Scholar of Russian history, aide to Ronald Reagan dies

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – A renowned scholar of Russian history and aide to President Ronald Reagan has died in Massachusetts. Richard Pipes was 94.

His son, Daniel Pipes, says his father died early Thursday morning at a nursing home near his residence in Cambridge.

Pipes was born in Poland in 1923. He and his family later fled the Nazi occupation of the country and arrived in the United States in 1940.

Pipes spent his entire academic career at Harvard University, teaching history from 1958 until his retirement in 1996.

He became a leading authority on the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, writing numerous books.

In the early 1980s, Pipes served as director of Eastern European and Soviet Affairs for the National Security Council under President Reagan.