PLESHAKOV, Constantine 1959-

PERSONAL: Born September 18, 1959, in Yalta, Crimea, USSR. (now Russia); permanent resident of the United States; son of Elza Bilenko (an editor); children: Anton and Anna (twins). Ethnicity: "Russian." Education: Attended Moscow State University, 1982; Soviet Academy of Sciences, Ph.D., 1986 and 1994.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of History, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA 01075. E-mail— [email protected].

CAREER: Institute for United States and Canada Studies, Moscow, USSR, affiliate, including director of Geopolitics and Pacific Studies Center, 1982-96; freelance researcher and writer, 1996-98; Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, visiting professor, 1998—.

AWARDS, HONORS: Lionel Gelber Prize (with Vladislav Zubok), 1996, for Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev.

WRITINGS:

(With Vladislav Zubok) Inside the Kremlin's Cold War:From Stalin to Khrushchev, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996. (With John Curtis Perry) The Flight of the Romanovs:A Family Saga, Basic Books (New York, NY), 1999.

The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Author of seven novels and one short-story collection, all published in Moscow, Russia, 1992—.

WORK IN PROGRESS: Research for From Russia with Love.

SIDELIGHTS: Constantine Pleshakov told CA: "Growing up in a totalitarian society is in itself an excellent motivation for an author. You can't speak up, but you can write. You can't read what you want, but you can write. Also, the environment teaches you to take nothing for granted."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1996, Gilbert Taylor, review of Inside the Kremlin's Cold War: From Stalin to Khrushchev, p. 1417; October 1, 1999, Joe Collins, review of The Flight of the Romanovs: A Family Saga, p. 341; March 1, 2002, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Tsar's Last Armada: The Epic Voyage to the Battle of Tsushima, p. 1080.

Contemporary Review, September, 2002, review of The Tsar's Last Armada, p. 183.

Foreign Affairs, July-August, 1996, Robert Levgold, review of Inside the Kremlin's Cold War, p. 153.

History, spring, 1998, Richard W. Shyrock, review of Inside the Kremlin's Cold War, p. 162; fall, 1999, Victor Rosenberg, review of The Flight of the Romanovs, p. 30.

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2002, review of TheTsar's Last Armada, p. 91.

Library Journal, July, 1999, Robert H. Johnston, review of The Flight of the Romanovs, p. 111; February 15, 2002, Mark Ellis, review of The Tsar's Last Armada, p. 160.

National Interest, winter, 1997, Robert Jervis, review of Inside the Kremlin's Cold War, p. 82.

New Leader, August 12, 1996, Robert V. Daniels, review of Inside the Kremlin's Cold War, p. 19.

Political Science Quarterly, summer, 1997, Marshall D. Shulman, review of Inside the Kremlin's Cold War, p. 311.

Publishers Weekly, June 7, 1999, review of The Flight of the Romanovs, p. 64; April 1, 2002, review of The Tsar's Last Armada, p. 66.