
Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
This certificate program offers students the opportunity to take advantage of the significant multidisciplinary resources in the Five Colleges on Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia.
The Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies (REEES) Certificate Program works to offer students an opportunity to draw on rich resources of the faculty members at the Five Colleges and to coordinate curricula across the five campuses. The program also sponsors special events of interest to students and faculty members working in the field.
Summer field in Ukraine. Photo: Olga Subach.
Joint Statement by REEES Faculty
on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The faculty of the Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian (REEES) Programs of the Five College Consortium on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine issue the following joint statement:
The Five Colleges have long been a home for students, artists, and scholars who are from and who study Russia, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. We have welcomed everyone from young, inquisitive minds wishing to know more about these regions to dissidents and exiles who were fated to never return to them. Our community has always sought to apply its knowledge, curiosity, and love for the cultures and peoples of these spaces such that the world might become a better place–a better home–for all.
The invasion of the sovereign nation Ukraine by the Russian Federation represents the antithesis of these values. We are outraged by the violence that Vladimir Putin has inflicted upon the Ukrainian people. We unequivocally condemn his act of war, and categorically reject the malicious distortions of history by which he seeks to justify it. We stand strong with all of those who resist it—from those in Ukraine who fight for their freedom, to the Russian citizens who risk losing theirs by engaging in anti-war protest. Our thoughts remain with the people and democratically elected leaders of Ukraine, and with everyone in the Pioneer Valley who stands to lose friends and family in this senseless conflict. No to war! Ні війні! Нет войне!
On This Page
Faculty
Catherine Ciepiela (Russian)
Sergey Glebov* (History)
Michael Kunichika (Russian)
Boris Wolfson* (Russian)
*Certificate Advisor
Polina Barskova* (Russian Literature)
*Certificate Advisor
Stephen Jones* (Russian and Eurasian Studies)
Jeremy King (History)
Susanna Nazarova (Russian and Eurasian Studies)
Peter Scotto (Russian and Eurasian Studies)
*Certificate Advisor
Justin Cammy (Jewish Studies, World Literatures)
Sergey Glebov* (History)
Thomas Roberts (Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies)
Vera Shevzov* (Religion)
*Certificate Advisor
Audrey Altstadt (History)
Evgeny Dengub (Russian)
Olga Gershenson (Judaic and Near Eastern Studies)
Julie Hemment* (Anthropology)
Lauren McCarthy (Legal Studies)
Robert Rothstein (Slavic Studies, Emeritus)
Regine Spector (Political Science)
*Certificate Advisor
Certificate Requirements
This certificate program offers students the opportunity to take advantage of the significant multidisciplinary resources in the Five Colleges on Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia. The certificate consists of a minimum of six courses. Courses applied to the certificate may also be used to fulfill major requirements. The list of courses fulfilling particular requirements is maintained and regularly updated by the Five College Committee for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies.
Course Requirements
A. The program's core course, normally taken in the first or second year. The core course is offered every year on a rotating basis at one of the campuses and introduces an interdisciplinary perspective on the historical and contemporary experiences of the peoples of Russia, Eurasia (here understood as the former republics of the Soviet Union) and East (and Central) Europe. The course includes guest lectures by noted specialists in the Five Colleges.
B. Five additional elective courses, distributed as indicated below. (Independent study courses may be included with approval from the student's campus program advisor.)
C. At least four courses, including the core course, must be taken within the Five Colleges.
Language Requirement
Students receiving the certificate must possess proficiency in a language of one of the certificate regions equivalent to the level achieved after four semesters of post-secondary course work. This proficiency may be demonstrated by course work or examination.
Study Abroad
Students are encouraged to study abroad in one of the certificate regions.
Elective Course Distribution
In choosing the five elective courses satisfying the certificate requirements, the following guidelines should be observed:
Courses should be drawn from more than one of the three geographical areas: Russia, Eurasia (here understood as the former republics of the Soviet Union) and Eastern (and Central) Europe.
- At least one of the elective courses must focus on a period before the 20th century.
- At least one course must be taken from each of the following disciplinary categories: history, social sciences and humanities/arts. No single course can fulfill more than one disciplinary distribution requirement.
