Spring 2027

Russia: an Interdisciplinary Survey

Interdisciplinary survey of Russian civilization from its beginnings through the present day.

offering recorded4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Irina Shevelenko3.7/5

Summary

1 / 5

Past student reviews · Manon van de Water

Students completed weekly pop quizzes on readings and were required to attend external CREECA lectures, adding specific attendance demands to the standard workload.

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
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BC
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

None

  • None
GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SLAVIC 253

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • None

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 3.70/5 from 10 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.44 GPA, 70.0% A/AB (n=40 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.72 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=36 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

IRINA SHEVELENKO is recorded teaching in Spring 2023, Spring 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MANON VAN DE WATER is recorded teaching in Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Spring 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 800
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 200
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 800
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 200
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 800
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 200
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 800
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 302Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 303Classroom Instruction0 / 200
DIS 304Classroom Instruction0 / 200

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Manon van de Water

The course featured a unique structure where every lecture day involved a different guest lecturer, creating a varied but potentially fragmented learning experience.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2019: 3.32 GPA, 59.6% A/AB (n=47 letter grades); Spring 2023: 3.44 GPA, 70.0% A/AB (n=40 letter grades); Spring 2025: 3.72 GPA, 88.9% A/AB (n=36 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Manon van de Water

Students completed weekly pop quizzes on readings and were required to attend external CREECA lectures, adding specific attendance demands to the standard workload.

Past student reviews · Manon van de Water

Some students found the discussions, readings, and lectures to be somewhat disconnected from one another due to the rotating guest instructor format.

Topics

  • Russian civilization from its beginnings through the present day
  • Interdisciplinary approaches to Russian studies

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2025— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2025

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2025 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1286 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SLAVIC 253 · Spring 2027

Russia: An Interdisciplinary Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SLAVIC 253 · Spring 2027

Russia: An Interdisciplinary Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SLAVIC 253 · Spring 2027

Russia: An Interdisciplinary Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SLAVIC 253 · Spring 2027

Russia: An Interdisciplinary Survey

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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    "offering_id": "1274:416:015883",
    "course_id": "GEOG/HISTORY/POLISCI/SLAVIC 253",
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    "source_course_id": "015883",
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    "title": "Russia: An Interdisciplinary Survey",
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "b4a5bae7e607963746e47b0d8e81ecd683196c755e7ad7d9e62198c286f4c2fc",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}