Where the Volga Meets the Charles

Adam Ulam, Gurney Professor of History and Political Science and director of the Russian Research Center (RRC), smiles when he remembers the first meeting of the Center's staff in 1948: "Clyde Kluckhohn, who was then director, got up and told us that we shouldn't devote too much attention to current problems. Our (original) grant was for five years, and he said all the problems between the Soviet Union and the United States should be solved by then."

Fortunately for Ulam and the others affiliated with the Center, Kluckhohn was wrong, but the degree by which he missed the mark perhaps reflects the state of knowledge and understanding of Russia and the Soviet Union in the spring of 1947, when the staff of the Carnegie Foundation first approached Harvard with the idea of establishing a program for Russian studies. At that time--less than two years after the end of the Second World War--the University did not even have a Slavic Department. Although a few people of Russian descent taught at Harvard, they were mostly teaching other subjects. A similar situation existed at other universities throughout the country. Here and there someone was interested in Russian history and literature, but compared to the study of other countries--even China--Soviet studies was negligible.

And so--at the instigation of a few scholars and a United States delegate to the United Nations Disarmament Conference--the Carnegic Corporation authorized a grant, and Harvard's Russian Research Center began.

The organization and intent of the RRC has changed little since those early years. Today the center has 108 affiliates unevenly distributed among anthropology, economics, history, languages and literature, law, medicine, political science and sociology. It has published more than 200 books and serves as a shelter for Soviet exiles and a meeting ground for Russian and Soviet exiles from all over the world.

Although the RRC draws its executive committee and the bulk of its affiliates from Harvard, MIT, Tufts University, Fletcher School of Diplomacy and other area colleges, some fellows regularly travel from as far as Brown University to participate in the program. In addition, Harvard selects about 20 "research appointees" each year. Because of Widener's extensive and well catalogued Russian and Soviet collection (which includes such gems as the Trotsky archive), the center has been able to attract top scholars and speakers from throughout the United States and Europe.

But members of the center are worried about its future. In the late 1950's the Carnegie Foundation stopped funding the center and the Ford Foundation took over. But in the wake of the Vietnam War, as the nation became less interested in international affairs and turned to face its domestic problems, Ford first reduced and then withdrew its support. And the small stipends which the center had previously offered its research associates disappeared too.

"Now all we can offer is office space, intellectual stimulation and one of the three or four best libraries in the world," Ulam says. In the past that may have been enough, but today with rising costs of living and more lucrative options elsewhere, Ulam and others are not so sure.

Ulam--referring to the group of scholars who founded the center--calls himself "practically the last Mohican," and notes that many of the professors and scholars associated with the center over the years have left, going unreplaced.

Marshall I. Goldman, professor of economics at Wellesley College and associate director of the center, shares this concern. "These days we give $2000 or $3000 to someone and think we've done them a big favor," he says, adding, "Senior scholars from Europe seldom come here anymore--they go to Washington instead."

Faced with the sudden withdrawal of funds, the RRC a few years ago launched a belated attempt to build an endowment fund. Appealing to their alumni and affiliates, they had earned about $1 million when they were asked to stop because of possible conflicts with Harvard's five-year fund drive.

The funding deficit has forced the center to turn in another undesired direction. Over the years, Ulam says, the center has suffered most from the "persistent rumor" about its connection with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a rumor which Ulam vehemently denies. In an attempt to rid itself of that reputation, the center for many years made an effort not to do any government work. There has been one recorded exception to this rule: In the early 1950s the center undertook a project to study Soviet society for the Air Force, sending 20 interviewers to Munich to interview nearly 1900 former Soviet citizens.

But as funding has vanished, the center has turned increasingly to federal money to support its projects. Although the RRC does not directly contract with the government, many of its research associates are supported by grants from the departments of State, Commerce, Health and Human Services and others. This year eight out of 21 projects are federally subsidized. In addition, a grant from the Commerce Department has made possible a series of "Corporate Sponsor" seminars.