- Elementary or intermediate language courses cannot be included as one of the five electives. A language course beyond the intermediate level can be counted toward one of the electives.
- Credit for one-time courses, special topics courses and transfer or study abroad courses requires approval from the home campus faculty advisor to the program.
Courses
Spring 2022 Five College Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Courses
Tatyana Babyonyshev
MWF 10:00 AM-10:50 AM
WEBS219
Continuation of RUSS 101.
Requisite: RUSS 101 or equivalent. Limited to 12 students per section. Spring semester. Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.
Tatyana Babyonyshev
TTH 10:00 AM-10:50 AM
WEBS219
Catherine A. Ciepiela
MW 03:00 PM-04:20 PM
WEBS215
This introduction to Russian culture and history examines Russia’s vast and varied contributions to world culture, from literature and the arts to intellectual and political history. Setting aside cultural commonplaces about Russia—from borscht to nesting dolls and vodka—and various clichés of Russia as some enigmatic, reason-defying civilization, this course considers Russia’s ongoing development as it responds to the world and fashions its own forms of art, culture, and thought. The course will survey Russian culture and history from the early eighteenth century to the present, a broad span of time in which we see periods of upheaval and change to which its writers, artists, and intellectuals gave artistic and intellectual expression. We will be guided throughout the course by such questions as: How has Russia imagined its place in the world and in world culture? How has it responded to developments from abroad in fashioning its own culture? What is distinctive about Russia’s literary, visual, and performing styles? What can Russian cultural history tell us about the ways people experience, negotiate, and navigate multiple identities in a single polity stretching from Germany to Alaska? About class and gender politics?
This course will draw upon the rich holdings of the Amherst Center for Russian Culture and the Mead Art Museum, which, together, form a premier teaching and research collection of Russia’s culture history in the West. Each module of the course will, for example, focus upon an archival, verbal, or visual artifact held in these collections, using it as a springboard to consider broader themes of Russian culture and history.
Spring Semester. Professor Ciepiela.
Boris Wolfson
MW 04:00 PM-05:20 PM
WEBS219
Who is to blame? What is to be done? How can we love, and how should we die? In an age when such larger-than-life questions animated urgent debates about self and society, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anton Chekhov and other writers whose famous shorter works we’ll read in this course reinvented the idea of literature itself. Political terrorism and non-violent resistance, women’s rights and imperial expansion, quests for social justice and personal happiness: as nineteenth-century Russian authors explored the cultural anxieties provoked by these challenges of modernity, their ambition was not to mirror experience but to transform it by interpreting its deepest secrets. This is an introduction to the daring, contradictory visions of life and art that forever changed how we do things with words. No familiarity with Russian history or culture expected. All readings in English.
Spring Semester. Professor Wolfson.
Sergey Glebov
TTH 08:30 AM-09:50 AM
WEBS220
(Offered as HIST 112 [AS/EUCP], ASLC 112, EUST 112 and RUSS 130) In the course of five hundred years, the Russian empire in Eurasia evolved as the largest territorial polity in the world. In this course, we will explore the medieval foundations of the imperial state and look at its predecessors and models (Kievan Rus’ and the empire of the Mongols), discuss ways in which cooperation and resistance shaped the imperial state and society, and study cultural and political entanglements among different ethnic, linguistic and confessional groups in Eurasia. Chronologically, we will cover the period from the tenth century to the crisis of the empire in the early twentieth century. Thematically, we will focus on structures of imperial state and society (the imperial house, peasantry, nobility, confessions, intelligentsia, revolutionary movement) and most important regions of the Russian Empire (Ukraine, the Caucasus, the Baltics, Siberia, Central Asia). Two class meetings per week.
Spring semester. Professor Glebov.
Catherine A. Ciepiela
MWF 11:00 AM-11:50 AM
WEBS219
Catherine A. Ciepiela
TTH 03:00 PM-03:50 PM
WEBS219
Boris Wolfson
MW 01:30 PM-02:50 PM
WEBS219
Tatyana Babyonyshev
TTH 02:30 PM-03:20 PM
A half course designed for intermediate-level students who wish to develop their fluency, pronunciation, oral comprehension, and writing skills. We will study and discuss Russian films of various genres. Two hours per week.
