(This book discusses the oil industry and its impact on th...)
This book discusses the oil industry and its impact on the world economy in the twentieth century. It examines the importance of oil in different sectors, from 1900-1973 and stresses the relevance of oil as a factor in modern economic history not only in national terms but also within an international context.
One Hell of a Gamble: Khrushchev, Castro, and Kennedy, 1958-1964: The Secret History of the Cuban Missile Crisis
(Based on classified Soviet archives, including the files ...)
Based on classified Soviet archives, including the files of Nikita Khrushchev and the KGB, "One Hell of a Gamble" offers a riveting play-by-play history of the Cuban missile crisis from American and Soviet perspectives simultaneously. No other book offers this inside look at the strategies of the Soviet leadership.
Khrushchev's Cold War: The Inside Story of an American Adversary
(This acclaimed study from the authors of “One Hell of a G...)
This acclaimed study from the authors of “One Hell of a Gamble” brings to life head-to-head confrontations between the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev and Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy. Drawing on their unrivaled access to Politburo and KGB materials, Aleksandr Fursenko and Timothy Naftali combine new insights into the Cuban missile crisis as well as startling narratives of the contests for Suez, Iraq, Berlin, and Southeast Asia, with vivid portraits of leaders who challenged Moscow and Washington. Khrushchev’s Cold War provides a gripping history of the crisis years of the Cold War.
Aleksandr Fursenko was a Soviet and Russian historian and member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He was the author of fundamental works in the history of the United States, international relations and foreign economic policy as well.
Background
Aleksandr Fursenko was born on November 11, 1927, in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) to a family of hereditary intellectuals. Grandfather, Vasily Vasilyevich Fursenko, was a famous historian and teacher of Latin at the Pharmaceutical Institute. Father, Alexander Vasilyevich Fursenko, was a Corresponding Member of the Belarusian Academy of Sciences and a prominent specialist in micropaleontology and petroleum exploration. Mother, Vanda Vladislavovna, a student of the biological faculty of the Leningrad University (now Saint Petersburg State University), died in childbirth. Anna Sergeyevna, the second wife of his father, took care of the boy. After her death in 1940, concern for the family, in which there were already three children, went to Xenia Borisovna, in the marriage with which six children were born.
A large family lived in poverty. During the Great Patriotic War, when his father went to the front, the family went into evacuation. He was forced to combine attending school with work on a geological expedition in Kazakhstan.
Education
After returning from evacuation in 1946, Fursenko graduated from the evening school and entered the Faculty of History at Leningrad State University (now Saint Petersburg State University). In 1951 he graduated from university, successfully defending a graduation thesis on the Far Eastern policy in the 19th century and entered the postgraduate course of the Leningrad branch of the Institute of History of the USSR Academy of Sciences (now St. Petersburg Institute for History of the Russian Academy of Sciences). From his student years, Boris Romanov became his mentor, under the influence of whom Fursenko turned to the history of US participation in the international rivalry in the Far East. In 1954, Fursenko became the Candidate of Sciences (Kandidat Nauk) with his dissertation “The Expansion of American Imperialism in China in 1895–1900”, based on which he prepared the monograph “Struggle for the Section of China and the American Doctrine open doors ”. In 1966 he defended the dissertation “Oil Trusts and World Politics (the 1880s - 1918)” and became the Doctor of Sciences (Doktor Nauk).
Fursenko's tutor Boris Romanov achieved his admission to St. Petersburg Institute for History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believing that it is in the interests of the institute "to have an Americanist, moreover, serious and capable." On December 1, 1954, Fursenko was enrolled there, where he worked all his life and went from junior researcher to head of the department of universal history. In the late 1950s, Aleksandr Aleksandrovich embarked on an in-depth study of economic history.
In the 1960s, a new direction in his works became the modern history of the United States. Having lived in the United States as a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Fursenko was able to delve relatively deeply into American history. The major work of 1960 became the chapters on the colonial period of American history and the War of Independence in the first volume of "Essays on the new and recent history of the United States". In this area, Fursenko prepared a popular science book about the American Revolution, published the same year.
