Suny, Ronald Grigor
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Ronald Grigor Suny (born September 25, 1940) is an American-Armenian
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...
and
political scientist Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
. Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History Emeritus at the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
and served as director of the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies, 2009 to 2012 and was the
Charles Tilly Charles Tilly (May 27, 1929 – April 29, 2008) was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was a professor of history, sociology, and social science at the Uni ...
Collegiate Professor of Social and Political History at the University of Michigan from 2005 to 2015, William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History (2015–2022), and is
Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...
of
political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...
and
history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. Suny was the first holder of the
Alex Manoogian Alexander Manoogian (; June 28, 1901 – July 10, 1996) was an Armenian-American industrial engineer, businessman, and philanthropist who spent most of his career in Detroit, Michigan. He was the founder of the Masco Corporation, which in 1969 w ...
Chair in Modern Armenian History at the
University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, after beginning his career as an assistant professor at
Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...
. He served as chairman of the Society for Armenian Studies (SAS) in 1981 and 1984. He was elected president of the
American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...
(AAASS) in 2005 and given the
Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...
(ASEEES) Distinguished Contributions to Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Award in 2013. He has received the
National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...
Grant (1980–1981), the
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated dis ...
(1983–1984), and a Research and Writing Grant, Program on Global Security and Sustainability, from the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private foundation that makes grants and impact investments to support non-profit organizations in approximately 117 countries around the world. It has an endowment of $7.6 billion and ...
(1998–1999), and was twice a fellow at the
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research institution at Stanford University designed to advance the frontiers of knowledge about human behavior and society, and contribute to the resoluti ...
at
Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
(2001–2002, 2005–2006). He was a 2013
Berlin Prize The Berlin Prize is a residential fellowship at the Hans Arnhold Center, awarded by the American Academy in Berlin to scholars and artists. Each year, about 20 fellows are selected. The stated mission of the program is to improve the transatlan ...
Fellow at the
American Academy in Berlin The American Academy in Berlin is a private, independent, nonpartisan research and cultural institution in Berlin dedicated to sustaining and enhancing the long-term intellectual, cultural, and political ties between the United States and German ...
.


Life

Suny was born to an
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...
family in
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
. Growing up there and in Broomall, Pennsylvania, with his sister Linda Suny Myrsiades (b. 1941), Suny acted in plays both in high school and college as well as at his uncle Mesrop Kesdekian's summer stock theater, Green Hills Playhouse, outside of
Reading, Pennsylvania Reading ( ; ) is a city in Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. The city had a population of 95,112 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, fourth-most populous ...
. His interest in Russian and Soviet history and the history of the South Caucasus (
Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...
,
Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...
, and
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
) came from stories his father, Gurken (George) Suny (19101995), told about growing up in
Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი, ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), ( ka, ტფილისი, tr ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia ( ...
before and during the
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...
. Although his father, a drycleaner and Armenian chorus director, was not involved in politics, he was sympathetic to the efforts to build
socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
in the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. His mother, Arax Kesdekian Suny (19172015), a homemaker who was also involved in family businesses, encouraged Suny to become a historian rather than an actor. Suny graduated from
Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the e ...
in 1962, and earned his Ph.D. from
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
in 1968 where he was trained primarily by the Armenian historian
Nina Garsoïan Nina G. Garsoïan (April 11, 1923 – August 14, 2022) was a French-born American historian specializing in Armenian and Byzantine history. In 1969 she became the first female historian to get tenure at Columbia University and, subsequently, b ...
, the Russian historian of the imperial period Marc Raeff, and the historian of the Social Democratic and workers' movement
Leopold H. Haimson Leopold Henri Haimson (1927 – December 18, 2010) was a Belgian-born American historian whose work focused on the history of the Soviet Union. For most of his career he taught at Columbia University . Haimson was born in Brussels to Russia ...
. His fields of study are the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and post-Soviet
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
;
nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...
;
ethnic conflict An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within so ...
; the role of emotions in
politics Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
;
South Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and West Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Armenia, ...
; and Russian/Soviet
historiography Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term ":wikt:historiography, historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiog ...
. He is a grandson of the
Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...
composer Grikor Mirzaian Suni. In 1971 he and the pianist and Suzuki piano teacher Armena Pearl Marderosian (19492012) were married, and they had three children: Grikor Martiros Suni (19781980), the biologist Sevan Siranoush Suni (b. 1982) and the anthropologist Anoush Tamar Suni (b. 1987).


