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Allan K. Wildman: A life in Scholarship
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Allan K. Wildman: A life in Scholarship Rex A. Wade and Eve Levin Allan Wildman was a major force in the field of Russian, Soviet, and East European studies, one whose further contributions were cut short by his untimely death even as he was preparing a large new research project1 This volume , prepared with the exception of this essay by his former graduate students , testifies to the breadth of his intellect and his lasting influence on his students and on other scholars. Allan encouraged everyone to maintain a wide-ranging intellectual curiosity, prodded them to do their very best and to hold to the highest standards, and the articles in this collection reflect his success therein as regards his former students. Beyond his own students, his intellect influenced Russian studies through his own publications, his work as editor of The Russian Review, and his interaction with all of those scholars who were fortunate enough, in whatever context, to have had the benefit of his sharp and engaged mind. He was committed to the need to "explore new questions, new approaches, new paradigms," and felt it incumbent on all true scholars "to see to it that the vision of legitimate history is constantly being enlarged to integrate new concerns, so that the next generation of scholars will be equipped to make their own syntheses.,,2 The outlines of his life and career are easy enough to provide, but hardly adequate to the man and scholar. Born November 16, 1927 in Wooster, Ohio, he grew up, as he later wrote, "fatherless during the Great Depression,,,3 and then served in the U.s. Navy in 1945-46. This allowed him to attend college on the G.I. Bill, entering the University of Dubuque and then the University of Michigan, where he received his B.A. in 1950. A long-term interest in religion and philosophy as well as history led him to study for and receive a Bachelor 1 The section on Allan's publications was written by Rex Wade and the section on Allan as editor of The Russian Review by Eve Levin. The other parts were written primarily by Rex Wade and draw on various sources, augmented with excerpts from Allan Wildman's professional papers, which the Wildman family entrusted to Eve Levin. In addition, we have drawn on our personal memories of Allan. Other colleagues and students of Allan's have been generous in sharing their own recollections. 2 Allan Wildman, "The Future of Russian History," The Russian Review 60: 1 Ganuary 200l): 12. This was an excerpt from a lecture he delivered in 1993. 3 From an autobiographical statement prepared in 1991, preserved in Allan's professional papers. The Making of Russian History: Society, Culture, and the Politics of Modern Russia. Essays in Honor of Allan K. Wildman. John W. Steinberg and Rex A. Wade, eds. Bloomington, IN: Siavica Publishers, 2009,7- 22. 8 REX A. WADE AND EVE LEVIN of Divinity from the University of Chicago in 1953. This interest found lifetime reflection in his generosity, kindness toward others, personal modesty, and deep honesty. These years also generated his interest in Russia, which he credited to a course on Russian ethical theory taught by Professor George Kline. Wildman's B.D. thesis, "Berdyaev's Interpretation of the Meaning of the Russian Revolution in Terms of His Philosophy of History," brought together his long-term interest in religion and philosophy with his new fascination with Russian thought and history. In pursuing this new direction, Allan enrolled at the University of Chicago but interrupted it for two years of study in Germany, during which his interests in Russia were further developed through seminars with Fedor Stepun , the famous Russian emigre philosopher. When he returned to Chicago good fortune intervened in the form of the recent appointment of a young assistant professor, Leopold Haimson, with whom Allan began his doctoral studies in Russian history. As Allan wrote in a biographical statement in 1973, "two years of intensive work with him made up for my checkered past." He also worked with Haimson at the Inter-University Project on the History of Menshevism at Columbia University, where extensive interaction with surviving prominent Mensheviks enriched his research on his dissertation and his first book. In 1962 he received his doctorate from the University of Chicago . Correspondence between Allan and his one-time advisor demonstrates the continued important role the latter played in helping him shape and improve the manuscript of his first book...