Robert Vincent Daniels

2.1. Early life and education

Daniels was born on January 4, 1926, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Robert W. Daniels, a career officer in the United States Army, and Helen Hoyt Daniels. Due to his father's military career, the Daniels family frequently relocated throughout Bill's childhood. However, they consistently returned each summer to Burlington, Vermont, the hometown of his parents and where his grandparents resided.

Daniels completed his secondary education at St. Albans School in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1943. Following his military service, he pursued higher education at Harvard University, a pioneering institution in Russian area studies. In 1946, he earned his A.B. in economics, graduating magna cum laude^Latin. He continued his studies at Harvard, obtaining his M.A. and Ph.D. in history. His doctoral dissertation, completed in 1950, focused on the Left Opposition within the Russian Communist Party up to 1924, particularly involving Leon Trotsky and Grigory Zinoviev. His research was supervised by esteemed historians Michael Karpovich and Merle Fainsod. This dissertation was later revised and expanded into his influential book, The Conscience of the Revolution, published in 1960.

In 1945, Daniels married Alice Wendell. Their marriage spanned over six decades, during which they raised two daughters and two sons.

2.2. Military service

After graduating from St. Albans School, Daniels joined the United States Navy in 1944. He participated in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, a rigorous collegiate training program designed to commission officers for the Navy. Following his training, he was assigned as a paymaster on the USS Albany, a heavy cruiser.

2.3. Academic career

Daniels began his academic career at Bennington College. He subsequently moved to Indiana University in Bloomington, before returning to his roots in Vermont. In 1956, he joined the University of Vermont (UVM), where he remained a professor of history until his retirement in 1988, at which point he was granted the title of emeritus professor.

At the University of Vermont, Daniels took on several significant administrative roles. He served as the first director of the Area and International Studies program from 1962 to 1965. From 1964 to 1969, he chaired the History Department at UVM, overseeing its academic direction and growth. Additionally, he directed the Experimental Program of the College of Arts and Sciences from 1969 to 1971.

Following the collapse of communism in 1991, Daniels, like many historians specializing in the Soviet period, developed a deep interest in Russia's post-Soviet transformations. He authored several books on this subject and contributed analytical pieces on the evolving situation in Russia to prominent liberal magazines, including Dissent and The Nation.

In 1992, Daniels was elected president of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), the leading academic society for scholars focused on Russia, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe in the United States. His exceptional contributions to Slavic studies were recognized in 2001 when he became a co-recipient of the AAASS award.

2.4. Political career

Robert V. Daniels was an active and engaged member of the Democratic Party. His political involvement extended to elected office when he was chosen to represent Chittenden County in the Vermont State Senate in 1973. He was re-elected multiple times, serving as a state senator until 1982.

2.5. Death

Robert V. Daniels passed away on March 28, 2010, at the age of 84.

3.1. Major Works

Daniels' scholarly legacy is anchored by his two seminal monographs: The Conscience of the Revolution: Communist Opposition in Soviet Russia (1960) and Red October: The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 (1967).

In The Conscience of the Revolution, Daniels revisited the origins of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party, offering a detailed depiction of the Bolshevik organization. He argued that from its inception through Joseph Stalin's consolidation of power during the 1929 collectivization campaign, the Bolshevik movement was inherently a multi-tendency organization, not a monolithic entity. Daniels posited that "fundamental changes were taking place in the movement during these years," suggesting that "present-day Communism must accordingly be regarded as the evolutionary product of circumstances." This perspective directly countered the dominant totalitarian model of the era, which often portrayed the Soviet Union as a static and immutable system, unchanging without external intervention. Daniels' work thus provided a more dynamic and internally driven interpretation of Soviet development.

Red October: The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, published in 1967 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, further developed Daniels' vision of a multi-tendency Bolshevik Party. In this detailed account, Daniels meticulously described the period of confusion and the process of persuasion by Vladimir Lenin over the party leadership that culminated in the November 1917 insurrection. Daniels specifically aimed to illustrate the process by which the Bolsheviks succeeded in seizing power at the center of the Russian Empire. He noted that his book did not delve into the social background of the revolutionaries and their opponents, the contributing factors within Russian society, or the nature of the revolution in the peripheral regions of the empire, away from the urban core. This focused approach allowed for a deep examination of the political maneuvering and internal dynamics that shaped the revolution's immediate outcome.

