Stephen F. Cohen

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Stephen Frand Cohen (born November 25, 1938 in Owensboro , Kentucky , † September 18, 2020 in New York City , New York ) was an American Russian scholar and professor at Princeton University and New York University . He dealt mainly with Russia and the Soviet Union after the October Revolution, as well as US relations with these states.

Life

Cohen's grandfather was a Jewish immigrant from the time the Empire Russia belonging to Lithuania .

Cohen earned a Bachelor of Science and an MA in Russian Studies from Indiana University Bloomington . In the course of further studies in England , he traveled to the Soviet Union for several weeks . Cohen then received his PhD in Russian Studies from Columbia University in New York City and became Professor of Russian Studies at Princeton University in New Jersey . He taught at Princeton until 1998 and then at New York University in New York City. Cohen was also the editor of The Nation .

Cohen was personally friends with Mikhail Gorbachev and advised George Bush sr. He knew Stalin's daughter and at the end of the 1980s arranged for the rehabilitation of the widow of the Soviet politician Nikolai Bukharin , Anna Larina. Cohen published a number of books and was an advisor to the New York radio and television station CBS News . He was a member of the influential Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Cohen's first marriage has a son and a daughter. He was last married to the editor-in-chief of The Nation magazine , Katrina vanden Heuvel , with whom he had a son.

Political positions

Cohen took the view that the USA had "resumed" the Cold War , which was officially declared over in 1991 , without admitting this to itself. A shortened interpretation of an “American victory” and a “Russian defeat”, which has been common since President Bill Clinton , has led to post-communist Russia being treated like a defeated nation. Nevertheless, the military potential inherited from the Soviet Union was still fully preserved. This led to the expectation that Russia would copy the (political) practices customary in the USA and, as it were, submit to American foreign policy.

The public expressions of friendship that were common between Clinton and Yeltsin have become worthless against such a background. The fact that Clinton, contrary to a promise made by his predecessor President George HW Bush , expanded NATO to the east and subsequently pursued a policy of encirclement , inevitably led to mistrust in Russia.

As further evidence that the USA intended to isolate Russia, Cohen et al. a. the termination of the ABM Treaty of 2002 and the refusal to join the WTO at the G8 summit in Saint Petersburg in 2006 . Cohen also saw an indication in the “nonsensical demonization” of Putin as an “autocrat”. In Cohen's view, it is unnatural that there is hardly anyone in the US media landscape who substantially contradicts the “ Zealots of the Cold War”. In Cohen's opinion, it is necessary for the US to admit that it had unexpectedly continued the Cold War.

Publications

  • as editor with others: The Soviet Union since Stalin . Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, USA 1980, ISBN 0-253-32272-3 .
  • Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution. A Political Biography, 1888-1938 . Oxford University Press, 1980, ISBN 0-19-502697-7 .
  • An End to Silence: Uncensored Opinion in the Soviet Union, from Roy Medevedyev's Underground Magazine "Political Diary" . WW Norton, New York 1982, ISBN 0-393-01491-6 .
  • Rethinking the Soviet Experience: Politics and History since 1917 . Oxford University Press 1985, ISBN 0-19-503468-6 .
  • Sovieticus: American Perceptions and Soviet Realities . WW Norton, New York 1986, ISBN 0-393-30338-1 .
  • with Katrina van den Heuvel : Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbatchev's Reformers . WW Norton, New York 1989, ISBN 0-393-02625-6 .
  • Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia . WW Norton, New York 2000, ISBN 0-393-04964-7 .
  • Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the new Cold War . Columbia University, New York 2009, ISBN 978-0-231-14896-2 .
    • Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives. From Stalinism to the New Cold War ; with a new epilogue. Columbia University Press, New York City 2011, ISBN 978-0-231-14897-9 .
  • The Victims Return: Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin . Publishing Works, New York 2010, ISBN 978-1-933002-40-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert D. McFadden: Stephen F. Cohen, Influential Historian of Russia, Dies at 81. In: nytimes.com . September 18, 2020, accessed on September 19, 2020 .
  2. ^ Russian and Slavic Studies: R&SS Spotlight. In: nyu.edu. August 11, 2020, accessed on September 19, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Stephen F. Cohen. In: columbia.edu. Retrieved September 19, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ Dan Kovalik: Rethinking Russia: A Conversation With Russia Scholar Stephen F. Cohen. In: Huffington Post. July 7, 2015, archived from the original on July 9, 2015 ; accessed on September 19, 2020 (English).
  5. ^ A b Nick Hayes: Understanding US-Russian relations: A conversation with Stephen F. Cohen. In: MinnPost. November 15, 2010, accessed September 19, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Stephen F. Cohen. In: princeton.edu. Retrieved September 19, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Stephen F. Cohen: The New American Cold War. In: The Nation. July 10, 2006, archived from the original on October 25, 2010 ; accessed on September 19, 2020 (English). Stephen F. Cohen: Stop the Pointless Demonization of Putin. In: The Nation. May 6, 2012, accessed September 19, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Cohen, Stephen F.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cohen, Stephen Frand (full name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION American university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Owensboro , Kentucky , USA
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 2020
Place of death New York City , New York