Biography

Richard Thomas Stites (December 2, 1931 – March 7, 2010) was a historian of Russian culture and professor of history at Georgetown University. He received his PhD from Harvard where his advisor was Richard Pipes.In 1978 he published The Women's Liberation Movement in Russia: Feminism, Nihilism and Bolshevism, 1860-1930, a book that opened up a new area of Russian studies. In 1984, he wrote the introductory essay for an English translations of Alexander Bogdanov's science fiction novel Red Star. In 1989 he published Revolutionary Dreams: Utopian Vision and Experimental Life in the Russian Revolution. He also edited several books on Russian popular culture, notably Bolshevik Culture (1985), Mass Culture in Soviet Russia and Culture and Entertainment in Wartime Russia (both in 1995). He died in Helsinki, Finland from complications of cancer on March 7, 2010, aged 78.