Dr. Robert Himmer

Education, Research and Publications


Education:

At Hopkins Robert M. Slusser, Owen Lattimore, Robert Forster, and David Donald exercised major influences on the development of my thinking.

Current Research:

My major focus is on the relationship of Joseph Stalin to V. I. Lenin. Research is complete and a 2-volume book manuscript entitled "The Dreamer and the Giant. Stalin and Lenin, 1905-1924" is about to go searching for a publisher.

Several smaller Stalin-related projects await publication of the book. Three of these projects, which depend in part upon proofs demonstrated in the book, are: (a) a nearly completed study of the "confession" of Trotsky's assassin as evidence reflecting Stalin's complaints about Lenin in 1905-1913 and testifying to his responsibility for Trotsky's murder; and (b) a completed examination of evidence indicating that Stalin thought Lenin had betrayed him to the tsarist secret police in 1907 and 1912-1913; and (c) a reading of Karl Radek's "Zodchii sotsialisticheskogo obshchestva"as an Aesopian indictment of Stalin for the murder of Lenin . Additionally, I plan an article on the essential convergence of Stalinist and American Cold War Era views of Stalin's relationship with Lenin (or, how bourgeois anti-Soviet ideologues helped to perpetuate a key element in Stalin's own self-mythology).

In the past few years I have also become interested in the history of the Battle of Gettysburg. Several publications have resulted, including two revising the accepted view of the operational vision of George G. Meade, one assessing the conduct on July 1 of Henry W. Slocum,and another on Colonel H. R. Miller of the 42nd Mississippi. Another manuscript dealing with the timing of the distribution of the Pipe Creek Circular has been submitteed for publication, and I am beginning another analyzing the various testimonies of Henry Tremain, aide to Dan Sickles.

Publications:

"Soviet-German Economic Relations, 1918-1922," doctoral dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, 1972.

"Rathenau, Russia, and Rapallo," Central European History 9, no. 2 (1976): 146-83.

"Soviet Policy Toward Germany During the Russo-Polish War, 1920," Slavic Review 35, no. 4 (1976): 665-82.

"Harmonicas for Lenin? The Development of German Economic Policy Toward Soviet Russia, December 1918 to June 1919," Journal of Modern History 49, no. 2 (1977): D1221-1247.

editor, Perspectives on the American Revolution (York, PA, 1976). (A collection of essays by Pauline Maier, Alfred Kazin, and Michael Kammen).

"Evidence of Aesopian Language in the Writings of Joseph Stalin," Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies, Smithsonian Institution, Occasional Paper #214, 1986.

"On the Origin and Significance of the Name 'Stalin,'" Russian Review 45, no. 3 (1986): 269-86.

"The Transition From War Communism to the New Economic Policy: An Analysis of Stalin's Views," Russian Review 53, no. 4 (1994): 515-29.

"First Impressions Matter: Stalin's Initial Encounter With Lenin, Tammerfors 1905," Revolutionary Russia 14, no. 2 (2001): 73-84.

"What If Lee Had Been Victorious at the Battle of Gettysburg? Response," North and South 8, no. 4 (2005): 64-65.

"July 1, 1863: George Gordon Meade's Lost Afternoon Re-Examined," North and South 9, no. 1 ( 2006): 52-64.

"July 2-3, 1863: George Gordon Meade’s Battle Plans at Gettysburg Re-Examined," North and South 9, no. 2 (2006): 38-50.

"'A Gallant and Noble Patriot.' Colonel Hugh Reid Miller, 42nd Mississippi Volunteers, and the Pettigrew-Trimble-Pickett Assault," Gettysburg Magazine, no. 35 (July 2006): 54-67.

"'New Light on Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum's Conduct on the First Day at Gettysburg" Gettysburg Magazine, no. 43 (July 2010): 49-60.

Papers Presented:

"Soviet-German Relations From the Armistice to Rapallo," American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, 1980.

"A Re-Examination of Evidence for the View That Stalin Was Lenin's Disciple," Mid-Atlantic Slavic Conference Annual Meeting, Camden NJ, 1990.

"War Communism and New Economic Policy: An Analysis of Stalin's Views," Western Slavic Association Annual Meeting, Tucson AZ, 1990.

"Stalin's Tributes on Lenin's Fiftieth Birthday, 1920," Mid-Atlantic Slavic Conference Annual Meeting, Albany NY, 1997.

"Stalin Meets Lenin," Mid-Atlantic Slavic Conference Annual Meeting, Princeton NJ, 2000.

This page was last updated on July 11, 2010.

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