Admission requirements
This course is only available for students in the BA International Studies programme.
Limited places are also open for exchange students.
Please note: this course takes place in The Hague. Traveling between University buildings from Leiden to The Hague may take about 45 minutes.
Description
This course presents a decentered and decolonial reading of Central Eurasia, the region currently comprising Russia and the post-Soviet states of Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Southeastern Europe. It elaborates on the political, economic, and social history of the region in the early modern and modern periods, with a particular focus on the 19th-21st centuries.
Rather than starting from a unified vision of ‘Eurasia’ as led by Russia, the Soviet Union, or the Russian Empire, the course instead highlights the multitude of states, societies, and peoples that have historically populated Central Eurasia and continue to make up the region. Moving forward through the modern period, it considers how conquest, both by the Russian Empire and the USSR, but also by other geopolitical actors, changed the political and economic order of the region. The course pays particular attention to the influence of socialism and the Soviet Union, as the dominant actor throughout the ‘short twentieth century’ (1917-1991), but also brings to students’ awareness the long-term historical factors that predated this dominance and which continue to influence post-Soviet society and statehood today. Finally, the course will provide an overview of the divergent courses taken by many states in Central Eurasia since the collapse of socialism and the USSR in 1991.
Students are expected to engage with both the historical overview provided in the lectures and readings, as well as the (historiographical) discussions and presentations in the tutorials. By the end of the course, students should have gained an understanding of the multifacted and heterogeneous history of modern Central Eurasia.
Course objectives
By the end of the course, students will have:
Acquired knowledge and understanding of history, its processes, structure, actors, factors, and events, and has familiarised him- / herself with the academic understanding of history and the history of Central Eurasia and Russia, with an emphasis on the last three centuries.
Acquired knowledge and understanding of the concepts and conceptual structures relevant for the study of history from an area perspective, i.e. local, national, regional but also transnational and from a comparative, international, and global perspective.
Acquired basic research skills, which he/she has put into practice for the first time in the shape of a small individual research project.
A basic understanding of the methodologies used in the field of History. The student will make a first attempt at primary source analysis in an individual research project.
Knowledge of the main facts, actors and developments in the history of Central Eurasia and Russia, as well of the debates on the key-concepts and theories in the historiography on this subject.
Insights in the multi-layered quality of the Soviet experience, in the interactions between state and society and in the complex dynamics of the area’s ongoing modernization process.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Lectures
Lectures are held every week, with the exception of the midterm exam week. Weekly lectures will cover issues both inside and outside the readings.
Tutorials
Tutorials are held once every two weeks, with the exception of the midterm exam week. Attending all tutorial sessions is compulsory. If you are unable to attend a session, please inform your Tutorial-lecturer in advance. Being absent at more than two of the tutorial sessions will result in a lowering of your tutorial grade (40% of the end grade) with 1 point for each session missed after the first two sessions. Please note that being absent at any tutorial session may have a negative impact on the grade of the assignment due for that particular tutorial session. This is at the discretion of the Tutorial-lecturer.
Skills Lab
There are four skills lab sessions that supplement the tutorials. These sessions will focus on the fundamental academic skills necessary for successfully writing a research paper. Attending the sessions is compulsory. Being absent at more than one of the tutorial sessions will result in a lowering of your tutorial grade (40% of the end grade) with 1 point for each session missed after the first session.
Assessment method
Assessment
Midterm Exam:
Written examination with short open questions.Final Exam:
Written examination with short open questions.
Weighing
| Partial grade | Weighing |
|---|---|
| Tutorials | 40% |
| Midterm Exam | 30% |
| Final Exam | 30% |
End Grade
To successfully complete the course, please take note of the following:
The end grade of the course is established by determining the weighted average of Tutorial grade, Midterm Exam grade, and Final Exam grade.
The weighted average of the Midterm Exam grade and the Final Exam grade needs to be 5.5 or higher.
This means that failing Exam grades cannot be compensated with a high Tutorial grade.
Resit
If the end grade is insufficient (lower than a 6.0), or the weighted average of Midterm- and Final Exams is lower than 5.5, there is a possibility of retaking the full 60% of the exam material, replacing both the earlier Midterm- and Final Exam grades. No resit for the tutorial is possible.
Please note that if the Resit Exam grade is lower than 5.5, you will not pass the course, regardless of the tutorial grade.
Retaking a passing grade
Please consult the Course and Examination Regulations 2025 – 2026.
Exam review and feedback
How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organised.
Reading list
To be announced.
Registration
Enrolment through My Studymap is mandatory.
Please also register for the Skills Lab workgroup (5181VSLW) through My Studymap.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.
Registration Exchange
For the registration of exchange students contact Humanities International Office.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the right information bar.
For questions about enrolment, admission, etc, contact the Education Administration Office: Student Affairs Office for BA International Studies
Remarks
All other information.