Spring 2027

Soviet Life and Culture Through Literature and Art (from 1917)

Examines postrevolutionary Russian and Soviet visual arts, architecture, music, and cinema, offering an inside view of life under socialism through selected readings in Soviet literature.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Jennifer Tishler3.3/5

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Jennifer Tishler

Past students described the class as having 200-level content taught at an advanced rigor, with mandatory attendance and strict rules against using electronic devices.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Identify and summarize important features of Russian cultural history of the Soviet period, with an emphasis on the interaction between politics and culture between 1917 and 1991.

  • Identify and summarize significant works of Russian “high art” (e.g., painting, literature, film) as well as mass culture or popular culture (the culture of the everyday) and to think about the connections between them.

  • Demonstrate knowledge about Russian Soviet culture in writing and discussion.

  • Students will be able to think more critically about the “functions” (artistic, social, and political) of Russian Soviet culture through discussions and writing assignments.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Sophomore standing

  • Sophomore standing
LITTRANS 234

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

Prerequisite text tree
  • Sophomore standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.95/5 from 20 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.

For this course: 2.0/5 raw quality · 3.0/5 difficulty · 3 reviews

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

Past student reviews · Jennifer Tishler

Past students reported that Jennifer Tishler tracked attendance for a grade and prohibited electronic devices. She assessed the course with three exams and five essays, while one reviewer described lectures as unelaborated slide notes. Feedback indicated she was not an easy grader, requiring more than minimal effort to succeed.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.88 GPA, 95.8% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.80 GPA, 95.7% A/AB (n=23 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.73 GPA, 92.3% A/AB (n=13 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Past student reviews · Galina Lapina

Galina Lapina taught this course with a passion for Soviet literature, drawing on her authentic background. Students found her friendly and helpful, noting that the class involved writing papers on Russian novels and taking blue book exams. While opinions varied on grading, completing the readings and taking the assessments seriously was generally sufficient for success.

GALINA LAPINA is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Spring 2015, Spring 2016, Spring 2017. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JENNIFER TISHLER is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2026. 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 / 300

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 · Jennifer Tishler

Students described Dr. Tishler as a nice instructor who tracked attendance, noting that putting more than minimal effort into the class led to good outcomes.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.88 GPA, 95.8% A/AB (n=24 letter grades); Spring 2024: 3.80 GPA, 95.7% A/AB (n=23 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.73 GPA, 92.3% A/AB (n=13 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Jennifer Tishler

Past students described the class as having 200-level content taught at an advanced rigor, with mandatory attendance and strict rules against using electronic devices.

Past student reviews · Jennifer Tishler

One student found lectures repetitive of slide notes and criticized arbitrary assignments, while noting the course required three exams and five essays.

Topics

  • Postrevolutionary Russian and Soviet visual arts, architecture, music, and cinema.
  • Life under socialism and selected readings in Soviet literature.
  • Interaction between politics and culture in Russia from 1917 to 1991.

Skills

  • Identify and summarize features of Russian cultural history and the interaction between politics and culture from 1917 to 1991.
  • Analyze connections between Russian high art and mass or popular culture.
  • Critically evaluate the artistic, social, and political functions of Russian Soviet culture.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— 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 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Not enough comparable courses for Spring 2027 in UW–Madison.

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
LITTRANS 234 · Spring 2027

Soviet Life and Culture Through Literature and Art (from 1917)

Recorded 2026-10-29
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261029T213040-0fa85c20",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:551:011389",
    "course_id": "LITTRANS 234",
    "course_uid": "course_71b46f4cb101c06629b1d477",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "011389",
    "source_subject_id": "551",
    "title": "Soviet Life and Culture Through Literature and Art (from 1917)",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Spring"
  }
]
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 2026-10-29

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": "b670d1295a2b2b606f180d2968c1807f73d9f416dcc9fb3d2108a627d53d0f92",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "c9cd06eaa45f9ddf7e69faa38b89ff3d3dd995dd",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-29 21:30:40.248904+00:00"
}