Teodor Shanin
Teodor Shanin OBE (20 October 1930 – 4 February 2020) was a British sociologist who was for many years Professor of Sociology at the University of Manchester. He was credited with pioneering the study of Russian peasantry in the West, and is best known for his first book, The Awkward Class: Political Sociology of Peasantry in a Developing Society, Russia, 1910–25 (Clarendon Press, 1972). After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Shanin moved to Russia where, with funding from The Open Society Institute, Ford Foundation and others, he founded the Moscow School for the Social and Economic Sciences in 1995. Shanin was President of the Moscow School, Professor Emeritus of the University of Manchester, and an Honorary Fellow of the Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Teodor Shanin | |
|---|---|
Shanin in 2014 | |
| Born | 29 October 1930 |
| Died | 4 February 2020 (aged 89) Moscow, Russia |
| Nationality | British |
| Spouse | Shulamit Ramon |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | |
| Thesis | Cyclical Mobility and Political Consciousness of Russian Peasants 1910–1925 (1970) |
| Doctoral advisor | R. E. F. Smith |
| Influences | |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Sociology |
| Institutions | |
| Notable works | The Awkward Class (1972) |
His main research interests were Marxism, peasant studies, historical sociology, sociology of knowledge, informal economies, epistemology, and higher education.
In 2002 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for service to education in Russia.