Undergraduate Course Requirements

Students in every department take the following courses according to their chosen specializations.

Each semester, faculty members from the various departments within the History Faculty present lectures on special problems in Russian history, the history of the Ancient Period, the Middle Ages, European and American countries. In accordance to their interests, students are also required to attend specialization seminars and foreign language courses.

Each year students must present two papers: one on a topic related to General History, one on a topic related to Russian History.

1st year:

General lecture courses: Foundations of Archaeology, Foundations of Ethnography, History of the Primitive Society, Ancient Oriental History, Ancient Greek History, Ancient Roman History, Russian History before the 19th Century, History of Western European Art, History of Russian Art, Philosophy.

Seminar classes: Russian History before the 19th Century, Ancient History (Oriental, Greek, Roman), one foreign language, Latin.

2nd year:

General lecture courses: History of the Middle Ages, Russian History of the 19th and early 20th Centuries, Medieval History of Asian and African Countries, History of Philosophy, Theory of Economy, Quantitative Methods in Historical Studies.

Seminar classes: Russian  History of the 19th and early 20th Centuries, History of the Middle Ages, one foreign language.

3rd year:

General lecture courses: Russian History of the  20th Century, Modern History of European and American Countries, Modern History of Asian and African Countries, Source Study.

Seminar classes: Russian History of the 20th Century, Modern History of European and American Countries, one foreign language.

4th year:

General lecture courses: Contemporary History of European and American Countries, History of Southern and Western Slavs, Historiography, Methodological Problems of Historical Studies, Information Technologies.

Seminar classes: Contemporary History of European and American Countries.

5th year:

Fifth year students prepare a diploma paper (MA dissertation) and attend lectures and seminars according to their interests.

Concentration in a specific field of Historical Studies begins in the third year of matriculation. Specializations are maintained by the thirteen departments of the Faculty:

• Russian History before the 19th Century
• Russian History of the 19th and early 20th Centuries
• Russian History of the 20th Century
• Source Study of Russian History
• History of Social Movements and Political Parties in Russia
• Ancient History
• History of the Middle Ages
• Modern and Contemporary History of European and American Countries
• Southern and Western Slavic History
• Ethnology
• Archaeology
• History of Russian Art
• General History of Art

During their course of study, students may participate in practical training exercises in archaeology (in Novgorod and Smolensk), ethnological, bibliographical and pedagogical studies. Each year, the MSU Faculty of History sponsors a number of excursions and field expeditions to regions of historical significance within Russia and the CIS. Additionally, students recieve priviledged access to all state libraries, museums and archives.