"the Greatest Russian Tragedy of the 20th Century": An Interview with Viktor Danilov (1925-2004) (History and Historians) (Interview‪)‬

Viktor Petrovich Danilov, who died suddenly and tragically in 2004, was a prolific and innovative historian who devoted his entire career to the study of the Soviet peasantry. (1) In June 2001, I interviewed him in connection with a radio documentary that I was then preparing on the &classification of Sovietera archives. I anticipated a conversation of 30 to 40 minutes, concentrating on the multivolume documentary publication Tragediia sovetskoi derevni (The Tragedy of the Soviet Countryside), of which Viktor Petrovich was the senior editor. (2) It soon became apparent, however, that he wanted to tell me more about his long career and the broader context in which he worked, first during the Khrushchev-era "Thaw," then in the ideologically restrictive Brezhnev era, and finally in the years of archival openness that began during perestroika. Having met with him on a number of occasions over the previous decade, I was familiar with much of the story that he related. I encouraged him to go into as much detail as he could. I knew that he had had similar conversations with other colleagues, at least one of which has been published, but to the best of my knowledge no other publication has given as much attention to the subjects we discussed. (3)