The topic was very interesting, and I was very fond of Professor Kenez and his presentation style.

Thank you, professor, for your deep understanding of Russian history and Russian soul.

It helped a lot to form my own view on the present Russian-Ukranian conflict! THX!

Great course!!!! Thank you very much prof. Peter kenez. I've learned a lot!!!!!!

Está increíble. Gran profesor, gran clase. Thank you very much for this.

I had the feeling of great impartiality in this course.

Wonderful course. Very well structured and dynamic!

Very clear and in-depth discussion of events.

Excellent teacher and course!

Great course. Well Done!

Excellent Teacher!!!!

I really appreciated Prof. Kenez's knowledge and passion of the topics covered, as well as he style of communication. Great for an introductory course, for someone with no previous knowledge on Russian history. I would recommend taking this course, very interesting. However, a 3 week course may not be long enough to cover 100 years of Russian history. I found the quizzes to be extremely easy (the quiz questions are pretty much all previously asked during the lectures), and the transcripts of the lesson are way off.

Very interesting information, unfortunately had to drop it while attempting to balance high school material. The professor had some instances where it was extremely difficult to understand him, and the transcript at times was incomprehensible (which, I assume, is a result of poor transcription). 100% would complete this course if I had the time to.

As an American, I learned that there has been misunderstanding about the Russians in my country. They have a different way of thinking than we do and some of the things they said have been misconstrued. They have had difficult times and are not the monsters we have been taught they were.

A great introduction to Russian history.

This course is an excellent overview of Russian History. It will definitely help you grasp the most basic bits but you should keep in mind that there will be bias, propaganda, and gatekeeping. So my advice for anyone taking this course is to be critical of everything and stop being intellectually lazy. Radicalize yourself.

Oh dear! I have really struggled with this course. I was very keen to learn about Russian History sparked by documentaries and and reading bits here and there. However, I just could not follow the lecturer and his way of explaining things. I retried a few times but i just got frustrated. Disappointed as I was keen to do this course but I’m pulling out.

The professor is a terrible speaker, and his hmm-ing and haa-ing eventually was too much to endure. I decided to just read the transcription, but the transcriptor couldn't make much of what he was saying, either. I'm not speaking of his accent, that was not much of a problem. He just couldn't go through the material in a mostly linear way. I think he should take a look at Professor Shapiro's politics course from Yale. That's how it's done.

I would like to thanks Professor Kenez for this amazing introduction history. My story is interesting, as my partner is Russian but I worked training Ukrainian army against corruption many times in Kiev. While I have always been aware of the political differences and tension, I also developped friendships with both Ukrainians and Russians. In Western Europe, where I live, people don't know nor understand Russia and this is, in my view, a great mistake. The war in Ukraine could propobably have been avoided if the West had tried to continue a true dialogue with Russia. I really appreciated Professor Kenez empathy (sometimes he was very emotional in the videos) for the Russian people, who have and continue to suffer tremendously. thank you so much and greeting from Brussels!

I have learned many new things and I really liked the subject.

To follow this course you need some background information, such as what Stalinism is or who Marx is or Bolsjeviks are. I had some information learned at high school in the Netherlands, so i could follow it.

I advise to give a bit more attention to the cold war.I've learned other perspectives now, but for me I couldn't follow the origin and the development of it. It looked now if it only ended because of the major financial investments in military, but there were also other negotations I guess?

But I really liked the course and I'm curious to learn more about this country. I even bought a book:

frank westerman - engineers of the soul . You would like it (about the role of authors in the 20th century)

What a gem of a course! I loved everything about it. When I was a boy in the 1970s, my interest in history was kick started by an ITV series called 'The World at War', with Laurence Olivier as the narrator. It was fascinating to me. The thrill of listening to this series of lectures, reconnected me with the excitement and sense of wonder which I experienced back then. Peter Kenez has so much knowledge on this subject, and his presentation and treatment of the information was fascinating. I gained so much insight into the history of Russia and the events which shaped modern day Russia. Thank you for enriching my life and allowing me to see the world in new ways.

The material was presented in a very clear and coherent way. I knew a little about Russian history from my study of theatre. This course filled in many gaps and gave me a better understanding of the Russian people--more compassion for them than I already had. The lectures were excellent and the quizzes helped to re-enforce material covered in the lectures. The only thing I found disappointing was that there was no interaction in the discussion forums. The professor interacting with us or TAs interacting with us would have encouraged more students to get involved. In some classes I've learned almost as much in the discussion forums as from the lectures.

I cannot recommend this course more than giving it five stars. Actually a one-star review have sparked my interest to go through the history of my motherland from the perspective of the foreign professor. Reviewer claimed that professor is biased towards Putin and watches Russia Today all the time. It cannot be further from the truth! After listening week three I am convinced that this "reviewer" is actually a Kremlin-paid-troll whose only aim to discredit this material.

The story is filled with empathy to russian people and I am genuinely grateful to professor Kenez for sharing these lectures and his efforts to shed light on troubled russian history.

Encuentro que es un curso fantástico. Para empezar la metodología es muy cómoda. Los vídeos están muy bien hechos. No es que sean una gran producción, pero me gusta el hecho de que se grabe al profesor hablando (lo hace más cercano) y se combine con imágenes (te ayuda mucho a hacerte una idea de lo que se está hablando). Otra cosa que me ha gustado es que los vídeos hablan de una sola idea: esto es genial porque puede profundizar en ella a la vez que son vídeos cortos. Es un curso que recomendaría.

I came across this course as a second thought. I don't know anything about Russian History aside from the very basics and what one can catch from watching the news. However, to listen to Peter Kenez speak is a blessing. He is informative without being pedantic and does something that is often taken for granted, he passes on his passion for the subject to the students. I am now incredibly interested in Russian history, even as far as implementing it into my work. Thank you Coursera!