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Anna Geifman

Anna Geifman is a historian who studies political extremism, terrorism and Russian revolutionary movements, and teaches at Bar-Ilan University.

born 1962Research on Russian revolutionary terrorismPsychohistory of political violenceComparing Russian and Islamist terrorism

Born: 31 October 1962, Saint Petersburg
Occupation: historian
Education: Harvard University, Boston University

Anna Geifman was born in 1962 in Saint Petersburg

Geifman was born in 1962 in Leningrad, in the Soviet Union. In 1976 she moved with her parents to Boston, Massachusetts.

She earned a BA from Boston University in 1984. She completed her PhD at Harvard University in 1990, under Professor Richard Pipes.

At Boston University she taught the history of imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, psychohistory and modern terrorism. In 2007 she moved to Israel and began teaching at Bar-Ilan University, where she is a professor of political science.

Her research looks at the psychological patterns of political violence and at how terrorism affects civilians. She compares pre-revolutionary Russian terrorist groups with present-day Islamist violence. She argues that holding power will not moderate groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and points to the Bolsheviks as a parallel.