Marc Raeff (1923-2008) (pronounced RY-uff) was a specialist in Russian history who taught at Columbia University in New York, 1961-88. He held the Bakhmeteff chair in Russian Studies.
Harvard historian Richard Pipes says, "He was very much interested in the Western aspect of Russian culture. He was a pillar of Russian historical studies in this country."[1]
He was born in Moscow July 28, 1923, the only child of Isaac and Victoria Raeff, who were Jewish. His father was an engineer; his mother was biochemist. The government sent them to Berlin in to oversee quality control on machinery destined for Russia. They refused to return to Moscow in 1927; in 1933 they moved to Paris. They moved to the U.S. in 1941. He attended schools in German, French and English, but his native tongue was Russian. He wrote in English, French, German, and Russian, and also read Italian and Polish.
Raeff served in the U.S. Army in the war as an interpreter. He attended Harvard, working with Professor Michael Karpovich, whose trained numerous scholars. He received his Ph.D in 1950. He taught at Clark University from 1949 until 1961, when he moved to Columbia. He married Lillian Gottesman in 1951; they had two daughters.
His research focused on the Russian Empire, with an emphasis on intellectual history.[2]