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Far from expectations of partnership after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Russia looms large in today’s international security debates as a nuclear-armed opponent of the US-led world order. The course examines how the Soviet Union acquired and lost superpower status as a backdrop to current Russian efforts to reassert global leadership. The central premise of the course is that modern Russia, to paraphrase Mark Twain, does not repeat but rhymes with the Soviet era. The content is structured chronologically, to give the main sequence of events, and thematically, to enable students to draw comparisons between the Soviet and post-Soviet eras. Themes include state capacity and institutions, economic modernization, national identity and nationalism, and national security. The content enables students to look behind the headlines to historical factors shaping the current worldview of Russian elites and society.