avg_rating: 4.23
name: James Heinzen
about: I was born in Minneapolis around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Maybe that's why I've always been so fascinated with Russia, and why I decided to teach and write about it as a career.I first became interested in corruption in Russian history, the topic of my newest book, when I was robbed in Moscow in 1992. When I reported the crime to the police, the officer in charge tried to extract a bribe from me. I was stunned by how openly the officer approached me for cash.As a college student, I spent a semester in Moscow in 1983. Our group arrived in early September, a couple days after the Soviets shot down a Korean airliner. These were extraordinary times to be an American in the Soviet Union, and served to feed my fascination.I am curren I was born in Minneapolis around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Maybe that's why I've always been so fascinated with Russia, and why I decided to teach and write about it as a career.I first became interested in corruption in Russian history, the topic of my newest book, when I was robbed in Moscow in 1992. When I reported the crime to the police, the officer in charge tried to extract a bribe from me. I was stunned by how openly the officer approached me for cash.As a college student, I spent a semester in Moscow in 1983. Our group arrived in early September, a couple days after the Soviets shot down a Korean airliner. These were extraordinary times to be an American in the Soviet Union, and served to feed my fascination.I am currently a professor of history at Rowan University in New Jersey. I've also taught at Yale, Princeton and Drexel University. I received my PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, and spent a year living in Moscow in 1991-92, when the Soviet Union was collapsing. This extraordinary experience deeply shaped my approach as a historian.I specialize in the history of modern Russia. I'm especially interested in the social, political, and cultural history of the Soviet Union, Stalinism, crime and corruption, everyday life, and revolution. I am the author of two books and numerous scholarly articles.My most recent book is The Art of the Bribe: Corruption under Stalin, 1943-1953 (Yale University Press). This study of corruption in everyday life during postwar Stalinism—and the regime's problematic attempts to wipe it out—is based on research in recently opened Communist Party and Soviet state archives located in Russia. I am currently working on a social history of illegal enterprises and black markets in the Soviet 1950s-1980s. This project is based on contemporary interviews and declassified archival material produced during several major trials and investigations. I live in Strafford, Pennsylvania with my wife and two children. ...more