Thomas P. Whitney Biography

A former diplomat and writer on Russian affairs, who translated two books by Russian Nobel prize winner, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from Russian to English. The two books called “The First Circle” and “The Gulag Archipelago” were banned in the Soviet Union and smuggled out for translation. He worked for the CIA during World War II, and later worked at the United States embassy in Moscow, and for The Associated Press, first as a correspondent and later as Moscow bureau chief. In 1962, Whitney wrote his memoir entitled “Russia in my Life.” He established a Russian studies center and donated significant collections of Russian art and manuscripts to his alma mater, Amherst College.