Requisite: RUSS 301 or consent of the instructor. Omitted 2021-22. Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.
Stanley J. Rabinowitz
T 02:00 PM-05:00 PM
CONV207
A course that examines the stories and novels of rebels, deviants, dissidents, loners, and losers in some of the weirdest fictions in Russian literature. The writers, most of whom imagine themselves to be every bit as bizarre as their heroes, include from the nineteenth century: Gogol (“Viy,” “Diary of a Madman,” “Ivan Shponka and His Aunt,” “The Nose,” “The Overcoat”); Dostoevsky (“The Double,” “A Gentle Creature,” “Bobok,” “The Dream of a Ridiculous Man”); Tolstoy (“The Kreutzer Sonata,” “Father Sergius”), and from the twentieth century: Olesha (Envy); Platonov (The Foundation Pit); Kharms’ (Stories); Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita); Nabokov (The Eye, Despair); Erofeev (Moscow Circles); Pelevin (“The Yellow Arrow”). Our goal will be less to construct a canon of strangeness than to consider closely how estranged women, men, animals, and objects become the center of narrative attention and, in doing so, reflect the writer Tatyana Tolstaya’s claim that “Russia is broader and more diverse, stranger and more contradictory than any idea of it. It resists all theories about what makes it tick, confounds all the paths to its possible transformation.” All readings in English translation.
Not open to first-year students. Limited to 15 students. Spring semester. Professor Emeritus Rabinowitz
Daniel Brooks
MWF 08:30AM-09:45AM
Ciruti 109
Daniel Brooks
F 10:30AM-11:20AM
Skinner Hall 102
Daniel Brooks
F 11:30AM-12:20PM
Skinner Hall 102
Peter Scotto
MW 11:30AM-12:45PM
Skinner Hall 210
Peter Scotto
TTH 11:30AM-12:45PM
Dwight Hall 202
Serguei Glebov
M W 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM
Seelye 306
Justin Daniel Cammy
M W 1:20 PM - 2:35 PM
Seelye 306
Vera Shevzov
TU TH 1:20 PM - 2:35 PM
Seelye 110
Vera Shevzov
TU 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Hatfield 107
Ilona Sotnikova
M W F 10:50 AM - 12:05 PM
Hatfield 107
Ilona Sotnikova
M W F 9:25 AM - 10:40 AM
Hatfield 107
Thomas Lee Roberts
M W 2:45 PM - 4:00 PM
Hillyer Graham
Daniel Brooks
TU TH 9:25 AM - 10:40 AM
Hatfield 107
Anna Botta,Thomas Lee Roberts
TU 1:20 PM - 4:00 PM
Hatfield 107
Krzysztof Rowinski
TU TH 1:00PM 2:15PM
Herter Hall room 112
Audrey Altstadt
TU TH 10:00AM 11:15AM
Herter Hall room 201
Audrey Altstadt
TU TH 1:00PM 2:15PM
Herter Hall room 208
Regine Spector
TU TH 10:00AM 11:15AM
Machmer Hall room W-15
Krzysztof Rowinski
M W F 9:05AM 9:55AM
Herter Hall room 746
Jeremi Marek Szaniawski
TH 2:30PM 5:00PM
Herter Hall room 214
Anna Shkireva
M W F 2:30PM 3:45PM
Herter Hall room 212
Anna Shkireva
M W F 4:00PM 5:15PM
Herter Hall room 212
Anna Shkireva
M W F 11:15AM 12:05PM
Herter Hall room 444
Fall 2022 Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Courses
Sergey Glebov
TTH 08:30 AM-09:50 AM
(Offered as HIST 240 [EU/TE], EUST 240, and RUSS 240)
This course explores the tumultuous and unprecedented transition from the late Soviet Communism to contemporary Russian Federation. We will discuss the state of the Soviet Union on the eve of dissolution and politics of nationalism; emergence of the post-Soviet states and divergence in their historical development; transition to capitalism and privatization; challenges of federalism and regionalism in post-Soviet Russia; relations between the Russian Federation and “Near Abroad,” NATO and China, and the social and cultural developments from the late Soviet period to the early twenty-first century. The class will also explore the historical evolution of the phenomenon of Putinism as rooted in long-term transformation of the former Soviet space. Two class meetings per week.
