The humorist Will Rogers once said, "Russia is a country that no matter what you say about it, it's true. Even if it's a lie, it's true. If it's about Russia."

From the earliest times as a state, Russia has attempted to find its way in a competitive international environment where it faced enormous disadvantages and challenges. Even as it became the largest country in the world, the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union were confronted by rival states that threatened (and felt threatened by) the colossus that stretched from central Europe to the Pacific Ocean. Russia's history is one of radical social experiments, rise of a Great Power, and descent into defeat. This is the country that became the model for a kind of state socialism, the major power to defeat Nazi Germany, and one of the great antagonists of the Cold war.

This course explores the extraordinary history of the Russian Empire, later the Soviet Union, and now Russia and fourteen other states, among them Ukraine, the "stans" of Central Asia, Armenia, Georgia, and the Baltic republics. The course is interdisciplinary; the story is told from different perspectives, through the lenses of a number of invited lecturers from various departments and schools. Ron Suny of history and political science will direct the course and give the bulk of the lectures. Guest lecturers will add to the course from their various fields of expertise. Discussions, films, and readings will contribute to the understanding of a much misunderstood part of the world.

Come and find out what's true and what's false about the country that Winston Churchill called "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."