Stephen Cohen American historian Date of Birth: 25.11.1938 Country: USA

1. Biography of Stephen Cohen
2. Early Life and Education
3. Contributions to Soviet Studies
4. Current Work

Biography of Stephen Cohen

Stephen Cohen is an American historian of Jewish descent who specializes in the study of Soviet history. His primary focus is on the development of Soviet Russia after the October Revolution of 1917 and its relationship with the United States.

Early Life and Education

Stephen Cohen was born in 1938 in the state of Kentucky. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Economics and Public Policy from Indiana University in 1960. During his studies, Cohen participated in a six-week trip to five Soviet cities, which sparked his interest in Russian history.

After returning to Indiana University, Cohen began studying Soviet history under the guidance of renowned Sovietologist Robert C. Tucker. He followed Tucker to Princeton and then to Columbia University, where he chose the political biography of Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin as the topic for his dissertation. Cohen completed his dissertation in 1968 and published a book on Bukharin in 1973.

Contributions to Soviet Studies

In 1975, Cohen received a letter from Bukharin's son, Yuri Nikolaevich Larin, who had read Cohen's book about his father and invited him to the Soviet Union. After meeting with Cohen, Larin, together with journalist Evgeny Alexandrovich Gnedin, began working on the Russian translation of Cohen's book under the pseudonyms Yu. and E. Chetvergov. Cohen is respected in both Russian and American circles and has had significant interactions with Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, the former president of the USSR, and Svetlana Alliluyeva, Stalin's daughter.

Cohen's research and writings accurately predicted the period of perestroika, and he actively participated in public life in the Soviet Union. He joined the campaign for the restoration of Bukharin's reputation, initiated by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation in 1978, which garnered support from socialist and Eurocommunist parties worldwide. Cohen also collaborated with Bukharin's widow, Anna Mikhailovna Larina, in the rehabilitation of her repressed husband in 1988.

Current Work

Today, Cohen is a professor of Russian history at the New York University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He has authored several books, including "Rethinking the Soviet Experience: Politics and History Since 1917" and "Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia." His most well-known work is "Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography, 1888-1938," which challenges the views of Isaac Deutscher and Edward Carr, who considered Leon Trotsky as the sole alternative to Stalinism in the USSR. Cohen presents the concept of a "Bukharin alternative," which advocates for increased intra-party democracy, continuation of the New Economic Policy, and voluntary collectivization.

Cohen's wife, Katrina vanden Heuvel, is the editor-in-chief of the renowned left-liberal publication "The Nation" and frequently publishes articles by her husband.