Curriculum Vitae
Education
BA Knox College, 1971
MA Indiana University, 1972
PhD Indiana University, 1978
Research Interests
Donald J. Raleigh’s research and teaching interests focus on twentieth-century Russian history. As a political and social historian, he wrote extensively on the Russian Revolution, with a particular emphasis on local history (the Saratov region). He also closely followed the evolution of historical writing in the Soviet Union and in this capacity edited the journal Soviet (Russian) Studies in History and the monograph series, The New Russian History. Access to long-sealed Soviet archives shaped his later work on the Russian civil war as did his interest in cultural history. More recently, Professor Raleigh has practiced oral history in the post-WWII period and is currently exploring biography as a historical genre. During the summer of 2011, Professor Raleigh launched research on a biography of Soviet leader Leonid Ilich Brezhnev, who served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 until his death in 1982. Professor Raleigh has since conducted research in Moscow archives as well as in archives in Moldova and Kazakhstan. He also has contributed to a forthcoming publication of Brezhnev’s diaries to be released in Moscow.
Some Notable Publications
- Soviet Baby Boomers: An Oral History of Russia’s Cold War Generation (Oxford University Press, 2011)
- Russia’s Sputnik Generation: Soviet Baby Boomers Talk about Their Lives (Indiana University Press, 2006)
- Experiencing Russia’s Civil War: Politics, Society, and Revolutionary Culture in Saratov, 1917–1922 (Princeton University Press)
- Provincial Landscapes: Local Dimensions of Soviet Power (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2001)
- Revolution on the Volga: 1917 in Saratov (Cornell University Press, 1986)