The historian whose archival discoveries rewrote the study of the Tito-Stalin split
A Soviet and Russian historian specializing in modern Yugoslav history and Cold War international relations in Eastern Europe. From 1966 at the Institute of Slavic Studies, he was among the first to exploit newly opened Soviet archives in the late 1980s, unearthing records of Stalin's meetings with Yugoslav and Bulgarian communist leaders (1946–1948) that laid the documentary foundation for the post-Cold War reassessment of the Tito-Stalin split. His several hundred publications include the co-edited volume The Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe, 1944–1949 (1997) with Norman Naimark and the annotated Cominform conference minutes, earning him international recognition.
Career Timeline
- 1960Graduated from Moscow State University, History Faculty (Southern and Western Slavs)
- 1962–1966Postgraduate studies, Institute of Slavic Studies, USSR Academy of Sciences
- 1966–2022Researcher, senior researcher, head of International Relations sector (1990–1993), leading researcher, Institute of Slavic Studies RAS
- 1987Published The Soviet Union and the New Yugoslavia, 1941–1947
- 1997Co-edited The Establishment of Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe, 1944–1949 with Norman Naimark
- 1998Co-edited The Cominform Conferences, 1947, 1948, 1949: Documents and Materials
- 2014Editorial board and preface, USSR-Yugoslavia Summit Meetings, 1946–1964
- 2021Awarded the Sreznevsky Gold Medal of the Institute of Slavic Studies