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Steve KotkinAmerican historian, political scientist, Sovietologist, professor of history
Date of Birth: 17.02.1959
Country: ![]() |
Content:
- Stephen Kotkin: A Comprehensive Biography of an American Historian
- Early Life and Education
- Academic Career
- Research Interests
- Notable Works
Stephen Kotkin: A Comprehensive Biography of an American Historian
Stephen Mark Kotkin is an American historian, political scientist, Sovietologist, and professor of history at Princeton University. His research centers on the social history of Soviet society during the Stalinist era.
Early Life and Education
Born on February 28, 1959, in New York City, Kotkin earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Rochester in 1981. He subsequently pursued graduate studies under Martin Malia at the University of California, Berkeley, where he completed his master's degree in 1983.
Academic Career
Kotkin's international academic journey began with a research fellowship at Moscow State University in 1987. Upon completing his doctoral dissertation in 1988, he accepted an invitation from Yegor Ligachev, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, to visit the USSR in 1989.
In 1991, Kotkin joined the faculty of Princeton University as a professor of history. He established the university's Russian Studies program in 1995 and served as its director until 2002. Kotkin has also held visiting professorships at the Harriman Institute of Columbia University (2000-2001) and the University of Vienna (2015).
Research Interests
Kotkin's research interests span the social history of the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, the history of Siberia from the 18th to the 20th centuries, and the life of Stalin, which he has chronicled in a three-volume biography.
Notable Works
"Magnetic Mountain: Stalinism as a Civilization" (1995)"Stalin: Volume 1: Paradoxes of Power, 1879-1928" (2014)
"Stalin: Volume 2: Waiting for Hitler, 1929-1941" (2017)
"Stalin: Volume 3: To the End of Terror, 1940-1953" (Forthcoming)
Recognition and Awards
Kotkin has received numerous awards for his scholarship, including the American Historical Association's Herbert Baxter Adams Prize (1990), the Lionel Trilling Book Award (1996), the National Book Critics Circle Award (2014), and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography (2015). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations.