- Department: History
- Module co-ordinator: Dr. Hugo Service
- Credit value: 30 credits
- Credit level: I
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
The Second World War brought huge devastation to the eastern half of Europe. Reckless, brutal and genocidal acts by Eastern Europe’s Nazi occupiers undermined the foundations of societies there to such a degree that total transformation appeared unavoidable once the war was over. To the West, Eastern Europe seemed to disappear behind an ‘Iron Curtain’ after 1944 – as the new hegemonic power of the region, the Soviet Union, took control. The rhetoric and writing of Cold War era politicians and commentators in the West constructed a simple image of countries dominated by the USSR and gripped by intolerable living conditions and incompetent officials – lasting until the collapse of Moscow’s 'empire' in 1989-90. This module seeks to move beyond such simplifications and pull open the Iron Curtain for a more complex view.
This module will range across the eastern half of the continent, with a particular focus on Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania and East Germany. Students will examine the radical social, political and economic transformations which took place in the first decade after WWII, as well as the sweeping repression of the Stalinist era. They will examine mass opposition and uprisings, including the Hungarian ‘Revolution’ of 1956. They will investigate the everyday lives of ordinary people, dissident activities and attempts to reform communism, including the Prague Spring of 1968. They will study international and transnational relations as well as the collapse of Communism in the 1980s. They will also look at how the legacy of Communism has been handled since 1989.
Occurrence | Teaching period |
---|---|
A | Spring Term 2022-23 to Summer Term 2022-23 |
The aims of this module are:
Students who complete this module successfully will:
This 30-credit module is taught through a weekly two-hour seminar run from weeks 2-10 in the spring term and a four week period of project work undertaken in weeks 1-4 of the summer term. Students will complete their group project work within that period and tutors should arrange to be available for consultation with students twice during that time. There will be no formal seminar teaching during this period.
Seminar topics are subject to variation, but are likely to include the following:
Aftermath of war and occupation
Stalinism and trials 1948-53
Uprising 1953-56
Spring 1968
Everyday Life
Dissent, opposition and Polish Solidarity
International, transnational and inner-bloc relations
1989 Revolution and Collapse
Memory after Communism
For the Group Project in Summer Term, you will use your independent research skills to find, analyse and contextualise, in small groups, primary sources (texts, images, objects) which throw light on the communist-era history or post-communist memory of the eastern half of Europe.
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Groupwork Group Project |
N/A | 33 |
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) Open Exam - Communist Europe |
8 hours | 67 |
None
Formative assessment will be a group presentation between weeks 5 and 7 of the spring term.
For summative assessment students take a 24-hour open exam in the summer term assessment period, usually released at 11:00 on day 1 and submitted at 11:00 on day 2. For those taking two Explorations modules the 24-hour open exams are held on consecutive days, with both papers released at 11:00 on day 1 and both due for submission on 11:00 of day 3.
Students also submit a piece of written work for their group project of no more than 3,000 words in week 5 of the summer term.
The exam carries 67% of assessment and the project element 33% for this module.
Students who need to be reassessed in the project component of this module (for example due to Exceptional Circumstance) will be required to submit in the summer reassessment period a shorter individual project (2,000 words) which should include a short reflection (500 words max) on group work, considering how this project could be expanded if a team of three to four people were working on it. Students should consider how they would divide up the research tasks, and reflect briefly on problems which might arise and how they would manage them. Module tutors will advise on the content and design of this project.
Task | Length | % of module mark |
---|---|---|
Groupwork Group Project |
N/A | 33 |
Online Exam - 24 hrs (Centrally scheduled) Open Exam - Communist Europe |
8 hours | 67 |
Following their formative assessment task, students will typically receive written feedback that will include comments and a mark within 10 working days of submission.
Work will be returned to students in their discussion groups and may be supplemented by the tutor giving some oral feedback to the whole group. All students are encouraged, if they wish, to discuss the feedback on their procedural work with their tutor (or module convenor) during student hours. For more information, see the Statement on Feedback.
For the summative assessment task, students will receive their provisional mark and written feedback within 20 working days of the submission deadline. The tutor will then be available during student hours for follow-up guidance if required. For more information, see the Statement of Assessment.
For term time reading, please refer to the module VLE site. Before the course starts, we encourage you to look at the following items of preliminary reading:
Ash, Timothy Garton. We The People: The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin and Prague. Cambridge: Granta, 1990.
Judt, Tony. Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945. London: William Heineman, 2005.
Pittaway, Mark. Eastern Europe 1939-2000. London: Arnold, 2004.