An Interview with Michael Confino (From the Editors) (Interview‪)‬

Our eagerness to interview Michael Confino in this ongoing series stemmed from his eminence as one of the greatest historians of Russian history and his cosmopolitan background and experiences. We also suspected, correctly as it turns out, that his historical interest in mentalities and psychological history might lead to an especially interesting autobiographical reflection on his extraordinary personal and scholarly life. As in the past, this was an "e-interview": we sent written questions to Professor Confino and received his responses by e-mail. Born in Sofia in 1926, Confino emigrated to Israel in 1948, after studying at the University of Sofia in 1945-48. He finished his studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1955-57) and in Paris, where he received his doctorate summa cure laude from the Sorbonne in 1959. Confino was then influential in the development of Russian Studies in Israel, founding and chairing the Department of Russian Studies at Hebrew University from 1964 to 1969 and doing the same for the Russian and East European Research Center at Tel Aviv University from 1971 to 1977. He served as president of the Israeli Association of Slavic and East European Studies in 1979-81, and from 1980 to 1995 he held the Samuel Rubin Chair of Russian and European History and Civilization at Tel Aviv University. He has also been a visiting professor or fellow at leading universities and research centers, first and foremost in the United States--at the University of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, and Duke, as well as the Kennan Institute and the National Humanities Center.