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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Russian History: from Lenin to Putin by University of California, Santa Cruz

4.7
stars
758 ratings

About the Course

In this course, Peter Kenez, Professor Emeritus at UC Santa Cruz, explains the events of modern Russian history and introduces its most significant actors—from Vladimir Lenin to Vladimir Putin....

Top reviews

RS

Sep 14, 2020

I found that course had a central theme, the incompatibility of the Communist structures with an increase in the standard of living, that was well documented from the time of Lenin to that of Putin.

SM

Jul 18, 2022

Very informative and well presented. Professor Kenez gives a thorough explanation of why Russia is what it is. It's the history from the Czarist regime to the common era. Thank you, Professor!

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151 - 175 of 282 Reviews for Russian History: from Lenin to Putin

By Steve R

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Jun 12, 2018

Exellent course, maybe a bit too short for the subject. I liked the professor who spoke to the camera without notes. Maybe a bit more use of contemporary film would have bought course to life (photos were used)

By Dave M

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May 2, 2020

Really enjoyed the course, Prof. Kenez really gave us a valuable understanding of Russian history from his unique perspective -- very glad I took part, thanks ...

By Karitha K

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Jun 7, 2020

Great course, I learned a lot. I was eye opening.

Only issue is the wrong transcription can make people misunderstand the content. Please fix it soon!

By David N

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May 14, 2020

Great sense of humanity from Kenez, with specific details as well as a broad overview of the events affecting (and being affected by) Russia.

By Anastasia X

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Mar 12, 2018

Very informative by an extremely knowledgeable professor. Sometimes it was a little difficult to follow him, probably because of his accent.

By Vicky

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Dec 31, 2017

Amazing course! Really interesting and very good presented by the Professor. Thank you for uploading! I would definitely recommend it.

By Vicenţiu H V

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May 24, 2018

An interesting course, despite the fact that it is almost impossible to talk about Russian contemporary history in a 3-weeks course.

By Aarti P

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Jul 28, 2020

Well planned and amazingly explained course. helps develop critical thinking for events in Russian History.

By Philip R

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Jun 18, 2018

The volume was a little low unless I used my headphones, which doesn't happen elsewhere? Great content.

By William M

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Dec 8, 2017

Excellent introduction to Russian history, especially to the "short" twentieth century.

By Harmanpreet K

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Jul 7, 2020

I thoroughly enjoyed learning from this course and Dr. Kenez is a wonderful teacher.

By Cheneil A

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May 3, 2018

The subject matter was interesting, and I found the teacher nice to listen to.

By Elizabeth N C

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May 26, 2021

It is interesting to listen to the history of Russia But the audios were low

By Iswarya k

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Jul 14, 2020

Though it was a three week course, it has vast details on Russian History.

By Alice E G

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Feb 1, 2018

Interesting, interactive, varied in the assent form and quick to complete.

By kousay a

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May 18, 2018

Enjoyed immensely professor Kenez's scholarly lectures!

By Henrietta A

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Jul 8, 2020

The course was really enlightening. I enjoyed it.

By DINESH K

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Jul 18, 2020

nice

By Volodymyr A

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Oct 31, 2022

Although Professor Kenez did a great job preparing the course materials, I cannot recommend this course. Why? Professor has too obvious admiration of russia, and although it would be fine in the past, today russia has shown it's true face of a monster. Thus, talking about some kind of sympathy towards russians is impossible when they are killing thousands of civilians, raping women and children and pillaging cities in Ukraine just as I write these words. The course should be reviewed and in many aspects fixed and changed. The most obvious point here is words about the civil war in Ukraine. Just pure nonsense. Ukraine has been fighting russia since 2014. Instead of admitting this, professor just tries to avoid this topic and then speaks about empathy towards russians.

By Anastasia M

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Sep 17, 2023

The first 90% of the course is really interesting and helps to understand some things. However, the last part of the course about putin was shocking for me. The lecturer never calls the russian invasion in 2014 an annexation. For him it's a civil war... And Holodomor never happened... it was just a famine that affected everyone... While it's true that famine was everywhere, Ukraine was affected the most.

I think he failed to do deep research on the most recent affairs and made his conclusions from the russian newspapers.

By char h

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Aug 6, 2020

I only got six minutes in to the literal first video when the professor began extolling "the greatness of European civilization." That was after completely missing the point of the oft-quoted phrase "Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat this." I don't need this kind of energy in my life.

By Gargi g

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Apr 10, 2021

i thought this was going to be a course which deeply goes into the russian history and how everything took place rather it was a course discussing theories of what happened. I am at beginners level and i wanted a course with more depth in history

By Fabiolla L

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Aug 21, 2023

I just wanted to share my gratitude to Coursera, for one, given the possibility to people from anywhere in the world to be able to do this this course online, and two, for the amazing opportunity to learn with Professor Peter Kenez. Despite the present events, I am a person in love with Russia's culture and the country. I have been there, read many books about it, and part of my photo work is about Russia, so I can only say that it was wonderful to be able to learn more about this country that is not only what Putin is doing at this moment, but a country that has an amazing cultural background, a phenomenal history and a huge presence that reaches all places in our globe. Professor Peter Kenez is a marvelous educator and his charisma and knowledge are superb. The last class of this course brought tears to my eyes. Professor, THANK YOU!

By Anne G

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May 3, 2021

The course has given me a better understanding of Russian history during the past century, and even more importantly, of Russia’s present day situation. Professor Kenez is a very endearing teacher who brings soul into his subject. I have a suggestion, which is to document the very interesting iconography used in the lessons : I wish the texts, when applicable, had been translated from Russian and some legends written, indicating time, place or circumstances, as appropriate. Same thing for the pieces of music introducing and closing each lesson, I would have liked to know what they were. Also, could the words and names in Russian be written on the screen as they are spoken?

By Marian P

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Dec 9, 2020

Professor Kenez uses his deep knowledge of Russian history in a compelling presentation of the significant issues, people, events of this period. His lectures conclude with an explicit statement of empathy for all that the Russians have endured, but his appreciation of their suffering is evident throughout. He appears to speak without notes, so intimately familiar he is with the material. I strongly recommend this course for anyone who has the slightest interest in understanding a country which has generated such important contributions to music and literature, and yet has been cast as an enemy of the West for so long.