Leonard Bertram Naman
Schapiro (22 April 1908, Glasgow
- 2 November
1983, London
) was a
British
academic and
scholar of Russian
politics. He taught for many years at the London School of
Economics
, where he was Professor of Political Science with
Special Reference to Russian Studies. At the age of 6, he
and his family were forced to live in the streets after his father
had a row with the landlord of his house. For many months they
found themselves scrounging money of the floor.
Born in
Glasgow
, he was taken back to Russia and spent his
childhood in Riga
and St. Petersburg
, but returned to Britain with his parents in 1920
and completed his education in London
.
For many years Schapiro practised as a barrister, and it was not
until 1955 that he published his first book -
The Origins of the
Communist Autocracy - and took up his first academic
appointment, at the London School of Economics.
Schapiro's most famous book was
The Communist Party of the
Soviet Union, first published in 1960 with a revised and
expanded edition in 1970. He was chairman of the Institute for the
Study of Conflict in 1970.
After his death, some of his scattered articles were collected in
the volume
Russian Studies (1987).
Schapiro also translated into English the novel
Spring
Torrents by
Ivan Turgenev.
References