These seminars are part of a third project the center is undertaking to raise money: a Russian Studies Fund Drive, sponsored jointly by the RRC and Columbia's Russian Institute. When the two organizations began the project--one of the only field-of-study drives ever attempted--many people expected problems. "Some businesses think the problems between the United States and the Soviet Union are largely caused because the centers have been so critical of the Soviet Union," Goldman says. "No one was quite sure what to expect," he adds.

The drive, however, has met with surprising success, and the centers have developed a group of corporate sponsors including companies that both advocate and oppose close commercial relations between the two countries. For their support, the companies receive a monthly RRC Newsletter containing economic analysis of East-West trade not normally available in commercial newsletters. Contributing corporations may send representatives to the RRC-sponsored "Corporate Seminars" held three times a year (this year's deal with petroleum, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Five-Year Plan). And once a year, they may send representatives to Arden House.

The annual Arden House conference is the final formal affiliation between the RRC and the federal government. The conference brings together U.S. and foreign business executives scholars specializing in East-West relations, senators, congressmen and government officials for a three-day series of discussions around a central theme. This year's will open tomorrow and will cover the future of Soviet-U.S. relations. Representatives of the departments of Commerce, Defense and State, the CIA, the International Trade Commission and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are scheduled to attend.

The RRC is still a decidedly academic institution, devoted to turning out publishable scholarly works. This year affiliates of the center are researching topics ranging from aging and retirement in the Soviet Union, to Dostoevsky, Stalinism and 18th-century Russia. But perhaps the experiences of one member of the center's executive committee represent a growing trend: Richard E. Pipes, Baird Professor of History and an expert on Soviet ideology, is on leave this term. He is in Washington advising the National Security Council.

Others have also noticed the RRC's changing role. "At one point Soviet scholars didn't want to have anything to do with us--we were supposed to be associated with the CIA," Goldman says. But he adds half-jokingly. "Now they like to come because they know we make policy decisions at our coffee hours."

The members of the center are not entirely happy with this new role. "We don't want to be too dependent on the corporations, and we don't want to be too dependent on the government," Goldman says. "Right now we're a red feather in Harvard's cap--and it may be up to them to keep us there."

Some RRC Projects

The Russian Research Center (RRC) is home for a diverse group of scholars, some supported by government money, some by private funds. They come from all disciplines and from all parts of the world. Their only common ground--an interest in Russian and Soviet affairs. Below is a sample of projects currently being conducted by members of the center.

Arms Control and International Security. Christopher D. Jones, formerly a professor at the University of Marquette, has been working at the center for two years. An expert in arms control and Soviet political affairs, he is now studying Soviet military exercises and doctrine. His thesis: The Warsaw pact is primarily concerned with internal control, not external antagonism.

The Influence of Rousseau upon Dostoevsky. Robin F. Miller, who divides her time between the RRC and a teaching position at Columbia University, just finished a critique of Dostoevsky's The Idiot. In her book, Miller examines the way the author manipulates his readers, forcing them to confront complicated moral matters. While working on the book, Miller became interested in Dostoevsky's use of confessions, a genre she argues, he adopted from Rousseau. "There are two passages in Rousseau which Dostoevsky returns to over and over in parodies and other ways. For instance, Rousseau used to wander the streets at night, then stand under bridges and expose himself. In Dostoevsky, one of the symbols of confession is indecent exposure."

Nationalism and Communism in Contemporary Poland. Tadeusz Szafar came to the RRC in 1979, four years after he emigrated from Poland. A journalist until the mid-'60s, when he was forced to stop for political reasons, Szafar is now studying the traditional conflict between nationalism and communism in his native land.

A Dictionary of Unconventional Russian: Argot, Jargon and Slang. Formerly a writer, translator and dissident in the Soviet Union, Kirill V. Uspensky first heard many of the words in his files while serving in a Russian labor camp. He has now collected nearly 20,000 words, many of which have hidden political meanings. W.L.W.