Anna Geifman
A historian who peeled back the romantic veneer of the Russian Revolution to expose the brutal reality of revolutionary terrorism and violence.
Born 1962 (age 64)·American historian·Birthday: October 31·Baby Boomers
Biography
Anna Geifman brought a sharp, revisionist lens to the study of late Imperial Russia. Born in the Soviet Union and building her academic career in the United States, she specialized in the turbulent decades leading to 1917. Her work challenged long-held narratives by focusing not on the lofty ideals of revolutionaries, but on their methods—specifically, a pervasive culture of political violence, assassination, and terror. In her analysis, groups across the ideological spectrum, including the Bolsheviks, engaged in criminality and extremism that contributed to the collapse of civil society. This perspective, detailed in books like 'Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894-1917', sparked debate by reframing the revolution as a descent into chaos as much as a political uprising. Teaching at Boston University, she argued that understanding this violence is key to understanding the authoritarian state that emerged from it.
Baby Boomers
1946–1964
The largest generation in history at the time. Shaped by postwar prosperity, the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, and Watergate. They questioned every institution their parents built — then ran them.
Anna was born in 1962, placing them squarely in the Baby Boomers. The events that shaped this generation — postwar prosperity, civil rights, Vietnam, and the counterculture — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Anna Was Born
The biggest hits of 1962
#1 Movie
Lawrence of Arabia
Best Picture
Lawrence of Arabia
#1 TV Show
Beverly Hillbillies
Anna's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1962Born
Cuban Missile Crisis brings the world to the brink
Gas: $0.31/galHome: $12,800Min wage: $1.15/hrPresident: John F. Kennedy"Stranger on the Shore" — Acker BilkBest Picture: Lawrence of Arabia
1967Started school
Summer of Love in San Francisco; first Super Bowl
Gas: $0.33/galHome: $14,250Min wage: $1.40/hrPresident: Lyndon B. Johnson"To Sir, with Love" — LuluBest Picture: In the Heat of the Night
1975Became a teenager
Fall of Saigon ends the Vietnam War
Gas: $0.57/galHome: $27,600Min wage: $2.10/hrPresident: Gerald Ford"Love Will Keep Us Together" — Captain & TennilleBest Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1978Could drive
First test-tube baby born
Gas: $0.63/galHome: $35,300Min wage: $2.65/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Shadow Dancing" — Andy GibbBest Picture: The Deer Hunter
1980Could vote
John Lennon shot and killed in New York
Gas: $1.19/galHome: $47,200Min wage: $3.10/hrPresident: Jimmy Carter"Call Me" — BlondieBest Picture: Ordinary People
1983Turned 21
Internet adopts TCP/IP, creating the modern internet
Gas: $1.16/galHome: $57,700Min wage: $3.35/hrPresident: Ronald Reagan"Every Breath You Take" — The PoliceBest Picture: Terms of Endearment
1992Turned 30
LA riots after Rodney King verdict
Gas: $1.13/galHome: $84,300Min wage: $4.25/hrPresident: George H.W. Bush"End of the Road" — Boyz II MenBest Picture: Unforgiven
2002Turned 40
Euro currency enters circulation
Gas: $1.36/galHome: $137,800Min wage: $5.15/hrPresident: George W. Bush"How You Remind Me" — NickelbackBest Picture: Chicago
2012Turned 50
Curiosity rover lands on Mars; Sandy Hook shooting
Gas: $3.64/galHome: $143,200Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Barack Obama"Somebody That I Used to Know" — GotyeBest Picture: Argo
2022Turned 60
Russia invades Ukraine; Queen Elizabeth II dies
Gas: $3.97/galHome: $348,700Min wage: $7.25/hrPresident: Joe Biden"As It Was" — Harry StylesBest Picture: Everything Everywhere All at Once
2026Age 64 today
Gas: $3.91/galPresident: Donald Trump
Key Achievements
- Authored the influential book 'Thou Shalt Kill: Revolutionary Terrorism in Russia, 1894–1917', a study of pre-revolutionary political violence.
- Edited 'Russia Under the Last Tsar: Opposition and Subversion, 1894–1917', a collection examining forces that undermined the imperial regime.
- Served as a professor of history at Boston University, specializing in Russian revolutionary movements and terrorism.
Did You Know?
Her research extensively used police archives and court records to build profiles of revolutionary terrorists.
She has argued that the scale of revolutionary violence before 1917 has been significantly underestimated in historical accounts.
Geifman's work places her within a school of historians who emphasize the destructive, rather than purely progressive, elements of the Russian Revolution.
“The revolutionaries' terror was not a response to tyranny, but a cause of the regime's final collapse.”
