Russ,East European,Eurasian St 140 - Putin's Russia: After Communism, After Atheism

Offered as REL 140 and RES 140. Vladimir Putin and the Russia he rules remain poorly understood despite extensive media coverage. Moving beyond the headlines, this course examines the people, events, and trends that have shaped Russia from the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 to the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Particular attention is given to the resurgence of religion in public life and efforts to forge a new national identity in a post-communist, post-atheist state. Topics include state power and political protest; church–state relations; memory wars over the Soviet past; competing views of the West; NATO expansion; and the rhetoric of “traditional values.”