1941–
A biographer who reshaped the study of Soviet leadership
In the biography's preface Taubman called Khrushchev "a complex man whose story combines triumph and tragedy for his country as well as himself."
William Taubman is an American political scientist and historian of Soviet politics and the Cold War. After years of research, he published Khrushchev: The Man and His Era in 2003, a biography that won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. The book presents Khrushchev as both an heir to and a critic of Stalinism, placing the secret speech at the Twentieth Party Congress within the leader’s character and institutional setting. Taubman also wrote studies of Gorbachev and Stalin’s American policy, tracing the relationship between Soviet leadership and international politics.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1962B.A., Harvard University
- 1965M.A., Columbia University, and Certificate of the Russian Institute
- 1969Ph.D. in political science, Columbia University
- 1982Published Stalin’s American Policy
- 2003Published Khrushchev: The Man and His Era
- 2004Won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography for Khrushchev
- 2009President of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies
- 2017Published Gorbachev: His Life and Times
Related historical events
- 1956.02The Twentieth Party Congress and the Secret Speechauthor of the Khrushchev biographyHis 2003 biography analyzes the context and impact of the secret speech.
- 1985–1991Perestroika and GlasnostHistorian of Gorbachev’s reformsHis biography treats Gorbachev’s reforms through both his character and leadership politics.
- 1991The August Coup and the Collapse of the USSRBiographer who traced the August coupHis biography traces the hardliners’ August 1991 coup attempt through Gorbachev’s resignation at the end of the year.
The Gorbachev biography and the Soviet Union’s dissolution
In 2017 Taubman published Gorbachev: His Life and Times, his second biography of a Soviet leader after his study of Khrushchev. Drawing on Russian and Soviet archives, memoirs, and diaries, the book follows Gorbachev’s life and the Soviet Union’s fitful move toward democracy and eventual dissolution in near day-by-day detail. Taubman and his wife, Jane Taubman, interviewed Gorbachev in Moscow eight times; Taubman combined the interviews with accounts from other participants, their memoirs, and documentary evidence.
The biography treats Gorbachev’s reforms through both his character and leadership politics. Taubman describes him as trying to bring together Communist hardliners and radical democrats to democratize the Soviet Union and move its economy from central planning toward a market system. His confidence and optimism helped sustain these ambitions, but also shaped their limits. As NPR’s review summarizes the book, Gorbachev moved the country in a more democratic direction but failed to improve the economy, a major factor in the failure of his reform effort. Taubman traces events from the hardliners’ August 1991 coup attempt to Gorbachev’s resignation at the end of that year, incorporating associates’ views and private records. The biography also sets Western admiration for Gorbachev against criticism in Russia over the Soviet Union’s collapse and the upheaval that followed, addressing both his aims and the contested consequences of his leadership.