The Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies at Stanford University and the Bay Area Global Education Program presented:

2006 Teacher Workshop: Russia and America: From Rasputin to Putin

Saturday, March 11, 2006 9:00 am to 5:30 pm
Building 200 Room 034 Main Quad

Program

CREEES (the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies) at Stanford and BAGEP (Bay Area Global Education Program) at the World Affairs Council of San Francisco present a workshop for K-14 teachers devoted to exploring the theme of US-Russia relations in the 20th and 21st centuries. Lectures and Q&A with Stanford faculty experts are followed by a session on curricular resources.

Funding for this workshop is provided by grants from the United States Department of Education (Title VI).

This workshop directly addresses Sections 10.4, 10.7, 10.9, 10.10, 11.9, and 12/9 of the History and Social Science Content Standards for the State of California

8:30 – 9:00 a.m.  Registration & Refreshments

9:00 – 10:30 a.m. “The Confrontation: 1881 to 1933”
Bert Patenaude, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution and Lecturer in International Relations, Stanford University
Russia and America enjoyed cordial, if distant, relations until the end of the 19th century, when Americans grew hostile to tsarist autocracy. Meanwhile, Russians were dazzled by images of Amerika as the land of great size, speed, and efficiency, yet repulsed by stories of poverty, racism, and excessive freedom. When the Revolution of 1917 brought Lenin’s Bolsheviks to power, Americans reacted with a mixture of horror and fascination. The U.S. government intervened militarily in the Russian Civil War and rounded up Reds at home, yet provided massive food relief during the Soviet famine of 1921. The onset of the Great Depression and the apparent failure of capitalism heightened interest in Soviet planning and in Stalin’s crash campaign to build socialism.

10:45—12:15 "From Cold Peace to Cold War: Soviet American Relations, 1933-1945"
Frederic L. Propas, Professor of History, San Jose State University
Professor Propas traces the evolution of Soviet-American relations from U.S recognition of the Soviet Union through the formation of the wartime alliance to confront the Axis powers and the its disintegration when the postwar order began to emerge.

1:00 to 2:30 pm "The Cold War Rivalry, 1945-1991"
Bert Patenaude, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution and Lecturer in International Relations, Stanford University
This lecture surveys the major events and turning points of the Cold War, from the fall of Berlin to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the breakup of the Soviet Union. Along the way, it explores the fundamental question of whether the U.S.-Soviet contest was an ideological struggle of communism vs. capitalism, or the product of a deeper geostrategic rivalry, one predicted by Alexis de Tocqueville in his Democracy in America (1835), where he famously predicted of Russia and America that “each of them seems marked out by the will of Heaven to sway the destinies of half the globe.”

2:45-4:15 pm "Images of Empire: Past and Present"
Gail Lapidus, Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Professor (by courtesy) of Political Science, Stanford University
The early post-Soviet years were a period of great optimism in US-Russia relations, characterized by close relations between leaders and promises of aid and cooperation.   Professor Lapidus discusses this early period, and how the relationship has evolved in the face of economic crisis, war in Chechnya, the rise of international terrorism, and Russia’s changing role on the world stage.  

4:30-5:30 pm "Curricular Resources on Russia and Empire"
Terry Haugen, Teacher Trainer;  History Teacher, Del Oro High School, Walnut Creek, CA
Terry Haugen will present curricular, video and web resources on US-Russia relations across the 20th century and beyond.

Location:  Building 200, Room 034, Main Quad, Stanford University