Reviled in the West in his own lifetime as a 'Red Dictator', idolized after his death in 1924 until the fall of European Communism in 1991 across nearly three quarters of the globe, from Beijing and Havana to Ethiopia and Angola, the life, works and legacy of Vladimir Ilich Lenin continues to provoke controversy and arouse debate even today. This Special Subject offers an unique opportunity to examine the role and influence of one man in world history.

20x 3hr seminars. This course will meet three hours per week for 10 weeks in each semester. This is one of the Honours options available in History and may not be offered every year. See MyCampus for the Honours options available this year.

None.

None.

The standard assessments for this course are:

Semester 1

■ Essay 1 (2500 words) - 20%
Seminar presentation 1 (15 mins) - 10%

■ Seminar contribution - 10%

Semester 2

■ Essay 2 (2500 words) - 20%

■ Seminar presentation 2 (15 mins) - 10%

■ Seminar contribution - 10%

■ Exam (2 hour) - 20%

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the written assessments (including exam), but flexible deadlines or extra time can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions).

■ Recorded presentation as an alternative to the oral presentation.

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.

[No exceptions]

This course aims to

■ Introduce students to a broad, transformative period of Russian history.

■ Provide students with the knowledge of how one man, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, played a critical role during so much of this period, and how his legacy was created and subsequently contested after his death.

■ Give students the opportunity to investigate revolutionary social and political change.

■ Hone students' skills in source analysis by engaging with a range of political and cultural texts such as memoirs, speeches, and film in seminars and assessment.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ express an understanding of the philosophical roots of Lenin's thought and their importance in the context of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia between 1917 and 1924.

■ distinguish between and evaluate different types of evidence (including memoirs, letters, biographies, contemporary articles and philosophical tracts).

■ Contexualise and critically assess primary and secondary sources, including identifying the circumstances and purposes of a text; evaluating its perspective; noting the competence and impact of textual editing; and assessing the utility of a text to a modern historian of the period.