This programme consists of two substantive core courses (taken in semester 1):
* State and society under communism: social and economic frameworks
* Thematic issues in Russian, Central and East European studies.
Two other courses chosen from this list of options (taken in semester 2):
* Changing state and society in Central Europe
* Economic transformation in Central East Europe
* Gender and identity in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia
* Post-Soviet Russia: renegotiating global and local identities
* Globalisation and the new security agenda in Central and Eastern Europe
* Society, environment and the concept of sustainable development in post-Soviet Russia
* Stalin and Stalinism
* Statehood and nationality in Central and Eastern Europe
* Research methods for studying Russia and Central and Eastern Europe
* A maximum of one outside option from a cognate department in the Faculties of Arts or Law, Business & Social Sciences.
Compulsory language training (Czech, Estonian, Latvian, Polish, Russian, Slovak or possibly Hungarian) is undertaken throughout the year and a dissertation (12,000-15,000 words) must be submitted at the end of the MSc programme.
The department offers you the opportunity to spend a month in the city of Ul'ianovsk which is situated in the middle-Volga region of the Russian Federation. The visit includes intensive Russian language classes and a full cultural programme including visits to Moscow and Kazan. Language/study trips to other countries in the region are also organised in June/July. Some financial support is available from the department to help students fund these trips.