Alexander Dallin
Alexander D. Dallin | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 22 July 2000 | (aged 76)
Nationality | American |
Academic background | |
Thesis | German Policy and the Occupation of the Soviet Union, 1941–1944 (1953) |
Academic work | |
Discipline | Historian |
Alexander Davidovich Dallin (21 May 1924 – 22 July 2000) was an American
Early life and education
Dallin was born in
Dallin graduated from
Early career and Columbia years
During his graduate studies, Dallin joined the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System.[3] There he interviewed refugees and émigrés from the Soviet Union in order to better understand and evaluate the characteristics and workings of the Soviet system based on reports of those interviewed.[3][4] Dallin married the former Florence Cherry, the daughter of a Methodist minister, in 1953.[2][3][5] They raised three children, settling in Leonia, New Jersey.[1][2][5] During 1951–54, Dallin served as associate director for the Research Program on the USSR in New York.[3] From 1954 to 1956, he was director of research at the War Documentation Project in Washington and Virginia, analyzing captured German documents from the war.[2][3] Stemming in part from his interviews during the Harvard Project,[6] in 1957 Dallin published German Rule in Russia, 1941-1945, which became the classic, definitive account of the German occupation of parts of Russia during World War II.[1][4] It won the George Louis Beer Prize for European international history since 1895.[7]
In 1956, Dallin became an assistant professor of political science at Columbia University.[3] He subsequently became professor of international relations in 1961[3] and received the Adlai Stevenson chair in 1965.[1] Dallin was director of Columbia's Russian Institute from 1962 to 1967.[1] While at Columbia, he was recipient of one of the Guggenheim Fellowships awarded in 1961[8] and a Fulbright Hays fellowship in 1965–66.[2] He made several appearances as a presenter on the nationally broadcast television series Columbia Lectures in International Studies.[9] Dallin also served as a part-time consultant to the U.S. Government during much of the 1960s.[10] Marshall D. Shulman, who also served as director of the Russian Institute, later noted Dallin's objectivity, saying, "In a field riven by political controversy, he was universally respected as a voice of common sense and scholarly detachment rooted in a solid historical backing."[1]
Stanford years
In 1970, Dallin and his family left for the West Coast and he became a fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences and a visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley.[3] In 1971, he joined the faculty of Stanford University.[4] There Dallin became the Raymond A. Spruance Professor of International History and served as Director for the Center for Russian and East European Studies.[1] He was a Wilson Center fellow during 1978–79.[10] His first marriage ended in divorce and Dallin married Gail W. Lapidus, a senior fellow at Stanford's Institute for International Studies and a professor of political science.[6] The two would frequently collaborate on his later works.[4]
Dallin was frequently present in open-to-the-public Center for Russian and East European Studies seminars on campus where his expertise and talent were shared. The Faculty Senate at Stanford reported that Dallin "chaired virtually every major committee in the field".
Interested in reviving the social sciences in
Published works
- German Rule in Russia, 1941–1945: A Study of Occupation Policies (St. Martin's Press, 1957). Republished by Westview Press in 1981.
- Soviet Conduct in World Affairs. A Selection of Readings (Columbia University Press, 1960) [editor]
- The Soviet Union at the United Nations: An Inquiry into Soviet Motives and Objectives (Frederick A. Praeger, 1962).
- Diversity in International Communism: A Documentary Record, 1961–1963 (Columbia University Press, 1963) [editor, with Jonathan Harris and Grey Hodnett]
- Russian Diplomacy and Eastern Europe, 1914–1917 (King's Crown Press, 1963) [with others]
- The Soviet Union and Disarmament (Frederick A. Praeger, 1964) [with others]
- Politics in the Soviet Union: Seven Cases (Harcourt Brace, 1966) [editor, with Alan F. Westin]
- Soviet Politics since Khrushchev (Prentice Hall, 1968) [editor, with Thomas B. Larson]
- Political Terror in Communist Systems (Stanford University Press, 1970) [with George W. Breslauer]
- Women in Russia (Stanford University Press, 1977) [editor, with Dorothy Atkinson and Gail Warshofsky Lapidus]
- Black Box: KAL 007 and the Superpowers (University of California Press, 1985).
- The Gorbachev Era (Stanford Alumni Association, 1986) [editor, with Condoleezza Rice]
- U.S.-Soviet Security Cooperation: Achievements, Failures, Lessons (Oxford University Press, 1988) [editor, with Alexander L. George and Philip J. Farley]
- Between Totalitarianism and Pluralism: Articles on Russian and Soviet History, 1500–1991 (Garland Publishing, 1992) [editor]
- The Nature of the Soviet System (1992) [editor]
- Odessa, 1941–1944: A Case Study of Soviet Territory under Foreign Rule (Center for Romanian Studies, 1998)
- The Soviet System in Crisis (Westview Press, 1991); republished as The Soviet System: From Crisis To Collapse (Westview Press, 1994) [editor, with Gail W. Lapidus]
- Dimitrov and Stalin, 1934–1943: Letters from the Soviet Archives (Yale University Press, 2000) [editor, with F. I. Firsov]
- The Uses of History: Understanding the Soviet Union and Russia (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) [collection of essays, edited by Gail W. Lapidus]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Paul (July 27, 2000). "Alexander Dallin, 76, Dies; Precise Historian of Russia". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c d e f g Who's Who in America 1966–1967 (34th ed.). Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1966. p. 490.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Lapidus, Gail W. (2009). "Alexander Dallin: A Singular Voice". In Dallin, Alexander (ed.). The Uses of History: Understanding the Soviet Union and Russia. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 3–7.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Alexander Dallin dies; expert in Soviet and East European studies". Stanford Report. July 26, 2000.
- ^ a b "Church to Greet Its New Pastor". Delaware County Daily Times. June 14, 1961. p. 18.
- ^ a b c d e f "Memorial Resolution: Alexander Dallin". SenD#5220. Stanford Faculty Senate. June 6, 2001.
- ^ "George Louis Beer Prize Recipients". American Historical Association. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
- ^ "Search Results". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Archived from the original on January 7, 2014. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
- ^ Shanley, John P. (October 29, 1962). "2D Year Planned for TV 'Lectures'". The New York Times. p. 47. and "On Television This Week: Today's Television Previews". Asbury Park Press. July 7, 1963. p. 31 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c Who's Who in America 1984–1985 Volume 1 (43rd ed.). Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. 1984. p. 743.
Further reading
- "Obituaries: Alexander Dallin, 76, Ex-Stanford Scholar," San Jose Mercury News, July 26, 2000.
- 79: Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series, Gale Group, 1999.
- ISBN 978-1-78238-985-9.