W. Bruce Lincoln; Author, Leading Scholar on Russia

W. Bruce Lincoln, 61, one of the nation’s top Russian scholars. A native of Suffield, Conn., Lincoln earned his PhD in Russian history from the University of Chicago and spent several years in Russia as an exchange student. The author of 12 books, Lincoln wrote in a gripping, highly accessible style. He once said that “ . . . the historian who writes only for other specialists neglects an important part of an historian’s broader task.” That task, Lincoln believed, was making history alive for broader audiences. He won particular praise for “Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War,” published in 1990. Publisher’s Week called his book, “The Conquest of a Continent,” one of the best books of 1994 and said: “In Lincoln’s compulsively readable epic narrative, Siberia’s dark history comes alive as a vast human drama of greed, adventure, exploration, ambition, persecution and protest.” Lincoln taught at Northern Illinois University for 31 years and was known among graduate students for taking promising academics under his wing and nurturing them throughout their careers. On Sunday in DeKalb, Ill., of complications from cancer.