Russia: From St. Vladimir to Vladimir Putin

Dates: September 9 - October 14, 2021

Meets: Thurs. from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM

Location: Online

$75.00
OLLI Member: $75.00

Enrollment requires a 2021 - 2022 OLLI at MSU Membership

This course will cover some of the major issues that have occupied Russia's tsars, philosophers, politicians, writers, artists, composers and others. Topics include: 

  • The Orthodox Church's influence on the Russian worldview and its increasingly important role in post-Soviet Russia.
  • Russia's geographic position on the border of Europe and Asia, and the ongoing tug-of-war between Westernizers, who lean toward European models, and Slavophiles, who believe that Russia is to follow its own unique, more oriental path.
  • The influence that the concept of "Russians as the older brother" has had on recently-flared inter-ethnic tensions.
  • Russia's long history of authoritarian and patriarchal rulers and the negative impact on the development of democratic institutions.

Apply for a needs-based scholarship to take this offering.

Fee:   $75.00

Online

This is a real-time (live) online class that meets at the specified day(s)/time(s) listed.

We will send you a reminder email with login instructions one business day before the program start date. If there are additional sessions, we will send reminders the morning of those sessions.

Asya Pereltsvaig

Asya Pereltsvaig is a Russian-American linguist, writer, and educator. Her expertise is in language and history, and the relationship between them. Her most recent books, "Languages of the World: An Introduction," 3rd edition (2020) and "The Indo-European Controversy: Facts and Fallacies in Historical Linguistics" (2015) were published by Cambridge University Press.

She earned a Ph.D. in Linguistics from McGill University and has taught at several U.S. and European universities, including Yale, Cornell and Stanford. Asya is a popular instructor for several Osher Lifelong Learning Institute programs and has been a faculty host for an Osher trip to the Baltic countries and St. Petersburg.
Date Day Time Location
09/09/2021Thursday2 PM to 4 PM Online
09/16/2021Thursday2 PM to 4 PM Online
09/23/2021Thursday2 PM to 4 PM Online
09/30/2021Thursday2 PM to 4 PM Online
10/07/2021Thursday2 PM to 4 PM Online
10/14/2021Thursday2 PM to 4 PM Online

Participants will gain a better understanding of today's Russia and its role in the world stage by studying Russian cultural and ideological history.

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