Bio


Gail Lapidus is a Senior Fellow Emerita at the Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. Lapidus is also Professor Emerita of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and served as Chair of the Berkeley-Stanford Program in Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies from 1985 to 1994. A specialist on Soviet society, politics and foreign policy, she has authored and edited a number of books on Soviet and post-Soviet affairs, including The New Russia: Troubled Transformation (Westview Press, 1995), From Union to Commonwealth: Nationalism and Separatism in the Soviet Republics, with Victor Zaslavsky and Philip Goldman (Cambridge University Press, 1992), The Soviet System in Crisis, with Alexander Dallin (Westview, 1992), and Women in Soviet Society (University of California Press, 1979). A graduate of Radcliffe College, she received her MA and PhD from Harvard University.

Lapidus is also the author of numerous articles and chapters, including "The War in Chechnya as a Paradigm of Russian State-Building Under Putin," Post-Soviet Affairs, March 2004; "Putin's War on Terrorism: Lessons From Chechnya," Post-Soviet Affairs, January-March 2002; "Accommodating Ethnic Differences in Post-Soviet Eurasia," in Crawford Young and Mark Beissinger, eds., Beyond State Crisis? Post-Colonial Africa and Post-Soviet Eurasia in Comparative Perspective; "Transforming the 'National Question': New Approaches to Nationalism, Federalism and Sovereignty," in Archie Brown, ed., The Demise of Marxism-Leninism in Russia (Palgrave, 2004); "Transforming Russia: American Policy in the 1990s," in Robert Lieber, ed., America Rules? Foreign Policy and American Primacy in the 21st Century (Prentice Hall, 2001); and "Reagan and the Russians: American Policy Toward the Soviet Union," with Alexander Dallin, in Kenneth Oye et al., eds., Eagle Resurgent? The Reagan Era in American Foreign Policy (Little, Brown, 1987).

Lapidus is a member of the Council of Foreign Relations, as well as of several scholarly associations. She has held a variety of scholarly and administrative appointments, including president of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, chair of the Social Science Research Council's Joint Committee on Soviet Studies, the Advisory Council of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Kennan Institute, the Committee on International Political Science of the American Political Science Association, and the board of Trustees of the World Affairs Council of Northern California. She has held research fellowships at the Kennan Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University and at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. A frequent visitor to the USSR and now to a number of successor states, Professor Lapidus is currently working on a book on the impact of the Soviet legacy on patterns of conflict in the post-Soviet states.

Academic Appointments


Current Research and Scholarly Interests


ethnic conflict in the former Soviet Union; the Russian-Chechen war; Soviet society, politics and foreign policy

