Bertrand Patenaude in the Baltics

Bert Patenaude, MA ’79, PhD ’87, teaches history and international relations at Stanford, where he is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution Library & Archives. His first book, The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921 (Stanford University Press, 2002), won the 2003 Marshall Shulman Book Prize and was made into a documentary film for the award-winning PBS history series American Experience. His 2009 book, Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary (Harper), was serialized for radio by the BBC. Bert, who has traveled extensively with Stanford, including in the Baltics, has been visiting Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania since they were part of the Soviet Union. Some of the topics he will discuss with us during this program include the turbulent history of the Baltic region in the 20th century, the emergence of the independent Baltic republics as members of the European Union and NATO, the controversies involving the treatment of Russian minorities in all three states, and the influence of Baltic composers, conductors, and musicians on the world of classical music.

• Lecturer, history and international relations, Stanford University, since 1991

• Research fellow, Hoover Institution, since 1992

• Instructor, Department of National Security Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, 1992–2000

• Recipient, the Rear Admiral John J. Schieffelin Award for Teaching Excellence, Naval Postgraduate School, 1998 and 1999

• Author, Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary (HarperCollins, 2009)

• BA ’77, political science, Boston College

• MA ’79 and PhD ’87, history—both Stanford University