additional Reading
1	NOTE: For additional reading and assessment, the course instructor will provide the students with Chapters from her upcoming book "Xi’s China and Putin’s Russia: Negotiating a Multifaceted Relationship", World Scientific.