Fall semester. Professor Glebov.
Sergey Glebov
TTH 08:30 AM-09:50 AM
(Offered as HIST 240 [EU/TE], EUST 240, and RUSS 240)
This course explores the tumultuous and unprecedented transition from the late Soviet Communism to contemporary Russian Federation. We will discuss the state of the Soviet Union on the eve of dissolution and politics of nationalism; emergence of the post-Soviet states and divergence in their historical development; transition to capitalism and privatization; challenges of federalism and regionalism in post-Soviet Russia; relations between the Russian Federation and “Near Abroad,” NATO and China, and the social and cultural developments from the late Soviet period to the early twenty-first century. The class will also explore the historical evolution of the phenomenon of Putinism as rooted in long-term transformation of the former Soviet space. Two class meetings per week.
Fall semester. Professor Glebov.
Tatyana Babyonyshev
MWF 10:00 AM-10:50 AM
Introduction to the contemporary Russian language, presenting the fundamentals of Russian grammar and syntax. The course helps the student make balanced progress in listening comprehension, speaking, reading, writing, and cultural competence. Five meetings per week.
Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.
Tatyana Babyonyshev
TTH 10:00 AM-10:50 AM
Boris Wolfson
MWF 09:00 AM-09:50 AM
This course stresses vocabulary building and continued development of speaking and listening skills. Active command of Russian grammar is steadily increased. Readings from authentic materials in fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Brief composition assignments. Five meetings per week, including a conversation hour and a drill session.
Requisite: RUSS 102 or the equivalent. This will ordinarily be the appropriate course placement for students with two to three years of high school Russian. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Professor Wolfson.
Boris Wolfson
TTH 09:00 AM-09:50 AM
Michael M. Kunichika
MW 02:00 PM-03:20 PM
This course advances skills in reading, understanding, writing, and speaking Russian, with materials from twentieth-century culture. Readings include fiction by Chekhov, Babel, Olesha, Nabokov, and others. Conducted in Russian, with frequent writing and grammar assignments, in-class presentations, and occasional translation exercises. Two seminar-style meetings and one hour-long discussion section per week.
Requisite: RUSS 202 or consent of the instructor. First-year students with strong high school preparation (usually 4 or more years) may be ready for this course. Limited to 12 students. Fall semester. Professor Kunichika and Senior Lecturer Babyonyshev.
Tatyana Babyonyshev
Michael M. Kunichika
T 02:00 PM-05:00 PM
(Offered as RUSS 315 and EUST 315) “We die. That may be the meaning of life,” writes Toni Morrison. “But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” Russian thinkers, writers, philosophers, and politicians have likewise sought to take measure of their lives and of culture by thinking about the nature of language, and its role in culture, society, and politics. In examining how Russian writers and thinkers have sought to answer the question what is language? — how they did and do language—we will consider a range of sources from intellectual history, linguistics, literary and critical theory, mythology, theology, and philosophy. We will examine the distinctive contributions of Russian thinking about language, while also seeking to situate Russian views on this question within a comparative context. To that end, we will also read intellectual sources that proved seminal for articulating an answer to this question (Vico, Herder, Rousseau, Saussure, and Benveniste, among others). As we consider this broad question, and how it has animated Russian thought and culture, we will also focus upon a range of other questions: What are the origins of language? How does language evolve? What is the relationship of language to national culture? What is the relationship of language to politics? Throughout the course, we will see how views on the nature of language served as an arena in which vying conceptions of culture, politics, and the human have all been contested. All readings in English. No previous knowledge of Russian culture or history expected.
Fall semester. Professor Kunichika.