3.2. Scholarly Approach and Impact

Daniels' emphasis on the multi-tendency nature of the early Bolshevik organization was a pivotal aspect of his scholarly approach. This perspective carried significant implications, suggesting the existence of multiple possible paths for the development of the Soviet state rather than an inherent, predetermined trajectory toward totalitarian dictatorship. This analytical framework presaged and influenced the work of a subsequent generation of political historians, notably Stephen F. Cohen, and contributed to the rise of social historians within the field of Soviet studies during the 1970s and 1980s. By challenging the simplistic totalitarian model, Daniels opened new avenues for understanding the complexities and internal contradictions of Soviet history. His contributions extended to analyzing post-Soviet Russia's transformations, demonstrating his sustained engagement with the evolving political landscape and historical processes of the region.

4.1. Theses and Dissertations

• "Current Developments in Union Wage Policy." Harvard University, A.B. Honors Thesis, 1945.
• "The Left Opposition in the Russian Communist Party, to 1924." Harvard University, Ph.D. dissertation, 1950.

4.2. Books

• The Conscience of the Revolution: Communist Opposition in Soviet Russia. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1960.
• A Documentary History of Communism. (Editor.) New York: Random House, 1960.
• The Nature of Communism. New York: Random House, 1962.
• Russia. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1964.
• Understanding Communism. Syracuse, NY: L.W. Singer Co., 1964.
• Marxism and Communism: Essential Readings. (Editor.) New York: Random House, 1965.
• The Stalin Revolution: Fulfillment or Betrayal of Communism? (Editor.) Boston: D.C. Heath, 1965.
• Studying History: How and Why. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1966. This book was notably translated into Korean multiple times by different publishers under various titles.
• Red October: The Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1967.
• The Russian Revolution. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1972.
• The Stalin Revolution: Foundations of Soviet Totalitarianism. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1972.
• Fodor's Europe Talking: A Guide to Nineteen National Languages. New York: David McKay, 1975.
• Office Holding and Elite Status in the Central Committee of the CPSU. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976.
• The Dynamics of Soviet Politics. With Paul Cocks and Nancy Whittier Heer. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1976.
• The Militarization of Socialism in Russia, 1902-1946. Washington, DC: The Wilson Center, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, 1985.
• Russia: The Roots of Confrontation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1985.
• Communism and the World. London: Tauris, 1985.
• Is Russia Reformable? Change and Resistance from Stalin to Gorbachev. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988.
• Year of the Heroic Guerrilla: World Revolution and Counterrevolution in 1968. New York: Basic Books, 1989.
• The Stalin Revolution: Foundations of the Totalitarian Era. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1990.
• Trotsky, Stalin, and Socialism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991.
• The University of Vermont: The First Two Hundred Years. Hanover, NH: University of Vermont, 1991.
• The End of the Communist Revolution. London: Routledge, 1993.
• Soviet Communism from Reform to Collapse. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1995.
• Russia's Transformations: Snapshots of a Crumbling System. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997.
• The Fourth Revolution: Transformations in American Society from the Sixties to the Present. New York: Routledge, 2006.
• The Rise and Fall of Communism in Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007. This work was later translated into Russian in 2011.

Some of Daniels' books have been translated into multiple languages, including Spanish, German, Japanese, Korean, and Catalan, underscoring their international academic impact.

5.1. Academic Awards

In 2001, Daniels was a co-recipient of the prestigious award for distinguished contributions to Slavic studies from the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS). In 2004, the University of Vermont awarded him an honorary Doctor of Law degree in recognition of his profound academic influence. That same year, the university established the Robert V. Daniels Award for Outstanding Contributions in the field of International Studies, creating a lasting tribute to his legacy and encouraging future generations of scholars.