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Gabriel Gorodetsky | |
|---|---|
גבריאל גורודצקי | |
 Portrait | |
| Born | (1945-05-13)13 May 1945 (age 80) |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford |
| Spouse | Ruth Herz [de] |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | History |
| Institutions | Tel Aviv University |
| Doctoral advisor | E. H. Carr |
Gabriel Gorodetsky (Hebrew:גבריאל גורודצקי; born 13 May 1945) is an Israeli academic who is the Quondam Fellow ofAll Souls College, Oxford, and emeritus professor of history atTel Aviv University.[1][2] Gorodetsky studied History and Russian Studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and went on to obtain his Ph.D degree under the supervision of British historianE. H. Carr in Oxford. He was the director of the Cummings Center for Russian Studies at Tel Aviv University from 1991–2007. He has been a visiting fellow ofSt. Antony's College in Oxford in 1979 and in 1993, of theWoodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington in 1986, of All Souls in Oxford in 2006, and a visiting scholar at theInstitute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Gorodetsky was also a visiting professor at the universities ofMunich andCologne, and at theCentral European University in Budapest. In 2010 Gorodetsky received an honorary doctorate from theRussian State University for the Humanities in Moscow.[3]
He is married toRuth Herz [de], a jurist fromCologne, judge in theRTL Televisioncourt showDas Jugendgericht (2001–2005), research fellow of the Centre of Criminology at theUniversity of Oxford, author ofRecht Persönlich (Beck, 2006) andThe Art of Justice: The Judge's Perspective (Hart Publishing, Oxford, 2013).
In his bookGrand Delusion: Stalin and the German Invasion of Russia (Yale University Press, 1999), Gorodetsky said that Stalin was committed torealpolitik and eager to improve the Soviet Union's national status. It had lost position as a result of the disasters during the First World War and the Russian Revolution. According to Gorodetsky, through theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Stalin believed he could bring about a change in the European balance of power. When he learnt through his intelligence of Hitler's aggressive intentions in late 1930s, he had no choice but to resort to appeasement, hoping he could either delay the war or reach a second agreement with Hitler. Stalin'spurges of the 1930s had decapitated the military and left it in a dismal state.[4][5]
Icebreaker.