Work

Suny first went to the USSR in the fall of 1964 with his uncle Ruben Suny and visited
Yerevan Yerevan ( , , ; ; sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia, as well as one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerev ...
and
Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
, as well as three cities –
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
,
St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea. The city had a population of 5,601, ...
, and
Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...
– where he had distant relatives on his father's side. The following year he spent ten months in Moscow and Yerevan on the official US-USSR cultural exchange program working on his dissertation on the revolution of 19171918 in
Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...
. His lifelong interest in the so-called "national question" was awakened by his experiences in the Caucasus and by the insights of his Soviet friend, journalist Vahan Mkrtchian, who pointed out that Soviet nationality policies had created rather than destroyed national consciousness and coherence in the non-Russian peoples. This approach radically contrasted with the orthodox view of Western social scientists during the
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
that the Soviet treatment of non-Russians was "nation-destroying" repression and
Russification Russification (), Russianisation or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians adopt Russian culture and Russian language either voluntarily or as a result of a deliberate state policy. Russification was at times ...
. As a modernist, constructivist understanding of the making of nations became more acceptable in academia in the 1980s and 1990s, Suny elaborated this approach in a series of articles and later lectures in 1991 at Stanford University, which were revised and published in his book ''The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union'' (
Stanford University Press Stanford University Press (SUP) is the publishing house of Stanford University. It is one of the oldest academic presses in the United States and the first university press to be established on the West Coast. It is currently a member of the Ass ...
, 1993)''.'' This new anti-primordialist paradigm became standard in the study of Soviet nationalities. Having written books on all three South Caucasian nations, Suny turned to the history of the Armenians in the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...
and accepted an offer from
Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...
to write a history of the
Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...
of 1915 for the centenary of the deportations and massacres during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. The book, '' "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide'' (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015), won the Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize from the ASEEES for the most important contribution to Russian, Eurasian, and East European studies in any discipline of the humanities or social sciences. Along with a Turkish colleague,
Fatma Müge Göçek Fatma Müge Göçek is a Turkish sociologist and professor at the University of Michigan. She wrote the book '' Denial of Violence'' in 2015 concerning the prosectution of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire and Turkey, for which she received the Mary ...
, and others, he organized and led the
Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship The Workshop for Armenian/Turkish Scholarship (WATS) is a group of scholars which is dedicated to transcending the nationalist historiography on the Armenian genocide and answering related questions. It first met in 2000. The workshop and the book ...
(WATS), which in a series of ten conferences from 2000 to 2017 brought Armenian,
Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...
,
Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...
, and other scholars together to investigate the Armenian genocide of 1915. For their work organizing WATS and fostering historical understanding between Armenians, Kurds, and Turks, Suny and Göçek were awarded the
Middle East Studies Association Middle East Studies Association (often referred to as MESA) is a learned society, and according to its website, "a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and enco ...
Academic Freedom Award in 2005. In the late 1980s, as the Soviet Union unravelled, Suny appeared numerous times as an expert in nationality issues on the McNeil-Lehrer News Hour,
CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening News broadcasting#Television, television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featu ...
,
CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...
,
RTTV RT, formerly Russia Today (), is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channels directed to audiences outside of Russia, as well as prov ...
,
Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...
, and National Public Radio. He has written for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', ''The Los Angeles Times'', ''
The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...
'', ''
New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...
'', ''Dissent'', the Turkish-Armenian newspaper in
Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
''Agos'', and other newspapers and journals. Suny's intellectual interests have centered on the non-Russian nationalities of the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
and the Soviet Union, particularly those of the South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia). The "national question" was a small area of study for many decades until peoples of the periphery mobilized themselves in the
Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to the country's dissolution in 1991. He served as General Secretary of the Commu ...
years. His aim has been to consider the history of imperial Russia and the USSR without leaving out the non-Russian half of the population, to see how multi-nationality, processes of imperialism and nation-making shaped the state and society of that vast country. This in turn has led to work on the nature of empires and nations, studies in the historiography and methodology of studying social and cultural history, and bridging the gap between the traditional concerns of historians and the methods and models of other social scientists. He worked for more than three decades on a biography of the young
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
â€
''Stalin: Passage to Revolution''
(Princeton University Press, 2020) ''–'' which won honorable mention in the competition for the Vuchinich Prize in 2021 and was awarded the Isaac and Tamara Deutscher Memorial Prize for the book which in the past year "exemplifies the best and most innovative new writing in or about the
Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
tradition." He is currently researching and writing a monograph, ''Forging the Nation: The Making and Faking of Nationalisms.''


