Geog 433                                                                                    Autumn 2013

            Resource Use and Management in Russia and the Former Soviet Republics

Instructor: Craig ZumBrunnen                                                                                    5 credits

Time: Tu & Th  1:30 - 3:20 PM                                                       Classroom: Rm 405 Smith Hall

Office: 412E Smith Hall                                 Tu 12:30-1:20 and F 11:30 -12:15 or by appointment

Phone: 206-543-4915                                                               e-mail: craigzb@u.washington.edu

 

Class website access

URL:  https://catalysttools.uw.edu/workspace/craigzb/40017

Login: Your UW NET id

PW: Student id #

 

"Resource Use and Management in Russia and the Former Soviet Republics" is focused on

the geographic and historical background of the natural resources of Russia and the former

Soviet Republics and the management and utilization of these resources.  Geographic and

historical perspectives on Soviet natural resource use and management are explored both

in theory and practice. This class examines both the historical and the contemporary

political, economic, environmental, demographic, rural, urban, and cultural transformations

that continue to impact Russia and the former Soviet Union.  While the course necessarily

addresses the historical context of Russia's resource base, the emphasis is on the Soviet

and post-Soviet eras.  Accordingly, a major theme of this class is to reveal and examine

the implications of the breakup of the USSR upon natural resource use and management. 

Several key geographic concepts will be used to anchor the analysis of the Soviet Union's

dissolution and Russia's recent and on-going reconstruction. Some of the themes covered

by the course include: the natural environment; imperial, colonial and Soviet legacies; the

construction of political boundaries; the relation of territory to ethnic identity and nation-

states; nationalism, regionalism, and federalism; center-periphery relations in pre-Communist,

Communist, and post-Communist Russia; the natural environment as constraint and impetus

for human action; the significance of 'the frontier' and 'the North'; the importance of scale

to the processes of political and economic reform; the structure, pace and scope of privatization;

marketization and redistribution; political, cultural, structural, geographic, and economic

dimensions of transformation; patterns of continuity and change in both the cities and in the

countryside; questions of foreign assistance; and speculations about the future of the

transformation processes.  For non-geography majors, this course should offer some fresh

interpretations of historical and current events in the former USSR.  For majors, the course

should further develop their ability to think critically about geographical processes within the

context of Eurasian Russia and the NIS.

 

Grading is based on midterm (50%), final exam (50%).

 

Required texts:

Anders Aslund, Russia's Capitalist Revolution: Why Market Reform Succeeded and

        Democracy Failed.  Washington, DC: Peterson Institute for International Economics, 2007. [hereafter, RCR].

 

Mikhail S. Blinnikov, A Geography of Russia and Its Neighbors. New York: The Guilford Press, 2011.  [hereafter, GR].

 

Grigory Ioffe, Tatyana Nefedova, & Ilya Zaslavsky, The End of Peasantry? The Disintegration of Rural Russia. 

      Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006. [hereafter, EP].

 

Elana Wilson Rowe, Russia and the North.   Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 2009 [hereafter, RN]

 

Some supplemental readings may also be assigned.

 

Tentative Lecture Topics and Reading Assignments:

 

Date:                                       Topics:                                               Readings:

Sept. 26           Introduction to Russia and Post-Soviet Scene,            GR 1-50

 

Oct. 1              The Natural Environment       

Oct. 3              Territory and Imperial Heritage                       GR 67-78, EP 1-19

 

Oct. 8              The Soviet Legacy                                                      GR 79-95            

Oct. 10            Emerging Federation                               RCR start reading

 

Oct. 15            RussiaÕs Autonomous Territories                                          

Oct. 17            The Soviet Economy System and Development Model            

 

Oct. 22            Models of Soviet Industrial Development                              

                        The Regions of Russia                                    GR 339-433

Oct. 24            Econ Development history and problems        EP all assigned

 

Oct. 29            Transition economics, finish reading RCR

Oct. 31            Transition economic issues concluded (midterm handed out)                                         

 

Nov. 5             The Nagging Land Questions (Election Day – Vote!)

Nov. 7            Soviet Iron & Steel Industry Midterm due

 

Nov. 12           Population Geography and Dynamics

Nov. 14           Problems of Natural Resource Management in the     GR 51-64

Soviet & Post-Soviet Eras

 

Nov. 19           Water and Air Pollution Issues

Nov. 21           Russia and the North                                                   RN 1-106

 

Nov. 26           Energy Resources                                                       RN 107-209

Nov. 28           Thanksgiving Holiday – no class

 

Dec. 3              Russia and the 'Near Abroad'                                      GR review 339-439  

                        Post-Soviet Economics and Economies                       RCR review all

 

Dec. 5              Dilemmas of Transition, Russia & the Wider World             

                        (Final exam questions handed out)

----                              

Dec. 13            Final Exam scheduled for 2:30-4:20 PM (will discuss and VERY likely will

                        change final due date when we first meet for class).