At the first symposium of Soviet American historians in 1971, he presented the report "The American and French Revolutions (Comparative Characteristics)". Repeated trips to America allowed Fursenko not only to work with the necessary materials but also opened up opportunities for personal communication with the direct participants and witnesses of the events taking place there. The results of these surveys were summarized in the books The Critical Decade of America: the 60s and The Presidents and the Policy of the United States, the 70s.
Over the years, he was a regular participant in international congresses on economic history and represented our country on the executive committee of the International Association of Historians and Economists.
During his life, he had been holding positions of the corresponding member and then a member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the St. Petersburg Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician-Secretary of the Department of History and a member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences. He also headed the History Section of the Department of Historical and Philological Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences and was an adviser to the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Achievements
The biggest achievement of Fursenko was a book about the Cuban crisis, written in collaboration with T. Naftali, which became a bestseller in the United States. Many American scientists recognized Fursenko as the most competent Soviet scientist in the history of the United States. He built a solid reputation among historians due to his thorough research and his ability to appreciate, if not advocate American political and economic policies. Thanks to the efforts of Fursenko, a scientific school for the study of the history of the United States was established in Leningrad.
Fursenko is awarded the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" III class and the Order of Honour. His book Khrushchev's Cold War. The Inside Story of an American Advisory was awarded the Medal of the Duke of Westminster and recognized as the best in the nomination "Military and Diplomatic History". In 2007 Fursenko was awarded the Medal "For the Best Work in Military History" by the Royal Institute of Strategic Studies in Great Britain.
(This book discusses the oil industry and its impact on th...)
1989
Membership
Academician Fursenko was a member of Commission on Human Rights under the administration of Saint Petersburg, chairman of the board of trustees of the St. Petersburg public foundation Center for Strategic Research North-West, co-chairman of the St. Petersburg Regional Development Fund, co-chairman of the United Scientific Council on humanitarian issues and historical and cultural heritage.
Fursenko was a member of the Executive Committee of the International Economic History Association.
International Economic History Association
,
United States
1986 - 1998
Fursenko was a consultant to the section "Historical Science in the USSR" at an exhibition in New York.
Exhibition Achievements of Science, Technology and Culture in the USSR
,
United States
1959 - 1959
Fursenko was Secretary General of the Organizing Committee of the Congress.
Fifth Congress of Economic History
,
Russian Federation
1970 - 1970
Academia Europaea
,
United Kingdom
1999
Personality
Quotes from others about the person
"The Oil Wars of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries (1985) provides “a wealth of unexpected material and stimulating insight on almost every page” and is a “valuable resource” that deserves translation into English." - John McKay of the University of Illinois speaking about Fursenko's book
Connections
Fursenko Aleksandr Aleksandrovich was married. The marriage produced two children.
Father:
Alexander Vasilyevich Fursenko
Mother:
Vanda Vladislavovna
Vanda Vladislavovna died in childbirth.
Grandfather:
Vasily Vasilyevich Fursenko
Son:
Fursenko Andrei Aleksandrovich
Andrei Fursenko was born on July 17, 1949, in Saint Petersburg. He was the Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation from 2004 to 2012. He is considered to be a member of the Saint Petersburg political groups under Vladimir Putin's presidency.
Son:
Fursenko Sergei Aleksandsrovich
Sergey Fursenko was the director general of the JSC Lentransgaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom. He is the also director general (later president) of the football club Zenit, Saint Petersburg. Since February 2010 till June 2012, he was the president of the Russian Football Union.
Order "For Merit to the Fatherland",
Russian Federation
Fursenko was awarded the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" III class on November 12, 2007, for outstanding contribution to the development of national humanitarian science and many years of fruitful activity.
Fursenko was awarded the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" III class on November 12, 2007, for outstanding contribution to the development of national humanitarian science and many years of fruitful activity.
Fursenko was awarded the Order of Honour on December 10, 1998, for merits to the state, high achievements in production activities and a great contribution to the strengthening of friendship and cooperation between nations
Fursenko was awarded the Order of Honour on December 10, 1998, for merits to the state, high achievements in production activities and a great contribution to the strengthening of friendship and cooperation between nations
Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature,
United Kingdom
Fursenko was awarded Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature in 2007 for book Khrushchev’s Cold War: The Inside Story of An American Adversary.
Fursenko was awarded Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature in 2007 for book Khrushchev’s Cold War: The Inside Story of An American Adversary.
