Anyone interested in learning about Russia/other countries' political culture and process should absolutely take this class. Treisman is a wonderful professor; he is extremely passionate about Russia and lectures were always engaging. The reading was pretty average for an upper division political science class (50-100/week), but I found most of them to be pretty interesting. Overall would definitely recommend his class.

Professor Treisman is a wonderful professor. Each lecture was very clear and engaging as the curriculum was highly interesting and relevant. The class consists of two take-home essays that are graded very fairly and as long as you write good notes and do the readings, you'' do great! Highly recommend this class if offered.

If you're looking for an easy and interesting class, TAKE THIS CLASS. The course dives into Russia’s politics after communism, and Professor Treisman explains everything clearly and makes it easy to understand. The best part? He offers extra credit even on the tests and drops the lowest quiz scores. This course is stress-free and will boost your grade. Treisman is super supportive and makes lectures engaging and fun.

Seriously, if you want an easy A, this is the class to take. Trust that this course is a great choice!

Great class!! The professor is extremely professional, and very clear. I never doubted his instructions. He had a clear path with his lectures, and I learned a ton of valuable information. There is a bit of reading involved, but his book that is assigned is very interesting. I enjoyed it a lot!! Two papers and participation make up the grade, and my TA was extremely helpful and supportive.

While I'm not passionate about the politics of Russia, it was an informative class and definitely for you if you are a history nerd. There was only one assignment for the entire class (a midterm essay) because the final was made optional due to the strike, and he gave two options for the essay which was nice. It was also open book and we had about a week to complete it. The readings and lectures were essential to answering the essay question. The grading was more than fair.

I loved this course and professor Treisman SO MUCH. By far my favorite political science course I have taken in my years at ucla. The course is very well organized, with a generous 30% of the grade being based on discussion attendance/participation, 30% midterm paper( 5 pages and you get to choose the topic out of a few choices), 40% final paper (5 pages and you get to choose between topics again). The best part of this course was definitely professor Treisman, the man is incredibly knowledgable, a great lecturer, and has so much experience in the field. He has published multiple books and articles on Russia, and is one of the leading specialists on the subject in the US. During lectures he told us stories of meeting several US presidents, Putin, and other political leaders and acting as an advisor to the State Dept. It was a treat to listen to someone so knowledgable and passionate during his well crafted lectures, and I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with the prof during his office hours. The grading was very easy as well with the TA's doing the grading of the papers to a pretty lenient rubric. Overall a really cool class to take, and a treat to learn from someone as knowledgeable in the subject as the prof. Honestly a pretty easy upper div pol sci course if you listen to the lectures and do some minimal readings.

This political science class is soooo boring. I legit almost fell asleep during lecture a few times. The format of the class is not engaging. During lecture, professor only talks about the material, so get ready to take ALOT of notes. There is a lot of reading that is assigned. Section is mandatory and can be engaging sometimes. The material of this course is a mix of interesting and absolutely useless. Grading was based on section participation, midterm, and final (both 5 page essays) however with TA strike going on, final was option which was awesome. When it came to the midterm, you have to cite material and I found it rather difficult to build an argument when there was a bunch of sources telling you different things. I also found the TAs to grade the midterms unfairly. Overall, this take this class if you want low workload except when it comes to cramming for the midterm and final essay.

PS156 with Professor Treisman is one of the best classes I've taken at UCLA. His lectures are very engaging and he makes sure to pause frequently, allowing students to ask questions. The lectures are very well-paced and organized.

The course consists of a midterm, a final, and participation in the sections (occasional quizzes & traditional participation). The midterm and the final are both single essays that ask you to synthesize lecture and reading material to answer a broad question about Russian politics/government. The reading load can sometimes appear overwhelming, but the material is quite engaging and interesting, even though it tends to be quite dense and hefty.

I would highly recommend this class to anyone interested in Russian politics. It's a fascinating subject, and Professor Treisman's organized, well-paced lectures and the interesting readings he assigns are very conducive to student learning. Understanding of the subject and success in the class are dependent on engagement with the readings though, so reading everything assigned is absolutely critical in doing well on the exams.

This isn't the easiest PS class you'll take but it's straightforward. My TA (Blum) was pretty strict on participation so make sure you participate in section (but that depends on the TA of course. If you go to TA office hours it helps. Readings could be pretty long and quizzes were kinda difficult. The paper and midterm, however, are both papers and not difficult! Overall, a lot of work but not super difficult

Treisman is a really interesting lecturer and is really knowledgeable. The midterm is a 5 page paper and so is the final. There was no class at all the week of the midterm. Discussion participation is important because it's 30% of your grade. I'd recommend this class for an interesting political science upper div.