Nicholas V. Riasanovsky (1923-2011) (In Memoriam)

Mark Bassin Nicholas Riasanovsky was a remarkable scholar, but in a very particular way. Unlike his Berkeley colleague Reginald Zelnik, he was not outgoingly charismatic; and unlike his other colleague Martin Malia he did not regularly mesmerize his audiences with the brilliance of his audacious (if not always entirely convincing) interpretations. What set Nick apart from the others was a simple and very powerful combination of two special qualities: an utterly extraordinary erudition regarding all aspects of Russian history and civilization, on the one hand, and the unsurpassed balance, judiciousness, and elegance with which he wielded this knowledge, on the other. Either of these qualities would be notable by themselves, but Nick brought them together in a way that made him sui generis and without question one of the great monuments on the landscape of Russian studies in the late 20th century. Of all his writings, his many-editioned textbook offers probably the best example of this combination, and there is no surprise in the fact that it remained for decades as the leading English-language text on the subject across much of the globe. (1)