2023-24 Courses


All Publications


  • Totalitarianism, Nationalism, and Challenges for Democratic Transition Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition Zubok, V. M. edited by Piffer, T. CEU Press. 2017: 353–384
  • Russia's Second Chechen War: Ten Assumptions in Search of a Policy Chechnya: The International Community and Strategies for Peace and Stability Lapidus , G. W. The Swedish Institute of International Affairs. 2009
  • Between assertiveness and insecurity: Russian elite attitudes and the russia-georgia crisis POST-SOVIET AFFAIRS Lapidus, G. W. 2007; 23 (2): 138-155
  • War in Chechnya as a Paradigm of Russian State-Building Under Putin, The Post-Soviet Affairs Lapidus , G. W. 2004; 20 (1)
  • Transforming the "National Question": New Approaches to Nationalism, Federalism and Sovereignty The Demise of Marxism-Leninism in Russia Lapidus , G. W. Palgrave Macmillan . 2004
  • Assymetrical Federalism and Russian State-Building Post-Soviet Affairs Lapidus , G. W. 2002; 15
  • Accommodating Ethnic Differences in Post-Soviet Eurasia Beyond State Crisis? Post-Colonial Africa and Post-Soviet Eurasia in Comparative Perspective Lapidus, G. W. Woodrow Wilson Center and Johns Hopkins University Press . 2002
  • Russia's Transformation and American Policy Eagle Rules? Foreign Policy and American Primacy in the Twenty-First Century Lapidus , G. W. Prentice Hall. 2002
  • Putin's war on terrorism: Lessons from Chechnya Annual Meeting of the American-Association-for-the-Advancement-of-Slavic-Studies Lapidus, G. W. BELLWETHER PUBL LTD. 2002: 41–48
  • State-Building and State Breakdown in Russia Contemporary Russian Politics: A Reader Lapidus , G. W. Oxford University Press . 2001
  • The War in Chechnya: Opportunities Missed, Lessons to be Learned Opportunities Missed, Opportunities Seized: Preventive Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War World Lapidus , G. W. Rowman and Littlefield. 1999
  • Dynamics of Secession in the Russian Federation: Why Chechnya?, in Stephen Hanson and Mikhail Alexseev, A Federation Imperiled: Center-Periphery Conflict in Post-Soviet Russia, The Center-Periphery Conflict in Post-Soviet Russia Lapidus , G. W. Palgrave-MacMillan. 1999
  • Rethinking Sovereignty: Chechnya and Kosovo Kosmopolis Lapidus , G. W. 1999
  • Contested sovereignty - The tragedy of Chechnya INTERNATIONAL SECURITY Lapidus, G. W. 1998; 23 (1): 5-49
  • Six years after the collapse of the USSR POST-SOVIET AFFAIRS Ericson, R., Lapidus, G., Breslauer, G., Matlock, J., STARR, S. F., WINSTON, V. 1998; 14 (1): 1-22
  • Gender i perestroika: vliianie perestroiki i ee posledstvii na zhenshchin, Sem'ia, gender, kultura Lapidus , G. W. Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences. 1997
  • Russia and the Russian diasporas - Comment POST-SOVIET AFFAIRS Lapidus, G. W. 1996; 12 (3): 285-287
  • Nationalism, Regionalism and Federalism: Dilemmas of State-Building in Post-Communist Russia The New Russia: Troubled Transformation Lapidus, G. W., Walker , E. W. Westview Press . 1994 : 79-114
  • New Russia: Troubled Transformation, The edited by Lapidus , G. W. Westview Press . 1994
  • Gender and Restructuring: Perestroika and Soviet Women Democratic Reform and the Position of Women in Transitional Economies Lapidus , G. W. Clarendon Press . 1993
  • Ethnonationalism and Political Stability: The Soviet Case The Soviet Nationality Reader: The Disintegration in Context Lapidus , G. W. 1992
  • From Union to Commonwealth: Nationalism and Separatism in the Soviet Republics edited by Lapidus , G. W., Zaslavksy , V., Goldman, P. Cambridge University Press . 1992
  • The Soviet System: From Crisis to Collapse Dallin , A. edited by Lapidus , G. W. Westview Press . 1991
  • The Glasnost Papers: Voices on Reform from Moscow edited by Lapidus , G. W., Melville , A. Westview Press . 1990
  • GORBACHEV NATIONALITIES PROBLEM FOREIGN AFFAIRS Lapidus, G. W. 1989; 68 (4): 92-108
  • GORBACHEV AND THE NATIONAL QUESTION - RESTRUCTURING THE SOVIET FEDERATION SOVIET ECONOMY Lapidus, G. W. 1989; 5 (3): 201-250
  • UNITED-STATES-SOVIET RELATIONS - THE PACIFICATION OF REAGAN,RONALD BULLETIN OF THE ATOMIC SCIENTISTS Lapidus, G. W., DALLIN, A. 1989; 45 (1): 14-17
  • GORBACHEV AND THE REFORM OF THE SOVIET SYSTEM DAEDALUS Lapidus, G. W. 1987; 116 (2): 1-30
  • POLITICAL MOBILIZATION, PARTICIPATION, AND LEADERSHIP - WOMEN IN SOVIET POLITICS COMPARATIVE POLITICS Lapidus, G. W. 1975; 8 (1): 90-118