Reception

Sebouh Aslanian described ''Looking toward Ararat'' as "arguably the most widely acclaimed work on Armenian history published in the West." In Armenia, Suny, along with other diaspora Armenian scholars, was attacked for challenging the nationalist historiography of Soviet and post-Soviet writers in the Armenian republic.
Zori Balayan Zori Hayki Balayan (, born February 10, 1935) is an Armenian novelist, journalist, sports doctor, traveler and sports expert. He was awarded the "Renowned master of the Arts" an Armenian official title. Biography Balayan was born in Stepanaker ...
considered Suny's ''Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History'' as being a
pasquinade A pasquinade or pasquil is a form of satire, usually an anonymous brief lampoon in verse or prose, and can also be seen as a form of literary caricature. The genre became popular in early modern Europe, in the 16th century, though the term had b ...
. In 1997, after an appearance at a conference at the
American University of Armenia The American University of Armenia (AUA) (, Õ€Ô±Õ€; ''Hayastani amerikyan hamalsaran'', ''HAH'') is a private, independent university in Yerevan, Armenia that is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and Un ...
, Suny was accused by nationalist historians of lacking Armenian patriotism and using unverifiable evidence in his claim that
Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
dominated in the population of Yerevan at the turn of the twentieth century. Suny defended his view by arguing that the data came from imperial Russian censuses and had previously been used by serious Armenian historians in the West like
George Bournoutian George A. Bournoutian (; ‎; 25September 1943 – 22 August 2021) was an Iranian-American professor, historian, and author of Armenian descent. He was a professor of history and the author of over 30 books, particularly focusing on Armenian ...
and
Richard G. Hovannisian Richard Gable Hovannisian (, November 9, 1932 – July 10, 2023) was an American historian and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is known mainly for his four-volume history of the First Republic of Armenia, and for his ad ...
. In 1998, Armenian historian
Armen Ayvazyan Armen Ayvazyan () (born May 14, 1964, Yerevan) is an Armenian historian and political scientist. Ayvazyan is the director of the Ararat Center for Strategic Research and senior researcher in the Matenadaran, the Yerevan Institute of Medieval Man ...
published the book ''The History of Armenia as Presented in American Historiography'', a significant part of which was dedicated to criticizing Suny's ''Looking Toward Ararat''.


Selected publications

*''The Baku Commune, 1917–1918: Class and Nationality in the Russian Revolution'' (
Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...
, 1972); *''Armenia in the Twentieth Century'' (
Scholars Press A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a terminal ...
, 1983); *''The Making of the Georgian Nation'' (
Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...
, 1988, 1994); *''Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History'' (Indiana University Press, 1993); *''The Revenge of the Past: Nationalism, Revolution, and the Collapse of the Soviet Union'' (Stanford University Press, 1993); *''The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States'' (
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1998, 2011). *"Constructing Primordialism: Old Histories for New Nations," ''
The Journal of Modern History ''The Journal of Modern History'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering European intellectual, political, and cultural history, published by the University of Chicago Press. Established in 1929, the journal covers events from appro ...
'' Vol. 73, No. 4, December 2001 *'' "They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else": A History of the Armenian Genocide''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015.
The Hamidian Massacres, 1894–1897: Disinterring a Buried History
'' Études arméniennes contemporaines'', 11, 125–134. 2018. *''Red Flag Unfurled: History, Historians and the Russian Revolution'' (
Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of ''New Left Review'' (NLR) and includes Tariq Ali and Perry Anderson on its board of directors. According to its webs ...
, 2017). *''Red Flag Wounded: Stalinism and the Fate of the Soviet Experiment'' (Verso Books, 2020). *''Stalin: Passage to Revolution'' (Princeton University Press, 2020) Co-author *with Valerie A. Kivelson, Russia's Empires (Oxford University Press, 2017).


Editor

*''Transcaucasia, Nationalism and Social Change: Essays in the History of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia'' ( Michigan Slavic Publications, 1983;
University of Michigan Press The University of Michigan Press is a university press that is a part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earn ...
, 1996) and *''The Structure of Soviet History: Essays and Documents'' (Oxford University Press, 2003, 2013); *''
The Cambridge History of Russia ''The Cambridge History of Russia'' is a multi-volume survey of Russian history published by Cambridge University Press (CUP). Volumes * Vol. 1. ''From Early Rus' to 1689'' edited by Maureen Perrie, covering Russian history before Peter th ...
'', vol. 3: ''The Twentieth Century'' (
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...
, 2006).


Coeditor

*''Party, State, and Society in the Russian Civil War: Explorations in Social History'' (Indiana University Press, 1989); *''The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik Victory: Visions and Revisions'' ( D. C. Heath, 1990); *''Making Workers Soviet: Power, Culture, and Identity'' (
Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. It is currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, maki ...
, 1994); *''Becoming National'' (Oxford University Press, 1996); *''Intellectuals and the Articulation of the Nation'' (University of Michigan Press, 1999); *''A State of Nations: Empire and Nation-making in the Age of Lenin and Stalin'' (Oxford University Press, 2001).


References


External links


Faculty page at University of Chicago
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suny, Ronald Grigor 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers American political scientists Historians of Armenia Historians of Georgia (country) Historians of Russia Historians of the Soviet Union Historians of the Caucasus Historians of the Armenian genocide American writers of Armenian descent University of Chicago faculty University of Michigan faculty Oberlin College faculty Swarthmore College alumni Columbia University alumni Educators from Philadelphia Historians from Pennsylvania American male non-fiction writers Deutscher Memorial Prize winners 1940 births Living people