Biography of Richard Pipes​
Richard Pipes was one of the most prolific and influential historians of Russia in the United States. He contributed pioneering work in the study of Russia as a multinational empire and advanced our understanding of its social, intellectual, and political development. Yet Pipes had an even greater impact in the field of Kremlinology. My book will recount the life of this fascinating scholar and public intellectual.
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Pipes's range was extraordinary. Recently I edited his translation of Turgenev's Prose Poem and uploaded it here.
Exile in Late Imperial Russia
No institution, practice, tradition, or mechanism of public discipline so obviously distinguishes Russia from other countries as exile in all its forms. The purpose of this article is to present detailed findings on exile in the last few decades of Imperial Russia (currently the least-studied epoch), to sketch out some comparisons across 1917, and to briefly explore the importance of exile for understanding Russian history.
Richard Pipes: Ethnicity, Culture, Russophobia, and Antisemitism
In this article, I will argue that Pipes distinguished between cultural and biological differences among historical actors, critiqued Russian and Soviet authoritarian governmental institutions and practices, grounded his interpretation of state-society relations in Russia in an analysis of its underlying and persistent political culture, articulated legitimate concerns about antidemocratic and antisemitic tendencies within that culture, and in general formulated historical judgments about Russia that must be reckoned with. Culture and ethnicity are key to understanding Pipes’s historical interpretations. Indignation at oppression motivated his scholarly engagement. His Jewish identity was central to his life and thinking as a historian.
Myths of the Russian Revolution
In the face of a massive popular uprising and troop mutinies, the 300-year-old Romanov Dynasty gave way in early 1917 to competing liberal and socialist contenders for political power. The purpose of this book is to dispel seven of persistent myths—falsehoods, distortions, misconceptions, half-truths, and oversimplifications—surrounding key developments of the Russian Revolution.
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With Leonid Trofimov
Frontier Agriculture and the Creation of Global Neo-Europes
In the late nineteenth century, five countries topped the list of global wheat exporters: Russia, the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Australia. All five benefited from ongoing technological innovations but could not have become breadbaskets of the world without some of the richest grassland on the planet. Their global output was spurred in large part by the booming industrial economy requiring vastly more grain for burgeoning urban labor forces. Although the Soviet collectivization drive derailed the Russian agricultural colossus, it was back on track and had reached the number one position in world wheat exports by 2018. The other four early breadbaskets remained in the top six, suggesting something like an environmental determinism at work.