Herbert J. Ellison

After thirty years of distinguished service to the University of Washington, and nearly a half century as one of the leading figures in the field of Soviet and post-Soviet studies, Professor Herbert J. Ellison has announced his retirement as of June 2002. It is very hard to put into words what Dr. Ellison has meant to this institution, and to our program in Russian studies in particular. Suffice it to say that the current national and international reputation of both the REECAS program and the Jackson School as a whole can be traced in large measure to Ellison’s vision, leadership and tireless enthusiasm for teaching and research in Eurasian and international affairs.

Born in Portland, Oregon, Ellison received his BA and MA degrees in history from the University of Washington. He wrote his doctoral dissertation while on a Fulbright fellowship at the University of London, under the supervision of the eminent historian Hugh Seton-Watson. He held faculty positions at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Kansas before returning to the UW in 1968. Since then, he has held a variety of important administrative positions, serving as Director of the Jackson School of International Studies, Director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Vice President of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), Chairman of the Board of Directors of the International Research and Exchanges (IREX) Board of Washington D.C. and Director of Eurasian Research for the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) in Seattle. He was also a key player in the creation of the Russian language program in the Soviet Union organized by the Council for International Educational Exchange (CIEE)—the program through which I (along with a group of students that also included REECAS faculty member Glennys Young) first visited the USSR as a graduate student in 1986. Indeed, it seems that Ellison has played a central role in just about every major organization in Soviet and Russian studies.

He has done so, moreover, while continuing to produce a stream of enlightening publications on diverse aspects of Soviet history and post-Soviet international relations, including important works on such topics as Soviet foreign policy toward Western Europe, Sino-Soviet relations, the nature of Gorbachev’s perestroika and the role of post-Soviet Russia in the changing international arena of Northeast Asia. He has also served as Executive Producer and Chief Consultant for the highly-regarded PBS/BBC television series Messengers from Moscow on the history of the Cold War and the PBS documentary Yeltsin, which was nominated for an Emmy award.

Along with Ellison’s remarkable record of scholarship, he has long been one of the most beloved teachers at the University of Washington. His undergraduate courses on the history of communism and on Soviet and Russian history have been perennial favorites, and many of his graduate students have gone on to distinguished academic careers of their own. Fortunately, future generations of students in REECAS and other UW programs will continue to benefit from Ellison’s wit and wisdom: after taking next academic year off to complete his current book project on the Yeltsin era, Ellison plans to teach two courses per year for us from that point forward.