{{Short description|German-born American academic (1926–2019)}} '''Seweryn Bialer''' (November 3, 1926 in [[Berlin]] – February 8, 2019 in [[New York City]]) was a German-born American academic. He was emeritus professor of political science at [[Columbia University]] and an expert on the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Communist parties of the Soviet Union]] and [[Polish United Workers' Party|Poland]]. He was the Director of Columbia's Research Institute on International Change.
==Biography== Born in [[Berlin]], Germany, Bialer joined the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|underground anti-fascist movement]] in [[Łódź|Lodz, Poland]] in 1942. Between February 1944 and May 1945 he was a prisoner in the [[Auschwitz concentration camp]].
From May 1945 to June 1951 he was member of the Polish communist police force (the ''[[Milicja Obywatelska]]''). He also held various positions in the Polish Communist Party ([[Polish United Workers' Party|PZPR]]). He was a political officer of the State Police in Warsaw and a member of the [[Central Committee]] of the Polish Worker's Party. Subsequently, beginning in June 1951, he became a Professor at the Institute of Sociology and political editor of the newspaper ''[[Trybuna Ludu]]''. He was also a researcher in economics at the [[Polish Academy of Sciences]]. During this time he authored several political science textbooks.<ref>{{cite web|url= https://catalog.osaarchivum.org/catalog/j6dom2zR |title=Transcripts and Analyses of Seweryn Bialer |publisher=[[Blinken Open Society Archives]] |date=4 December 2012 |accessdate=8 September 2021}}</ref>
In January, 1956, Bialer defected to West Berlin and conducted almost one-year-long interview sessions for [[Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty]] in New York, which was broadcast to Poland during that year.
He moved to New York, eventually receiving a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia. He was appointed [[Robert A. Belfer|Robert]] and Renee Belfer Professor of Political Science. In 1983 he was awarded a prestigious [[MacArthur Fellows Program|MacArthur Fellowship]]. He was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1984.<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B |url= http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterB.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |page=45 |accessdate=16 March 2013 }}</ref>
He died in February 2019 at the age of 92.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://harriman.columbia.edu/news/memoriam-seweryn-bialer-1926-2018 |title=In Memoriam: Seweryn Bialer (1926-2019) |access-date=2019-02-16 |archive-date=2019-06-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622073656/https://harriman.columbia.edu/news/memoriam-seweryn-bialer-1926-2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
== Harassment allegations == In 1986, an anonymous female graduate student at Columbia filed a formal grievance against Bialer for sexual harassment. The grievance alleged that less than two weeks after beginning to work with the student, Bialer rescheduled a meeting to take place at his apartment, during which he offered alcohol and removed his trousers. The harassment reportedly continued for another three semesters until the student began working with a different professor in a different specialty. Bialer received only a warning from the department and continued his position at Columbia.<ref>{{cite news |last=Bayer |first=Amy |date=19 November 1986 |title=CU prof Bialer charged with sexual harassment |url=https://archive-publications.library.columbia.edu/?a=d&d=cs19861119-01.2.2&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN------- |work= |location= |publisher=Columbia Spectator |volume=CXI |number=51}}</ref>
==Selected works==
===Books=== * {{cite book|title=The Domestic Context of Soviet Foreign Policy |isbn=9780891588917 |year=1981 |publisher=Westview Press }} Editor. * {{cite book |title=Stalin's Successors: Leadership, Stability and Change in the Soviet Union |isbn=9780521289061 |year=1982 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/stalinssuccessor0000bial }} * {{cite book|title=Stalin and His Generals: Soviet Military Memoirs of World War II |isbn=978-0672535970 |year=1983 |publisher=Pegasus }} Editor. * {{cite book|title=Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline |isbn=9781850430308 |year=1986 |publisher=I.B. Tauris }} * {{cite book|title=Gorbachev's Russia and American Foreign Policy |url=https://archive.org/details/gorbachevsrussia00nt19 |url-access=registration |isbn=9780813307480 |year=1988 |publisher=Westview Press }} Edited with [[Michael Mandelbaum]].
===Essay=== * {{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/sovietsystemfrom00dall |chapter=Domestic and International Factors in the Formation of Gorbachev's Reforms' |editor-first=Alexander |editor-last=Dallin |editor2-first=Gail W. |editor2-last=Lapidus |title=The Soviet System. From Crisis to Collapse |edition=2nd revised |publisher=Westview Press |year=1995 |isbn=9780813318769 |url-access=registration }}
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bialer, Seweryn}} [[Category:1926 births]] [[Category:2019 deaths]] [[Category:Academics from Berlin]] [[category:Members of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party]] [[Category:Polish emigrants to the United States]] [[Category:20th-century American political scientists]] [[Category:Columbia University faculty]] [[Category:MacArthur Fellows]] [[Category:Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]] [[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] [[Category:Academic staff of the Polish Academy of Sciences]]