Olga Gershenson
TU TH 2:30PM 3:45PM
Herter Hall room 211
Audrey Altstadt
TU TH 10:00AM 11:15AM
Herter Hall room 206
Audrey Altstadt
TU TH 1:00PM 2:15PM
Herter Hall room 217
Krzysztof Rowinski
M W F 9:05AM 10:05AM
Herter Hall room 224
Krzysztof Rowinski
TU TH 11:30AM 12:45PM
Herter Hall room 640
Anna Shkireva
M W F 2:30PM 3:45PM
Herter Hall room 201
Anna Shkireva
M W F 1:25PM 2:15PM
Herter Hall room 204
Alina Parker
TU TH 2:30PM 3:45PM
Herter Hall room 108
Anna Shkireva
M W F 11:15AM 12:05PM
Herter Hall room 746
Study Abroad
Semester and Academic Year Programs
American Councils Study Abroad
Study abroad for a semester or academic year. Operated in Moscow (Moscow International University), St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg State Pedagogical University) or Vladimir (KORA Center for Russian Culture). Offers a range of programs: Russian Language and Area Studies, Business Russian Language and Internship and Russian Heritage Speakers Program.
Council on International Educational Exchange: St. Petersburg
Study abroad for a semester or academic year. Operated through St. Petersburg State University. Geared toward intermediate and advanced students. Emphasis on language study with electives in literature, culture and history.
Council on International Educational Exchange: Prague
Study abroad for a semester or academic year. Central European Studies program run by CIEE, with courses available at Charles University and Prague Film and Television School. Czech language classes in addition to Czech literature, culture and film.
C.V. Starr- Middlebury College School in Russia
Study abroad for a semester or academic year. Run by Middlebury College for intermediate and advanced Russian speakers, with an emphasis on intensive immersion. Choice of three program locations: Irkutsk (Irkutsk State University), Moscow (Russian State University for the Humanities) or Yaroslavl (Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University).
Study abroad for an academic year (although flexibility is possible). Programs in Russian language, history and culture. Students need to discuss transfer of credit arrangement with school in advance.
Study abroad for a semester or academic year (individualized plans of study). Most courses taught in Russian, with some English-language electives.
Study abroad for a semester. Mathematics and/or computer science intensive curriculum, with electives in other areas including Russian language and culture. All courses taught in English.
Moscow State Institute of International Relations
Study abroad for a semester or academic year. Designed for advanced level Russian speakers, with all classes conducted in Russian. Combines Russian language instruction with courses on international relations, diplomacy and economics.
National Theater Institute: Moscow Art Theater (MATS)
Study abroad for a semester. Taught at Moscow Arts Theater, with emphasis on intensive theatrical training (acting, movement, voice, design and Russian language).
School of Russian and Asiatic Studies
Study abroad for a semester or academic year (with the possibility of a flexible program design). Russian as a Second Language Program, with emphasis on intensive language learning. Offered locations: St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Moscow, Vladivostok, Kiev and Bishkek.
University of Arizona: Russia Abroad
Study abroad for a semester or academic year. Run by the University of Arizona, with choice of locations in Moscow (Moscow Humanities University) or St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg State University). Open to all levels of Russian speakers.
Vassar College European University
Study abroad for a semester. Program operated by Vassar College, with classes taught at the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum and the European University. Art history focus with language component.
Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service
Study abroad for a semester or academic year (second semester entails continued language and internship/research project). Strong language component in addition to courses on history, economics and international relations in relation to the Russian Far East. Courses taught in English, but Russian readings/assignments available for advanced students.
Study abroad for a semester or academic year. Organized by CET Academic Programs, a study abroad organization. Programs based in Prague. Choice of Central European Studies, Film Production, Jewish Studies or New Media.
Study abroad for a semester or academic year. Program run and operated by New York University. Non-NYU students apply as visiting students. Full range of courses, including language courses in Czech, Polish and Russian.
Resources
Amherst Center for Russian Culture
Through the generous gift of Thomas P. Whitney '37, Amherst College has acquired what has generally been considered the world's largest private holding of Russian books, manuscripts, newspapers and periodicals.
Identities, Cultures and Texts in East-Central Europe
Two cities with complicated histories, rich cultures and promising futures will become case studies for this unique opportunity in global education. Among the theoretical foundations of this course will be the ever-shifting paradigm.
Lorna M. Peterson Prize
The Lorna M. Peterson Prize supports scholarly and creative work by undergraduate students taking part in Five College programs. The $500 prize is awarded annually based on nominations from Five College programs.
Contact Us
Program Director:
Sergey Glebov, Five College Associate Professor of History
Five College Staff Liaison:
Ray Rennard, Director of Academic Programs