I liked the reference to your father and the photo

Submitted by Howard Daniel (United States), Feb 22, 2017 at 19:07

I studied under Prof. Pipes in the Harvard MA program in Soviet Area Studies (I took his seminar in Soviet history and did some research for him on the role of the regional soviets in Petrograd in the runup to the October Revolution.), and I very much enjoyed his scholarship.

I ran into him a time or two (pure coincidence) when he was on the NSC in the early 80s and I was a Foreign Service Officer with USIA, posted in DC at the time -- and was surprised/gratified to see he appeared to recognize me from Harvard days (1966-68). Much more recently, I greatly enjoyed reading his book, Vixi, with its fascinating personal accounts of so much recent history that I find of interest.

If this message reaches you, Dr. Daniel Pipes, I hope you will convey my warmest regards and good wishes to your father.

My current activities are unrelated to both Russia and the Middle East, but -- should anyone care to look -- they're summarized at www.pen4rent.com. There are two blog posts in particular that I think your father would find of interest. One is about an incredible demonstration I witnessed on Palace Square in Leningrad on July 4, 1978. It's at http://pen4rent.com/eyewitness-astonishing-moment-history/. Another is about my surreal welcome to Leningrad in 1976 -- http://pen4rent.com/surreal-welcome-to-leningrad/.

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