We are saddened to announce the passing of our alumnus Alfred J. Rieber (RI, 1954; GSAS, Ph.D., 1959).

“On September 9, 2025, the great historian Alfred J. Rieber passed away at the age of 94. At the time of his death Rieber was perhaps the most productive, wide-ranging, and influential historian of the Russian empire and the USSR in the world. Born in Mount Vernon, New York, in 1931, Rieber earned his bachelor’s degree at Colgate University in 1953 and attended graduate school at Columbia University’s Russian Institute, obtaining his M.A. in 1954 and his Ph.D. in 1959. Al was on the first academic exchange between the US and the USSR in 1958-59, where he met and befriended many historical figures, including the pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Vladimir Ashkenazy. As mentor to generations of graduate students and as author of a long series of classic books and seminal articles for almost seven decades, Al Rieber became a legend in the field.” Read the full obituary, by Michael David-Fox, in H-Diplo.