What was life in the Soviet Union like? This class combines history lectures with an insider’s view of someone born and raised in the USSR. The Bolshevik Revolution, followed by several years of civil war and foreign intervention, changed not only the political structure of the country, but its economy, its social fabric and even the nature of the most personal relationships among its citizens. In this course, we will consider the Soviet planned economy, its repressive dictatorial political regime and its imperial nature. We will examine in what ways post-Soviet Russia continues with economic, political and social models that were established by the Soviet regime.

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Bio:

Asya Pereltsvaig received a degree in English and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a PhD in Linguistics from McGill University. She taught at Yale, Cornell, and Stanford universities, and has been teaching in lifelong education programs since 2010. Her expertise is in language, culture, and history, and the relationship between them. Asya has published five scholarly books with Cambridge University Press.

The Fifty and Better (FAB) program was designed for people 50 years of age and older, seeking intellectual stimulation through university-level courses — without the pressure of grades — for the sake of learning and social engagement.