OSHER 49 - The Last 100 Years of Russian Rulers: From Stalin to Putin

In this course, we will examine 100 years of Russian history through a closer look at the personalities of its rulers: Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khruschev, Leonid Brezhnev, Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, and Vladimir Putin. Each week, we will consider one of these major Soviet or post-Soviet leaders at a time. We will explore their personal backgrounds, how each of them came to power and held on to power, how their personalities and peculiarities affected the course of Russian history, and how each of them ended their term in power. We will also consider each man's legacy--and will indeed contemplate why they were all men.