An Interview with Leopold Haimson (Interview‪)‬

As readers may recall, Kritika has initiated an interview series, run in our "From the Editors" column, with leading figures in the Russian field, asking them to describe the state of the field from the perspective of their own life trajectories. In the past we have interviewed Dan Davidson, James Billington, and Marc Raeff. In this issue we continue our series in an interview with Leopold Haimson. Leopold Haimson is professor emeritus of the Department of History and the Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of Eurasia at Columbia University. He earlier taught at the University of Chicago for ten years, from 1956 to 1966. Having received his BA from Harvard University in 1945 (in history and philosophy) and his PhD there (in history and social relations) in 1952, he served for several years as a research associate for Studies in Soviet Culture and Communications, a project directed by Margaret Mead, and in this connection published several articles on Soviet civilization. (1) In 1955, his influential The Russian Marxists and the Origins of Bolshevism appeared, and he subsequently published a stream of important articles and edited volumes on Russian political culture generally and on the history of Menshevism in particular, from its origins to its vital life in emigration. (2) In 1964-65, his "The Question of Social Stability in Urban Russia, 1905-1917" appeared, a two-part article that set off one of the most productive and long-running debates in the field of modern Russian history. (3) While retaining an interest in political culture, Haimson moved in the 1970s and 1980s toward social and quantitative history, publishing articles in French and English on the dynamics of strike movements in a comparative perspective. (4) In these years he also edited an influential book on "the politics of rural Russia." (5) Beginning in the 1970s, he became increasingly active in Russian academic life. He continues to publish actively in both Russian and English. (6) He is currently completing a study on the relationship between political and social conflicts at the end of the old regime (1900-17).