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Marc Jansen studied history at the University of Amsterdam (1967-73), taking his doctor’s degree at the same university in 1979. 1973-2011 he taught Russian and East European Studies there, lately as part of the European Studies program. He has also been employed by the Dutch Research Organization NWO, the University of Utrecht , and the International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam. Published books and articles on Russian and Soviet history and politics, regularly appears for the media as a specialist on Russia and the former Soviet Union. During several years lived and worked in Moscow, travelled to many parts of Russia and other former Soviet countries. On behalf of the OSCE observed elections in Russia (1993-2003), Ukraine (1994-2007), Georgia (2004), Kazakhstan (1994), and Kyrgyzstan (1995). (See the author’s ‘Over de zin van verkiezingswaarneming’, L. Versteegh et al., red., De veelzijdige burger, Amsterdam 2005.)
Since October 2011 guest researcher, European Studies Department, University of Amsterdam.
Themes of interest: 1. State repression and terror under Lenin and Stalin, with special attention for the role of the judiciary. Main publications: A Show Trial under Lenin: The Trial of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Moscow 1922, The Hague 1982, xvi+232 p. Enlarged Russian ed.: Sud bez suda, 1922 god: Pokazatel’nyi protsess sotsialistov-revoliutsionerov, Moscow 1993, 272 p. Dutch ed. 1980; ‘The Bar during the First Years of the Soviet Regime: N.K. Murav’ev’, Revolutionary Russia, Vol. 3 (1990), No. 2, pp. 211-223; Stalin’s Loyal Executioner: People’s Commissar Nikolai Ezhov, 1895-1940, Stanford, California, 2002, xiii+274 p. (together with N. Petrov). Enlarged Russian ed.: ‘Stalinskii pitomets’ – Nikolai Ezhov, Moscow 2008, 447 p.; ‘Mass Terror and the Court: The Military Collegium of the USSR ’, Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 58 (2006), No. 4, pp. 589-602 (together with N. Petrov ). Current research project, together with the Russian historian Dr. Nikita Petrov: The role in the Stalinist terror of the USSR Supreme Court’s Military Collegium, presided over byV. Ul’rikh. During 1937-38, for alleged treason, tens of thousands of people were sentenced by this body, the overwhelming majority to the death penalty. On the basis of documents from Russian archives as well as available literature, it will be examined to what extent the judgements of the Military Collegium were determined by the political authorities of the Soviet Union, Stalin first of all. If they were determined by the political authorities, what was the reason for the juridical appearance. 2. Current political and social developments in Russia and other post-Soviet states. Main publication: Een geschiedenis van Rusland: Van Rurik tot Poetin, Amsterdam 2008, 490 p. (revised ed. of J.W. Bezemer’s book, enlarged with chapters on the Yeltsin and Putin period). 3. Islamic backgrounds in Russia and the (former) Soviet Union, including the Caucasus and Central Asia Main publication: ‘Chechnya and Russia , Between Revolt and Loyalty’, F. Companjen et al. (eds.), Exploring the Caucasus in the 21st Century: Essays on Culture, History and Politics in a Dynamic Context, Amsterdam 2010, pp. 91-110. 4. Socialist opposition in the early Soviet years and its suppression, Socialist Revolutionaries, their leader Viktor Chernov. Main publications: A show trial (see above); Partiia Sotsialistov-Revoliutsionerov posle Oktiabr’skogo perevorota 1917 goda. Dokumenty iz arkhiva P.S.-R., Amsterdam 1989, xvii+772 p.; Viktor Chernov, Konstruktivnyi sotsializm, Moscow 1997, ix+647 p., ed. and introd. M. Jansen. 5. Dutch-Russian relations. Main publications: ‘Frits Kuiper in Kazan : Hulp aan hongerende studenten, 1922-1924’, J. Driessen, M. Jansen, W. Roobol (red.), Rusland in Nederlandse ogen: Een bundel opstellen, Amsterdam 1986, pp. 187-212; ‘“Russia Is and Will Remain a Mystery for Us”: Nico van Wijk About Russia and Eastern Europe’, B.M. Groen et al. (eds.), Nicolaas van Wijk (1880-1941): A Collection of Essays on his Life and Work, Amsterdam 1988, pp. 79-88; ‘L.H. Grondijs and Russia : The Acts and Opinions of a Dutch White Guard’, Revolutionary Russia, Vol. 7 (1994), No. 1, pp. 20-33; ‘Stalin’s Hand in Rotterdam : The Murder of the Ukrainian Nationalist Yevhen Konovalets in May 1938’, Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 9 (1994), No. 4., pp. 676-694 (together with B. de Jong). “Kicks”: Living in Moscow during perestroika, closely following a closed society opening up. Travelling through the wide demesnes of the (former) Soviet Union , as a tourist, accompanying journalists or students groups, or as election observer on behalf of the OSCE. Can you think of any better way to get to such different exotic places like Zhovty Vody, Cherkassy , Odessa , Ternopil, Kamen Kashirskii, Nikopol , Shymkent, Talas, Belgorod , Pskov , Vladivostok , Tula , Marneuli, Senaki? Working in the Soviet, later Russian, archives when they were just opening up. Having missed these archives during the research for my dissertation (closed in those times), during the second half of the 1980s with the backing of the International Institute of Social History I was able to make up for this, very gradually, as the glasnost was not immediately translated into the minds and ways of the Moscow archival institutions. After 1991 for a certain amount of time the archives felt like heaven, to partially get back to the older methods again later on. Finding back a trainload of collections that had disappeared from the Netherlands during World War II and ended up in a secret Moscow archive, a discovery that was very much appreciated by the Institute for Women’s History, first of all
Publications can be found here:
http://dare.uva.nl/cgi/b/bib/bib-idx?type=simple&lang=nl&c=uvadare&rgn1=dai&q1= 068916477
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