Lynch is definitely a must-take Professor in the politics department. He has a wealth of information and is great at communicating it in lecture. During online classes, the class was made up of 3 ~2000 word essays. There was also two extra credit opportunities. I’m not sure if this class was offered during a normal semester if there was be tests or not. There is a lot of reading but I just skimmed them for the most part and then went back and read the ones that were relevant to my papers more in depth. I thought the papers were graded fairly - I did better on all of them than I thought I would. The only thing I found a bit challenging about this class is that the professor does not use many power points during the lectures. Rather, he just talks and I find that this can make it a little harder to take good notes, but that might just be me.

One of the most AMAZING CLASSES that I have taken at UVA. Very interesting class, you TRULY learn a lot about Russian politics. Very clear, organizing lectures. Grading: 3 essays in total.

Despite taking this class asynchronously, I really enjoyed Professor Lynch's lectures-- he has an incredible breadth of experience in the area of Russian Politics and brings unique content to the class as he shares his personal experiences of pre and post-soviet Russia. The class consisted of 3 papers, worth 20, 40, and 40%, respectively, with the option to complete one extra-credit essay to boost your final grade. With many opportunities to improve your grade, you can be assured an A-range grade if you do the necessary work. I enjoyed the content, and feel that I learned a lot in his lectures, even via a zoom recording. I imagine his in-person lectures would be very engaging.

This class is fantastic. Professor Lynch is a wonderful lecturer and does a great job presenting and engaging with students. The class is split into three major sections: post-Mongol invasion to the Russian Revolution, the Soviet period, and the post-Soviet period. You write three papers, one on each section, with the first being worth 20%, and the other two being worth 40% each. None are research papers, so you can use lecture notes and the readings to write your paper, each of which is 1500-2000 words. Even if you are not majoring or minoring in Politics or Russian, I would thoroughly recommend this course based on both the instructor and the course material.

Russian Politics was definitely the class I looked forward to the most in my schedule this semester. Lynch is a fantastic lecturer and his energy and obvious passion for the subject easily keep you paying attention during lecture. Obviously this course is really in depth so it is a bit difficult to keep up with the readings (they are very in-depth and detailed) but the material itself is quite interesting and you can tie a lot of the topics into other subjects (American History and Politics, Economics, Media Studies, Sociology, etc.)

The grading is quite hard. Even though this is a 3000 level class, he grades like a 4000 level/grad professor. He expects a lot from his students and I understand his expectations but his 2000 word-limit on his essays is somewhat frustrating compared to how much and how well he expects his students to discuss the material in the assignments (you have 3 throughout the semester and 1 extra credit essay). Overall, a definite must-take for any politics major and I encourage other students within other majors to break out of their usual class pattern and take his course as well.

I initially really enjoyed this class, but as the semester went on I grew to dislike the course more and more. Lynch is a fantastic lecturer and definitely knows his stuff, but his grading standards are a bit too rigid in my opinion and detract from the overall enjoyability of the class. He assigns three 8 page take-home essays (and one extra credit essay), and even though they seem relatively straight forward on the surface, he expects A LOT on the essays (not saying this is unfair, just that it seems a bit too much for a 3000 level politics course). On top of this, when I went to see Lynch in office hours he came across as a bit cold and calculated (although I will say that it may have just been an off day since most people I've talked to say he's super nice in office hours), so that didn't really help with my perception of the class. Overall, I'm not really sure if I would recommend this class. I think Lynch is a great lecturer and the material is interesting, but compared to other Russia/general politics classes I've taken at UVa, it just didn't really do much for me.

I took this class only to fulfill a requirement but found it fascinating- so much so that I will likely take classes on the topic in the future. Lynch is extremely passionate and knowledgeable (so much so that he went on his honeymoon to the USSR) and his excitement is contagious. Lectures were a great mix of anecdotes but still very much connected to a larger theme. All exams are in the form of take home essays (there are three and then an optional extra credit one). I found grading to be fair- the only especially challenging aspect of this course is the amount of reading (typically 200 pages a week).

Professor Lynch was very knowledgeable about the subject and he was always very excited to come into lecture. Russian politics is very interesting, but it is essential to read before lecture or you might get lost. I did not learn this until later on in the semester and as such I did not have a strong hold on the early material. I would definitely recommend this class. It is not an easy A but Lynch and his TAs are fair and you can get a B or B+ with a decent amount of effort.

Open note exams and a great lecturer. if youre interested in the region, take this class

At the beginning of the semester I did not like this class and did not think I was going to enjoy it. However, as the year went on I realized how great of a professor Lynch was, and the subject matter got better after the first assignment. I think this was a great class, you learn a lot, and although it is difficult, Lynch usually gives extra credit chances - use these!