Richard Pipes has been a professor of History at Harvard University since 1958. He was the Director of East European and Soviet Affairs for the National Security Council in 1981–82 and he is a two-time recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. He is the author of numerous books and essays on Russia, past and present. His previous works include Survival Is Not Enough, U.S-Soviet Relations in the Era of Detente, Russia under the Old Regime, Europe Since 1815, and The Formation of the Soviet Union. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.