USEM 1570

Professor Yuri is a super nice professor, and is very helpful. This class is 100% and easy A. Tests can be difficult, but he puts a massive curve on them, for instance a 50% will get you a B. If you study for a few hours, the tests will be pretty easy. Assigns a ton of reading each week that you can skim through or just read a few pages of to create your question for that week. I would recommend doing the first few readings about the origin of the Russian empire because that info is difficult to find elsewhere. Lectures are pretty boring unless you love Russian history, but you still need to participate so basically say one or two things to contribute to discussion each class. Class covers time from the Origin of the Russian empire to Present day Russia, but you really don't learn about present day relations. Overall, 100% would recommend taking as it is sort of interesting, but mostly because it is an easy A.

Professor Yuri is an amazing person/professor. The problem is that any class that is as long is this one is bound to get dry/boring however Professor Yuri is understanding and allows two breaks so we don't lose our minds. It is the easy A it is advertised to be. All you have to do is show up, discuss what he teaches and ask questions and that's it. There was a requirement that we upload questions on SIS after every reading...however I didn't do a single one and still got an A. The exams were on the computer and there was only two of them. Most people in the class got an A or A- while doing pretty much nothing. You do do a presentation during the course but it takes maybe less than an hour and you speak on it maybe 10 minutes max. After that it is discussion.

When you take a look at this class the first thing you think is that yes this is a super easy A. It's a University Seminar it really shouldn't be too difficult. Well, let's begin with the issues I had with the class. The subject is super super dry, I'm talking reading off powerpoint after powerpoint. There is way too much information, yes we have to understand the history of Russia but we literally go from the beginning of the empire to modern day. Those 3 and 1/2 hours go so slowly, and Professor Urbanovich knows that everyone is doing work for other classes on their laptops while he talks. There are weekly discussion points we have to post which everyone BS's because no one does the readings. If you were to do the readings expect 2-3 hours of reading a week. When it comes to the midterm and finals Professor Urbanovich tells everyone to not worry about the specifics, but on those exams he asks specific years events happen and questions where he'll put a quote and ask who said it. It is way too difficult of an exam for a USEM, and yes he will curve the heck out of it. In the end, yes you may get a decent grade (I got an A- while averaging around a 57 on both exams) but this class is not worth it. There are plenty of other easy A's where you will learn much more and find more interesting. Professor Urbanovich himself is a great guy, but this class just was not worth it.

Yuri has a very interesting perspective on current events and history that you can't get anywhere else. He served as a Soviet diplomat before the fall of the Soviet Union after all. He does tend to approach things from a more pro-Russian perspective, but is fairly open to debate. Most of all, he's extremely nice and a very easy grader.

I really loved Yuri. He was a phenomenal professor who really changed my perspective in the world. I did read all the texts but I will say it isn't necessary to get a good grade. Yuri has a great background and knows the topic better than anyone. He really cares about the students and I believe the median for my USEM was an A-. If you show up and try a little, you'll get an A.

Very low work load, you don't have to do any of the assigned readings but if you were to do all of them, it would take 5 hours a week or so. The professor is terrible at lecturing and it is so hard to pay attention for the 2.5 hours. That being said, I don't know anyone who didn't get an A in the class. You could literally leave test questions blank or write "I don't know" and he would give you an A because he's a really nice and generous man. You won't learn anything but you will get an A.