Marc Raeff (1923–2008) (pronounced RY-eff) was a specialist in
Russian history
The history of Russia begins with the histories of the East Slavs. The traditional start-date of specifically Russian history is the establishment of the Rus' people, Rus' state in the north in 862, ruled by Varangians. Staraya Ladoga and Veli ...
who taught at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, 1961–88. He held the Bakhmeteff chair in
Russian Studies.
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
historian
Richard Pipes
Richard Edgar Pipes ( yi, ריכארד פּיִפּעץ ''Rikhard Pipets'', the surname literally means 'beak'; pl, Ryszard Pipes; July 11, 1923 – May 17, 2018) was an American academic who specialized in Russian and Soviet history. He publish ...
says, "He was very much interested in the Western aspect of Russian culture. He was a pillar of Russian historical studies in this country."
Career
Raeff was born in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
July 28, 1923, and was the only child of Isaac and Victoria Raeff. Isaac Raeff was of Jewish heritage, but was not observant. Victoria Raeff's mother was Lutheran, and Victoria attended a Lutheran church in Kharkov as a child. His father was an
engineer
Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...
, and his mother was a
biochemical technician. The government sent his father to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
to oversee quality control on machinery destined for Russia. They refused to return to Moscow in 1927; in 1933 they moved to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. They emigrated to the U.S. in 1941.
Raeff attended schools in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
,
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, but he spoke Russian at home, with his parents. He wrote in English, French, German, and
Russian, and also read
Italian and
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
.
Raeff served in the
U.S. Army in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
as an interpreter in POW camps. He attended Harvard, working with Professor
Michael Karpovich
Mikhail Mikhailovich Karpovich (August 3, 1888 – November 7, 1959) was a Russian-American historian of Russia and one of the fathers of Slavic Studies in America.
Biography
Early years
Mikhail Mikhailovich Karpovich was born August 3, 1888 in ...
, who trained numerous scholars. He earned his Ph.D in 1950. He taught at
Clark University
Clark University is a private research university in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded in 1887 with a large endowment from its namesake Jonas Gilman Clark, a prominent businessman, Clark was one of the first modern research universities in the ...
from 1949 until 1961, when he moved to Columbia. He married Lillian Gottesman in 1951; they had two daughters, Anne and Catherine.
Raeff's research focused on the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
, with an emphasis on the Russian
intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the in ...
at home and in
diaspora
A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...
. Wirtschafter argues that he always "stressed the complexity and dynamism of the social and political arrangements that defined
Imperial Russia
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...
".
[Wirtschafter, (2009)] Raeff directed numerous Ph.D. dissertations. His teaching and writing were free of
ideological overtones during and after the Cold War. He was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...
in 1957. He published numerous articles and books.
Bibliography
* ''
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
and the Reforms of 1822'' (
University of Washington Press
The University of Washington Press is an American academic publishing house. The organization is a division of the University of Washington, based in Seattle. Although the division functions autonomously, they have worked to assist the universit ...
, 1956)
* ''
Michael Speransky
Count Mikhail Mikhailovich Speransky (russian: Михаи́л Миха́йлович Спера́нский; 12 January 1772 – 23 February 1839) was a Russian reformist during the reign of Alexander I of Russia, to whom he was a close advisor. ...
: Statesman of Imperial Russia, 1772–1839'' (
Martinus Nijhoff
Martinus Nijhoff (20 April 1894, in The Hague – 26 January 1953, in The Hague) was a Dutch poet and essayist. He studied literature in Amsterdam and law in Utrecht. His debut was made in 1916 with his volume ''De wandelaar'' ("The wanderer"). F ...
, 1957; 2nd ed., 1969)
* ''Origins of the Russian Intelligentsia: The Eighteenth-Century Nobility'' (
Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1966)
* ''Imperial Russia, 1682-1825: The Coming of Age of Modern Russia'' (Knopf, 1971)
* ''Comprendre l'Ancien Régime russe: État et société en Russie impériale'' (Paris: Seuil, 1982); translated as ''Understanding Imperial Russia: State and Society in the Old Regime'' (
Columbia University Press
Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...
, 1984)]
* ''The Well-Ordered
Police State: Social and Institutional Change through Law in the Germanies and Russia, 1600–1800'' (
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Universi ...
, 1983)
* ''Russia Abroad: A Cultural History of the Russian Emigration, 1919–1939'' (
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1990)
* ''Political Ideas and Institutions in Imperial Russia'' (
Boulder, CO: Westview, 1994); his essays; with bibliography of his work
* ''Politique et culture en Russie: 18e-20e siècles'' (Paris: Éditions de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 1996)
* ''The
Russian empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
: the
Romanovs and their books'' (1997)
* A bibliography of Raeff's works through 1987 is in Ezra Mendelsohn and Marshall Shatz, eds., ''Imperial Russia, 1700–1917: State, Society, Opposition. Essays in Honor of Marc Raeff'' (
Northern Illinois University Press, 1988).
* Molloy, Molly, ed. "Marc Raeff: A Bibliography (1993-2008)" ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian &
Eurasian
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...
History'' (2011) 12#1 pp 141–159.
Notes
Further reading
*Daly, Jonathan, “The Pleiade: Five Scholars Who Founded Russian Historical Studies in America,” ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History'' 18, no. 4 (Fall 2017): 785–826.
*Daly, Jonathan, ed., ''Pillars of the Profession: The Correspondence of Richard Pipes and Marc Raeff'' (Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston, 2019).
*Weber, Bruce. "Marc Raeff, Russian History Scholar, Dies at 85,
''New York Times,'' Sept 28, 2008, obituary* Wirtschafter, Elise Kimerling. "Marc Raeff (1923-2008) 'A Pebble in the Water,'" ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian & Eurasian History'' (2009) 10#1 pp 216–220
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raeff, Marc
20th-century American historians
20th-century American male writers
1923 births
Historians of Russia
2008 deaths
Harvard University alumni
American male non-fiction writers
Soviet expatriates in Germany
Soviet expatriates in France
United States Army personnel of World War II
Soviet emigrants to the United States