Professor Richard Peace

Prof Richard Peace

It is with sadness that the Department of Russian at Bristol informs the membership of BASEES of the sudden death of Richard Peace yesterday afternoon (Thursday 5 December).

Richard, who was born in 1933, was the first lecturer to be appointed to teach Russian at Bristol, in 1963, and he led the small sub-department, as it then was, until 1975, when he was appointed to a Chair of Russian at the University of Hull. He returned to Bristol in 1984, to take up the newly created Chair of Russian, and remained in Bristol, as Head of Department, until his retirement in 1994. Richard will be remembered for many things. He was one of the major students of classical Russian literature in his generation and a Vice-President of the International Dostoevsky Society. He was also a past President of our national association of Slavists (then BUAS), an active promoter of educational exchange with the Soviet Union, a tireless defender of his subject against the threats it faced and a respected and congenial colleague. It is of some consolation that just three weeks ago the department at Bristol celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its foundation with a large gathering of colleagues, former colleagues and alumni and that Richard, who had led the department for twenty-two of its fifty years, greatly enjoyed this event.

Professor Derek Offord