“Auld Alliance”: Emeritus Professor W. Hamish Fraser and Cultural Cooperation between Russian and British Scholars

Abstract. The text is devoted to the Jubilee of British historian W. Hamish Fraser who is one of the journal’s Editorial Board members. The article discusses not only the academic career of professor Fraser but also his role in shaping cultural relations between British and Russian scholars. His first visit to Rostov in 1989 coincided with Perestroyka ‘reestablishment’ (or even with establishment) of academic ties among the world community and it was the beginning of the quarter-century cooperation at national, institutional and personal levels. Professor Fraser’s initial sphere of research interests has been connected with history of the British Labour Movement and Scottish social history, and in both directions of his publications and in public lectures he demonstrates wide spectrum of expertise including cultural and political history, personal and supra-national levels of history. In the research W. Hamish Fraser actively applies a number of archive collections including National Archives of Scotland and Scottish local archives. Cooperation between British and Russian historians is guaranteed by emeritus professor Fraser’s engagement in research, teaching and knowledge dissemination process.

Keywords: W. Hamish Fraser, British history, Russian – British cooperation, Modern Europe, social history, personal history.