Nicholas Valentine Riasanovsky (December 21, 1923 - May 14, 2011) was a professor at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

 and the author of numerous books on Russian history

History of Russia

The history of Russia begins with that of the Eastern Slavs and the Finno-Ugric peoples. The state of Garðaríki , which was centered in Novgorod and included the entire areas inhabited by Ilmen Slavs, Veps and Votes, was established by the Varangian chieftain Rurik in 862...

. He was born in Harbin

Harbin

Harbin ; Manchu language: , Harbin; Russian: Харби́н Kharbin ), is the capital and largest city of Heilongjiang Province in Northeast China, lying on the southern bank of the Songhua River...

, China to lawyer Valentin A. Riasanovskii and Antonia Riasanovskii, a novelist. Valentin was a Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n professor who taught at Moscow University, Harbin Normal University

Harbin Normal University

Harbin Normal University is a university located in Harbin, Heilongjiang, P.R. China.HNU has 16 colleges and offers 46 academic majors. It offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate degrees...

 (China), and the University of Oregon

University of Oregon

-Colleges and schools:The University of Oregon is organized into eight schools and colleges—six professional schools and colleges, an Arts and Sciences College and an Honors College.- School of Architecture and Allied Arts :...

, Antonia, a teacher and novelist who wrote under the pen name Antonia Fedorovna, was acclaimed for her work “The Family,” about the life of a Russian community in a Chinese city. It received The Atlantic Monthly Prize for fiction in 1940.

Nicholas Riasanovsky graduated from the University of Oregon in 1942. He received a Master's degree from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in 1947, and a DPhil. from St. John's College, Oxford in 1949 on a Rhodes Scholarship

Rhodes Scholarship

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...

. He taught at the University of Iowa

University of Iowa

The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...

 from 1949 to 1957, then at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1957 until his retirement in 1997. He specialized in the reign of Emperor Nicholas I (1825 to 1855).

Riasanovsky is best known for the best-selling textbook A History of Russia, first published in 1963. It is currently in its eighth edition (2010) (now co-authored with Mark D. Steinberg

Mark D. Steinberg

Mark D. Steinberg is a Professor of History, and Editor of Slavic Review at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.He was born in San Francisco, California, on June 8, 1953. He received a B.A. from the University of California, Santa Cruz, followed by M.A and Ph.D. degrees in history from...

, a former student of Riasanovsky's) and has been acclaimed for its continued comprehensiveness.

Riasanovsky died on May 14, 2011 at the age of 87.