# Marc Raeff
> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Marc_Raeff
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Marc_Raeff.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Raeff
> Source revision: 1288310653
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
{{short description|American historian (1923–2008)}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Marc Raeff
| native_name = {{nobold|Марк Исаевич Раев}}
| image =
| image_size =
| image_upright =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1923|7|28}}
| birth_place = Moscow, Soviet Union
| death_date = {{death date and age |2008|09|20|1923|7|28}}
| death_place = [Teaneck, New Jersey](/source/Teaneck%2C_New_Jersey), U.S.
| nationality =
| citizenship = Soviet, American
| workplaces = [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University)
| alma_mater = [Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University)
| doctoral_advisor = [Michael Karpovich](/source/Michael_Karpovich)
| doctoral_students =
| known_for =
| awards =
| spouse =
| children =
}}
'''Marc Raeff''' ({{langx|ru|Марк Исаевич Раев}}; July 28, 1923 – September 20, 2008) was a Soviet-born American historian. For most of his career he taught at [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) in [New York](/source/New_York_City), where he held the Bakhmeteff chair in [Russian studies](/source/Russian_studies).
[Harvard University](/source/Harvard_University) historian [Richard Pipes](/source/Richard_Pipes) says, "He was very much interested in the Western aspect of Russian culture. He was a pillar of Russian historical studies in this country."[Bruce Weber, "Marc Raeff, Russian History Scholar, Dies at 85," ''New York Times'', Sept 28, 2008]
==Career==
Raeff was born in [Moscow](/source/Moscow) on July 28, 1923, and was the only child of Isaac and Victoria Raeff. Isaac Raeff was of Jewish heritage, but was not observant. Victoria Raeff's mother was Lutheran, and Victoria attended a Lutheran church in Kharkov as a child. His father was an [engineer](/source/engineer), and his mother was a [biochemical technician](/source/biochemical_technician). The government sent his father to [Berlin](/source/Berlin) to oversee quality control on machinery destined for Russia. They refused to return to Moscow in 1927; in 1933 they moved to [Paris](/source/Paris). They emigrated to the U.S. in 1941.
Raeff attended schools in [German](/source/German_language), [French](/source/French_language) and [English](/source/English_language), but he spoke Russian at home, with his parents. He wrote in English, French, German, and [Russian](/source/Russian_language), and also read [Italian](/source/Italian_language) and [Polish](/source/Polish_language).
Raeff served in the [U.S. Army](/source/United_States_Army) in [World War II](/source/World_War_II) as an interpreter in POW camps. He attended Harvard, working with Professor [Michael Karpovich](/source/Michael_Karpovich), who trained numerous scholars. He earned his Ph.D. in 1950. He taught at [Clark University](/source/Clark_University) from 1949 until 1961, when he moved to Columbia. He married Lillian Gottesman in 1951; they had two daughters, Anne and Catherine.
Raeff's research focused on the [Russian Empire](/source/Russian_Empire), with an emphasis on the Russian [intelligentsia](/source/intelligentsia) at home and in [diaspora](/source/diaspora). Wirtschafter argues that he always "stressed the complexity and dynamism of the social and political arrangements that defined [Imperial Russia](/source/Imperial_Russia)".[Wirtschafter, (2009)] Raeff directed numerous Ph.D. dissertations. His teaching and writing were free of [ideological](/source/ideological) overtones during and after the Cold War. He was awarded a [Guggenheim Fellowship](/source/Guggenheim_Fellowships) in 1957. He published numerous articles and books.
==Bibliography==
* ''[Siberia](/source/Siberia) and the Reforms of 1822'' ([University of Washington Press](/source/University_of_Washington_Press), 1956)
* ''[Michael Speransky](/source/Michael_Speransky): Statesman of Imperial Russia, 1772–1839'' ([Martinus Nijhoff](/source/Martinus_Nijhoff), 1957; 2nd ed., 1969)
* ''Origins of the Russian Intelligentsia: The Eighteenth-Century Nobility'' ([Harcourt, Brace, and World](/source/Harcourt%2C_Brace%2C_and_World), 1966)
* ''Imperial Russia, 1682-1825: The Coming of Age of Modern Russia'' (Knopf, 1971)
* ''Comprendre l'Ancien Régime russe: État et société en Russie impériale'' (Paris: Seuil, 1982); translated as ''Understanding Imperial Russia: State and Society in the Old Regime'' ([Columbia University Press](/source/Columbia_University_Press), 1984)]
* ''The Well-Ordered [Police State](/source/Police_State): Social and Institutional Change through Law in the Germanies and Russia, 1600–1800'' ([Yale University Press](/source/Yale_University_Press), 1983)
* ''Russia Abroad: A Cultural History of the Russian Emigration, 1919–1939'' ([Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press), 1990)
* ''Political Ideas and Institutions in Imperial Russia'' ([Boulder, CO](/source/Boulder%2C_CO): Westview, 1994); his essays; with bibliography of his work
* ''Politique et culture en Russie: 18e-20e siècles'' (Paris: Éditions de l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales, 1996)
* ''The Russian empire: the [Romanovs](/source/Romanovs) and their books'' (1997)
* A bibliography of Raeff's works through 1987 is in Ezra Mendelsohn and Marshall Shatz, eds., ''Imperial Russia, 1700–1917: State, Society, Opposition. Essays in Honor of Marc Raeff'' ([Northern Illinois University Press](/source/Northern_Illinois_University_Press), 1988).
* Molloy, Molly, ed. "Marc Raeff: A Bibliography (1993-2008)" ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian & [Eurasian](/source/Eurasian) History'' (2011) 12#1 pp 141–159.
==Notes==
==Further reading==
*Daly, Jonathan, “The Pleiade: Five Scholars Who Founded Russian Historical Studies in America,” ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History'' 18, no. 4 (Fall 2017): 785–826.
*Daly, Jonathan, ed., ''Pillars of the Profession: The Correspondence of Richard Pipes and Marc Raeff'' (Leiden, The Netherlands, and Boston, 2019).
*Weber, Bruce. "Marc Raeff, Russian History Scholar, Dies at 85," [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/education/29raeff.html?_r=0 ''New York Times,'' Sept 28, 2008, obituary]
* Wirtschafter, Elise Kimerling. "Marc Raeff (1923-2008) 'A Pebble in the Water,'" ''Kritika: Explorations in Russian & Eurasian History'' (2009) 10#1 pp 216–220. [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/kritika/v010/10.1.wirtschafter.html online]
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raeff, Marc}}
Category:20th-century American historians
Category:20th-century American male writers
Category:1923 births
Category:Historians of Russia
Category:2008 deaths
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:Soviet expatriates in Germany
Category:Soviet expatriates in France
Category:United States Army personnel of World War II
Category:Soviet emigrants to the United States
---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Marc Raeff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Raeff) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Raeff?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.