American historian and publisher who documented Stalin's last conspiracy
'There should be a major film, and it should be called Gulag. This is the greatest catastrophe of the 20th century.'
American publisher and historian who founded the Annals of Communism series at Yale University Press in 1991, bringing newly opened Soviet archives to Western readers for the first time. His 2003 book Stalin's Last Crime, co-authored with Vladimir Naumov, drew on previously closed KGB and presidential archives to reconstruct the Doctors' Plot and argue that Stalin was planning a mass deportation of Soviet Jews and a new wave of terror on the eve of his death. Since 2009 he has served as executive director of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, leading efforts to preserve Eastern European Jewish heritage.
Career Timeline
- 1981–1991Editor-in-Chief and Director, Northwestern University Press
- 1981Founded the literary journal Formations
- 1991–2009Editorial Director and Associate Director, Yale University Press; founded Annals of Communism series
- 2003Published Stalin's Last Crime (with Vladimir Naumov)
- 2004–Visiting Alger Hiss Professor of History and Literature, Bard College
- 2008Published Inside the Stalin Archives
- 2009–CEO and Executive Director, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research