Yes, He Has Lived

For half a century, Richard Pipes has been one of the world’s foremost scholars of Russia, and a man of political and policy influence as well: In the 1970s, he headed “Team B,” the group directed to challenge the CIA’s assumptions about the Soviet Union (which were wrong). And in the early 1980s, he served on the National Security Council staff of President Reagan. From the time of his birth in Cieszyn, Poland, to now, when he has assumed emeritus status at Harvard, Pipes has lived a rich, meaningful life. Fortunately, he has the ability to recount it, richly and meaningfully.

He calls his memoirs Vixi, which is Latin for “I have lived.” In his preface, Pipes says, “It may sound strange coming from a professional historian, but I have always had trouble dealing with the past”—meaning his own past. It is of a piece with the author’s character that he overcame any such trouble. When the Nazis and Soviets signed their pact, sealing Poland’s doom, Pipes had just turned 16. He and his parents would get out— barely—but “much of my family and nearly all my school friends . . . perished without a trace in the Holocaust.” One of the reasons for writing this book was that “their memory not be entirely lost.”

About the Author

Jay Nordlinger

Jay Nordlinger was a senior editor of National Review and a book fellow at National Review Institute.

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Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Adolf Hitler

Poland

Harvard University

For half a century, Richard Pipes has been one of the world’s foremost scholars of Russia, and a man of political and policy influence as well: In the 1970s, he headed “Team B,” the group directed to challenge the CIA’s assumptions about the Soviet Union (which were wrong). And in the early 1980s, he served on the National Security Council staff of President Reagan. From the time of his birth in Cieszyn, Poland, to now, when he has assumed emeritus status at Harvard, Pipes has lived a rich, meaningful life. Fortunately, he has the ability to recount it, richly and meaningfully.

He calls his memoirs Vixi, which is Latin for “I have lived.” In his preface, Pipes says, “It may sound strange coming from a professional historian, but I have always had trouble dealing with the past”—meaning his own past. It is of a piece with the author’s character that he overcame any such trouble. When the Nazis and Soviets signed their pact, sealing Poland’s doom, Pipes had just turned 16. He and his parents would get out— barely—but “much of my family and nearly all my school friends . . . perished without a trace in the Holocaust.” One of the reasons for writing this book was that “their memory not be entirely lost.”