American Professors Donated Books to VMU Library
VMU Library has received Prof. Peter Reddaway’s and Prof. Andrew Blane’s collections of books on the history, politics and human rights of Russia and the Soviet Union, intellectual and cultural history of Russia, and the repressive role of the Soviet psychiatry.
The professors donated their personal collections for the university as part of the initiative by Prof. Robert van Voren and Dean of the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy Prof. Šarūnas Liekis.
Prof. Peter Reddaway donated about 6000 books, journals, booklets and prints both for scholars and a wide circle of readers. The topics of the collection include: history of Russia up to 1917; Soviet history and politics; post-Soviet politics (mostly Russian); Eastern Europe, China and human rights. A particularly valuable part of the collection consists of books published in the Russian language outside the Soviet Union in the Soviet period and published in the USSR during Gorbachev’s rule (1985–1991).
Peter Reddaway is a professor emeritus of political science and international affairs at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and a member of the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies. His specialization is contemporary politics of Russia. Having started teaching in 1989, he resigned in 2004 and since then has been spending more time carrying out research and writing as a freelance lecturer and consultant. Prof. Reddaway is the author, co-author and editor of many books, two of them award-winning. The professor has been a consultant for governments, government leaders, mass media organizations and business companies in the USA, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, China and South Korea. He has served on the United States congressional committees and participated in numerous TV and radio shows.
Prof. Andrew Blane has presented a collection of more than 500 books in Russian and English on intellectual and cultural history of Russia, the Soviet culture, religion in communist countries and the repressive role of the Soviet psychiatry.
Andrew Blane, a professor of history at Lehman College of the City University of New York, has been a member of Amnesty International for many years. In 1979–1981 he served as Vice President of the organisation’s International Executive Committee. Professor Blane was one of nine Amnesty International officials to travel to Stockholm in 1977 when AI won the Nobel Peace Prize. For his work with Amnesty International, Andrew Blane was awarded the UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights. A scholar in the field of Russian history, with special interests in religion in Russian culture and Russian intellectual and cultural history, Professor Blane has published five books and numerous articles on these topics.
