Jay Bergman

Professor of History

Department of History
208 DiLoreto Hall
Central Connecticut State University
1615 Stanley Street
New Britain, CT 06050

Phone: (860) 832-2811
Fax: (860) 832-2804
Email: bergmanj@ccsu.edu

Area of Specialization: Russia

Jay Bergman received his B.A. in history with honors, magna cum laude, from Brandeis University in 1970. He subsequently received his M.A. (1972) and M. Phil. (1973) from Yale University. He completed his Ph.D. in Russian history at Yale in 1977. Dr. Bergman joined the faculty at CCSU as an Associate Professor in 1990. Prior to his arrival at CCSU, he taught at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Miami, and Albright College.

His teaching interests include modern Russian history, modern European history, and intellectual history. He has completed a volume entitled, An Intellectual Biography of Andrei Sakharov, now under review for publication. At present, he is working on an article tentatively entitled, "Soviet Dissidents on Peter the Great: A Study of How History Can Influence Politics.” He is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Scholars and president of its Connecticut Affiliate.
 

Selected Publications:

• Vera Zasulich: A Biography (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1986). [Japanese edition, Sanrei Shobo.]
• "Was the Soviet Union Totalitarian? The View of Soviet Dissidents and the Reformers of the Gorbachev Era," Studies in East European Thought (1998): 247-281.
• "Valerii Chkalov: Soviet Pilot as New Soviet Man," Journal of Contemporary History 33, no. 1 (1998): 133-52.
• "Reading Fiction to Understand the Soviet Union: Soviet Dissidents on Orwell’s 1984," History of European Ideas 23, nos. 5-6 (1997): 173-92.
• "The Idea of Individual Liberty in Bolshevik Visions of the New Soviet Man," European History Quarterly 27, no. 1 (1997): 57-92.
• "Soviet Dissidents on Nazism, Hitler, and the Holocaust: A Study of the Preservation of Historical Memory," Slavonic and East European Review (1992): 477-504.
• "Soviet Dissidents on the Russian Intelligentsia, 1956-1985: The Search for a Usable Past," Russian Review (1992): 16-35.
• "The Image of Jesus in the Russian Revolutionary Movement: The Case of Russian Marxism," International Review of Social History 35, no. 2 (1990): 220-248.
• "The Memoirs of Soviet Defectors: Are They a Reliable Source about the Soviet Union?" Canadian Slavonic Papers (1989): 1-24.
• "The Perils of Historical Analogy: Leon Trotsky on the French Revolution," Journal of the History of Ideas (1987): 73-98.
• "Vera Zasulich, the Shooting of Trepov, and the Growth of Political Terrorism in Russia," Terrorism: An International Journal (1980): 25-51.
• "The Political Thought of Vera Zasulich." Slavic Review. (1979): 243-258.