Writing this years later but I remember the class being ridiculously easy but also pretty boring - at least to me. It's good for people interested in film or Russian history, because the professor is also not the most engaging lecturer. So unless you're really interested in the subject matter you may get bored, but if you're looking for an easy GE . . . this is it.

Professor Shneyder was a gem! he had great lectures and great assignments and was very passionate about what he was teaching.

If you consider yourself interested in movies, maybe you've flirted with the art-house genre, then it's imperative you take this class — you will get a lot out of it. A lot of people take this class cause they know it will be easy and they have no interest in watching old movies or talking about them, and for those people, I say: get out. You are going to be bored out of your mind, get nothing out of it, and overpopulate what would otherwise be a nice community of active and engaged students. Not that I discount other perspectives and people who don't like to speak up in discussion or class, but there were so many people I talked to who were extremely disinterested in the content, but knew it was an automatic A. It's just frustrating to see those kinds of people in a class such as this. Professor Shneyder is a gem, he is so kind, and I love the ideas he invoked in the survey of Russian film. 10 weeks is truly not enough, but I think he did a fantastic job curating the films we watch and provoking interesting questions about the material. My only critique is that I wish he interacted with the students more during lectures and lectured less. On the last day of class we had an inclusive conversation about the nature of "Russian film" and it was only then did I feel super excited to be surrounded by the film lovers in this class and we touched on some really interesting topics. This class would have worked much better with more hybrid seminar elements. The Slack page is a terrific addition to the class format, but I wish we could have had even more conversation during lecture and discussion, and it took a little while for people to get comfortable on Slack. Suryansu Guha is a funny and engaging TA, I enjoyed what he offered to the course as well. Both Shneyder and Guha are great during office hours I highly recommend you take advantage of those.

My favorite UCLA professor so far; he helps students a lot. You do not need to care about your grade because the professor gives A to everybody. TAKE THIS CLASS.

Professor Shneyder is a kind and understanding instructor. While the lectures could be a bit dry due to the lecture-heavy format, the content was interesting and informative. Having taken a few other USSR/Russia courses, I found some overlap in the material.

The course structure included five bi-weekly quizzes, three short reflection papers, a library book reflection assignment, an event report, and a final - a choice between a 7-8 page paper or a creative project.

Overall, the class was very manageable, with a light workload and easy assignments. I highly recommend this course!